Singels, Sloots and Dijks

We took an overnight train from Zurich and Coby and Roelof picked us up from the train station in Utrecht (Netherlands).  We drove back to their home in Lopik and spent the day having a look around Lopik and the nearby town of Ijsselstein, where they lived before moving to Lopik. 

They have a beautiful house which used to be the Mayor’s house.  They used to operate a B&B out of the adjoining house but they stopped running the B&B and sold that part of the house some years ago.

Lopik is surrounded by water.  The river Lek runs close to the town and canals and sloots (little canals) run through the village and intersect the surrounding country side.  This picture is taken from the dijk that overlooks the Lek.  It is not uncommon for land to be 5.5m lower than sea level.

 Sloot running behind their house

 Cheese shop in Issjelstein

 

We were reacquainted with the beautiful aged Dutch farmers’ cheese and, more importantly, the accompanying appelstroop.  Even though Coby had previously assured us that we can buy appelstroop in Australia, we still bought some to bring home.  Coby also introduced us to bitterballen, which are meat filled deep fried croquettes served with mustard.

We discovered that we can speak Dutch!!  Forget sparkling – drink some bubbels! How absolutely fabulous

 Pretty Ijsselstein after sunset

On Tuesday we visited Utrecht.  Utrecht was a Roman Fort and was on the northern most line of the Roman Empire in mainland Europe.  Today it is also a vibrant university town.

 We started with coffee and hot chocolate in this former church

 With Coby’s guidance, we embarked on a combination of sightseeing and shopping

 We did buy some hats at this wonderful hat shop, but not these ones.  The salesman was rather strange (died hair and all that) and just before he popped these hats on our heads, Coby presciently commented that he was about to do something creepy.

The Dutch really do love riding bicycles.  This is one of innumerable photos we took in Utrecht and Amsterdam featuring lots of bikes parked alongside beautiful canals.

The magnificent Utrecht Domtorem.  It was finished in the 14^th century but is no longer connected to the cathedral. In 1674 a massive hurricane force storm destroyed the nave of the cathedral, so today there is a square between the tower and the church. Coby and Roelof booked us all in on a very interesting tour of recently excavated Roman and Medieval ruins beneath the Church.

On Wednesday we drove to Rotterdam, which is quite different from Utrecht or Amsterdam.  It was largely destroyed at the beginning of World War II and today is a real ‘working’ town.

Some of the architecture is amazing.  This market and apartment complex (below) only opened in October last year.

 We loved the colourful interior mural that encircles the market space.  The apartments have windows facing down into the market

 This bridge is nicknamed ‘the swan’.  I think it featured in a prologue of the Tour de France some years back

We liked this juxtaposition of the river, industrial age bridge and uniquely designed office building

Old Rotterdam reflecting against modern Rotterdam

Having more coffee and hot chocolate inside Hotel New York.  Millions of European emigrants left for the new world from the nearby docks.  Roelof had an uncle who worked for the World Bank, who lived all over the world, and he remembers coming as a child to wave him off on his many voyages.