cake and dom tower
This weekend, my friend Lisa came over from England to visit. She arrived about 11am, and we left her suitcase in a locker at the station and went to find some food. Utrecht has a market on some weekends, and this time, it was a fish market. Vaguely regretting that I didn't have the opportunity to buy a whole bunch of fish to take home (bunch? Schoal? What is the collective noun for them, once they're dead?), we got some fried fish from a stall and I showed Lisa round a bit. We could only get tickets for the last trip up the Dom tower (which actually worked out very well) and so we decided to get some cake.
The cake was absolutely amazing; we got it in a cake shop just off the Oudegraacht and it's the same stuff that they have in the centraal museum.
The weather is still really pleasant, and Utrecht is a great city to go for a walk in. The museum quarter is really pretty; the leaves have finally turned properly and away from the bustle and terrifying bicycles of the oudegraacht, the niewgraacht is just as pretty and lined with houses rather than shops. Utrecht is definately a good city for just wandering in, and we got happily lost until we decided that it was probably about time to find somewhere for a small beer. My usual place I go for a quiet beer was a little noisy - Amnesty International were holding an anti racism rally, which may well have been great and interesting, but it was also in Dutch - so we decided that we'd go to a different bar on the oudegraacht.
The Dom tour was well worth the effort. I'm going to write a separate review, but I'll try and keep it business like and leave all the exclamation marks here. The view is stunning! You genuinely can see Amsterdam on one horizon and Rotterdam on the other. The last part of the climb - it's about 500 steps but the guide stops regularly to tell you about the history of the tower and the church - is up inside one of the lacy pillars above the bells, to a height of 97m, just below the top. The sun was just beginning to go down and the sky was starting to colour, a group of hot air balloons were drifting along the horizon, and most of the Netherlands was stretched out underneath us.
We had dinner in a Spanish Restaurant on the canalside, which was excellent, and then went off to find a bar. Our first few attempts weren't terribly successful, but after a while we drifted back towards the square where Amnesty had been rallying earlier. One of the bars there seemed quite busy, and had bouncers which is usually a sign that they are at least expecting a few people to come, so we went in there. After South Africa beat England at rugby ( :( and we sort of deserved it, too), and the music came on, it turned out that this was exactly the sort of bar that Lisa and I had been hoping to find. The music ranged from old school pop end of dance to Phil Collins, everyone danced and tripped over each other and paid no attention to being cool, and we had an amazing night. We left quite early - about 12.30 - because we didn't want to get up too late on Sunday and because we've both had enough bad nights in clubs to know the importance of leaving whilst you're still having fun. Of course, getting up on Sunday was looking like being a bit of a challenge...
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
Café Beurs was in bar mode after that. Our spirits and mixers came in at about 5€ each; this is the first time I've had spirits in the Netherlands, so I don't know if that's expensive here, but it's about what I'd expect to pay for a double back home and there was no cover charge on the bar, so I was happy with that.
There was a small area being used as a dance floor and the mix was eclectic pop - everything from Phil Collins and Meatloaf to More modern dance stuff - so this isn't the sort of place you'd come if you had any sort of desire to be cool. But everyone was friendly, the atmosphere was fun, and I like dancing to Meatloaf. I had an really, really good night.
I've also come here in the daytime and had a beer outside on the pavement cafe bit - 2-3€ for a beer, good service for a pavement café.
Service was a little on the confused side, but I think that was more due to the fact that my Dutch is so bad rather than it being their fault. The waitress did need a couple of reminders to bring the dessert menu, but it's not like we were in any sort of a hurry so I didn't think it was a problem. The food was excellent; we had chicken in a cream sauce, prawns, bread, little sausages, meatballs, patatas bravas, fries (chips), roast vegetables, and it was all excellent. The sauces in particular were really good. The house white wine was really nice too.
This is a good place to eat, although not if you've arranged to meet people afterwards.
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The Dom tower is very old, and very beautiful. It was built in the fourteenth century, and survived the storm that destroyed much of the rest of the cathedral because it weas built of better materials and because the open stonework at the top allowed the storm to pass through the tower instead of pushing on the stone. There are two sets of bells, the original mediaval bells that are only used on special occasions, the largest of which, the "saviour" bell, weighs over 8 metric tons, and the lighter, slightly newer carrilon that is used all the time. You see both on the tour.
The steps are very narrow, and although the guide stops frequently to explain things, the tour really isn't suitable for anyone with mobility difficulties or any sort of fear of steep, narrow staircases.
The final part of the climb takes you up the narrow staircase inside one of the pillars above the carillon; I was amazed, because it really didn't look wide enough to climb. The view is stunning, although again, no good if you're at all nervous of heights. On a clear day (we were lucky) you can see Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and the guide was quite happy to take my photo.
Highly recommended.
|
|
|
|||
|
|
