Day 76: Mon 1 Sep - Utrecht

17-23 deg C 

Walk G: 10km; total: 589km

Walk W: 8km; total: 493km

Today we explored Utrecht. But first we waited for the rain to go away, which it did just after breakfast. 

The Romans founded the city of Utrecht in approximately 48AD, building a fort as part of the fortifications along the River Rhine.  Parts of that fort are still visible today but you certainly have to know where to look. Parts of later versions of the city fort, like the tower foundations and parts of gates are more accessible and can be seen near the canals, which were originally moats. 

The canals give this place its character, it would be very ordinary without them. They not only provide a great place for tourist boats to cruise around the city, but the locals use them to canoe, have parties, sit beside, move stuff around and to fish in. The local authorities certainly put a fair amount of time and money into keeping them clean and well maintained. Because the Netherlands has so much water they might as well put it to good use and make a Euro or two along the way.  

You’ll probably be pleased to know that all the churches were closed today, firstly because it’s Monday and secondly because it’s the first day of their Uni year and they use some of the churches for meet and greets etc. The Utrecht Uni is the biggest in the country. However, we couldn’t possibly have a total church free day so we’ve included some outside photos of the famous DOM Church and now separate Tower. They were originally joined together but a severe storm in 1674 knocked out the Nave and it was never rebuilt. The Tower was recently restored to its former glory, which took five years of hard work. It was reopened in 2024.  

Just like the locals we had lunch sitting on a bench seat overlooking a canal; very relaxing.  

The sun decided to show itself early in the afternoon so the photos taken after that time will be much nicer.  

Utrecht is a very busy city and a bit frantic when you are walking around as you can’t afford to relax near bike paths unless you want to end up in A&E. Some of the e-bikes the kids, and some adults, are riding are monsters, huge wheels and tyres, with massive motors and batteries. If they hit you at the speed they’re going it could very easily be fatal. But we survived.  They also ride a whole range of smallish motorcycles and scooters on the bicycle paths. It feels a bit like Russian roulette sometimes. Sort of glad we are moving on tomorrow, but it will be like this but only worse when we get to Amsterdam.

Peak hour traffic

Canal scenery

The canals always look clean and this is why: they have rubbish collecting boats

Lunch on the canal

Grocer’s dike, now a coffee shop/corner store, built in 1913

Statues and sculptures 

Girl on a fairground horse; she looks so happy!

Anne Frank

Truus van Leir

Town Hall - not a very pretty building

Dom Church

This photo shows where the tower and church were originally joined 

This shows how huge the church must have been when the tower was part of it

Resistance Monument 

Dom Tower

The Academy building, next to the Dom Church

The Inkwell, not sure what the UFO is doing there?

A hotel (Crowne Plaza and Hampton by Hilton) between Central Station and Hoog Catharijne, a very large shopping mall 

A teapot on the roof of a parking structure 

The stair well in our hotel

One of those monster e-bikes

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