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  • Day 90

    Utrecht for the Weekend

    August 4, 2018 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Nancy and I pedaled to Utrecht for the weekend. Nice 60 mile round trip. We passed lettuce and cactus nurseries along the way. Plenty of empty dry canals as well. The drought is really taking its toll. The path along the river Vecht to the north of the city is just gorgeous. Castles, mansions, quaint farmhouses and windmills the whole way. The green along the river lasts until the final two or three kilometers before the center of the city. Lovely ride.

    Utrecht is a very pleasant small city to the southeast of Amsterdam. Canals run through the center. The city doesn't share many of the edgy characteristics of Amsterdam, but we did run across a few oddities. The railroad building has a UFO stuck to its side. No one could tell us the reason for this. We also ran across the gestolen steen (stolen boulder) which is chained to the corner of a building. Wikipedia states that "This boulder appears to be mentioned for the first time under this heading in a charter from 1520. [1] De Gesloten Steen is credited with acting as a chimpanzee." [1] I'm still unsure of what this is referring to. Dutch humor perhaps.

    A primary reason for our trip involved a story that Grace had shared about having a penpal in Utrecht when she was a teenager. She remembered the street name 'Johan DeWittstraat' and the number seven. We found the street, just a block long, with a mere 10 address numbers. It was pretty strange standing in front the home, looking up at the windows, and imagining a 16 year old lad sitting in there writing letters to Grace Stuckey of Alliance, Ohio back in 1946/47.

    Saturday afternoon we wandered the city with Augie. We loosely followed an architectural tour that we'd sourced online. Lots of buildings dating back to the 1200s. We ended our tour at tge Dom Cathedral where we took in an organ concert.

    Nancy and I enjoyed two delicious dinners over the weekend. Both were right by the canal. The first sharing a pizza loaded with gorgonzola and accompanied by a hearty shot of Jack Daniels and the second with friends Sjoerd, Marta, and Rene followed by ice cream. Augie joined us too.

    Life is pretty good these days...
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