Monday September 2nd
It’s hard to believe that we’ve already been in the Netherlands for over a week, but the time has flown by, and here we are. Today we left Edwin’s place and continue to explore the country on our own. Our destination for today was the city of Utrecht, with a plan to take out time and explore. We were stopping at a smaller city called Zwolle along the way, as I had seen that they have some amazing architecture to explore.
On the road heading out from Sellingen, there was an original windmill, set-up in a small park. We had driven by it a few times during our stay.
As we were leaving for the last time, it seemed like we should stop and have a look. It was in really good shape, and nice to walk around the little park.
The map of our trip today. We did not go back to Meppen - I left that there to show our side trip from a few days ago.
We were up pretty early, packed and ready to go by about 9:00. Edwin and Carolien were packing as well, to take their caravan for a couple of weeks camping in Germany. It had been an amazing visit with them, and we were sad for it to come to an end. They saw us off, and we were on our way.
Our next stop was in Utrecht, about 2 1/2 hours away. Rather than going straight there, we decided to make a stop in Zwolle, a small town pretty much directly along the way to Utrecht. The drive generally went very smoothly. We were in more traffic than we had seen up to this point but still the roads were really easy and we were able to get to Zwolle in about an hour. We managed to find a parking garage right on the outside edge of the old town.
The reason we wanted to see the city was because it still had sections of intact old city walls around the outside of the old town. One gate in particular was supposed to be quite stunning. It was very quiet when we arrived, as most of the shops were actually still closed. It looked like most things did not open until 11 a.m. or maybe even noon. As a result, the streets were very quiet and empty as we wandered, checking out the old town.
The best preserved section of the old city walls around Zwolle.
In Zwolle, archaeological findings indicate that the area has been inhabited for a long time. A woodhenge that was found in the Zwolle-Zuid suburb in 1993 was dated to the Bronze Age period. During the Roman era, the area was inhabited by Salian Franks.
The modern city was founded around 800 CE by Frisian merchants and troops of Charlemagne. Previous spellings of its name include the identically pronounced Suolle, which means "hill". This refers to an incline in the landscape between the four rivers surrounding the city, IJssel, Vecht, Aa and Zwarte Water. The hill was the only piece of land that would remain dry during the frequent flooding of the rivers. Zwolle was established on that incline.
Our first stop was at the old city gate and it lived up to expectations - it was pretty spectacular. We spent a little time, checking it out and taking some photographs and then just randomly wandered the streets of the old town. We ended up finding a number of sections of old walls as we walked around. Not surprisingly, the old sections of the walls were generally along the canals. After a couple of hours of wandering, we eventually tried to get some lunch in the main Square in the centre of the old town.
It was quite strange as there was an environmental protest happening in the square at the same time. So we sat and watched for a little bit. It seemed to be a number of people protesting climate change. They were generally a group of older people, and for the protest they ended up lying in the centre of the square as if they were dead. It was a little bit weird.
The main town center. We were trying to have lunch in the restaurant in the old church, but we got interrupted by the protest and decided to move on.
The original restaurant didn’t really seem great so we actually backtracked and traced our path back to another restaurant we had seen as we were wondering. This one ended up being quite good and we spent an hour or so having lunch and enjoying the sunshine. After lunch, we wandered back to our car and continued on our trip to Utrecht.
The drive to Utrecht was pretty easy as well. There was a lot more traffic, but we still made good time. Our accommodation was actually in a residential area outside of the city center. I think I selected it because it looked interesting and because it was one of the few available on the sites, but it wasn’t walking distance into the old town. That was a shame, as it meant that we ended up having to drive into the city center to explore.
The main house at our AirBnB. We were not staying in the house, but in the carriage house next to it. Still, it is a pretty beautiful home.
The owners made us feel welcome, right from the beginning.
The house that the apartment is part of is absolutely spectacular and our unit was actually quite fun and well set up for us to spend a few days here. But it wasn’t close to the centre of town so we actually drove back into the old city to spend the afternoon wandering. Again, I managed to find a parking garage kind of at the edge of the old city, which worked well for us. We parked the car and wandered out and very quickly found the famous canals that run through the city.
This was the main reason why we were here and so we slowly started meandering down along the edge of the canals. These canals are a little bit different, as they actually have two levels. There’s the main upper street level and then there’s a lower level right at the water’s edge. On this lower level, many of the restaurants open up directly to the canals and have seating along the water. It was still way too early for thinking about dinner so we wandered down the street along the edge of the canals, popping into various shops as we went along. Mackenzie found some gifts to take back home, and surprisingly I did as well. It was just a lovely afternoon. One of the things we wanted to see while we’re in Utrecht is the Dom Tower. We had booked tickets for it on Tuesday, but we wanted to see where it was.
The tower itself is spectacular as is the church that it used to be attached to. We’ll find out more about it tomorrow.
We continue wandering for a little while before, deciding on a restaurant along the canal to have dinner at. We ended up making a very good choice! It was hard to decide what was cooler sitting out on the patio right along the canal or actually sitting inside. While that might seem obvious (canal front…) the insides were spectacular, as they are set inside old underground tunnels under the street. Honestly, think the inside was probably more interesting.
Inside the tunnels that line the canals. They go surprisingly deep.
That said, we did decide to sit outside, which was nice as it was a beautiful day, and we had a great meal. I had a couple of beers, and we enjoyed watching thee various tour boats go back and forth along the canal. It had been a pretty long day for all of us and so we decided to call it a day and head back to the apartment.
I had noted that the casino here in Utrecht actually has a poker room, so I decided that I’d head over there and see how the game was.
Mom and Mackenzie seemed happy to hang out at the apartment and head to bed, and I decided to check out the action. I arrived around 8 o’clock and unfortunately a tournament had just started so there was no game to be had right away. So I sat in the sports bar and oddly enough watched a baseball game while I was waiting for a table to open up.
The wait was longer than I would’ve liked. It took over two hours and I didn’t start playing until almost 11 p.m. But it ended up being worth the wait. I got a lot of great hands, and I played really well and ended up making quite a bit of money on the night. So that was a great way to start our time in Utrecht today .