Utrecht: Purmerend, Houten, Paleis het Loo, Utrecht

 

Saturday 17 June 2023

Today, we visited longstanding friends, Moenie and Paula, in Purmerend. We chatted about old times, and they took us to de Zaanse Schans and Marken, two very touristy, but must-see places in the Netherlands. Kevin loves windmills and with our museum cards we could visit three of them: a paint mill (where they crush the pigments for paint), an oil mill (where they produce rapeseed and linseed oil and 'cakes' as food for cattle), and a sawmill. Two of them were working; the sawmill was idle because of the lack of wind for it.

Sunday 18 June 2023

On Sunday, we spent a great afternoon with the family, finishing off with various take-away meals of our choice, but 'together' as one big family. Precious times!

Monday 19 June 2023

Just a few (!) of the 50+ photos of Paleis het Loo, which we visited with Wim and Gerrie. The palace has been thoroughly renovated in recent years, with the addition of a shallow pond in the forecourt and a huge, modern entrance hall and walkway below it. In earlier days, the palace was occupied by members of the Royal Family. From the rooftop terrace, one has a great view of the formal gardens.

We finished the day at pancake restaurant 'Pannekoekenboerderij Grietje' at Scherpenzeel (no photos, too busy enjoying the meal 😉), followed by coffee in Houten where we planned our next outing for Wednesday. Holidaying is hard work!

Wednesday 21 June 2023

On Wednesday we caught the train to Utrecht Central Station where we met up with Wim and Gerrie. From there we took another train to the Railway Museum.

Besides all the trains on display we did two short train rides in the museum. One in a little carriage that took us through a dark, but interesting area. The other one was a virtual train ride, a bit like a roller coaster ride. A third attraction was a time travel one to the 18th century. A place where we learned a few things and could walk around.

After we finished at the museum we took the train back to Central Station, where we visited the pushbike parking garage with space for 12,000 (!) bikes. No, it's not a typo, and the parking lot had at that moment approx. 4,000 spaces available. No photos though.

We walked around town and sat down for a cool drink near one of the canals. Kevin and I finished up with a meal of Belgian fries with mayonaise.