clog blog: Exploring Utrecht

This weekend we headed to Utrecht for a day of exploring on Saturday and to Ikea in Delft to pick out a new piece of furniture!

Firstly, Saturday morning saw us in the bank for some admin. We wanted to apply for a credit card linked to Justin’s account. They wouldn’t give us one when we opened the account because they wanted a payslip. Now that he has two we are hoping our chances will be better, will have to wait and see. We also found out about insurance.

In SA you wouldn’t go to your bank for household insurance but here they seem to do it all in but the insurance seems to work differently. There are two main types of insurance, basic and all risk. Basic covers things that come from outside e.g. fire, flood and theft and all risk covers things that come from outside but also accidents that can happen on the inside. We had to get all risk because otherwise our bicycles standing in the foyer downstairs would not be covered, which is a bit strange. Also, our goods are only covered when they are in the house. So when our bicycles are in the city they are not covered ditto with laptop etc. which I find quite strange. In SA your laptop is covered whether it is at home or in the boot of your car or on your back etc. So not sure how we should insure our things for when they are not at home. You can take out separate insurance for a bicycle to cover it wherever it is but it just seems a little strange. Anyway. We now have all risk insurance and third party insurance for ourselves.

After bank admin we headed to Utrecht to explore! From the main train station we headed through the city centre and shopping area in the direction of the Domkerk or Cathedral. In the Domplein, or church square, there was some kind of celebrations on the go. We are not quite sure what it was all about but it might have been linked with the 375th birthday of Utrecht University. There were horse and carriages of all shapes and sizes in the plein and people wearing traditional style clothes. There was also live music giving it a festive air.

Bron popped her head into the Dom while Justin soaked up the atmosphere in the square and took photo’s. The Dom is quite a large church with almost gothic arches and only a few stained glass windows. Decoration of the church is minimalistic but tasteful and elegant. I really liked this church. The Domtoren and the Dom are separated since the nave connecting them was destroyed by a hurricane in 1674 and the Domtoren has stood on its own ever since.

There are quite a few canals in Utrecht but not as many as in Amsterdam. We took a walk down the nieuwegracht, round passed the 19th century observatory called Sonnenborgh, passed the almshouses, and up the oude gracht back to the Dom and the city centre. The horse drawn carriages passed by when we were walking down the nieuwegracht conjuring romantic images of the old Utrecht. We also passed the Dick Bruna House Museum. He created the favourite Dutch children’s character, the rabbit called Miffy. We didn’t go into any of the many museums in Utrecht but rather focussed on exploring the town.

Utrecht is a beautiful old student town. The city has a different feel to it than Rotterdam. It feels very vibey, kind of like Amsterdam, but it is way more relaxed than Amsterdam. All in all it was a great day out and we look forward to visiting Utrecht again, hopefully on a sunny day!

Justin’s cricket game was cancelled this week so we had Sunday to ourselves this weekend which was nice. After church we headed to the Ikea in Delft to finally pick out a cd rack/display cabinet/TV stand. The Ikea is designed as different rooms in a house to display the available products and give decorating ideas. There are also sections like kitchen ware, storage units from cabinets to plastic boxes, lighting etc. Most of the products are also mix n match so you can design your own final product to suit your storage requirements and available space. We had fun putting together our own cabinet with two doors, two drawers, glass shelves and top lighting. The cabinet is also low enough to fit in our apartment with the skew walls, lol, and to function as a TV stand when Justin finally gets his dream flat screen TV ;~) We had fun collecting the bits n pieces for our cabinet in the self-help section of the storehouse and also picked up another square bookshelf like the two we had bought before. And then we arranged for all 80 kg to be delivered to our place tomorrow. Will post pics when it is all assembled! =)

We have also enjoyed trying out the different Swedish food treats available at Ikea. Favourites include Swedish flat bread, chocolate Daim and salmon! This week we picked out a few different goodies to try such as biscuits, puddings, roasted onion and crackers.

And so concludes the weekend. All members of the maritime division of Justin’s company convene at the main office in Nijmegen twice a year for a group business meeting and dinner. The first one for this year is on Tuesday this week. Other plans are cricket on Thursday and/or Sunday. Otherwise no fixed plans for the week, other than finding a job ;~)

Thursday this week is Ascension Day so it is a public holiday and Justin’s office takes forced leave on Friday (because apparently it is easier that way) so we have a long weekend next weekend. Pentecost later in June is also a public holiday and so is the Monday, second Pentecost day. Interesting that Ascension Day and Pentecost are public holidays here but not Good Friday. Weird. Ideas for the long weekend include exploring The Hague, going to the beach either at Hellevoetsluis or Hoek van Holland and cycling along the canal from our house to Schiedam.

Hope you are all well and had a good weekend! Please leave us comments, we love hearing from you!!