2019

[Netherlands 2019] Utrecht

So we departed from Rotterdam and arrived Utrecht within 40 mins.

Utrecht - Very peaceful little town, but actually it's the fourth largest city in Netherlands. Nothing much to sightseeing, we just spent a lovely morning to look around and had a perfect lunchtime.

There's a shopping mall that you have to pass by to get out of the station. The window is kind of cool I think.

A shark in the canal? You can always see those strangely cute artistic sculptures everywhere in the Netherlands.

We actually passed by a local morning market (which really like pasar in Malaysia), and we started our cheese samples eating routine again haha! The cheese here was relatively cheap comparing to the shops in tourist places, and also I found the cheese that I like the most! It's called organic jersey something, not sure, but the taste is so amazing!! I ate it with bread everyday since I'm back in UK hahaha. Eventually we both bought one chunk of cheese back XD

Just a few steps away we came to the town centre. It is an old medieval kind of town with a long canal. Very quiet in the morning, which made us feel guilty when the suitcase made noises while rolling on the cobblestone path.

There was a flower market, those flowers were so pretty and cheap!! A bouquet of tulips (50 stalks) only sells 5 euro!!

Ahh valentine day just passed and I want this!!!!!!!! >_>

On the way to the church, there was this thing that comes out with music! I don't know what is it called, the music came out from it and I think there are different musical instruments inside this "car". The little dolls on stage will move a bit sometimes.

So here is the main tourist attraction - The Dom Church, which is very huge! We looked so small underneath it.

Ahh but part of it was under construction.

This is the Dom Tower... I supposed?

Well, I can't remember clearly... but I recall that the bell on top rang several times. Under construction too, so sad :(

There were admission fees (or donation) to enter the church.

I am always amazed by the details of every corner of the churches, you could see how much effort and commitment the people put to build and maintain them.

It's always so hard to capture good photos of the interior of churches, especially the colourful stained glass windows...*sigh* You have to see them in your own eyes to appreciate how beautiful they really are.

There was a little garden outside the church.

I found this in the tourist centre, a photograph called "Doors of Utrecht". Really impressive, but the price of this postcard was also impressive... so I just took a photo haha.

I think we just finished touring the whole town within 1 hour...so time to have some good food! We googled the best restaurant here and found this "best apple pie in the Netherlands"!

There was an outdoor seating area but we chose to sit inside and it was warm and cozy.

I remember there was a big dog laying down under its owner's knee, completely concealed itself under the long table haha. It's really nice that many restaurants here are dog-friendly, you can see doggies everywhere! <3

At first we didn't know what to order, even we asked for the English menu we still...couldn't find the legendary apple pie! So we asked the staff about "apple something" and she brought us this and one cup of latte.

It is called Applebollen (Apple dumpling) and it is soooooo gooooood!!!

Never knew that baked apple tastes so good... with a hint of cherry/almond (I thought it's cherry and Yuhong said it's almond...?)

The crusty skin is perfect :D

BUT! WE SEE SOME PIES IN THE BAKING AREA AND THEY LOOK SO GOOD!!!

WE ARE NOT SATISFIED WITH ONLY ONE APPLE BALL!!!

So we looked at the recommendation on google again and we found out the bloggers are actually recommending another dish lol. Instead of ordering blindly again, this time we showed the picture from the blog and finally got the right thing hahaha.

It's Dutch Mint Tea and Dutch Apple Pie with cream!

I have nothing else to say except that I love those apple pastries so much...

Well of course this is the best apple pie I've ever eaten in the Netherlands, because it's the only one I've tried hahaha~

But for real the food here was really really good and the staff service was good too! The shop was quite busy during lunchtime (so we have to wait a bit for our second order) and I could see most of the customers are locals, which means that this restaurant is definitely not only for tourists!

The name of the restaurant: Graaf Floris

Make sure to visit it if you have a chance to be there!!

It's time to go to our next destination with a full belly!