August 14, 2023
Day 25: To Utrecht and back
How to cycle in the city
Utrecht has been on our itinerary wishlist for a while. Bruce has been reading/following all things cycling, especially in Europe, for years, and this city has featured.
The plan is a day trip to the city centre, using a different route for the return. In fact, TL plots three routes: into the city, across the city, and finally, from the outskirts of Utrecht back home to the farm. Last night, I browsed the internet, on my continuing quest to find meaningful off-bike activities when visiting big cities (If I don’t, I feel that riding our bikes and stopping for coffee and cake becomes our whole focus. Nothing wrong with that, Bruce would say, heading straight for a café. . .) and found the Dom Tower.
The Dom in question is St Martin’s Cathedral, which was built in the 1300s, with its tower at 112 metres the tallest church tower in the Netherlands. It’s also famous for being untethered from its mothership after a tornado in 1674 demolished the cathedral’s nave (the bit joining the tower to the rest of the Dom).
On the plus side, the eventual demolition of the nave (200 years after the storm wreaked havoc) created an open space around the cathedral – today’s Domplein – where 21st century first-year university students can frolic, join clubs and be seduced by free caps and tee shirts from big breweries. (There were great clusters of these baby students in the city centre today, many on bikes, others walking, being herded by blue tee-shirted mother ducks barely a year older than their charges.)
Unexpectedly, last night Bruce agreed to join a guided tour to climb the 467 steps of the Dom tower today, so I bought tickets online.
There’s been a real shift in temperature in the last few days. Overnight we were plagued by mosquitoes in our hot bedroom, and this morning dawns fine and clear. We’re on the road by shortly after 9 am, following TL’s lovely scenic route through countryside and small villages.
One of these, Montfoort, even offers a coffee stop. It’s a bakery with a remarkable range of highly engineered and colourful sweet treats. We’re not tempted though and stick with coffee and raisin bun. Our route follows a canal for a while. This one is the Hollandsche IJssel, a busy one.
We eventually break away and head north-west to the western outskirts of Utrecht. We turn east onto another wide canal and immediately notice the quality of our cycle path. It’s a wide and straight two-lane delight and continues this way as we approach the city.
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So, yes, it could well be naiads washing their hair 😎
8 months ago
There’s no chopping and changing of widths, levels or textures as in the French and German cities we have whizzed through. Just a red-paved, clearly painted two-lane highway. In the old town, as in so many European cities now, there’s no motorised traffic – and it’s remarkably quiet.
We reach the Domplein in time for an early lunch (it’s not all about the food, really – we just need sustenance for the 467 steps) and people-watching. There’s also time to look into the old Dom itself and then to stroll quickly around the gardens separating the church from the old university buildings.
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Our tour begins at 1pm. Having ascertained that half of the group can’t understand the other half, the guide announces she will deliver her commentary in both Dutch and English. What comes next is pretty obvious: we climb stairs, lots of them, and becoming increasingly narrow and steep as we ascend. About now, I’m wondering if Bruce’s choice of shoes is a wise one. I think he is too. He’s wearing his SPD cleats, which are generally ok to walk in – but a 700-year-old medieval staircase may well be outside of spec.
Did I mention the Dom tower is currently encased in plastic wrapping and scaffolding? And the view from the top – we see Amsterdam! – is also filtered through scaffolding. So we’re doing this climb . . .just because it’s there?
The 21st century city,when we emerge from the cool tower, is hotting up. It's several degrees warmer and there's enough loud music from the orientation event to encourage us to leave.
As we approach the railway station, there's signage for the world's largest (we think) bicycle parking building. We follow the arrows and ride through, letting the man in charge know we are not stopping to park. It's mind-blowing. There's room for 12,500 bikes in just this building, with a total central city capacity of 22,000. Twenty-two thousand!
It takes a long time to ride through Utrecht's southern suburbs before we find ourselves in farmland again. But, just like this morning, it's easy riding.
Utrecht seems to have got a few things right when planning for cycles. Storage obviously. Cycle paths are modern, safe and well-connected. Street signs remind motorists, when necessary, of their lowly place in the transport hierarchy. And generally, things seem to run like clockwork .
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There are some surprises today. Motor scooters are treated like bikes, which is fair enough given their footprint on the road. We're used to them coming up noisily alongside us in bike lanes now. But we're taken aback while waiting for the lift to whizz us up to the rail overpass. The lift door opens and a scooter charges out at full revs, quickly disappearing out of sight.
And later, closer to home, as we're about to turn left across the shared cycle lane and over a bridge to reach a supermarket, a car passes us from the other way. It’s so quick but we both realise we're wet. The road is dry. We haven't fallen into the canal. We've been sprayed by the car driver. It's water, hopefully, but this is so unexpected. Especially in the Netherlands!
Surprises aside, today's outing to Utrecht was another really enjoyable ride. Probably the best of the tour, we agree. Tomorrow is our last day in this wonderfully flat, cycle-friendly nation. And we have a ferry to catch.
Today's ride: 68 km (42 miles)
Total: 1,297 km (805 miles)
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