Utrecht City Trip

Utrecht, city in The Netherlands... I have only been here once before, in august 2013, when I went to play the Magic GP there (and actually winning some side-event lol).

So needless to say, not much was seen that weekend from the city.

But the past few days, Noshi and me went there to visit a friend, in a sort of "pre-birth visit" as Maike is putting her little miracle on the world next month, and it would be just to busy for her then.

While the weather could be better (last year this time, we where melting away in Prague), this didn't stop us from strolling the city with our local guide :-)...

Utrecht Day 1

So there we where, monday and the weather was "all or nothing".  Pouring rain at moments, but sunny most of the time.  So of course, the first thing we did was go out and find our hotel, Hampton By Hilton, located right in the middle of the huge mall of Utrecht.  Definitly one of the uniquer locations we stayed on our trips.

The room was nice and suitable for three times nothing on Booking.com, we paid 186 euro for two nights, including breakfast which was very, very expanded.  It did mix up it's location though it seems...

After dropping off our suitcases, we wandered through the city and along the waterway of Oudegracht, which runs straight through the center.

And there we found this awesome looking gamestore as well, Subcultures.  An awesome store with a larp section and all, and the interior was sublime.  We where VERY tempeted to take along Battles in Middle Earth AND Stuffed Fables... but luckily common (renovation costs) sense kicked in and though a bit bleugh, we let them be.  There's always Crisis ofc in the near future...

We then went to go visit out first museum of our trip, the Domunder.  The Dom is the largest church of the Netherlands (okay, it's nice, but no offense northern neighbours, growing up in the shadow of Antwerp Cathedral...) but it has a fantastic exhibit, and interactive to boot.

Build on an ancient Roman castellum, of which the walls and sorts are still under the city, you can go explore the ruins.  You do this with a sort of "light gun" which, when shining on a sensor amidst the ruins, tells the tale of what you are seeing.

Truly something to do if you visit the city!

Then of course, dinner time, and we chose Kartoffel, a german inspired restaurant next to the water of Oudegracht.  Very great value for money, as we both took a flammenkuched to start with, and Noshi took the brat- und currywurst with sauerkrautmash, while I went for the "modest" schnitzel.

And then it was time for sleepies (okay, and I finally saw The Mummy Returns, somehow I missed this movie in my youth).

Utrecht Day 2

So after the impressive breakfast, it was time to meet up with Maike and go for a drink and a chat up.

But in the afternoon, after saying our goodbye's for this time round, we booked a 1 hour tour on the Oudegrachten, luckily with a roofed boat as the weathergods still weren't cooperating.

This showed us parts of the city we didn't come so far (and won't on this visit) like the old jail and it told a lot of intresting tidbits about the older houses, the wharfcellars,... very intresting little tour.

A quick pitstop at winebar Lefebvre where I tried an excellent 8%er with a great name (it translates as raging Swan btw) and Noshi tried the alcohol free Pas du Tout wine they are famous for in the region.

After that, it was dinner time, and Noshi really wanted those hearthy pancakes the Netherlands are famous for, and so we went to eat in De Muntkelder, again located in the wharfcellars.  Now, I must say, this was for me the most enthousiastic personel of the whole trip, so the tipping was included (in The Netherlands, you are not obliged, like in Belgium, to tip services).

And thus ended our second day in the student city.

Utrecht day 3

On our final day, we went to visit a museum we didn't plan on initially.  We had walked by this on monday, and I wanted to see it: Museum Speelklok, labelled as the happiest museum of The Netherlands.

It houses a large collection of "self playing" instruments, like the old street organs.  This includes the famous "De Arabier" (the Arab) organ.

Apart from the tour, it also has a large exhibition of historical instruments and music boxes, including one of Napoleon himself, a large angeled golden clock.

You could also try out the mechanics of how some of the machines worked.

A real fun museum indeed, and we where glad we decided to visit this one before collecting our suitcases and return to our homeport of Antwerp.

The Loot?

Yes!  While in Utrecht you couldn't find those "tourist souvenir coin machines" that are splattered all over Europe, I wanted some coins as a souvenir.  Now, both museums require you to put your backpack (understandably) in a locker, but compared to Belgium, you don't have to put money in it, but you get a free coin... and those are nice souvenirs to go with my coins!

And that was it, three days in the large student city in the Netherlands, with meeting up with old friends, good food and fun visits!