| In Utrecht you will have to climb the Dom tower. Highest (112,32 meters) building in the city center. It is forbidden by law to build taller buildings. The view is brilliant!!
The city center, which goes back about 5/600 years (the Romans started it all when they built a castellum in 46 AD), is a sight on its own. A canal (Oude Gracht / Old Canal) runs through the city with wharfs alongside (which is unique in the Netherlands) where there are many restaurants now.
The main train station is in the city center. Here you can take a vintage train to the Dutch Railway museum which recently has been renovated and is top notch!
Terraces on "De Neude" (where you should pop in the thirties' style postoffice too). Where you can relax, drink a beer and do some people spotting.
And of course there are the Dutch treats like prostitution (on three main -sad, sadder, saddest- locations) and drugs. To some these are sights... I live close to the saddest prostitution site. Here the junkies offer their services which is sad in itself but even sadder is the line of cars with potential customers. And drugs, well, alcohol is a drug too, causing more social and personal problems than all other drugs combined...
Hmz... I am not selling Utrecht very well, so the tip here is: don't go there!!
We don't have huge cities over here and Utrecht is the Netherlands' fourth city with a population less than 300.000. In my eyes that's quite big but Utrecht does not have a "big city atmosphere" like Amsterdam, Rotterdam or The Hague have. Very, very, pleasant! |
LOL. And it started off so well.
I traveled quite a bit in the last ten years, and for a business traveler who isn't afforded much free time the local tip is coveted info. I regret not having logged more of this info for future reference. A good friend of mine is building a website that people can contribute their insider info, and it's been in my head ever since we spoke about it. I just thought I'd see what you fellas had to say. Plus, it just makes for an entertaining read.