Europe Day 31: 0 Miles

Utrecht, Netherlands

Today was the perfect day to spend in Utrecht. I finally got a warm sunny day and took full advantage of it, walking along the canals of Utrecht and having a few beers outside.

After eating breakfast at the hostel, I made the 20 minute walk from the hostel to the train that would take me to the center of Utrecht. Even with the long walk I prefer the location of the hostel I’m staying at to being in the center of Utrecht. It was nice to spend last night having dinner at the hostel cafe which sits on the edge of the woods with nothing else around.

When I got to the train station, I wasn’t able to purchase a train ticket with my credit card. I’ve had this problem before and it seems the credit card will just not work on an unmanned kiosk. There was no ticket office, so I had to pay with cash. Unfortunately, the machine only accepted coins and I did not have enough. I ended up walking a half mile to a grocery store to purchase a pastry in order to receive enough coins back to purchase my train ticket. By the time I got back to the train station I had walked a total of 2.5 miles when I could have walked directly into town from the hostel in just under 4 miles.

While I was walking back and forth from the train station I ran into a group of 3 women who I had helped at the hostel the day before. They only spoke Spanish and with my limited high school Spanish education I was able to help them with the WiFi. They needed help again, this time with taking the train, but my vocabulary was not good enough. Thankfully Google translate helped me get them a timetable for the train to Amsterdam along with directions to the grocery store so they could also get enough coins to pay the fare. I can’t believe they were traveling in the Netherlands not being able to speak English or Dutch and not having a phone plan.

The train ride from the Bunnik station to Utrecht was only 20 minutes and dropped me off near the center of town. The train station lead right into a large shopping mall which then lead into an open air market before I was finally in the town itself. I hadn’t planned to go anywhere specific in town, but it was time for lunch so I picked up a sandwich from a street cart and walked around following the picturesque canals.

For being one of the largest cities in the Netherlands, Utrecht was very manageable to walk around. I felt like I got a good sense of the area and found a few nice areas to sit and relax in the sun. Once I had explored enough, I found a bar to sit outside and have a few beers. I felt like I was already in my post cycling mode even though I do still have 1 day of riding to do tomorrow. After the beers I headed back to the train station for the quick ride to Bunnik followed by the 20 minute walk to the hostel.

After a short nap, I went to the hostel cafe to get dinner before they stopped serving food at 8:00. Tonight’s special was a giant plate of ribs which I happily ordered along with another couple of beers.

Tomorrow is my last day of riding. It should be another flat and easy ride of just 30 miles to my Airbnb in Amsterdam.

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Musings:

• Am I the only one who thought the flag of Netherlands was orange, white and blue? I feel like any time I’ve seen the Netherlands represented in the Olympics or international competition they are always wearing orange. I was shocked to see flags flying that were red, white and blue. It turns out the flag of Netherlands is almost identical to the flag of Luxembourg with the only difference being slightly different shades of blue. Both flags are basically the same as the French flag, just with horizontal stripes instead of vertical. It is all rather confusing, but I could have sworn the Netherlands flag had orange in it. Apparently I’ve been living in the past, because it hasn’t been orange, white and blue since the early 1600s.
• Paying to pee is one of the most annoying things about being in a public space in Europe. Today as I was walking through the mall in Utrecht to get to town, I stopped at the bathroom and had to pay €0.70. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to pay to use a bathroom, but I always forget that I may be charged until I get to the bathroom. Luckily, I was not on the verge of a bathroom emergency and had the right amount of change in my wallet. I guess the lesson is to always have a spare euro in your pocket just in case.