Day Trip to Utrecht

Written by Emily Zehm, Foster undergraduate

A friend and I decided to spend one of our Saturdays exploring the city of Utrecht, which is about a 40-minute train ride away from Rotterdam Centraal Station. I had heard that it was a cute little town and was excited to check it out. I am so glad I did because this day ended up being one of my favorite days of my study abroad experience.

We spent the morning walking up and down the cobblestone streets and seeing the main sites like Sint Willibrordkerk Church, Domtoren, and Domkerk. After that we explored some of the shops, and walked through a tiny farmer’s market with a huge selection of beautiful, fresh flowers. We then walked through the Utrecht University campus before grabbing dinner at a nice restaurant on the river.

To end our trip we followed these lights on the ground in order to get self-guided, nighttime tour of the city. These lights are embedded in the cobblestone and are supposed to give tourists a nighttime experience that they call “Trajectum Lumen.” The lights ended up being pretty far apart and relatively hard to follow, but it was still a fun adventure. Utrecht is much smaller than Rotterdam, but it also has a lot of charm and character. I would highly recommend visiting this city for anyone that is studying abroad in the Netherlands!

zehm2

zehm3