Leaving the bustling streets and canals of Amsterdam behind, we headed for Utretcht, known for it's far less touristy canals. In the Domkerk (church) we sat in the garden as the bells played the 'entertainer' now that's some skill with church bells!
The coolest thing about Utretcht was the canals. Below ground level they were so far down they had a second level of land next to them, with subterranean cafés and buildings cut out under the ground.
We also happened to come to Utretcht on market day, which is always brilliant. It was a proper farmers market where the sellers proudly told us about their homegrown produce. When buying goat cheese from a cheese stall there were photos of all their goats and their names from which the cheese came from! We also bought a rather amazing looking speculoos slice at Necia's excited urging: it was delicious.
After our satisfying morning, market and lunch, we headed for the nearby town of Amersfoort for dinner and the night. It was also an entirely canal-filled town making it very pretty indeed.
Many of the brick houses fell straight into the canal below with tiny windows and little flower pots, they were adorable. We wanted to find a cafe backing on the canal to stop for a drink, but in the end we discovered a lovely restaurant tucked away in an old church. It felt slightly sacrilegious to be drink beer even if it was in an ex-church.
The city gate was proud and imposing. There were a few dotted around different sides of the city, my favourite being one next to the a river with a dam keeping the water behind still and calm, where people were suprisngly paddle boarding (I suppose there is a definite lack of ocean here) straddling both river and land, the Kopplepoort was completed in 1425 and successfully repelled an attack in 1427. It was never breached.
Some of the buildings were rather old and quite charming, this arrow slit had been turned into a post box.
On our way to Maastritcht we stopped in the town of Den Bosch to dash into a beautifully decadent bakery to try the famous 'Bossche bols' we had heard of there. About the size of a small melon, this giant profiterole type dessert was light and fluffy, full of delicous cream and doused in dark chocolate. Made only in this town and changing its form to the one it has today in the 1920s (the prototype was filled with custard) the best way to eat this delight is apparently upside-down. If only we had known that at the time!
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