Groningen & Utrecht

15 - 19 June

I had a few days spare to explore a bit more of the Netherlands before meeting my grandparents, and headed first for Groningen (try and pronounce that with a proper Dutch accent!!), in the north of the country. It's a much smaller and less touristy town, that's now quite a university city.

The first evening I went for a bit of a wander, and after some takeaway kebab for dinner (which seems to be the cheapest food anywhere in the Netherlands!) found a small plaza where some free live jazz was playing. I watched them for a while, and when they finished watched the Dutch play Italy in a Euro under-19 football semi-final. It was quite a good game, but the Italians scored late to win 1-0.

The next day I went exploring a bit. Though the central square was pretty quiet - the place had pretty much shut down, being a Sunday - I enjoyed looking at a few of the churches and nice parks around the town, just generally relaxing for the day.

Prinsenhof Gardens

Dutch towns are seemingly always chiming - every quarter of an hour (sometimes half an hour) an elaborate short tune is played on the church bells in most churches. Since there are so many churches, you always hear one somewhere.

The Aa Kerk as the rains came in...

And of course, more canals - I couldn't help being amused by this spot:

Canal intersection signs!

After 2 nights I headed south again to another university town, Utrecht. There I stayed 2 nights with a friend I'd met in Cusco, Mathilde, who studies there. It was great meeting someone back from my time in Cusco again, and Mathilde showed me around the city a wee bit on my first afternoon there. I went for a tour up the Domtoren, the highest church tower in the Netherlands...

90-something metres up to the viewing platform, the top is 112.5 m up. There is a by-law in Utrecht that no other buildings may be taller than the Dom!
The tower is now free standing after the nave of the church partially collapsed in a tornado in the 1600s, and was never rebuilt.

The views from the top were stunning, and it was possible to see the high-rises of Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the distance (although unfortunately I'd forgotten my camera!). We also got to see the large automated wheel that plays the bells every 15 minutes.

The Domtoren, canals and lots of parked bikes - quickly becoming a very common sight in the Netherlands!

The next day the weather suddenly came out for the party - a scorching 32+ day. Mathilde lives in student accommodation at the university, and one of her roommates had set up a paddling pool on the roof, so we spent most of the afternoon up there in the sun - in fact it was so hot that I couldn't sit out of the water for more than about 10 minutes without having to get back in the water to cool down! It was also a great spot for a couple of beers in the evening.

Mathilde's roommates were all really friendly and very tolerant of the fact I couldn't speak Dutch - everyone in the Netherlands is quite happy to speak English and a lot of them speak it completely fluently, which makes it quite a welcoming place to travel for someone without a word of Dutch.

The next morning it was off to the tiny town of Made, in the south of the country, where my great-auntie Cock lives, and where my Oma & Opa were also staying. Once again, I was on the very efficient train system - although I did spot this sign walking to Utrecht's train station:

My church?

Finally, somewhere where other people spell my name with an "I"!