Volume 2, Day 33
After a fairly chill weekend (in which I guess I did some “touristy” stuff), it was time to start gearing back up to travel around. C had a mega long class on Monday and would be out all day, so I was left to my own devices. It was suggested that I catch a train east to see the medieval town of Utrecht. I didn’t really trust myself not to be lazy if I stuck around Leiden, so I decided to do that. I still had a leisurely morning reading and only headed over to the train station at 10 am. Luckily for me, there was a much closer train station on the east/west line which I could walk to in about five minutes (as opposed to 20).
Station might be a bit of a misnomer as it was much more of a single platform with no roof or control gates. One had to be careful to “check in” to the train by tapping the OV card against a reader. I pondered for a while if it was possible to “forget” or if there was an honor system in place. Well, the Dutch are either untrusting or untrustworthy because the train conductor vigilantly checked every person who stepped onto the train.
It was a fairly long journey to Utrecht, and I worked vigorously on my computer during the ride. The trains in the Netherlands have Wi-Fi, which is nice, but of the quality one would expect for a moving train.
I pulled into Utrecht’s massive central station and I had no idea what my plan was. Though I have a collection of travel guides, I don’t have one specifically for the Netherlands and the regional section in a Europe-wide book only covers Amsterdam, The Hague, etc. There was a tourist information desk at the station, but after a brief pause, I decided I didn’t really care to inquire as to what there was to do. It was Monday anyways, so all the museums would be closed. I would just wander around the old town and see what I stumbled across.
Based on my walking around, it appears the highlights of Utrecht include its canals, which are “deep” compared to the other canals one sees in the Netherlands. The water is below street level, so on the main canals there are stairs down to the water level embankments which host restaurants and cafes. The other highlight is the cathedral (also called Dom in Dutch, though obviously Protestant). The tower was scaffolded up for renovation and I didn’t want to 15 euros to go up. It seems the cathedral was either damaged or unfinished because the tower was separate from the main body of the church. I stuck my head inside the massive church, but it was completely stripped of any decoration or ornamentation. How boring. A third highlight would be that Utrecht is the birthplace of “Miffi,” a Hello Kitty like bunny figure. Even if the museum wasn’t closed, I would have still passed.
The sky was mostly cloudy. Though the sun broke through at times, it also looked like it could rain at any moment. I’m really surprised at the chilliness of the weather. Since Hamburg, the highs have barely gotten into the 20s (under 70 Fahrenheit).
After a loop around town, my stomach was starting to growl, so when I returned to the most bustling section I grabbed a slice of a bread pizza from a popular streetside establishment. I specifically ate just a bite because I was thinking about some sort of pastry or ice cream later on. I found a cafe in the student area near the university and sat there for a while reading and working on my computer. The third time they came around asking if I wanted “something to drink” (what a difference the word “else” can make), I got the hint and cleared out. Mind you, when I entered the cafe there were only two customers and both of them were working on laptops. Since I only had a (watery) chai latte at the cafe, I could still get a “proper” dessert. After careful research of the dozens of ice cream shops around, I picked one and enjoyed a cone of chocolate and pistachio.
After a bit more aimless rambling, I noticed it was time to head back to the train station (where there was only one train to Leiden every half hour). I needed to load more money on the OV card and had spent the day paying for everything with paper money in order to amass a collection of coins. I plugged enough coins into the machine to bring the card balance up to 20 so I could get on the train.
C was home from class by the time I got back. We were both pretty exhausted and at a loss for what to do. When C suggested we go out for dinner, I reminded her that we had leftovers in the fridge. Boredom more than hunger prompted us to reheat/refresh the food for dinner. After we finished eating, C got a message from her boyfriend that he was coming over. Whoops, we could have waited for him and done something different with the available food.
Instead of a puzzle, the quiet evening at home involved Legos. A puzzle would have been easier because at least all the right pieces are together in one box, unlike Legos in which a dozen sets are divided at random into a handful of plastic containers. Its been 20 years since I really played with Legos, but other than triggering happy memories, it was more like a chore to spend minutes at a time rooting around for a particular piece.
| Pizza | 2 |
| Chai Latte | 3.5 |
| Ice cream (2 scoops) | 2.5 |
| OV topup (roundtrip = 19.6) | 7.2 |
| Beer | 2.2 |
| Total: | 17.4 EUR (135.7 RMB) (USD 19.71) |
Running Total: 11901.9 RMB (USD 1728.81)
Daily Average: 360.7 RMB (USD 52.39)