April 7, 2016
The City Where the Bicycle Reigns Supreme.
In London we hopped onto a plane and off we flew across the North Sea – to Amsterdam.
Not that we had long in ‘Dam, for we were whisked straight off to, first, Utrecht, then the country’s political center, The Hague, for a spot of business.
In this post: Utrecht – the city of the bicycle.
Bikes are everywhere here. No really everywhere – the place is overrun with them. And if you’re on foot you’ve got to watch it: a moment’s absentmindedness and before you know it there’s a bicycle bell trilling behind you hinting that you… kindly move out of the way (polite, the Dutch:). I think they should introduce caps with wing-mirrors fitted, which should be mandatory for all newcomers to the city, i.e., for all those not born here and so without the required special sixth sense for detecting incoming two-wheeled hazards.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BD4wFXIOid8/
The bell tower of the city’s cathedral is impressively high – 112 meters in total! You get a stiff neck looking up at its beauty after a while…
Alas, was here with a full business schedule, so I only got to see a little bit of the city in the two hours’ free time I had.
Impressions? Overall – positive: a nice little city, a relaxed city. Unhurried crowds sit contentedly in open-air cafes that line the canals and cover the cobbled squares. The atmosphere: laid-back. Like. So my travel companion, A.B., and I joined in with an appropriately chilled approach to our strolling and snacking…
All the photos from the Netherlands are here.
