On Saturday afternoon, I left The Hague for Utrecht, where I would stay until Tuesday afternoon. Utrecht is located a short hour train ride away, and my visit would complete my tour of the Randstand: the metro area comprising the 4 largest cities in The Netherlands. Loyal readers should know them at this point, but for everyone else, here are the cities: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht.
Utrecht is the most centrally located of the 4 major cities, helping explain why it is host to the largest train station in the country (by passenger volume). Utrecht’s station is efficient, but not the most architecturally intriguing.
Utrecht is also well known for its canals. While its network is not as extensive as Amsterdam’s, Utrecht’s canals are unique for their layers. The canals in Amsterdam only have 1 level (ie street level and then the water below), but Utrecht’s have 2 levels (street level, path below street, then water).
The mid level of the canals are now primarily used as patios for restaurants, but they were originally designed for trading and loading/unloading goods.
On Sunday morning, I headed to the railroad museum, or the Spoorweg museum as it’s known in Dutch. I wanted to make sure to diversify the types of museums I went to throughout my trip (ie not all art or history museums), so visiting the railroad museum (part history, part science) fit the bill. One of the first things I noticed, and would soon dominate the experience, was the amount of toddlers at the museum. It seemed like every child who just learned how to walk (and all of their friends) had decided to visit the same day as me. The museum appealed for kids (you can climb inside trains and push buttons on shiny displays), but most of the exhibits would go over their heads. I’m not complaining that there were too many kids, I was once one after all, but their parents had adopted a supervision policy that was a bit too laissez-faire.
On to the museum itself, I’d say it successfully met my expectations for a museum about trains. The museum is situated in an active train station, which was cool. The only active trains went to Utrecht Central (which is only a 20 min walk away, and accessible by tram/bus) so not many people seemed to actively use it. Before the paid entry gate, there were several historic trains one could (and I did) walk through.
The main building of the museum felt like one big warehouse (complete with catwalks) with about 15 historic trains inside, many of which you could go inside.
There were also more trains outside, with museum workers helping make the experience feel real (ie putting coal into a locomotive).
Throughout the museum, there were more interactive exhibits. One area featured the physics behind trains. Another one started in a coal mine elevator (the elevator shook to simulate traveling down), and then opened up into a historic rail town. The elevator ride wasn’t too long, only lasting about as long as Aaron Rodgers’ playing time this past season for the Jets (you’re welcome Gary). Another ride took you on a time-traveling train adventure.
The main reason I stuck around the museum for so long (about 2 hours) was because of a scavenger hunt activity I picked up at the entrance. There were letters hidden around the museum which would spell a word once I found them all. I eventually gave up after I found all but 2 (they ended up spelling “intercity”).
In the afternoon, I headed for a short trip back to Amsterdam to meet up with a friend of my friend Max from high school. The guy I met, Daniel, was super nice, but didn’t have too much time to talk. We talked for about 45 min at a coffee shop near Amsterdam Amstel station: I shared my experience in the country so far, and he told me about his internship/job search website he was running full time.
On Monday, I rented a bike and spent the day exploring. I got a city bike (a road bike was too difficult to get a hold of), so I embarked on a slow journey. My first, and main destination, was Den Haag Castle, supposedly the best castle in The Netherlands. I haven’t seen any other castles in The Netherlands (Gravensteen was in Belgium), so I’d have to agree.
The tour with audioguides inside the castle was good, but a bit shorter than expected (took me just under an hour, and I felt like I was going slow). I was surprised to hear how the stories of the castle’s residents focused on more modern residents (1900s). It turns out that even though there was a castle on site since the 1300s, the current structure was built in 1892. Famous architect Pierre Cuypers built it for members of the Dutch Van Zuylen family and the Rothschilds (which the Van Zuylens married into). Celebrities like Coco Chanel and Gregory Peck stayed at the castle during its heyday.
The bike ride to the castle and back was pretty, even though it was a bit slow for my taste. Of course, I had nothing but time, so this really wasn’t too much of an issue. Even though castle is nestled in the Dutch countryside, it was only a 35 min ride from the center of Utrecht. Dutch cities have a much smaller footprint than American cities, so the countryside is always super close no matter where you live.
On Tuesday, my last in Utrecht, I didn’t spend much time in Utrecht at all. On my way to Rotterdam the prior week, and on my trip from The Hague to Utrecht, I passed through the same town: Gouda. Pronounced (HOW-da), the town is in fact the namesake for the smokey cheese we all know and love. Gouda cheese isn’t grown from cows in the city itself, but from cows in the surrounding communities. The cheese market in the Gouda city square, where cheese made from the surrounding areas was sold, is what made Gouda cheese famous. Since Gouda was only a 20 min ride away from the country’s busiest station, I figured it was worth making a trip, especially given how much I had enjoyed Dutch cheese so far. Gouda itself looked like many other similar sized Dutch towns, with its central train station and surrounding canals.
My main destination was the Gouda cheese experience (which I anticipated would be a bit cheesy), but I ended up making some detours first. When I showed up to the museum/experience, a big tour bus of travelers (let’s just say they were all in their golden years) had just unloaded. As much as I love my grandparents, I didn’t want to stand in line behind 60 of them while navigating a really small museum. I walked past the museum and to a cafe, where they advertised selling a Gouda cheese bagel. I ended up being disappointed though, as I thought the bagel itself would have cheese rolled into the dough, not just served with slices of cheese. It was just ok.
When I circled back to the museum, the octogenarians had not moved beyond the cafe in the entrance. I turned around once more, and walked through the city. I saw the main square where cheese was traded, but unfortunately no cheese market was there today.
Next, I stumbled into a cute cheese shop, where I bought another slab of cheese to bring as a gift to my next farm hosts. This cheese shop had quite the array of colorful cheeses (of course I tried all of the free samples). The colorful cheeses, which contained flavors like tomato, pesto, and lavender, really weren’t as good as the more standard fare.
When I headed back to the museum once more, the crowds had finally dispersed. While small, the museum served its function well. After viewing an introductory video inside a giant cheese wheel, I moved from exhibits about cows, to milk, to making cheese, to selling it, and finally to tasting. Each room had corresponding audioguide components, and had signs and games to play.
Similar to the railroad museum, there was also an activity you could play along with while walking through the museum. Rather than a scavenger hunt, the cheese museum gave you a quiz. If you got all of the questions right, you would end up winning the amazing grand prize of 10% off in the gift shop (this really did not motivate me). I ended up getting every question right but one: some worker felt devious and made sure there were 209 wheels of cheese in the warehouse room, rather than the 210 I guessed (I looked like there were 7 stands that were each 6 cheeses wide and 5 cheeses tall [7 x 6 x 5 = 210]).
The final tasting room was pretty good for a museum, and much better than the Chocolate Museum in Antwerp. It also helped that I didn’t listen to any podcast that overhyped the museum like I had in Antwerp.
After I was finished visiting the cheese museum, I headed back to Utrecht, and began a slow journey to my next farm. Unlike some of my previous harrowing train journeys, this one included multiple 30 min stops at stations along the way (I was timing it for a certain bus at the end).
So now it’s time to introduce my next farm, where I’m currently writing this blog from. I’m in the northern part of the country now, in the province of Drenthe. I staying at Bert and Manon’s farm, a small family farm home to quite the variety of animals (which you can look forward to reading more about in the next blog of course). As always, you can see where the farm is located by looking at the map at the bottom of my site. Blogs may be a bit more infrequent from this farm, as there is wifi, but most of the time it is turned off. This weekend, I’ll be heading to Amsterdam for King’s Day, so look forward to reading about that too!
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