Utrecht vs. Amsterdam (The Netherlands' Secret Gem)
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- Опубликовано: 22 апр 2023
- Which city should you visit? Utrecht or Amsterdam?
Welcome to Utrecht, the hidden gem of the Netherlands and the perfect alternative to bustling Amsterdam. In this travel vlog, we're going to explore the historic center of Utrecht and all the amazing sights, sounds, and flavors this city has to offer.
Join us as we visit the stunning Dom Tower (currently under construction until 2024), the tallest church tower in the Netherlands. From the top of the tower, you can get a breathtaking panoramic view of the city and its beautiful canals. Take a stroll with us through the charming cobblestone streets of the historic center, admiring the stunning architecture and stopping to sample some of the local delicacies.
Our taste buds are treated to the delicious Dutch snacks of appelbollen, a type of apple-filled pastry, and kibbeling, crispy battered fish. And of course, we can't forget the classic Dutch fries, served with a variety of delicious sauces.
As we explore the city, we also go on a quest to find some tulip bulbs to take home with us. The Netherlands is famous for its tulips, and we want to bring a piece of this beautiful country back with us.
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Hello! We're Maria and Olivia. We're currently living in Athens, Greece after deciding to follow our dreams and start a new journey together traveling within Europe (and hopefully beyond soon) and filming our adventures. We love what we are doing so far, we're learning so much about the world, ourselves, and each other every day and we hope you enjoy our content and have a smile or laugh along with us! 😊
Utrecht is so beautiful and picturesque! Very magical. -Great video. Thank you for the lovely tour!
The fish and chips looks really gorgeous, I could sit and happily chomp away my day.
Aaww poor Olivia soggy but still smiling.
I love food and it all looks lovely there I’d never stop eating.
Restoration at its most perfect with the clock tower.
It looks very pretty there have a wonderful time on your travels xx
You really experienced the Dutch weather. In The Netherlands you can get all weather types at one day. Like yesterday we started with sun, then rain, thunder, hail, cold, rain again, hard gusts, and grey but dry until dark, luckily I was on my bike doing groceries in the morning with sun and was in my car during the first rain showers.
I always look forward to your videos❤ Another great one! The food looks delicious 😋
You are really good in finding delicious food. The plate of fried fish and the apple pie looked fabulous♡
Amsterdam, like Utrecht is part of the biggest Megalopolis of Europe, with like 8 million or so people. The Randstad consists of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag and Utrecht. You could take Utrecht as your central hub where you have your hotel and then go by train to Amsterdam for museums and restaurants etc. It is only 20 min by train to Amsterdam Amstel station or not even 30 min to Amsterdam Central Station. And until late after midnight trains go in between Utrecht and Amsterdam. I believe there's just this small window of 1,5 or like 2 hours or so when there's so train going between Utrecht and Amsterdam. I think around 04 at night until 06 no train? Then the first train again around 6 in the morning. Check it with NS to be sure. But also Rotterdam is only 40 min from Utrecht and Den Haag something similar in time 40 to 50 minutes. It is like using the train as a metro really. But also Den Bosch and Eindhoven are not really far by train from Utrecht. Also within the hour. Utrecht Central Station is the biggest station of the Netherlands because it is the central hub and in the middle of the country. But you can also easily travel to Groningen in the North by train. Takes like 2 hours only. Amersfoort very cute, also close to Utrecht. And you can even go for a daytrip to Antwerp, Belgium. Also just a couple of hours: I say take the Thalys (merged with EuroStar recently so soon to be called Eurostar also). Within 3,5 hours the Thalys/Eurostar brings you within 3,5 hours from Rotterdam to Paris. It's the high speed train. You also have a regular train going there. With the Thalys the rule is: the earlier you book your ticket the cheaper it is. So booking the train weeks or months in advance is cheaper.
All that is true, however you make a tiny mistake. The Utrechtse Heuvelrug. You see, Utrecht is above NAP, Megalopolis will drown at some point in time.
I love your videos!!
I learned that the name Utrecht comes from the shorteing of the Roman name Ultimo Trajectum, meaning either where the road ends, or where the shiplane on the Rhine river ends and cargo had to be transferred to sea ships (or vice versa). There is no unanimity on the meaning of the name.
The Rhine was the imperial border.
Additionally, 'trechter' means 'funnel', and Utrecht has been the main traffic funnel
really love utrecht, formerly i've been ever studied in zeist... hope oneday i can go back there again...
Please consider going to the medieval city of Gouda. Of course it is renowned for the cheese, even though it's not made there anymore. I currently live in Paris, Ontario, Canada but lived there until I was 10 years old. My dad actually made the Gouda Cheese at the Producent, the cheese factory at that time. After emigrating in 1955 he made cheddar cheese in Canada. The town square has an amazing city hall built in 1450, and on a particular day there will be a market in the square and a traditional cheese weighing ceremony. Please check it out, I would love to watch your stay there vicariously as I've never been back to the Netherlands.
Hans that’s so cool about your Dad! It must have been so cool growing up at a city like Gouda! 😍 it was actually on our plans to visit Gouda while we in Utrecht and the day we had a car reservation (by the hour), we couldn’t go through with finalizing the booking since we didn’t have a Dutch bank account 😭 and then a regular car rental (by the day) was out of our budget..BUT we loved the Netherlands so much!! So we definitely want to go back and explore more city’s and towns! I hope you can visit your awesome country soon ❤️
Who knew? I like aged Gouda cheese, a lot!
YT suggested this video to me. Great you like(d) Utrecht, my home town. There's of course much more to see.. So enjoy your trip!
Subscribed! Thank you for sharing your adventures.
Thank you for joining us Mike 😁❤️
Helpful for an upcoming trip, thanks!
Tip! When in Utrecht put your bike in one of the many free bicycle parkings of the municipality... where you park your bike in the beginning of the video at the 'Oudegracht' there are a couple of parkings on walking distance. One underneath the Old City Hall. One on the left side of the entrance to the old post office, now library at the Neude square. But also a bit back you have one next to the Aldi supermarket (right side of the entrance) at the Lange Viestraat. But also next to TivoliVredenburg (In between Starbucks and TivoliVredenburg really), at the street called Vredenburg. And the biggest bicycle parking of the world at Central Station of course (biking there with TivoliVredenburg on your left hand side, using the bicycle path bordering TivoliVredenburg) crossing the road/bridge and after a couple of meter, just before the bridge/viaduct, immediately to your left. Or bike a bit further, underneath the bridge/viaduct and then after a couple of meters to the left, to the big Jaarbeursplein, in front of the big stairs up to Central Station, underneath Central Station. The city of Utrecht really loves for people to park their bikes in the public bicycle parkings. And really in the city center it is no effort to do so. The first 24 hours are always free of charge at the bicycle parkings.
Great job😍
And when the weather is nicer: bike to Haarzuilens with its beautiful castle (where tout old Hollywood has been a guest of the Baron who owns that castle) and its beautiful park. But also see the village square at Haarzuilens, very quaint and you can eat there: pancakes or a meal. I believe there are two restaurants. (You can also eat at the estate of the castle itself, but way back the entrance to the park and castle used to be where the big fence is, next to the village. They now put the entrance to the other side so visitors easily miss out on the cute, really small village and its square). But also bike to Amelisweerd (next to the big University Campus (Utrecht Science Park). Amelisweerd is a large park so to say, an estate really (landgoed). Used to belong to the family that lived there in the large house. But now it is like a public estate. Nice for walking, biking, eating pancakes at the pancake restaurant. And you can also have a drink and bite at the Youth Hostel at the estate. For people with a low budget and looking for a nicely located Youth Hostel in a green rural area: Amelisweerd could be a good place to stay for them. Make sure to have rented bikes, and then you can bike from there to the center of Utrecht. (but also take the bus or so). But that's only for when the weather is nice. Although the castle of Haarzuilen is also a museum and you can see the inside of the castle with all its beautiful architecture and furniture etc.
Brugge grew bigger than Utrecht in the old days, hence it has a relatively big old town center, but Utrecht grew more in the less old days, hence it ended up being a significantly bigger city now. Brugge is more a kind of a open air museum, bit like Venice, Utrecht is more alive and less dominated by tourists.
The old Dutch saying is: April doet wat ie wil, April does what it wants, the weather can be great for a month, terrible for a month (like this year unfortunately) or great and terrible on the same day.
(There is a pretty similar saying for the month of March, and unfortunately we drew the short straw there as well this year, so the country is starting to get a bit depressed by now😅)
Brugge is really beautiful, but overrun with tourists and apart from the beautiful center there isn’t really a thriving city feel. Utrecht is more of a modern and ‘big’ city and besides that has a one of the more beautiful city centres in Europe. Really love the combination of modernity and antiquity in Utrecht!
i like rainy days ......... Cool
So the lay out of the canal sides is like this: The canals (like in Amsterdam are for the distribution of goods from times there were no cars. The big warehouses were stocked form the boats but because in old times there was no fridges nor freezers perishable goods were stored in the big cellars right next to the canal. Behiond those doors there are deep brick covered cellars that have a constant temperature year round of about 12 degrees centigrade/ 53 F, low enough to preserve goods before consumption.
Rivierenwijk, is the neighbourhood where my inlaws lived. Very close to the city centre. Nice to see it in a vlog 😂
11:45 I lived in the white building (on the right in the picture) for 7 years (1985 - 1991)
Aww you guys got really wet in this one 😅 Thank you for making another wonderful travel vlog 🥰
Poor Olivia she didn’t really want to leave 🥹 but the fries looks good as well as the fish and chips
The netherlands gets 2/3 of the annual precipitation of england, and just about the same amount as italy, france and portugal.
In those last 3 countries you get more precipitation in less days though.
Thanks for introducing Utrecht and the lovely sights it has to offer.
Thanks for showing that the "French" fries were actually invented in Belgium and The Netherlands. Great to see the fries being freshly made, double fried and all the home made organic sauces.
Question: From your video, the city looks very, very crowded, people living in these buildings with numerous apartments jammed together. Am I right or not? Where are the private homes with yards and space for relaxing behind your home in your yard?
In the center of Utrecht it seems to be more apartments, like you said. We were staying about a 30 minute walk from the center. Where there were some individual houses with small yards, down the street from were we stayed. The street we were on was more like townhomes (houses stuck next to each other, with no space in between). There weren’t any front yards but each home has their own small private/fenced back yard. To give you an idea of the size, you could probably fit 3-4 large cars. I assume the further out of the major cities the yards and homes get bigger.
Just to compare, I live the life of a typical middle class American. I like the Netherlands, a lot - considered relocating there because the government of the USA is so corrupt. BUT. my home has a yard that is about 1/2 acre, 14 trees, a garage, central air conditioning and heating, all modern appliances, a basement with a workshop, 3 and a half bathrooms, 3 bedrooms. The seems impossible in the Netherlands, unless I moved way out in the country. Then I'd have to accept a much lower standard of living. I guess no country is perfect.
@@hillock10 there are smaller towns and cities, and more rural places. Since the roads are good everywhere you can live like that within half an hour to a city by car.
What was the local area you showed please? Approximately.
Obviously the tourbus didn't take you anywhere....
Great to see you pay tribute to the city I was born in and am still living in as of today 🫶
nice V
You two are so cute and make great videos ❤
Bruges now has about 120.000 inhabitants, Utrecht about 370.000. Like Utrecht, Bruges is very beautiful too but - unfortunately - overcrowded with tourists.
Yes!! We were definitely caught off guard by the amount of tourists in Bruge, especially for that time of the year. Utrecht was a lot more peaceful.
Brugge is nice but I'd also recommend Ghent.
Ah yes, credit cards aren't used a lot in The Netherlands. People use their bank cards to pay, the money will be taken of your bank account in real time. But you can also connect your bank card to Apple Pay for example and you can pay like that with your phone. Not sure if it works in The Netherlands when your credit card is connected to Apple Pay. But the thing to look for is the MAESTRO logo. MAESTRO is the system all these payment systems work with, it is also mentioned on the Dutch bank cards. Otherwise use cash if Apple Pay or Google Pay isn't working either. But I like hardly have cash money anymore, everything is paid for via my ING bank card connected to Apple Pay.
I would visit Schiedam! There is so much more than Amsterdam or Utrecht!
Waarom zou je naar Schiedam gaan als je in Utrecht kan zijn😂
@@FelixalPortoAls je dan daarna maar naar Schiedam gaat!😂
Suggestion: Amersfoort
Utrecht is not a ( secret ) gem ... tourism is a big pet of that city and is advertised everywhere ...
I Love Jonna Napire 💜💚♥️
APRIL 21, 2024
Belgium for frites
Inhabitated?
It is not a secret, only to the ignorant.
i hate rainy days, just not a good condition for tours. Is it always raining in Utrecht?