I won’t bore you with details of the study tour proper – it’s was a fairly esoteric undertaking. You’ll hear about it when I get home if it’s your bag. But I will bore you with a (hopefully) short rave about Utrecht. It’s the Netherland’s 4th largest city which means it’s tiny by Australian standards. There has been a gradual removal of the influence of cars from the city centre over the last few decades which means there’s a peaceful pleasantness to the place, with a constant buzzy undercurrent created by the student population. Streams of people on bikes pass through the main thoroughfare each day – nearly as many people on bikes as the number of vehicles on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There’s the infrastructure to support all these bikes too with 25000 spaces available for parking around the main railway station
Cycling
Utrecht is oriented along canals which were the commercial powerhouses of the middle of the last millennium. They were connected to Amsterdam, with the Oudegracht or old canal being constructed in the 1400s and the Neuegracht almost brand spanking ‘new’ from the 1500s. Ii guess it’s all relative, isn’t it.
Old Canal
Just about every expert we met during of the week delighted to tell us that part of the old canal had been reconstructed and reopened in 2015 after it had been removed in the 1960s for the construction of a motorway.
There’s a hard edge to the built up area and it’s amazing to see that that the change to the countryside is instant. No urban sprawl here.
The edge of Utrecht
It’s also really off the mass-tourism radar, so whereas other cities in Europe were already straining under the influx of thousands of extra people, the city could still breathe it’s own air. Whilst there are a few attractions like the Dom Tower and a couple of museums (including the illustrator of Miffy, Dick Bruna’s house) there’s far more to appreciate by way of atmosphere of the old buildings which line the canals. You come here for the character, not the drawcards. Further out from the historic centre, the place seems to be slowly reinventing itself with much of the poorer quality architecture and urban ‘improvements’ being wiped from the map and replaced with a better, more human approach. A great concept is the ‘car as guest’ signs which mark many of the streets – reminding drivers that they are there as a privilege, not a right.
Newer street
Next up it was to the Burgundy region for a catch up with other family members. Based at an amazing mansion house, it was really two days of eating and drinking while occasionally emerging from a food coma to actually look at something from the region’s history.
Nice place to stay
There’s a tradition of using glazed roof tiles in patterns to mark important buildings, which together with the surrounding vinyeards makes whole area seductively pretty.
Tiled roof pattern
Burgundy grapes