Where oh Where Wednesday: Eindhoven, city of light

The “city of lights” is a moniker most used for Paris in my experience. This is because of the romantic associations, I think. Paris in the spring (which means that you will get rained on), or Paris at any other time of the year can be quite beautiful in the night as the lights shine. The same can be said of Las Vegas, which during the day may look like a jumble of dusty oversized children’s toy sets, but at night transforms into a wonderland of beautiful, dancing lights. 

So it would not be strange if you had no idea that the ‘city of light’ in the Netherlands is considered Eindhoven. You see, Eindhoven is the hometown of Philips, the electronics giant. You may not know that Philips is from the Netherlands and certainly would be forgiven not knowing that it comes from a city called Eindhoven, but you know Philips products. 

From air fryers to blenders to coffee machines, Philips is in the kitchen. Bottle warmers, breast pumps, pacifiers and thermometers are offered by the company for mothers and babies. Headphones, televisions and media players fill rooms throughout the house. As a matter of fact, the compact cassette, the cd and dvd came originally from Philips (the cd was developed together with Sony). 

Years ago the radio and the shaver were the main seller of this company. More recently the company has focused on medical care and technology, producing cpap machines and the medical tomography machines used to show babies in the womb or help see anomalies in your body before a surgery. 

But even up to 2012 Philips was the largest manufacturer of lighting in the world. They started with carbon-filament lamps in 1892. It was this begin which gives the city of Eindhoven, where everything began, the name: city of lights. It was literally the city where the lightbulbs came from. 

These days we enjoy visiting the city every 3rd Wednesday for an evening of singing with the congregation there. The church began in Eindhoven with Let’s Start Talking campaigns conducted with a few faithful members who are still working with the church today. We are blessed to be able to encourage and be encouraged in singing every month and joining in various other combined congregational activities throughout the year.