Blogs from Utrecht, Province of Utrecht, Netherlands, Europe - page 5

What is the name of this mountain?... read more

The Netherlands 8/11 - 8/16 Tuesday morning, the 11th of August Will’s grandfather drove us from Honiton to Exeter, the near by city. We had purchased a bus ticket from there to London for only 20 pounds, and then another bus ticket from London to Amsterdam for only 38 pounds (for both our tickets!). We couldn’t believe how cheap it was for the bus, when everything else was in the hundreds of pounds. Will’s granddad has such a thick British accent that it was almost difficult to understand, but he was super sweet and reminded me of mine…but British. He dropped us off in London around 8:30am and we were officially: On. Our. Own. Except for the huge sack of fruit and crisps and OJ that Will’s Mum had packed for us. Mmmm, she’s so wonderful. ... read more

This summer, the only holiday abroad went to the Netherlands - and I had the vacation part for myself, since my dear partner went there for a conference. For the first time (!) I went to Utrecht. This city is more or less equivalent to Malmö in Sweden when it comes to number of inhabitants, which means it hasn't got 300,000 of those yet. The city has a history from at least Roman times, when it was a part of the Northern frontier, with a fortress where the city centre is today. The city centre is very small and crowded, especially when it's summer and the city is invaded by 1,300 conference participants, but I guess it's the same when the university starts in September, since the universities in this city have some 60,000 students! As ... read more

There is a Chinese proverb that goes like "When one is his own country, one depends on his family. When one is abroad, one depends on his friends". I have traveled enough by now to appreciate the second part of this saying. Yesterday I decided to visit my Dutch friend Peter in the 4th largest city in the Netherlands, Utrecht. It turned out to be an unexpected high note of the trip so far. Amsterdam is an international city swamped with tourists, particularly young tourists, many came probably with a single purpose in mind. The downside of that is...you do not get to see how the Dutch people live and interact with them. Well, it was a good decision to go visit Utreckt, the fourth largest city in the Netherlands. I went to Amsterdam Centraal, the ... read more

Well we woke up this morning to beautiful sunshine for our last day in Utrecht. We plan to squeeze in a cruise on the old canal between conference sessions some time today since it is our last chance to do so. i will hopefully come back with some interesting pics later. Karla and I did our conference presentation yesterday afternoon and it was very well received. Nice to have it over now and to be moving on soon to the real vacation part of the trip. We ate last night (for the second time!) at a Portuguese restaurant not far from our hotel called Algarve. Just a wonderful place. Excellent food and fantastic service. Friendly and unpretentious and so accommodating. The first night we had a dish called Cataplana - we were brought a closed pot ... read more