Our hotel, the Apollo, was just steps from the Oudegracht (old canal), a waterway whose water-level cellars stored provi- sions in medieval times. Today, bars, restaurants and boutiques occupy these atmospheric spaces. Up a flight of wooden steps, at street level, bikers and pedestrians hurry along the tree-lined canal, shopping in trendy stores or ordering a cus- tom-made sandwich at Broodje Ben, a popular food truck. Utrecht promotes its reputa- tion as the most bike-friendly city in the world. An estimated 100,000 people use their bikes to get around the city daily, and they park them everywhere. In fact, on the iron railings that border the canals, brambles of bikes can stack up three-deep or more.


1. Utrecht’s Dom Tower. 2. Panorama of Amsterdam. 3. Hand-painted Delftware.


4. View of Delft (1661) by Johannes Vermeer.


3


On bicycles, the Dutch demonstrate an uncanny ability to multitask. Not only do they ride laden with shopping bags and children, they can steer with one hand and hold a phone or umbrella with the other. They blithely sit erect, look confidently ahead and never stop pedaling. No one—not


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even babies—wears a helmet. Self-assurance and a willingness to take risks seem to go with the territory. We surmised a Dutch child’s earliest memories must be of seeing the world from a bicycle. Just off the Oudegracht is the


600-year-old Domtoren, the tall- est church tower in the country and the city’s most prominent landmark. Climbing its 465 steps for a panoramic view of the city is obligatory. Nearby is DOMunder, a subterranean exhi- bition where visitors can view Roman artifacts as well as the foundations of Utrecht’s Gothic cathedral whose nave—never restored—was devastated by a tornado in 1674.


The Rietveld Schröder House 4


is “must-see”—a highlight of the Netherlands-based De Stijl art movement, which (in reaction to the excesses of art deco) championed simple rectilinear shapes and primary colors. The house, a UNESCO World Heritage site, was designed in 1924 for Truus Schröder- Schräder by the renowned Utrecht furniture designer and architect Gerrit Rietveld. Entering the house—with its geometric forms, sliding panels and color accents—feels like walking into a three-dimensional Mondrian painting.


Not far away is the Centraal Museum, the oldest municipal museum in the Netherlands. The largest collection of Rietveld’s designs in the world are here,


139 CSD


Courtesy Royal Delft


Courtesy Delft Tourism


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