Utrecht

On Sunday, besides playing fantasy in my future castle, we visited Utrecht. It was such a quaint little town, that was closed for the most part. We wern't able to do a lot of shopping but we had fun walking around and seeing different things.

Utrecht is the religious capital of the Netherlands dating back to the 8th century. Until the Golden Age, Utrecht was the most important city in Northern Netherlands until Amsterdam became the cultural and populous capital. Utrecht is also home to Utrecht University, the largest university in the Netherlands along with many other higher education establishments.

There is some evidence of habitation of Utrecht dating back until 2200 BC although the founding date is generally considered 50 AD. As far as I’m concerned though, the town has been around a LONG time! In Medieval times Utrecht was a popular area for transport because the Rhine river used to run through the town. Since it was a religious place, it was previously a walled, fortified town. After the mid 1800s the walls came down and the town was allowed to expand. Since the Rhine had moved (oddly, but apparently it did) the arm that was left as well as the moat became more canal like which made moving goods via water ways still possible. To support this tradition people began building wharf like basements at water left. This basically created a 2 level street system. You can still see them today!

Since Utrecht is considered such an important religious place, many churchs are still intact. Dom tower (in the photo below) is one of the highest buildings in Utrecht. It used to be connected to the church, but the nave collapsed in 1674. There is now a tree and a pleasant court yard type area seperating the two.

Below is the rest of Dom Church. It was a beautiful church. Online, it said it wasn't opened but when Kelly and I showed up, people were going in so we followed. We wern't the only visitors, but I do believe most people going in where there for church related activities. There were clearly people enjoying coffee after mass but we poked around and took some discrete pictures then went on our way.

Below is a picture of the inside and the organs. I cannot wait till it is summer and there are organ concerts at our local church in Haarlem. I still haven't seen the inside of it, but I did learn that it is Protestant so that is interesting. Usually, the big pretty ones are Catholic.

More pretty, stained glass windows!!! I love all of the art work and time put into these creations so that we can all enjoy their beauty.

Here is a courtyard behind the church. It was so neat. Its uses have transformed over the years originating as a place for meditation. It is now an herb garden. Between the times of meditation and today's herb garden it was used as a gather spot popular for beer and poker, a place to store crops, then later wagons, then later ammunition powder and supplies. At least they don't waste space!

A picture of the outside. So many church's follow the gothic/neo gothic architecture. I still enjoy each and every single one of them though! It still amazes me how people with such "limited resources" built such amazing, beautiful structures.

After walking around town, and before the castle, we got hungry so we stopped for lunch. This place as busy, so we figured it had to be tasty and it was! Kelly's dad reccomended the mustard soup, which sounds a bit scary. They served it and it seemed like a soup day so I sprung for it and a tuna fish sandwhich. The soup was great!!!! Probably one of my new favorites. It was also served in a great little bread bowl which probably didn't help any. The sandwhich was fantastic too. We won again. During lunch we got a bit of entertainment, the resident cat. Can you imagine a restaurant in the US having a pet cat roaming around?? It would never fly. I had to take a picture of the cat sitting on one of the tables, welcoming visitors. This was the 2nd table we saw it sit on, not including the chairs it used as scratching posts and napping spots.

MMM Tasty cat infested tables. I have a pretty high tolerance for "unsanitary" things, but I'm just not a fan of cats on the inside. Private or professional, I think they are dirty. There was also an article I read that supported the argument that cats were dirty indoor creatures. Either way, we found this public restaurant issue interesting compared to standards back home.

Kelly's mom and her friend Leona are headed to Amsterdam today. We filled them full of advice and knowledge to make the most of their trip so I hope they wern't too confused and have a good time! It appears to be sunny outside so that is 1/2 of the battle right there. I guess spring really is rolling in because it seems to only be getting warmer around here. And by warmer, in case you were wondering, I mean 39-45 F. Not exactly a day at the beach. Tomorrow they are headed off to Antwerp to look around and browse the diamond district. How could you not??