Utrecht

[danonion]

Me and a cousin from Monaghan are going to Utrecht Saturday. Neither of us have been, and we don't really know what to do (and not do) in Holland.

We are staying with a cousin from the other side of my family (from KIlkenny, a bit too on the academic side) who is doing a masters there.

Anyone been to Utrecht or anywhere in Holland for that matter? Any suggestions, things to do, places to go and most importantly no-no's?

Chhers in advance

[brendy_éire]

How long are you there for?
I was there last month. It's not a massive place, but it's nice all the same. The people are friendly too (even somewhat surprised as to why ye would visit Utrecht).
Go to the big cathedral, you can go up to the top of it. Has a good view of the place.
That's about the height of touristy-type things I got up to. There didn't really seem to be much else there to be honest. Would have went to a match but they were away that weekend.
Go to Café België though, they've a cracker beer selection. There's also some coffee shops down by the canal.
If you want to get out for the day, Eindhoven is pretty close and so it s'Hertogenbosch.

[HarpoJoyce]

Train travel is very easy and trains between towns run quite late, sometimes after midnight. So that its possible to see and do a bit from one base.

Utrecht is a Unversity town so is quite busy, s'Hertogenbosch (football team Den Bosch) is a medieval town and a little quiter.
It's where the artist Heronimus Busch (sp?) is from. he painted alot of Armageddon/Damnation paintings. When I was in that town I found out there was an exhibition of his work in Rotterdam. Left for Rotterdam, spent two or three hour there and came back to s'Hertogenbosch in the evening.

Its possible to follow a little of the route of the 'Bridge to Far' trail. nijmegen - Arnheim. I have no idea if Dutch tourism push it, I just ended up in Arnheim and started following the route down. There's not alot in these domitory/suburban places. But all of them are easy-going and alot of English spoken.

Two places near the German border, Venlo and Roermond. Roermond is an inland boating port so lots of amall boat and some yachts around. There some interesting outlining villages there.

Dutch tourism (VVV) do push the outdoors with cycling and walking routes. Not so strenous

(Obviously I'm not recommending staying in Utrecht to do all of that.)

[danonion]

Cheers lads much appreciated. Defiantly into the touristy stuff. I was getting stuff published in historical journals when I was 18 but my success in the field has gotten less and less the more educated I've become.

The medieval town sounds great. Is the beer cheap? I heard services are wicked expensive. Thjings like haircuts are disproportiantly expensive to the price of goods.

sorry abotu typos, can't edit properly on this silly blackberry

[Rashers Baptisa]

It takes only 30 minutes to get to Amsterdam by train. It's worth it!