Besides watching the Dutch ring in the Christmas season in black face, Jackie and I spent the weekend exploring a couple more cities in the Netherlands, Utrecht and Amersfoort. 

Utrecht City is located 30 minutes southeast of Amsterdam and is known for having the largest college population in the country at 40,000 students (out of 300,000) and split-level canals.   In Amsterdam merchants would take their wares off barges and hoist them to the top levels of their homes, which acted as warehouses, while in Utrecht the wares were taken off the barges and stored in the lower level of homes and under the street system. 

One of the more fascinating sites in Utrecht is the Domtoren, a church bell tower that stands on one side of a square while the church is on the other.  This was not a design plan but was caused by the central part of the church collapsing in 1674 due to North Sea winds reaching hurricane force.

The day got quite cold so we wrapped things up early, but we will have to return as there is a 1920’s modern home that has been designated a Unesco World Heritage building, more interesting to me it was owned by a Schroeder, the Rietveld-Schroderhuis.  

Amersfoort is another town located 30 minutes to the southeast of Amsterdam.  Amersfoort, population 143,300, has a beautiful downtown core made up of more then 300 pre 18^th century buildings.   It’s a great town for a couple hour stroll around the canals and narrow alleys. 

The town gates are especially interesting.  The first one below was built in the 13th Century, the next three photos are of the north gate which was built in the 15th century.