After breakfast this morning, we left our dear friends in Stockholm and flew back to Amsterdam. We all agreed that Stockholm was very beautiful and peaceful. I'll have to return again soon!
Once we landed at Schiphol, we took a bus to a train station next to the soccer stadium where the Dutch national team plays.
The train ride only took about 20 minutes or so, but it was cool that there was wifi available on the train!
Once in Utrecht, we took another bus to May's place.
Her place is on the honors campus of the University College Utrecht and is housed in a former army base, which you can see in its design.
By the time we dropped off our bags, it was already almost 2:30, so we were pretty hungry. We decided to walk back into town to grab food, but of course I found good photos to take along the way.
I was so hungry I did not take a picture of my dürüm döner, but I took a bunch more photos as May showed us her home city for the past year.
We headed for the Domkerk Utrecht, which is the main church/cathedral in Utecht. The area where it is looks very old town-y and quaint. I can see why May likes it so much.
The Domkerk itself is actually split in two with the tower separated from the rest of the church. We'll learn more about why that is when we actually get to go in tomorrow. But I got plenty of cool pictures from the outside.
Although we were not able to go into the Domkerk today, we were able to visit its cloisters.
Next to the Domkerk was the Academiegebouw, which is notable because it's where the Treaty of Utrecht was signed. The treaty united several provinces together into what is the Netherlands today.
In the square outside the Domkerk, there was a wooden box-like installation. We looked closer and discovered it was an exhibit commemorating the 70th anniversary of Utrecht's liberation from Nazi occupation.
I thought that, albeit simple, the exhibit did a good job of sharing the history while also posing questions to make the viewer think critically about what they were looking at. For example, this photo shows a man celebrating liberation in his own way -- by cutting down a German sign while others were cheering throughout the city.
Anyway, from there, we continued walking through the city and came across the Oudegracht, which means the "old canal." The streets and surrounding area are really charming.
The Oudegracht is quite picturesque.
Even though we were still stuffed from our döners, we stopped by a little cafe along the Oudegracht for appelbollen (basically, apple balls) and tea. Delicious.
Utrecht will be the starting point of this year's Tour de France, so there are various signs and advertisements everywhere.
We ran into an Irish busker who goes by Just Tom. He was pretty good.
May continued taking us on a fine tour of Utecht, so here's the photo evidence.
Here's May in her natural habitat. Haha.
We were starting to get tired and wanted to buy groceries for tomorrow's breakfast, so I threw a wrench into May's plans by suggesting not going out for dinner (since I was still stuffed to the brim). So we bought groceries at the supermarket and headed home. I cooked up some beef and broccoli over rice, because May was feeling deprived of home cooked Chinese food. Jk (maybe). Took a while since they only have a hot plate.
Turned out alright, though.
Tomorrow is Mom and my last full day here, so we will be visiting The Hague and seeing a bit more of Utrecht. Overall, it's been a great trip so far!
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