Hana's Dutch Town Adventures: Utrecht

12:10 PM

Hoi!

It's time for another weekend getaway and my town of choice is Utrecht! It's more towards the centre of the country as opposed to Leiden or The Hague (which is where I live now). From Den Haag Centraal, I took a train towards Enschede and hopped off at Utrecht Centraal.

Utrecht is one of the ranstad or the four biggest cities in Netherlands, along side Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam. Therefore, it is a city not to be missed; the shopping is incredible. Did you know the main station is connected to a shopping mall? Shopping malls are rare around here - well, at least this is the first one for me. After I passed all of my favourite stores (thank God most of them are still closed, as I arrived quite early), I went to the market. This was a gem. I was really tempted to buy two boxes of huge strawberries for EUR 2,- but I knew I had a long road ahead of me. I travelled with my best friend Kathy who is also studying in The Hague. I didn't have too much on my list that day: see the Dom Tower or the church tower, see the St Martin church, and visit some museums.

Notice there's a shoe just hanging there? Doesn't it remind you of a certain Tim Burton movie?

A few steps from the market and you can already see the tower. It is the tallest church tower in the Netherlands, with more that 110 meters with 400 plus steps to climb to the top. Sounds like your cup of tea? Be my guest. You have to reserve a guided tour online to climb the tower.

Headed to Steenweg and we saw the first destination, the Speelklok Museum. Speel means playing, klok means clock. It is a museum for self playing music machine. Their motto: the most fun museum in the Netherlands - and they weren't kidding around. It was so pretty and so cute! What it means by music playing machine is something like the jukebox of the nineteenth century or before. People wants to hear music but at the time only musicians can play - not everybody is a musician. So, people started to invent musical machines so they can have music at home. From a simple tune from a clock to an automaton (think the movie Hugo with the drawing and instead of drawing, it plays music). You really don't want to miss this museum. There's a tour around some parts of the museum during which the guide will play some of the machines. It was awesome - hand's down my favourite museum in the Netherlands so far. At least EUR 11 for a single adult ticket but Museumkaart is excepted here. Prepare a euro to operate the lockers.

After spending almost two hours in that museum, we finally walked towards the city centre and towards the tower. It was surreal seeing a huge tower right in front of you. Just next to it you'll see the main church of St. Martin. But before we enter, we had to find a nice place to eat our lunch. Pack your own lunch to downsize your spending. We found this little garden or Domtuin just next to the church. Best hidden-but-not-so-much-garden ever! It's something out off a book or a period movie - think the hallways of Hogwarts. Beautiful!

After that, we entered the church of St. Martin, which looked like a Catholic church but technically it's a Protestant church. Bare in mind that Catholic used to be the main religion when the Dutch was controlled by the Spanish but when they liberated themselves, these places of worships is converted to suit Protestantism. You can see the giant orgel or the organ which is the heart of any Protestant church. It is still a fully running church. In fact when we were there, there were a few people having a small praying session. It is free of admission ticket but there's a EUR2,50 donation notice.

Our last destination is the Centraal Museum - which is technically not located centrally but anyway we just have to go there. Why? Because of that tiny white rabbit named Nijntje - Utrecht is Miffy's birthplace! This year Miffy celebrates her 60th birthday and in the museum there's a party! Well, it's a sight for children but also child - at - heart such as myself. It was so cute! For your information, there will be a Nijntje Museum opening next January so if you want you can skip this birthday celebration exhibition for later. But for me it was the best day. The museum not only houses Nijntje but also some history and modern art. Did you know Utrecht is an important city during the crusade?

I loved Utrecht - although it can get really crowded towards the day but the centre of town came to life and it was such a fun people watching though energy sucking activity. It is a very good choice for a quick getaway

See you on the next Hana trip. Possibly Haarlem. Stay tuned!