Utrecht and Den Haag



We hit the road again this time crossing yet another country border into The Netherlands or Holland.

First stop was the university city of Utrecht and sadly I was very disappointed not to see any windmills along the way.

The weather was still wet and windy when we arrived although possibly improved from the misery of Antwerp yesterday. Rather than a constant flow of rain it was more on/off in showers.

En-route to the city centre we soon discovered it was the equivalent of O-week for Dutch Uni students ( as well as heaps of international students mainly with US or UK accents). They were everywhere and we were kept  entertained for half an hour while we were eating lunch by a group conducting a skipping relay race around one of the churches.



The canals of Utericht



other thing we rapidly discovered was the law of the cyclist – basically they have right of way no matter where they go and on what road they are on (sometimes footpaths double as roads too). There looked to be more bikes than people in the city which had an excellent system of bike lanes with their own traffic light signals separate to those for cars and pedestrians.

But back to the city of Utrecht itself. It was another of the city but feels like a small, cute town kind of places we love. The whole place was divided by small canals, most of the railings and edges were COVERED in bikes – surprise, surprise.

Bike anyone?

...or maybe some clogs, after all we are in Holland

We walked to the Hoog Catharijine – a massive shopping centre where you could easily get lost, as it doesn’t run in straight lines with cross ways like our shopping centres do at home. We literally felt like Hansel and Gretal picking our landmarks to remember our way back out again. After a bit more exploring , and some clog admiring (Dave is convinced they are stupid shoes and no one in their right mind would buy or wear them), we stopped in at a local cafe (yes, just a cafe) for some hot chocolates (aka warm chokolade melks) to warm us u for the journey to the camground at Den Haag (The Hague).

Rainy cold weather = hot chocolate time!

some more of Utericht



We had planned to go to a campground right near the beach but when we discovered it was 36€ per night on a small carpark with no power (there was free wifi though) we decided it was time to move on. And so we came to Caming Duinhorst - 21€ per night also including internet!

Overnight we had some very heavy rain but te next day we woke to more settled weather, although it was still very overcast. He last 2 days and nights are probably the coldest we have had so far with 15⁰C maximums and wind-chills of 10-12⁰C – brrrrrr. We are told the weather will improve on Saturday when we are in Amsterdam – YAY!

This morning’s start involved wifi use – blog  skype before we could set off and explore Den Haag – which means “the counts hedge” (impressed?) This place is the seat of the Dutch government as well as the home of the Dutch Royal Family, even though the capital of Holland is Amsterdam. As well as this the Hague is home to almost all International peace and justice organisations as well as the Peace Palace with the Permanent Court of Arbitration – International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court – Heavy.

Avenue of flags Den Haag



Theres the Aussie flag

But being summer (allegedly at least) we just wanted to see the beach. The Hague’s famous beach at Scheveningen is usually filled on a summers day, however we found it quite deserted, and well – miserable. In an attempt to get some photos of the beach and port we scrambled through the dunes along a beach track and got a couple of lousy photos huddled in the misty-heavy rain.

Perfect day at the beach in Holland

With all the wind this took us about 5 takes to get a decent shot

a cute little market we ran into randomly

We came back towards the main part of the city to see a few more of the sights. The Binnenhof Church where we saw a bride and groom release doves after their wedding and the shopping along and near the Grote Markt Strat

We skipped getting some Dutch culture at the Mauritshall but just in case you’re wondering its the Dutch museum that houses Vermeer’s Girl with a earl Earring (the Dutch Mona Lisa).

Streets of the Haag

Sheltering from the rain

Another random wedding - think either the bride or groom was a cop as there were heaps around

Instead we opted for Dutch Pancakes at an underground pancake parlour and feasted on pancake with banana and vanilla and chocolate icecream (weird choice ice-cream given the weather we were experiencing but it seemed logical at the time).

We wandered around a little more before heading off once again for our next adventures in Amsterdam!

Waiting for Pancakes!

The Passage - famous shopping arcade of Den Hague

Was so disappointed that this is what the Dutch ( as well as the Belgians and Germans call windmills :(

The only "real" windmill we saw the entire trip

Antwerp

Day 1
Our journey was now taking us to our final Belgian city – Antwerp.

A 90km trip along a semi-highway dotted by traffic lights later we arrived at Camping DeMolen on the Linkerover (left bank of the river) and checked in for a bargain 8€ per night!

Wooden escalators leading down, down, down...



The tunnel under the river

 After lunch we headed on foot towards the city. Access from this side of the river was via the Saint Anna Tunnel – a 570m long tunnel under the river Scheldt dug in the 1930’s. To access the tunnel (which was free) walkers and cyclists descend 31m underground either via lift or via giant wooden escalators. It was a fantastic sight in itself. The tunnel popped us up right near the Grote Markt – similar to that in Brussels surrounded on all 4 sides by grand guild halls. Quite a sight to behold even thought the weather was miserable.

We wandered further into the city in order to find a waffle – it was waffle day again. And had 2 from Desire Lille with whipped cream, strawberries, banana and not quite enough chocolate for our liking.

Afterwards we made our way back to the campground in the wild wind to cook some dinner (difficult when the gas burner keeps being blown out) and some Grimbergen beers.

Day 2

Our last day in Belgium and it was wet and windy not much fun AT ALL.

We waited for a break in the weather and walked once again via the St Anna Tunnel into the city centre.

Grote Markt

Antwerp Train Station

It was quite difficult to keep ourselves entertained and dry in the weather as it times it was so windy that you were getting wet from every direction so we made our way to the Grand Bazar (a 3 level shopping centre) which before i could get too excited we sadly found was under renovations so lots of shops were closed and hard to access. It was kind of a weird little place anyway.

What we did find was a nice little sandwich store where we tried a roll filled with smos (when asked we were told this was a “combination of wegdables”) and chicken – quite tasty and only 3€50 for both serves.

We had decided that summer was looking more and more over and that i would need closed in shoes suitable for walking (still recovering from blisters from ballet flats in Brussels) and so we went shoe shopping down the National Staat – main shopping street of Antwerp. This street also has the Momu Fashion museum (Dave wouldn’t agree to go to it L) as Antwerp is considered a bit of a fashion savvy place.

Shoe shopping in Antwerp (ps didnt get these leopard print beauties)

With mission accomplished we arrived at the central train station – very impressive for a transit centre we thought.

We headed back towards the city’s main cathedral (Onze Lieve Vrouwkathedral) which provided some relief from the wind and rain and housed paintings from Peter Paul Rubins – northern Europes famous Baroque artist.

Nearby in the Groen Platz (another town square) we soaked up some time in one of the cafes sipping hot chocolates – perfect for the weather although we had to put up with copious amounts of cigarette smokers.

Braving the rain for a pic

By this time it was 5:30pm and time to look for an early dinner. We were rewarded with great food at De 7 Shaken, Dave having yet another Flemish Stew this time beef and I had chicken and pesto pasta. To wash it down we added another 2 beers of Belgium to the collection – Krystal and Le Chouffe.

Cheers toBelgian beers

Oh no, all i have for dinner is a few lousy pieces of meat

Oh...its ok some Belgian Frits and a whole massive pot of stew (not in the pic)

Once we walked back in the rain to the camp ground we found Don and Sandy (Aussies from Brugges) had arrived too. We had a short catchup at the washup area before heading back to the dry van.