Found the secret back door of the hotel that let's out to the town square - or pretty darn close.
We followed the streets to the Dom tower and took up post to await Arja's arrival. I'm going soft as I almost cried I was so damn happy to see her. For those at home, the kids who shared a journey like being AFS exchange students (Turkey) there is something timeless about the friendships you make, so fluid and though you haven't seen each other in 18 years we picked up like we had hung out yesterday. I introduced Dennis, P and O with hand shakes all around. The "vey vey vey" or tourist office was across the square so we went in and purchased our tour tickets.
Our tour of the Dom Tower didn't start until 12 so we spent time touring the cathedral and it's garden. The tower and the cathedral used to be joined however a hurricane hit the roof and it the walls crumbled; so now there are two separate buildings.
Domtoren or in English, The Dom tower.
We had to lie to P and tell her it was half the stairs of St. Paul's cathedral.
We totally lied.
465 steps with a perky tour guide who happily could translate all her tour whilst panting up the stairs. The tower was built between 1321-1382. The picture does not do it justice. We stopped at different rooms of the tower on the way up. I won't tell you how out of shape I am, but I did keep pace with P who stopped every 5 steps to ask iAds we there yet". O whipped up the stairs like a spider monkey swings from vines. The view from the top was..
Worth it.
One of the old bronze bells they now ring for special occasions. Every quarter of the hour the chimes ring (they were up another 200 or so steps, by which point the oxygen depletion had set in and I forgot to take pictures).
Thank goodness Dennis came with us. I love that man, up for all my crazy adventures.
We came down behind P who kept asking where all the "break spots" were, but they had closed up all the rooms, so following a cranky 6 year old down 465 steps isn't something I would recommend. The promise of gelato has done much to sooth her savage soul, especially when paired with the phrase "if you whine, no gelato".
This is from yesterday, it's the girls new favorite place. It's in a van, down by the river.. I mean a canal.
We lunched in the square and it was so nice to have Arja translate all the menu items, the girls have discovered 'cheese toasty's' and their palate has expanded. Okay so not by leaps like escargot or turducken, but by baby steps. We wandered further down the canal loosing Dennis who had to head back to work. We found an ATM, hiked up to the Miffy traffic light and back through town. Utrecht has fantastic canals full of families vacationing and zipping through them on huge boats. I'm amazed They don't at least bump into a bridge or two. Bikes zoom by at tremendous pace all tricked out with the best accessories like luggage carts on the handle bars and baby seats stuffed behind. One mom had attached a huge wooden box with straps to hold her kids in to the front of her bike. I was totally jealous.
The shops.. Oh the shops, I could just move in and live in any of them- clean modern designs. I'll have to take pictures of some of the stuff, it's terrific. I bought Dennis some 'cake spoons' they look like baby spoons- almost -but are used for coffee. Have I told you how good that stuff is? I swear I'm going to buy a lb. of it just to roll in.. Nirvana.
We sat by the canal and watched some ducks before heading back to the hotel to let the girls swim for a bit and by swim I mean walk 4 feet across and the across 6 feet the other way. Arja was knitting socks and we had a great time sitting still and catching up.
At 5 we plucked the girls from the pool and headed back to the room to dry them out. Mr. Bee would be joining us at 6 to go to TURKISH food. Pamukkale restaurant was just around the corner from our hotel. Dennis and his work colleague Diedra joined us as we had a three course meze dinner. Like a smattering of Turkish cuisine it was terrific. We totally waddled home. Well, the girls mostly ate bread, but at least they tried the cigarette borek (filo filled with cheese and spices, deep fried) and kofte (spicy hamburger kebab). They had no trouble eating two scoops of ice cream for dessert.
We talked and ate, and ate until 9:30. Mr. Bee was much fun. A total board game affecianado- close to Dennis' heart. Diedra was lovely as well. We've talked Arja into coming with us back to Amsterdam on Wednesday with my mom in tow. She's also promised us a pancake dinner, which I don't think they serve at IHOP.
It's been a fabulous day. One of the best so far! Mom arrives from the airport tomorrow when we'll hope to stay local and maybe make her climb the tower ..muhahaha.
Just got back to the rooms, Dennis said P was asking if we would see Arja again, Dennis told her Wednesday and she immediately yelled out "O we get to see Arja AGAIN". I think they've made a new friend.
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