Blogs from Province of Utrecht, Netherlands, Europe - page 8

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

Today started out with torrential rain but things cleared up nicely around mid-morning allowing us to do a 3 hour walking tour of Utrecht. I tried to pick out the best of the pics -- it really is quite a beautiful old city. We came back to the hotel to rest and do a little work for the conference. The hotel only has 7 rooms and is really very nice. I've attached a pic of the garden out back that goes down to a sliver of a canal. A nice spot to sit and have glass of wine! The owners are very nice and obliging. Two guys who bought the place a couple of years ago and were disillusioned with the chain hotel experience from their own travels. They invite guests to join them for a ... read more

Now, what a lovely city! We spent a great afternoon in Utrecht, with Guido and friend Marina. The weather was perfect for casual strolling while doing our best to avoid being run down by the fiets. We had an interesting dining experience, out of respect for the fact that Marina is a vegetarian we decided we should eat at the vegan restaurant we found by accident on the banks of the canal. I had no idea what any of the items on the menu were, after all it was written in Dutch and it was also in Vegan, so I put my trust in the waiter and asked of he could suggest something. He said it was no problem, he could put together a plate for me to taste various grains and other organic delights. What ... read more