Years and years ago, I read about Geldrop and how this completely unassuming Dutch town just outside Eindhoven had named an entire estate of street names after Tolkien characters.
In fact, when I changed my “bucket list” page to a “wanderlist” page (a list of things I wanted to do that don’t necessarily make “bucket list” status), I’m pretty sure Geldrop was one of the first things to go on it. Of course, I’d never actually go there, but it would be great if we did have the chance one day.
Fast forward however many years later, and we planned a trip to Efteling, a theme park in the Netherlands. Noticing that Eindhoven isn’t that far away, something in my brain reminds me of Geldrop, and I am THRILLED when I discover that it’s only about 40 minutes from Efteling!
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Even better, we are ALL massive Lord Of The Rings fans, so it was a no brainer that everyone on the trip was very up for going.
From what I gather, there’s no real reason why this estate is named after Tolkien characters other than the fact someone on the council planning committee was a huge fan. Can’t think of a better reason myself, to be honest.
We pull in to Laan Van Tolkien and end up parking casually on Arwen. I’m giddy already.
Are you a LOTR fan? Check out my post on Hobbiton! There And Back Again: A Day Out To Hobbiton
(It goes without saying but obviously be respectful where you park – we chose somewhere with loads of space and made sure we weren’t blocking anyone’s access and that it was a legal place to park. This is a residential estate and they’re probably fed up of nerds turning up just to take photos of road signs…!)
After taking an obligatory photo of Arwen, I’m VERY excited to see that the next street is Aragorn!
We continue walking, past Eomer, past Theoden, until we get to … Sam Gewisses. Samwise? He’s matched with Eowijn (there’s also a Peregrijn somewhere, but we didn’t find that one as it’s a bit further out). I found it interesting that they were actually Dutch versions of the names.
I thought it was a shame they didn’t put Eowyn with Merry, actually, out of all the hobbits. But hey, it can’t be perfect!
Of course, we needed to find Gandalf!
I was so excited that I forgot to actually get a photo just of the sign! My friend had to send me her’s for the featured image – whoops. I had to get a photo with it, of course.
Believe it or not, the school behind me is called De Hobbit!
From there, we found Saruman… WITH the palantir! Yeah, it’s not just character names, I guess. There are also place names such as Fangorn and Lorien.
As it was getting dark now, we headed to Elrond and Frodo, and decided to start heading back to the car by way of a couple more that we wanted to see.
We should maybe have walked up Saruman to find Faramir and Boromir, then walked down Aragorn to Legolas. Now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d say…
Anyway, we did end our walk with Legolas, and met Galadriel too.
There are plenty of Hobbit names around too, with Thorin, Fili, Farin and Balin, as well as legendary characters from LOTR lore like Elendil and Durin. I have to admit I was more interested in the Lord Of The Rings characters, and you could spend ages wandering the streets of this estate trying to see every one, so we wanted to prioritise with our limited daylight.
Read more about where Eomer and Theoden are from: A Day Trip To Mount Sunday: Discovering Edoras
Some other fun stops are the little wooden climbing elephant in a playground, which I totally meant to find just to do some ridiculous Legolas pose, and of course the school. I didn’t find a big sign for the school, but it did say De Hobbit in one of the windows.
Here’s a map of the estate, with most of the main names – the elephant is the “Roze Olifant” on the map.
This was a great little addition to our trip and I’m so glad that I managed to go with all of the biggest LOTR geeks I know!
The perils of visiting in winter meant that after a busy day at Efteling, it was already starting to get dark, which meant the lighting wasn’t great for taking photos. But it didn’t matter to us, really – if a quick pit stop on the way to the airport was the only way we could see this town, then so be it!
It would also be a perfect addition to a trip to Eindhoven, which is the closest city and also closest airport. We were having to drive back to Amsterdam Schiphol so it was going to be a much longer drive for us – it was about an hour and a half drive back to the airport.
There’s not a lot to do in Geldrop itself, although I did find this blog useful if you wanted to do some more in the area rather than just drop in on one residential estate.
If you’re a Lord Of The Rings fan, I definitely recommend going to Geldrop if you have the chance.
Are you a Lord Of The Rings fan? I have more LOTR themed posts here:
⭐ There And Back Again: A Day Out To Hobbiton
⭐ A Day Trip To Mount Sunday: Discovering Edoras
⭐ Museums, Views and More Hobbiting Around in Windy Wellington
And a couple of Netherlands posts too:
⭐ Being Giant Kids For The Weekend At Efteling, The Dutch Fairytale Theme Park
⭐ #tbt: That Time We Went To Europe To See A Band
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It’s pretty clear that a person working for the council when they were naming the streets was a Tolkien fan.
Haha yeah – what a cool job doing that!
How fun to go around and see all the signs with all the names. You have to applaud their enthusiasm for Lord of the Rings 🙂
I wonder how many people go there for the signs like you did, and if the sign tourism is wearing off as years pass…