Ijsselstein, Utrecht, Netherlands
Friday, February 19, 2010
When I arrived at Utrecht train station Corrie and Wolfert were there to meet me with a bunch of tulips! The next morning Marjeke came round and we went to Madurodam in the Hague. Madurodam is a miniature version of Holland with all the major buildings at a 1:25 scale. it was great, i got to see all the old buildings of amsterdam, a cheese market, windmills, modern houseing estates, a clog factory (where i got a 1:25 pair of clogs!) the sea dykes and a whole lot more! after that we went to the normal scale europe tower in rotterdam, where we had lunch in the restaurant at the top and then caught the spinning elevator right up to the top for a view over the city. it was still really good even though we were almost in the clouds! we went home via a small traditional town which had cute little canals winding between the old houses. the next day we went for a drive around utrecht to the house that opa grew up in and the house his parents lived in before that. then we went to the famous rietveld-schroeder house and did a (dutch) tour around there. then we went to lunch in one of the old warehouses under the buildings on the canal in utrecht and had a walk around the city looking at the huge tower of the city's dom (church). after that we went back to ijsselstein and marjeke went walked through the town and went into the windmill which was still used as a flour mill. it was really interesting (and had very steep stairs!) we walked back through the markets (bought some fresh stropwaffels, hopefully they're ok in the box for a few weeks!) and a sudden but brief snow storm. then we drove to woerden where i went to a jazz concert in an old monastery with carla and philip, which was actually really good!
