Utrecht… a lovely city

We visited Utrecht last month and we had a wonderful day there; as we approached the city it seemed  modern and almost futuristic, towering buildings with contemporary architecture, a splendid tram system, bypasses and flyovers, traffic moving swiftly round the ring road.

In the centre of Utrecht is a delightful network of tiny old streets, threading their way around the course of the ancient canal, the Oudegracht, which is lined with terraces where restaurants and cafés are full of people, who, on the day we were there, were enjoying some glorious sunshine.

People have lived in the area, on the banks of the River Rhine for millennia, and there was a Roman fort nearby constructed as part of the Roman defence system against the Germanic tribes. The fort and the small town which grew up round it was called Traiectum, which became Trecht, which became Utrecht. The city is dominated by the Dom Tower, part of the Dom Church, St Martin’s Cathedral,  which suffered a major catastrophe when a tornado struck it in the seventeenth century. Now the tower and the main body of the cathedral are separated, but what a magnificent building it must have been when complete.

We spent a very pleasant couple of hours walking round, admiring the city and enjoying the bustle and business of it all; Utrecht is a university city so there were crowds of smiling young people, hoards of bicycles, and crowds of tourists wandering around.

We found a nice café near the Oudegracht, sat outside in the sunshine and enjoyed a  great meal with a couple of beers. It was so pleasant to sit and watch the world go by in such an attractive and interesting place.