So now that I don't have to sit around and actually make art anymore I figured some day trips were in order. Ones that involved a little less drinking then Ghent. So I hopped the train with Leisl's little sister in tow and we went to Utrecht. At first I'll be honest, the train station is ugly and to get outside you have to walk through a mall (which is weird- giant train station, Macy's two great ideas that belong together after all these years). But on the other side of the industrial weirdness that is transportation hub and consumer paradise, is the Utrecht you imagine. Only I had no idea what to imagine.
It's beautiful, just like Amsterdam, only cleaner, and different...if you took Amsterdam and rolled it up with the smaller buildings in Ghent, and then filled all the first floor shops with designers and high end furniture, and then made the canals gorgeous (they're below street level and lined with cafes and trees), and took away all the drunk tourists, you'd have Utrecht.
They still use their churches as churches, although they've been drastically altered from the Reformation and the ousting of the Spanish, and then there was apparently a crazy tornado that destroyed a couple of the churches forever ago (but that sign was in Dutch and I could be making it all up). Me and Olivia spent hours at the Universiteitsmuseum (say that three times fast), which although it's mostly geared towards kids learning about science and stuff, there's a room of medical samples and dental tools from the 17th century...oh yeah, awesome. And then they have the most amazing botanical garden, which we spent hours in, stealing wild raspberries and petting the bees.
Over all, a beautiful day. I hear there's art and stuff there to see too, but who needs art when there are medical maladies in jars?
On August 16th you can come in and have a picture of your baby taken on this lilly pad. For real.
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