We had a long and snowy ride from Trier to Utrecht, about four and a half hours total, with a change in Cologne. Above is a regional train at Trier train station.
We rode a similar regional train for the first leg to Cologne. It wasn't nearly as nice as the InterCity trains, but we did have the little 1st-class section to ourselves.
I was a little stressed until we got to Cologne, because we only had 7 minutes for the change and if the first train was late at all, we may not make it! And that would mean having to wait in Cologne for three hours for the next train. But happily, it was on time and we made it with no problems.
Glimpse of Cologne's skyline from the train bridge as we rolled out in our high-speed ICE train. We shared a compartment with two businessmen, and it was quite comfy.
We arrived in Utrecht at rush hour, and the train station was crazy! It was far bigger than I ever would have imagined, and crowded with people. It took us a remarkably long time to find the right exit for the taxis!
We stayed in the Court Hotel, which was comfortable and modern. The room was really cold, though, as the big window was not insulated (the Netherlands isn't used to this kind of cold, I don't think!) and the heat wasn't on when we arrived.
The quirky element was provided by a stencil of Larry King's mug shot from 1971. I didn't know he had been arrested, but I looked it up - he was charged with larceny for passing bad checks. You learn something new every day!
Utrecht itself was good. I hadn't been there before so it was fun to see a new Dutch city. Unfortunately we didn't see too much of it, though, because it was just too bloody cold to walk very far! The main day we were there, it only reached a high of 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and it was breezy. Brrrrrr! But at least it was sunny part of the time, which was a nice change. And our hotel was on one of the main canals and very close to the main sight, the old cathedral church and tower, so we didn't have to suffer too much to get a general idea of the city.
The main canals in Utrecht are interesting - unlike like in other Dutch cities, they are one level below the street.
And here are some views of the cathedral and tower. The tower used to be connected to the cathedral, but the nave collapsed in a storm in the 1600s and was never rebuilt. So there is now a big empty space between the tower and choir.
And now we are in Amsterdam, in the citzenM hotel next to the airport! Because the rooms are smaller and cheaper than most, we each have our own room here. We are on the top floor and have great views of the airplanes taxiing, taking off, and landing. It is really fun to watch.
And tomorrow we will be on one of those planes, hooray! Our flight leaves at 10:30am and we'll be in Portland early tomorrow afternoon. It is still very cold here, and currently snowing again, but so far the delays for flights out of Europe seem to be minimal - hopefully that will be the case tomorrow as well.
I'll do another blog post after I get home about Amsterdam and our flight, but I don't promise it will be right away! I'm really excited just to relax for awhile. It has been a good trip, but there's no place like home.
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