Trying to find the Sittard Train Station

So, the Alien Child will be visiting in a few week's time (hooray! A family vacation at last!).  We'd like to take a day trip on the train to Amsterdam, and there is a train route that goes directly to that city from nearby Sittard just across the border in the Netherlands.  We plan to drive to Sittard, park in the Park and Ride garage, and go from there.

But there is one problem:  where is the train station?  More particularly, where is the station parking garage?  Easy!  You go to the Netherlands train web site to find out, right?

Wrong!  Click on the link to the web site.  Try to find directions to the Sittard station.  Not there?  Hmm. How about directions to the parking garage?  Not there, either, or if it is, I haven't found it after more than a couple of hours of searching.  How about just the address of the station?  Nope.  The web site assumes that if you do not speak Dutch, but only speak English in the Netherlands you must of course know where the various train stations are.


I go to Google Maps. There, an address!  But it's the address of the station itself, not the parking garage, which I understand is on the other side of the train tracks from the station.  Luckily, Anna and I went past the main train station and I know I'm go to through a particular arch/tunnel after traveling on Odasingel street instead of turning left to the station itself.  Well, hopefully it would be obvious by signs where it might be.  So, I decide to drive John to work today (he'd normally bicycle to work, but it was quite wet and rainy, so I got up at an Ungodly Hour of the morning--before 7:00 am--to do so), and immediately afterward, head off to Sittard.

I drive on Odasingel street, and there is the archway/tunnel through which I must go.  I go through...only to be met with massive street construction, and a detour.  There are no signs regarding a parking garage, or the train station, not that I can discern anyway.  Argh!

Around and around I go,  making a circle around the train station and Odasingel/Elisabeth van Barstraat streets.  Nothing.  No sign of a parking garage/train station, other than the one in front of the station itself that only allows walkers, bicyclists, or the disabled to park.  I have a GPS, but it's useless without an address.

After an hour, I give up.  It's obvious I need to do more research to see if I can find the actual street and address of the parking garage.  I go home, fire up my computer, and start browsing.

Both Google Maps and Google Earth show the Sittard train station--that's fine, I know where it is.  But there isn't anything that states this or that building/site is a parking garage.  There is something across the tracks from the station that looks like it might be a parking garage, but it's not labeled, nor is there an address attached.  I experiment with various numbers that might appear on Geerweg street, only to find that none of them pin onto the parking-garage-like structure.  I don't want to assume that this is the parking garage, make a trip to Sittard, only to find that it isn't.

Do I or don't I try it again? I think about the rush-hour traffic I had encountered, the multitude of bicycles I had to avoid as children, teens, and business people bicycled to work, and thought, I need to take a nap.  After all, I woke up at an Ungodly Hour.  No doubt the lack of sleep was playing havoc with my brain.

After an hour's sleep, I felt much refreshed, but decided to avoid doing yet another search.  There were other things I needed to do,  and I didn't want to spend all day looking for a parking garage.  So I did the other things and avoided the Search for the Missing Train Station.  Until now.

Once again, I open Google Earth and am notified there is a newer version, which I dutifully download.  Once again, I do a search for "train station" in Sittard, Netherlands and...

La voila!  Sittard railway station is listed, with the address of the station itself, but when I click it, I find a "Netherlands Railway Stations and Network" under "related maps" on the right side.  It leads me to a Google map that has all the stations, and I click on Sittard.  Though it gets me back to the Netherlands trains website again, this time it's in Dutch, and--yes!  There is a search field!  (No, I don't read or speak Dutch, but there are enough words that are similar to English that I can figure out the gist of a sentence or paragraph.)  I put in Sittard, get a list of links that includes "auto" and "parkeren."  That must be it!

I click on one of the "parkeren" links, get more Dutch, but see a link that says "Q-Park."  I click on that, and get--yes!  The parking garage company site that has a list of parking garages!  I click on S for Sittard, click on Sittard, and see "P&R Transferium" which must mean "Park and Ride" right?  Right?  Right?  (Do I sound just a little hysterical?  Just a little?)  I click on that link.

And THERE IS THE ADDRESS!  AT LAST!

My brain is all tired out now.  I need to go to bed.