Utrecht!

So the past two days I have been in Utrecht.

Yesterday I visited the Moluku Museum – Museum of the Moluccas, a part of present-day Indonesia that has a long association with the Netherlands. It was quite interesting, though it was all in Dutch and the information pamphlet in English wasn't as detailed as the exhibits themselves, but I was able to gain some sense of the history.

I also visited the Catharijnconvent, a museum of Christian artwork and the religious history of the Netherlands. The entry price was quite steep, but I went because I knew they had several pieces relating to Saint James, and ever since doing the Camino de Santiago (in English, the Way of Saint James), I've been interested in seeing as many items relating to him as I can.

There are no shortage of these in Utrecht, since along with the pieces at the Catharijnconvent, there is a Saint James church - that was sadly locked when I tried to visit (even though it should have been open, according to the visiting times listed), but there was plenty of imagery outside the church for me to see – the weathervane, settings in the pavement and on the outer walls of the church, and on the street corner opposite.

Utrecht is also home to the centre of the Dutch “Friends of the Camino” organization, and they were open today, so I paid them a visit. They had a great collection of guidebooks, as well as a wall map showing routes to Santiago from all over Europe. They also gave me a pamphlet about their organization, as well as this quarter's magazine and a guide to Santiago – all in Dutch, so additional motivation for me to continue learning Dutch!

This morning I also went up in the Dom tower – the highest church tower in the Netherlands, built in the fourteenth century. 465 steps took us almost all the way up to the top. The day was overcast, and raining at times, but I think I still got some good views and pictures from up there.

Tomorrow it is back to Amsterdam for two days. Still have some sights to visit and postcards to mail. Then on to Belgium!