Walk through Utrecht

This is getting embarrassing: after Enkhuizen and Haarlem, I've discovered yet another favorite Dutch town: Utrecht.

Note: Sorry some about some of the image download times. Some of these images are complex bandwidth hogs.

Sunday morning, I knew something was terribly wrong. At my desk, in my apartment, I kept squinting, trying to focus on my work. It was driving me crazy, I couldn't figure out what was the problem. Ah. The sun is shining--it hurts my eyes, make it stop. Still, these meteorological anomalies are rare enough, so--down the hatch with lunch, warm clothes on, and out the door toward Naarden-Bussum station.

I walk through Bussum, my village, packed with more statues in a smaller area than I've ever seen. This is two blocks short of the station. I've gotten very used to this guy.
 

And Bussum is full of surprises, in unlikely places. This tilework is simply there, on a commercial wall, not even particularly visible, though it might have been so when the train line was laid. I know it's just an advertisement, but I find this really quite beautiful.
 

So I'm at the station. I need a destination on this sunny afternoon. It's after noon, so what's the nearest town I haven't seen? OK, Utrecht. I buy a ticket to Utrecht.

Excellent choice. I had read of a tower in the city center, not far from the station, and as you walk east from there, well, it's rather hard to miss. Believe me, photographs (even this one), postcards, even large posters, cannot do the Domtoren justice. You simply have to see it in person. The taste and detail of its construction are a revelation. Even the locals seem mesmerized by it, and all over downtown one sees photographers of all ages waiting for the clouds to cast just the right light (as I did). Completed in 1382. Very, very impressive.
 

In the shadow of the Domtoren.
 

Also in the shadow of the Domtoren, commemorating the fallen in 1940-1945. I've gotten the sense, all over the Netherlands, that the Dutch remain, in their own quiet way, extremely, extremely pissed off at what was done to them.
 

I found myself walking through the university area on the near north side.
 

And students mind the rules about the same everywhere, I guess (though why anyone would put a no-bikes sign right over a loop expressly made for bike locks is not obvious). As for as I could tell, Utrecht's penalty for improper bike parking is a (gasp!) blue warning sticker...
 

...well, usually.
 

Walking back to the train station through a cozy neighborhood, I heard an odd duck--actually, it turned out to be a decoy, blown maniacally by a bored little girl pushing an empty permambulator down the sidewalk. She saw me about to pass by her, and she blew with all her power, and she waited. I had the presence of mind to remark, "Een klein eensje, geloof ik" (a little duckling, I believe) and she clapped her hands and giggled the rest of the block. We made each other's afternoons.

This stairwell protector looks painful.
 

And back on the train, from Utrecht Centraal through Hilversum and off at station Naarden-Bussum.

Utrecht is a wonderful city, only a comfortable 20 minutes by train: the same as Amsterdam, and a lot easier to get around, less touristic, and even more photogenic than Amsterdam if that's possible. I'll go back, and right soon.