Amsterdam, Utrecht and Bitterbals

---

---

Today we concluded our brief visit to Amsterdam with a visit to the van Gogh museum. Both Elysia and I were very surprised to learn how much we actually liked his work (we aren't real art lovers!!). We were also surprised to learn that he didn't begin working on art until the last ten years of his life. 

After finishing up at the museum, we raced back to the house boat and picked up our packs, before we caught a tram to Amsterdam Central Station.  We caught a train to Utrecht and found our way to our hostel. We dropped our stuff off and the left to meet Sander and Annelie at the Dom (the tallest church tower in town). 

It began to rain so we decided to climb the Dom tower while we waited for the rain to subside. The tower is quite amazing, and very old. Built in 1382, the tower was originally home to a great bishop, but now it is open to the public.  We climbed the 318 stairs to an elevation 70 metres above the city, but we couldn't go to the top (90 metres) because of the rain storm.  The tower itself was built as part of a large church, but much of the church collapsed in a hurricane several hundred years ago. What is left standing today is the tower and the part of the church that was not destroyed by the hurricane.  On the way to the top of the tower we got to see many interesting things: the bishop had a private chapel (today a wedding was planned in this chapel, scheduled to start after our tour was finished), there was a tower guard who had his residence in the tower (there is a story that says the guard used to run a bar out of his residence to supplement his income-patrons had to climb to his fourth story residence on a ladder!), there is a "safe room" for the bishop, the fourteen main bells of the tower (now only rung on very special occasions) and the 35 smaller bells which are used to welcome in each hour and to play music on. The 35 smaller bells aren't actually small, they are still massive, but they pale in comparison to the largest of the main bells. 

 After we finished climbing the Dom, Annelie and Sander took us on a tour of their town. We got to see the canals (there are two main canals-the old canal and the new canal... Guess which was built first...), the walk of fame for big Dutch film stars, some very old buildings (of course) and the people's church which has two cannon balls set in it's side. When we got to the church, it's bells began to ring - we think it was because of the wedding that would have just finished up in the Dom. We think they weren't ringing the bells in the Dom because the Dom is a very special church and the bells wouldn't be rung for ordinary citizens.

At this point we were getting a little bit tired from our walking and thought it best to sit down for a nice beer and bitterbols (basically like a small croquet potato but filled with meat instead of potato - or as Annelie calls it "meat trash"). 

We finished our beers and went to Annelie's student house for dinner. Sander and Annelie barbecued up a lovely dinner for us and then we walked for the 'best ijs (Ice cream) in Holland'. Actually we ran, because it was 9:50 when we left the house and the place closed at 10:00. We got there just in time and enjoyed a nice refreshing ijs. We took a bit of a detour on the way back to the house and walked all through a very large park that is next to Annelie's place. By the time we got back, we were tired out and Annelie gave us a ride back to the hostel in a car she borrowed fringed room mate.

All in all, an excellent day. And we both think Utrecht is a beautiful city. 

---

Comments

[christine ansell]

was the sunflower picture there....I love that one