GENDERPARK,Eindhoven:A Peaceful, refreshing & lush green park with beautiful birds,walkways & bridges ideal for a picnic/weekend getaway from hustle & bustle of the city

VISIT TO THE GENDERPARK :

On 24/06/24, We went on our morning walk to the wonderful Genderpark & the surrounding areas in Eindhoven, Netherlands and found it so very refreshing & relaxing strolling along the gender river stream with the numerous benches to relax on.There are so many beautiful bridges on the Gender.Its an ideal place for picnic, long walks/running & a nice weekend getaway from city noise with family.The gently flowing Gender stream is full of ducks,swans & fish.Nearby there are some outlets serving icecreams & takeaway snacks.The area is not crowdy normally !Apart from being ideal for a healthy morning walk its also good for relaxation in the evenings after a hectic days work.Also its a suitable place for engaging in different sports, get together & practicing Yoga .Its a cool place owing to the tree cover/shade so welcome in the summers.Its a great place for the old & the young.There are some noticeable nearby places such as Suma college of Vocational studies,Morein Maria-a Day Care Centre,Speetuin Gender-a nice playgroung &Vitalis Engelsbergen-a Doctors clinic, Primary school De Troubadour, Zest for Life-Massage therapist.

About the Genderpark :

Gender park is located in Gestle district near Vitalis housing complex about 3km from the centrum.Its quite a spacious park with ample place to sit ,play & relax with numerous benches along the Gender. There are separate walking & cycling tracks.The long-stretched Gender Park owes its name to the Gender: a river stream about fifteen kilometers long in and around Eindhoven. You can walk through the recently renovated area alongside the walking strips.There are so many lovely bridges on the Gender stream. As per reliable sources, some Primary School children have planted a mini-forest with more than 600 trees in the location. This will contribute to increased biodiversity & greenery in the surroundings of Eindhoven!Lots of rennovation work in progress which will render a much more appealing look to the visitors of the park.There is opportunities for fishing in the Gender. The park has a dedicated, separately enclosed & leash-free ‘Dog Place” for dogs to play in the grass lawns & have a dip in the Gender stream.

ABOUT THE GENDER STREAM :

The Gender  is a stream in the Dutch province of North Brabant. It originates in originally marshy flatlands near Steensel and flows through Veldhoven and its eastern district Meerveldhoven in a general east-northeast direction towards Eindhoven. The Gender is one of many small streams that drain what once was the marshy heath and moorland of eastern North Brabant and the Kempen plateau. Similar streams include the Dommel, Kleine Dommel, Keersop, Tongelreep, Aa, Binnendieze and Run. All of these streams at one point or other merge to finally form River Dieze in Den Bosch, which in turn flows into River Maas.Out of sheer curiosity I want to make a trip to Den Bosch to personally witness the merger of various water streams into the “River Dieze” subsequently flowing into river Maas.

Near Eindhoven, the Gender originally flowed just north of the medieval city walls, serving as the north part of the city moat, to end in confluence with the Dommel stream. As early as the fifteenth century, its course was diverted southward through the city centre, to provide the city with freshwater supplies and fire-extinguishing means. By the 19th century, the stretch within the old city had been filled in and the Gender now ended in De Vest, the city moat, which itself was connected to the Dommel. Archaeological excavations during the 1980s and 1990s before the construction of a new shopping centre have brought several branches of the artificial inner-city section of the Gender to light, including a connection to the moat of Eindhoven Castle, which stood just east of the city walls.

The Gender in the western suburbs of Veldhoven:

20th-century channelisation and the emergence of large-scale residential areas in the Gender basin have seen the last stretch before the city centre cut off. In order to regulate water levels of the Dommel and Gender streams, which occasionally threatened to flood Eindhoven’s inner city area, a drainage canal (Afwateringskanaal) was dug in the late 1930s to connect the Dommel to the newly constructed Beatrix Canal and so dispose of excess water. Into this canal the Gender now discharges. A further downstream section of the Gender between the canal and the Engelsbergen pond remains, but receives little water of the original stream. Two districts of Eindhoven that are situated on its banks were named after the Gender stream: Genderdal (‘Gender Dale’) and Genderbeemd (‘Gender Meadow’).

Note :I am indebted to the Wikkipaedia for the invaluable information on the subject