Weekly Stats
Route So far
Travelogue
It's day 2 of our sixth week travelling and we're in Utrecht.
Today we're tourists. We did some research and walked into central Utrecht to wander the old streets, often by one of the canals that pass through the city. We sought out a few key landmarks, including Dom Square with it's lovely tower, church and the church gardens. We had coffee in a cafe by the gardens. The sun was shining, the sky blue and the atmosphere, very chilled.
Everywhere seemed remarkably quiet and yet there are a lot of people around. This is largely because the default form of transport used in Utrecht is bicycle. Consequently there are relatively few cars and so, it's quiet. If only English towns were like this.
After sightseeing and general wandering, we tracked down a place where canoes can be hired and rented a two person canoe. We climbed in and took our seats while the canoe was still on dry land. The Canoe Guy then shoved the canoe off the canal bank and into the water. There were quite a few people watching, doubtless hoping for a hilarious mishap. Happily they were denied their questionable pleasure :-)
M1 and M2 proved to be Olympic grade canoeists. We could make the canoe go forwards at a respectable speed and, with immense concentration, coordination and sheer will power, steer the thing both left and right. Or to the port or starboard if you prefer. See? Proper nautical terms!
We paddled our way around a circular route, partly in the old grand canal and partly on the new canal. We were on the water for just over an hour and had a lot of fun. It was a great way to see the old town.
We even managed to avoid causing any major maritime disasters, despite sharing the canal with quite a few, large tourist tour boats. We had no idea what the rules were and only once did one of these vessels sound their horn at us. In seafaring terms, this means "get out of the ****ing way, you tourist landlubbers!". We got out of the way :-)
Late in the evening, we walked back into town to follow a self-guided tour of the city's illuminated works of art. On the whole it has to be said that we were a bit underwhelmed by what we saw but the flying saucer on a building was cool and reminded us of Godzilla peeping over the roof of a tall building in Tokyo. The Dom Tower wasn't really part of the tour but looked lovely, lit up at night.
It's been a good day in Utrecht. We like this place.
This is the final full week of our trip! We will be taking a ferry from Hook of Holland to Harwich in six days. We've only got three more bike rides to do as we're going to spend a day exploring Rotterdam. It's nearly the end of this wonderful trip.
Solar Energy
The solar experiment is still going well. The Belkin power bank has still only ever been charged from the solar panel. This is nothing short of miraculous. While we were out being tourists, the panel was left in the back yard, charging the Belkin. When we returned just after lunch, it was fully charged. The battery in M1's phone is not performing well but with a good six or seven hours of daylight left, M1 charged his phone back up from less than 50%, using just under 20% of the power bank, and the solar panel has been deployed again to top up the Belkin.
It's a brave new world!
Photos
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| A duck. Probably. |
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| Statue of the pope that lived in that house |
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| Super narrow house like New York's Flat Iron |
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| Where Windy Miller lives |
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