The Smith's European Escapades: A Day in Utrecht

Today we took a trip over to Utrecht - one of the most charming cities I've been to by far!

We got there via train, which took less than 20 minutes from Amsterdam. The scenery along the way was very pretty! Lots of green grass, cows, sheep, trees, and a canal that ran parallel to the train.

We got off at Utrecht Central Station, which is actually connected to the city's mall. After finding our way out, we were greeted with very quaint buildings, dozens of shops/restaurants and a beautiful canal!

We walked around the city for a bit before finding the Domtoren. This is the tallest church tower in the city (368 feet high), with 495 steps all the way up to the top. The tower was part of a church that was built in the 1300s. In 1674, the middle part of the church then collapsed due to a storm, thus leaving the tower separated from the rest of the church.

We decided to take a tour of the tower, so that meant we got to climb up and down all 495 steps! The tour lasted about an hour, and there were a few stops along the way, where the tour guide showed us different rooms, like the bell tower keepers’ room, the bell room, and a couple different viewing areas on the way up

. It was very cool to see the different rooms and the different views left you breathless (literally…but probably because you’re climbing hundreds of steps). At the very top, we were able to get to see a 360-degree view of the city. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day, but they say that on a clear day, you can even see Amsterdam and Rotterdam from the top.

Domtoren

The other half of the church

View of Utrecht. This photo wasn't even taken at the top!

View of Utrecht from the top

After the tour was over, we stopped by a nearby cafe for some beer and people-watching. It was much needed after walking up and down all those steps!

The Tour de France rolled through here a few weeks ago. Here's a statue for it!

View while sipping our beers

Next, we went to another museum called the Museum Speelklok. This museum houses a collection of automatically playing instruments, like music boxes, musical clocks, barrel organs, etc. It was a very interesting museum, and it had some very cool/intricate/beautiful instruments that date back to the 1800s. We first went on a 15-minute tour, in where the tour guide demonstrated some instruments and talked about the history of the mechanical music. What we found interesting (and it totally makes sense), is that these were purchased by people of all classes because they were more affordable than hiring a band for every evening. With the musical boxes, you only had to make a one-time purchase (along with the most up-to-date sheet music) to help you entertain your guests, or simply to enjoy music on your own.

After the tour, we explored the other half of the museum, which had the rest of the musical collection.

Adam playing a traveling organ

These were used at big, fancy dinners, and then later at fairs to play music

Sheet music, lots of modern songs!

We then spent the rest of the day doing a bit of window shopping and wandering around the city. We even stumbled across a Dutch water tower, which was very fancy and impressive! If only the U.S. could create beautiful water towers...