Utrecht

We spent August 4&5 in Utrecht. Getting there was fairly easy; take a train from Amsterdam! We had no issues with this. We dropped our bags off at the Eye Hotel and began our day.

We bought tickets to go to the Dom Tower and to the Speeklok Museum. We were both hungry, so we went to a Greek restaurant for lunch. It was so delicious! 
The Dom Tower used to be a part of the Dom Kerk, but there was a huge storm that destroyed the main part of the church where the congregation used to be. After these tornados, the rubble sat for 200 years! They bricked off the part of the church that was essentially a gaping hole, and now they have a nice square there. We climbed up the 465-step tower, seeing the beautiful chapel, bells and carillon (like a piano with bells) along the way. The view from the top was spectacular.

We went to the Speeklok Museum after this.  This is a museum about clocks and how the technology was integrated into player pianos. 100 years ago, there were no speakers or stereos, but people wanted to be able to dance! The solution to this was giant ballroom organs that played by themselves as someone cranked them. They played music via cardboard "ribbons" with holes in them. Essentially, air was pushed against the paper. When there was a hole in the paper, the air was forced through it and activated keys to play a chord. The really neat part about this museum is that we got to heard the organs work. They were so loud! It is no wonder that you could have one of these easily fill a ballroom with music.

We then wandered for a drink after this along the canal. The canals in Utrecht are unique because you can sit along the extra level. That is, the warehouse level is accessible from the canal and makes a sort of platform before the street level. It was beautiful.

We then wandered to another pub called Winkel and Stinkel. We drank delicious beers and made friends with some American kids. Their grandpa bought us beers for entertaining them for awhile. Brad also got another free beer because the waitress brought him the wrong one. We walked to another cute pub for a pint.

We ended our day with a walk along the old and new canals before going for a Mexican dinner.

Our hotel room was ready when we got back, and it was amazing. Totally couture.