Day 105: Rest Day in Utrecht

Yesterday after breakfast, I left Laura and Koen’s apartment and cycled to downtown Utrecht. The first museum I went into was the Centraal Museum. It had many different types of art, including old paintings, contemporary paintings, sculptures, a wooden ship from the 1200s, and a replica of Dick Bruna’s studio. Dick Bruna was the creator of children books and is famous for creating Miffy. In Leeds, I saw an exhibition about Miffy, but I didn’t know Miffy was created in Utrecht. In fact, the Miffy Museum is across the street from the Centraal Museum.

I spent quite some time inside the Centraal Museum. The tickets to the Miffy Museum were sold out for the day so I couldn’t go in.

After having lunch at a Thai restaurant nearby, I went to the Dom Tower again to walk around. There were so many tourists and it was hard to ride my bike through the crowds.

Koen had told me about Museum Speelklok, which is a museum that has different types of self-playing musical instruments, kind of like music boxes. It was interesting to see.

For my last destination, I cycled to the Rietveld Schröder House. It’s a UNESCO building that was designed by the Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld in the style of De Stijl. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go inside because the tickets were sold out and the museum was closing in a few minutes.

When I came back to the apartment, I was a bit tired. I used the time to decide my route in Europe. I will have just enough time to go to Poland and see my friend Chris before he goes to vacation in Greece. So rather than going south to Switzerland and Italy I will go east from Düsseldorf toward Berlin then Poland. I wish I could stay in Europe longer, but the Schengen visa only allows for a stay of 90 days in a 180 day period. I will have to come back to Europe another time.

When Laura and Koen came back to the apartment we had dinner. Then we decided to take a walk downtown so Laura can show me the wharf by the old canal.

Koen pointed out some really cool murals on the way to downtown, which I had completely missed. I bought ice cream for Koen and myself. Later, I bought Laura and Koen some beer at a bar called ’t Oude Pothuys, which is located in the basement next to the canal wharf. Laura showed me her sculptures on the canals since she works as a sculptor. Her website is https://hf-projects.nl/. She also showed me her studios, one by the old canal and one by the new canal. It was a really nice walk and when we got back home it was close to 11 PM.

I slept until 7:30 this morning. We just had breakfast and I will get ready to head out. It was great having a rest day at Utrecht and staying with Laura and Koen. We got along great!

Today, I’ll be cycling to Arnhem, which will be my last destination in The Netherlands before going to Germany.

Centraal Museum

So intricate!

Gerrit Rietveld chairs

Contemporary paintings

A replica of Dick Bruna’s studio

Part of an exhibition that highlights people with disability. 

A large painting

Look at the details!

Another nice artwork

A wooden ship from the 1200s

Miffy sculptures

The Miffy Museum

Oudegracht, aka the old canal

So many tourists

Dom Tower

Another view of the Dom Tower

Museum Speelklok

Wind-up mechanism for a self-playing music instrument

Fancy clock

Street organ from the early 1900s

Dance organ from 1929

Turret clock with carillon

Rietveld Schröder House

A large mural near Laura and Koen's apartment

The Rietveld Schröder House mural 

Another cool mural

Laura carved this sculpture

The other side of Laura's sculpture

More info about Laura

Laura, Koen, and me at ’t Oude Pothuys

Dom Tower at night

Another sculpture by Laura. This one honors Anna Maria van Schurman.

A sculpture celebrating cycling