A bus from Edinburgh, a ferry from Newcastle, another bus from the port and a train from Amsterdam saw us to Utrecht! At the train station we were met by my friend Ilir whose huge smile seemed to have grown since I saw him in 2011 in Bolivia. It was great to see a friendly, familiar face. Ilir kindly hosted us at his place in lovely Utrecht for a few nights.
From Utrecht we also took a half-day cycle to visit areas outside the city. It was great being on a bike in the sun, cycling past farms and windmills and, of course, goats on backyard tables.
We also dropped in to see Rob's family friends, Neil and Margot. Neil and Oliver were old family friends, and were at school together in England. There was once an actual fight between Oliver & Neil where fists might have been involved, a fight that has been re-enacted on each reunion between their families!
Neil and Margot were in the middle of moving house. The fact that much of the Netherlands is built on reclaimed land is not lost on their house, where the first level, is kind of ..shifting at each corner, and not all shifting in the same direction. They're moving out while renovations/rebuilding is happening, and then they'll be back!
It was amazing how many windmills we saw in a short amount of time. The Netherlands is surely the country with the most bridges than all the other places we've visited, well per capita anyway. Our short cycle was a good way to get an initial feel for the Netherlands and warm up for the days to follow.
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| Love this guy. Torch or cigar? |
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| Along the canal |
We weren't in the Netherlands long before Ilir had procured a handful of bicycles from friends for us to borrow. Cycling along, Ilir gave us a tour of town and introduced to us to some important local cuisine: Frikandel, a minced meat hotdog. Whilst Japan excels at drinks and coffee vending machines, the Netherlands appears to be winning at 24/7 hot snack vending machines. Pretty handy, but I was definitely more excited about my reunion with the Stroopwafel. (Back in Bolivia in 2011, Ilir and the stroopwafel had saved us from a Sunday morning without breakfast!) Fresh stroopwafels are the best. Someone really needs to start selling fresh stroopwafels regularly in Melbourne!
As well as enjoying a picnic lunch at Ilir's apartment, an afternoon drink in the sun, stroopwafels and fried snacks, we had some Vietnamese street food in Utrecht! Not exactly what we expected but it was great and we had a few of the things we fondly remembered from our time in Vietnam back in February.
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| Reunion with bubble tea |
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| Cyclists |
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| Goat's castle |
We also dropped in to see Rob's family friends, Neil and Margot. Neil and Oliver were old family friends, and were at school together in England. There was once an actual fight between Oliver & Neil where fists might have been involved, a fight that has been re-enacted on each reunion between their families!
Neil and Margot were in the middle of moving house. The fact that much of the Netherlands is built on reclaimed land is not lost on their house, where the first level, is kind of ..shifting at each corner, and not all shifting in the same direction. They're moving out while renovations/rebuilding is happening, and then they'll be back!
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| Rob stood in for this reenactment |
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| Confused about what happened to his mouth! |
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| Resident duck at Neil and Margot's |
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| Windmill |
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| Cycling on grass and water |
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| Windmill and the clever Dutch water system |
After a 6-day cycling loop around the Netherlands we returned to Utrecht for a final day before heading to Amsterdam. We enjoyed a coffee, did some shopping and met up with Ilir for a canal swim. We actually failed to take many photos in Utrecht so you will have to take our word for that it is a beautiful city. (Or you could go yourself!) Ilir has certainly chosen a great place to live.
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| Bicycle love |
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| Ah! Coffee on the canals |
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| Taking a dip! |
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