Day 12: Arnhem to Utrecht

Today was going to be a bit of a shorter day but, in an ironic twist, we were going to be worrying more about the heat than the cold and the rain.

Despite the Boutique Church hotel being very boutiquey, we slept well and were presented with an wonderful Dutch breakfast spread in the morning. Breakfasts are a non existent feature of my normal life but a huge feature of these long distance cycle trips. I’m pretty sure the audience for this blog is getting a little cheesed-off with endless pictures of baked goods and ham.

Great coffee, great breakfast. Well done Boutique Church hotel.

Straight out of the door we were on to the frankly stupendous Dutch cycling infrastructure.

Basically the entire country looks like this.

There wasn’t a time between Arnhem and Utrecht that we weren’t on segregated cycle paths or roads. It was…blissful. I’m going to try to cut down on the endless shots of brilliant cycling infrastructure and also the photos of lovely cycle paths on top of dijks which defined today. Look at the photos from yesterday. It was like that.

But here are a selection of sights from the journey:

Car free roads through forests

For those of you who have been missing them: a gravel factory!

An amusingly named car repair shop.

The traditional windmill shot.

More of this. Lots more of this.

We stopped at a very downmarket “seaside style” resort based around a lake and had a coke and an ice cream.

This isn’t St Tropez either but everybody was having a lot of fun in the sun.

Eventually we hit the outskirts of Utrecht and were guided straight into the centre along a canal being used as a barge park.

No, not a great photo. Sorry.

As we cycled along the increasingly narrow canals we saw a large number of open boats with twenty or thirty young people packed on them. Loud music and lots of drink. While musing on this, I nearly killed myself at a road junction and Dr T nearly fell off negotiating the thousands and thousands of other cyclists in Utrecht.

And then…we were at our hotel. At 2pm! We are in another boutique hotel. This time it’s called “The Eye Hotel” and there’s a strong eye, glasses and opthalmics vibe to every single decoration on the walls and in the rooms. Like last night’s hotel the room is funky and cool and not really great at being a hotel room but I think I may have redeemed myself after some of the less wonderful places I had booked.

Eye oriented decoration

Our lovely trendy receptionist informed us that it’s freshers’ week in Utrecht. That would explain the boats and the fact that, as I trekked to the laundrette through the lovely canal-side streets, Utrecht was heaving with young drunk people flirting with new sexually transmitted diseases.

We have freshly laundered kit for the last day when we get to the end of the Rhine.

We headed out into the very cool Utrecht streets searching for one of Utrecht’s major attractions. There is a series of children’s books called Miffy written by Dick Bruna. They were a big part of our childhood and our children’s childhood. The author lived in Utrecht and, in a lovely tribute, many of the traffic lights have a little Miffy character.

Traffic light icons around the world…

We wandered the Utrecht streets. Utrecht is often thought of as Amsterdam’s poor relation but it’s got the same architecture and the same canals. Of course, due to it being Fresher’s week, most of the canals were blocked by 18 year olds getting absolutely shitfaced on boats.

Where do they go to the toilet? Maybe I don’t want to know.

It was a Monday night and everything was kicking off. Hordes of young people on bikes wearing their summery best outfits were embarking on a the three year journey of acquiring knowledge, emotional scars and a functioning personality.

We ate down near a canal and had pretty standard steak and chicken but done very well.

It was large portions in a trendy atmosphere.

Utrecht was great. Maybe it would have been worse on a wet Wednesday in January but it was nice on a warm summer’s evening in August. Definitely worth putting on your “weekend break” list.

So…last day on the European mainland tomorrow. After 1,500km on a bike, we are going to end up at the source of the Rhine. There will, of course, be a wrap up of the Rhine tomorrow night sent from our ferry as we float across the North Sea so let’s leave the Rhine trip discussion until tomorrow.

It’s 100km tomorrow which is not so bad although every Dutch person we’ve met has been surprised that we would attempt this in the scorching 32C heat which is predicted for tomorrow. We have more than enough time to potter along the last bits of the Rhine before boarding the ferry. It’s going to be a bit sad to have completed this.

Stats:

• Distance: 83km. Really quite short but it felt rougher than it might. Both our bodies are rather winding down into some ground state.
• Other stuff: I am definitely having some “soft tissue” issues which even the magic of SudoCrem™ isn’t managing. The rest…well, it is what it is. Various knee, neck, achilles tendon, soft tissue niggles are just what you expect after all this time in the saddle.

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