Not Another Lazy Sunday Afternoon

On Sundays, the city of Utrecht virtually shuts down. Grocery stores open for a few hours in the afternoon, but other shopping is closed. Many cafes and restaurants also shut their doors, and the center of town resembles a ghost town more than the normal bustling city center filled weekday shoppers. The circumstances make it a perfect day for lounging at home, reading a book, or watching American football. Of course, the last option isn't available on the basic cable package we have over here, which makes my husband a bit antsy on Sunday afternoons.

In addition, yesterday marked the second day in a row of sunny blue skies in the city. So, with no football to watch and the cooperating weather, we decided to try to find something to get us out of the house. On a whim, we looked up the opening hours of the museums in town and figured out that they are one of the view institutions actually open on Sundays. The Spoorweg (Railway) Museum is only a few minutes bike ride from our house, and we'd been wanting to check it out for a while.


When we walked through the door, my husband commented how much he would have loved the place as a child. Trains of all sizes from small models to giant passenger trains filled every crevice of the museum. I thought of the detail with which my brother combed museums as a child and hoped that we were going to be able to make it through the museum more quickly than that.

An Overhead View of Some of the Trains

The museum did take a while to go through, but just because of the large quantity of things to see. We actually walked through the exhibits pretty quickly. At one point, we went through an exhibit with an interesting sign in the front.  No Wheelchairs, Yes Spiders, No Lap Children:

Instructions for Exhibit

Walking through the door of the exhibit, we saw that the room was filled with train memorabilia and parts. Few items had an explanation (in English or Dutch). After we walked through the first half of the room, we noticed we'd been corralled into a line. We waited as 4 people at a time walked through the doors at the other side of the room. Finally, it was our turn. It ended up that the line was for a mini roller coaster ride in the dark (think slow and mild), showing us different scenes of the railroad. I guess the spider was supposed to indicate that the ride was scary.

After the ride, we made our way back and forth through the many trains. Some allowed only a peak in from staircases set against the windows, while others allowed you to walk back and forth between cars.

Train from the 1950s

 

Inside the Train Designed for the Post Office

After making our way through the majority of the exhibit, we stopped at the museum restaurant for a bite to eat. The offerings were typical Dutch junk food. I enjoyed my pastry stuffed with cheese and fries with curry ketchup and mayo (the mayonnaise is different than the kind we have in the U.S. and is sometimes called Frites Saus). My husband had a croquette (a gravy and beef filled fried roll, basically) and some tomato soup.

After we left the museum, we weren't quite ready to head inside, so we grabbed an extra layer and headed out on a bike ride through the country. Not too far from where we live, the sights were a big contrast to city life.

Country House and Sheep

We ended up at one of the forts to the city, but they are only open to the public during the summer, so we couldn't go inside. Instead, we enjoyed the sheep and the views of country life. While it looks a little cloudy in the pictures, the dimness is mostly from the sun setting.

Sheep at the Fort

A little past the fort, the road ended at a group of restaurants and a hostel. Bike paths led out in several directions, and it appeared that you could ride your bike from fort to fort around the edge of the city. By car, you could continue your journey by heading through the arch in the building and down another road. Since it was starting to get dark, we decided to turn around and head back, leaving further exploration for another day.