Amersfoort, Netherlands

Despite crashing straight away the night before, I was still wide awake at 5am. I rested a few more hours then got up and showered, then moved my stuff back up into Anne’s apartment.  Anne cooked another fabulous breakfast – tomatoes, herbs and eggs – it was a great start to the day!

Gordon and Anne then went and pick up a new sofa for Anne’s apartment, then we all jumped into the rental car and took it back to Hertz - the rental car that is, not the sofa!  It took some time finding a petrol station due to road works, but we eventually found the way.  We then caught the bus back to Utrecht central station, then a train down to Amersfoort.

Amersfoort is a municipality and the second largest city of the province of Utrecht in central Netherlands. The city is growing quickly but has a well-preserved and protected medieval centre. Amersfoort is one of the largest railway junctions in the country, because of its location on two of the Netherlands' main east-west and north-south rail lines. The city celebrated its 750th birthday in 2009.

We wandered around stopping for apple cake and coffee, taking photos, and enjoying the atmosphere.  Beautiful town, and old, gorgeous buidings.

The old cathedral door was amazing...

Lovely outdoor cafes....

I asked the three musketeers to line up against the wall for a shoot.  This is what they did!  I shot them! 

The houses along the canals were interesting - some looked like they had little studios. Many had little boats...

The wildlife was fenced in to stop them attacking the tourists...

 The old castle walls still had medieval doors and shutters...

 Remains of settlements in the Amersfoort area from around 1000 BC have been found, but the name Amersfoort, after a ford in the Amer River, today called the Eem, did not appear until the 11th century. The city grew around what is now known as the central square, the Hof, where the Bishops of Utrecht established a court in order to control the "Gelderse Vallei (nl)" area. It was granted city rights in 1259 by the bishop of Utrecht, Henry I van Vianden. A first defensive wall, made out of brick, was finished around 1300. Soon after, the need for enlargement of the city became apparent and around 1380 the construction of a new wall was begun and completed around 1450. The famous Koppelpoort, a combined land and water gate, is part of this second wall.

we wandered into the main centre as well which was very modern in comparison...

On the way back to the station we went under a bridge that had a very interesting chandelier in the niddle!

The main entrance to the old town.

We stumbled upon a a craft beer brewery and decided we were up for a tasting!

When we came out we saw the weather was changing and the clouds were really interesting...

To me this image sums up the Netherlands.  Old buildings, and bikes, cobblestone roads and pathways, and simply gorgeous landscapes!