Day 30 - [U]trecht

A charming city and what a tower!

The main area of the BUNK hotel
(from the front door)

Sleeping in a pod is interesting. Everyone respects the keeping quiet thing but you can’t help people snoring. And the pod is small enough (essentially a tube that’s as wide as a single bed, about 7 feet long, that you can sit up on without banging your head) that I knocked the side wall with an elbow a couple of times during the night, which other sleepers might have heard. It’s comfortable as a bed and warm, so that was what really counts. I was assigned a top-bunk pod. I’d avoid that in future. Getting in and out is awkward.

The main area of the BUNK hotel
(looking back to the front door)

As an experiment, the Pod thing has been worth it. I’m of the view that it’s a great, cheap option for a single night’s stay. It’s less suitable for more than one night, though, as there’s really nowhere private to just hang out (if you want to do that). The BUNK hotel is really nice. It’s a lively happening place and the food and staff are excellent.

I was up quite early and sitting in the main refectory area of the hotel trying to decide where to go for breakfast when I was asked by the waiter if I had ordered the prepared breakfast. I said no. After hunting around for somewhere to go for breakfast, I then went and told him that I would have the prepared breakfast tomorrow! Utrecht seems to follow the same conventions as elsewhere in Europe (other than Greece), where breakfast is not really a thing. Virtually nowhere opens before 8:00am. When I investigated menus online, they usually only offer coffee/tea and pastries. Committed to my breakfast adventure, I picked a spot that opened at 7:30am and was across the other side of the central ‘island’ of Utrecht, which would afford me a bit of a walk through some of the city, and headed off.

Today’s weather was pretty miserable. It was actually raining lightly as I stepped out, and cold. The weather app had told me it would rain lightly off and on for the next couple of hours. Accuweather, which I’m using while I’m here in Europe is remarkably accurate about such things and offers minute by minute predictions of rain for the next 60 minutes as one feature.

Regardless of the weather, I didn’t have to walk far to decide that Utrecht is a charming city (at least in the central, old district). Like other cities in northern Europe that I have visited that have thousands of years of history, it is a warren of two and three storey buildings on cobblestone roads. Most frontages on larger streets are some kind of commercial enterprise, with residential street frontages mostly in the narrower lanes. As you walk along, you come across squares, or plazas and suddenly, a large church. I think of this as a city on a human scale. I first developed a liking for it in Brugges and Antwerp when I visited years ago (~2005?) and even old London town (in 1990).

Street scene of Utrecht	Another street scene of Utrecht	Suddenly, a church
Then a canal (looking East, I think)	Same canal (looking West)	The canal, well below (current) street level
Typical buildings in this part of Utrecht	Dutch folk on their way to work Not the only person I saw riding with an open umbrella	Suddenly, a plaza

Coffee and pastries for breakfast at the Village Coffee Shop was pleasant. The Village is a small cafe run by what look like hipsters, who seem to serve a hipster customer base; all very cool, I loved it. I noticed as the day wore on that Utrecht seems to have a very young population. Obviously, I haven’t seen everyone, or even a representative sample, but of the people I see going about their daily business, they’ mostly tweenagers and young adults. There were some grey hairs among the business folks I saw in my wandering, but I think I really only saw a few people older than me. As I write that, it’s discordant with my internal residual self-image, which puts me in the middle of the age-band of the folks I’m surrounded by here in Utrecht. That’s sad.

 

Panorama of the sundial built into the plaza paving, with adjustable central spindle positions for each month

I’d decided that I would next visit the Domtoren and then Centraal Museum, and then see what was left of the day. Walking through the streets of (old) Utrecht was a delight for me. I came across a huge sundial set into the cobblestones of a plaza (difficult to photograph, so I tried a panorama), and grand churches, and statues to famous folks. Then walking along one street the Domkirk came into view and it is huge! An enormous church with flying buttresses and tall spires. I was over-awed. Then I walked about 50 metres further and the Domtoren was revealed from behind a building and it’s stupendous! At 112m tall (I found out later), this church tower is genuinely awe-inspiring. It used to be attached to the Domkirk by a huge nave, but that was destroyed in a storm in the 1650s and they’ve stayed separate ever since. The whole edifice, when in place must have been unbelievable. I tried to capture where on the church walls the nave had attached. The top section was at least 30m up the wall.

A statue of Anne Frank	One of the buildings of the Utrecht University	A statue of Willibrord Arguably the founding father of Utrecht
Street scene of Utrecht	Then the Domkirk looms	Then, you turn the corner and the Domtoren is there
The Domkirk (church) from the foot of the Domtoren	The Domtoren (tower) from the foot of the statue above You really can’t capture the imposing height of this thing	You can see where the nave’s lowest arches joined the church (the brickwork patch high up)

The tourist centre associated with the Dom was closed until 9:00am, so I wandered off looking at more of Utrecht at random then wound my way back to find out what could be discovered. I booked myself on a 10:15am tour that climbed the tower (I know! More stairs!) and did some more wandering around to kill some time.

Another canal	The red shutters really caught my eye They showed up later on other buildings too	Another busy street
The passage through Domtoren to the plaza made where the nave once stood	The church yard where the nave once stood	No idea what the carved stone was about, but I’m guessing it’s associated with the founding of the church, or possibly the Roman building on which the church was built
The main administration building for Utrecht University, donated to it by the church in the 1600s	The cloisters of the church, also donated to the university	The church overlooking the cloisters
Another street scene Everywhere I looked were charming urban vistas	Another canal view I find these quite captivating	Came across this statue at random I love it. I want one!

The tower tour was led by an enthusiastic young woman, Jolleen, who did every presentation in Dutch and then in English. She was really lovely and did her city proud with her warm and enthusiastic explanation of the history of the tower and surrounding town. The tower is just as inspiring inside. There were, however, 465 steps to climb and then descend. And after the first 65, which were added as a formal entry to the tower a hundred years ago, they were on a rise-to-run ratio of about 1:1 – steep!

First level: Entry
The brick-built entry building to the tower	A formal room within the entry building (unexplained on the tour)	The first stairs in the tower – straight up!
Second level: Tower-keeper’s residence
Jolleen explaining the surrounds The central axis was a long hole through which building materials were passed during construction	The stained glass windows have been replaced over time	The ceiling (10m above) with central hatch visible
Image of the Dom church complex at it’s zenith	Jolleen explaining the church’s history Note the gargoyles overhead	Image of the church immediately after the damaging storm
The building in the left foreground of the first image is a monastery that predates the tower and church. I asked about the gap between the tower and its church in the first image (which I feel was why the tower wasn’t damaged/lost in the storm that took the nave) and apparently the nave never touched the tower because the monks in the monastery had a right-of-access to their monastery along a road/lane that ran between the tower and the nave.
Third level: Belfry
The biggest bell in the belfry – over 8 tonnes, installed after tower construction	Other bells in the belfry – overall, more than 33 tonnes of bronze bells 45m in the air	These bells are regularly used through the rope mechanism seen here
Trying to show the narrow spiral staircase	View over Utrecht from this part of the staircase	These are steep, narrow spiral stairs
Fourth level: The Carillon
View across Utrecht from outside the carillon room	View over the former nave to the church from outside the carillon	The carillon (installed in 1974), played regularly both by a carillonist and through a music-box mechanism
Final level: The top
View across Utrecht the top of the Domtoren	View across Utrecht the top of the Domtoren	View across Utrecht the top of the Domtoren

After the exhilaration of the tower, I proceeded with my plan to visit Centraal Museum, partly because I had checked with the tourist information folks at the Domtoren centre and they’d recommended it as the best of several good museums in Utrecht. The walk to Centraal Museum wound through more of old Utrecht. The museum is housed in a former convent, so it’s a pretty imposing building. Inside was a very interesting presentation of Dutch history through art and fashion. I was reminded of how much I liked the Dutch masters’ painting style. Some of the other exhibits were also really interesting.

Almost a summary of the types of exhibits in the museum	A set of very ‘likely lads’ – town priests (I think)	Unbelievable doll’s house
Portraits in the style of Dutch masters	The Matchmaker by Honthorst  This is a totally captivating work; the use of a hidden light source is unique at the time.	More portraits in the Dutch renaissance style
A simulation of the living room of a brother and sister art family in the Netherlands	Minimalist lounge chair by the famous Dutch artist, Reitveld	A sideboard, completely of burned timbers by Reitveld
Surrealist work by J S Moseman	More from J S Moseman	The sculpture and its corresponding painting by Moseman
A display of Dutch fashion	The Brides of Dracula	The modern art installation, Disappear

My effect on the art

Eventually, I came to ‘temporary’ exhibitions that the museum was hosting. One, a modern art installation was themed on loss and loneliness, Disappear. It was a sound installation as much as the physical elements. Like most modern art, I didn’t get it. There was one aspect of the installation that I quite liked, though. An amorphous pink sculpture was set for viewers to interact with. Its material is sensitive to heat. If you touch it, your body heat will change the colour of the material. (Like the old hyper-colour t-shirts.) If I understood the piece, if you touch the piece and change it, it speaks to your loss/loneliness by demonstrating the effect you have on someone else. Anyway, I got some satisfaction from having an effect on the piece by touching it.

After the museum, I was starting to feel quite foot-sore, so I decided to find a bar on a canal side, have a drink and snack, as part of heading back to the hotel. It should go without saying that there are hundreds of such establishments along the canals in Utrecht (probably everywhere that has canals running through a city district, TBH). I decided on Stael because it looked nice as I walked past and had a window seat overlooking the canal. A glass of wine and 6 bitterballen made for a lovely stop. I walked back to the hotel along the canal, through several ‘kwarteins’ (quarters). This part of the city is very festively decorated at the moment. I’m not sure what led them to be put up, but I think the imminence of Halloween is probably keeping them up for the time being.

View from The Stael over wine and bitterballen

“Please do not empty your dog here”! 😆

All the while that I’ve been enjoying Utrecht, especially its canals and surrounds, I’ve been wishing that similar districts could be created at home, to bring this vibe that I find so appealing to the more sterile Canberra environment.

Restaurants along the tow path of the canal

A busy hospitality district on the canal

As I’ve been writing this, I’ve suddenly realised that the Kingston Foreshore is Canberra’s answer to this idea – a commercial/hospitality district clustered on a waterfront, over-topped by residences. I’m dying! Now that I see it, it’s obvious that this sort of thing is the inspiration for that area. And in comparison, the Kingston Foreshore is completely charmless to me. Wow. So much to process there.

As I walked back through the now very busy district near the hotel, I was struck again by how modern Utrecht was blended quite well with the old city. About 200m from my hotel (in an old church), is the Hoog Catharijn, a huge modern shopping mall that would put any Westfield to genuine shame. It’s a colossal place with an open-air shopping district built inside an enormous glass-enclosed structure. Importantly, this huge edifice to modern consumerism abuts the old district in an inoffensive way, separated from a main street by a large plaza and presenting a front face to the old city that is low-level (2-3 storeys) and built of brick, to harmonise with the surrounding architecture. I really like how they’ve done it.

Moving into the interface of old and new

The plaza adjacent to Hoog Catharijn, which is obscured behind the trees on the left

The modern face of Hoog Catharijn over the canal (and adjacent to Utrecht CS)

I noticed a large restaurant on a street corner near my hotel that looked very nice. It’s menu looked appealing. I checked the BUNK’s menu when I got back and it was appealing but a much more limited range. I decided to go back to the place on the corner for dinner. I spent the next hour or so, sitting in my pod reading. It was now that I found that pod’s are better the less time that you stay in them. You can’t really unpack anything either, so you have to keep getting your stuff in and out of the locker in the corridor of pods, which when people are sleeping is even less convenient.

At a suitable hour, I headed to de Utrechter, was shown to a table, and had a very enjoyable evening. The restaurant operates largely like a tapas bar, though it doesn’t call itself that. The two means of buying food are to pay a flat fee (~€45) for an all-you-can-eat experience, where you order one or two small plates each ‘round’ and have as many rounds as you want. Or, you can have what they call ‘Table Full’ which is five small plates all served at once (hence, a full table), followed by a dessert. That’s €33. I went with the Table Full, because that would pretty much have been what I selected from the selection in the ‘rounds’. It was the right choice. Really nice food – the mushroom stew was a standout – and served by a delightful woman, Marie, who really made the evening enjoyable.

The restaurant that I chose on the walk home

The view from dinner

The ‘Table Full’

Daily facts: Location: [U]trecht Temp: 11 Weather: Light rain, or heavy overcast