Utrecht is an amazing city. The city itself is beautiful, with the charming 17^th century Dutch architecture in full glory.

Sidewalks are nearly always composed of faded red brick. Stone is used extensively throughout the city. I’ve been places such as Vail, Colorado, where they attempt to imitate this effect, with some success. However, the sheer volume of stone used to create this compressed city far overwhelms anything else I’ve ever seen.

The street pattern in the city center of Utrecht follows a medieval street pattern. This means that the city is incredibly confused, with contorted, narrow, winding and in every other imaginable way complicated streets. I read to never rent a car in Holland. I didn’t understand why until I saw the place. One way streets rule the land, and bike lanes are often larger than car lanes. There’s no sensible grid layout of streets, as is the case in American cities. “Design” must have improved over the course of a few hundred years.

I say “design” because Utrecht’s streets are beautiful by artistic design measures. The winding canals make the perfect backdrop for the cafes that line them. The open spaces, with brick to walk on, make lovely spots for a Saturday flower market.

Space is used beyond anything I’ve ever seen in the United States. If a cafe has three meters of sidewalk space in front of it, you better believe that two and a half of those meters will be used for tables in nice weather. Grabbing a bite or simply a cup of coffee is a cherished past time of many Dutch persons. During nice weather, flocks of people will be canal side, sipping strong kofie or enjoying a cold bier. The atmosphere is strongly urban, without any of the associated drawbacks of an urban environment. After all, the most terrible crime in Utrecht is bike theft. So bad, that the police even go undercover to deter its occurance.

Utrecht is a happening college city. The population is around 265,000, with a university of size 22,000 and two more colleges in the city. So students make up a large sector of the population here. The fantastic nightlife clearly reflects this. The bars are hopping, even strange ones with goth kids rocking out to hard American rock. There’s a bar with live jazz every Sunday. Another with live music every night. Franz Ferdinand is playing the Vredenburg on November 15^th, and bikes line the sidewalks till early morning on weekends.

After three weeks, I’ve managed to learn my way around a good section of Utrecht. I am finally realizing the possibilities offered by the city, and loving almost all of them.