Utrecht

While Nijmegen is a nice town, and the countryside where our hotel is located is pretty, Darren thought I should get a chance to see an older Dutch city, or at least a city with old Dutch architecture. Nijmegen is actually the oldest city in the Netherlands, but it was almost completely destroyed in WWII. We picked Utrecht for the canals and the architecture. It was also en route to Rotterdam, where we would be taking a train to Paris the next day.

We stayed in a hobbit hole! Well, a hobbit hole made of stone on the bank of the Old Canal. I didn't take pictures, so these are from the hotel's website.

 

Isn't it fun?! It used to be storage when the canals were used for transporting goods. Now it is relatively cheap housing. Although Tolkien may protest, I'm pretty sure hobbit tunnels are similarly damp and smell slightly of mildew. Some rather bohemian college students lived next door, which added to the atmosphere.

We enjoyed walking through town, but Baby Grant's brains may be slightly scrambled after bumping along the cobblestones in his "buggy". Even the shock-absorbing powers of B.O.B. weren't quite enough to combat these old roads!