(the real) Utrecht

My freshman year, I lived in 'The Netherlands' freshman complex, where all of our dorms were named after Dutch cities. I lived in 'Utrecht' house, so when I came to study in the real Netherlands, I knew I had to visit the real Utrecht.

Only half an hour away from Amsterdam by train, Utrecht is super easy to get to (as almost every Dutch city is). I definitely didn't visit as many little towns and cities as I should have, but that's just another excuse to return here soon!

Right away we realized- Utrecht is adorable. It looks like a typical medieval European city, with a few canals and plenty of beautiful old buildings. 

One of the main attractions in Utrecht is the Dom Tower, or Cathedral Tower. The tower used to be part of the main cathedral in Utrecht, but a storm in the 17th century destroyed the nave of the church, meaning that the main cathedral and the tower were separated, and since they were never rebuilt there is now a large courtyard between the two buildings. 

Since you can climb the tower, of course we had to climb it. If you've been following my adventures this semester you know that pretty much anything that is open for climbing, we'll climb it. If you read my Prague post, you know I hate heights but for some reason I keep climbing things....

The cathedral as seen from the first level of the tower.

We definitely were not supposed to get inside this- underneath this little dumbwaiter was a hole in the floor, which opens down to the street below (there is a tunnel running through the bottom of the tower that you can walk through). When the tower was being built, they built it from the inside out- workers stood inside the tower, while bricks and other building materials were hauled up from the street via the opening in the floor. 

Also definitely not supposed to be climbing all over the bell room...

The view from the first balcony- oh, you thought we were at the top? Nope, keep climbing up the thinnest, most spiraled staircase you've ever seen....

The cathedral down below.

Once we had been freed from the tower, we continued wandering around Utrecht. 

These are little houses underneath the street- all the canals in Amsterdam come up to the street, but in Utrecht they are dug down below street level, so the apartments are located under the road and open out to the canal! They maybe don't have the best natural light, but how cute would it be to live down there?

We ended up having perfect weather and sat in this park for hours enjoying the sunshine. 

I almost forgot to post this little day trip (it was between Paris and Berlin!), so I wanted to sneak it in between my Scandinavia posts. Stay tuned, I'll have Sweden coming up soon!