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If you find yourself in the Netherlands' fifth-biggest city it's probably for an international budget flight or to watch a football match at PSV's Philips Stadium. But Eindhoven is also a vibrant centre for creative design and post-industrial reinvention. OK, so visually the townscape has all the charm of Minsk on a bad hair day, but before rushing on, do at least consider visiting the fascinating Philips Museum, which tells the story of the global electronics company that essentially created modern Eindhoven. There's also a highly thought-provoking modern-art gallery and a UFO-shaped quirk of 1960s architecture.
These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Eindhoven.
Museum
From Keith Richards' tape-recorder to a wide-screen projector that once won an Oscar, this engaging museum tells the extraordinary story of the light-bulb maker turned multinational electronics company who invented the CD and shaped a century of development in Eindhoven.
Gallery
This superb modern-art gallery uses elements of its rich collection (including originals by Picasso, Braque, Kandinsky and Léger) along with plenty of contemporary material to ask probing questions about the nature of art, its changing role and the space that contains it. The building itself is a dramatic architectural statement, the original castle-style 1936 gallery conjoined with a multilevel 2003 grey-stone addition that incorporates a weir of the Dommel river. The waterside cafe is worth a linger too.
Architecture
Like the Atomium to Brussels, the Evoluon is an icon of retro-futurist architecture. Built in 1966 as a science centre it is now rented out as a conference centre but you can still gawp at its UFO-style design as you drive by on the 401 airport bus or photograph it across the fence from Noord Brabantlaan.