Having concluded my studies and found myself, predictably, jobless - studying had been a way to stave off unemployment - I looked around for, and accidentally found, some correction work for a publishing company called Spectrum, known for its cheaper dictionaries and encyclopaedias. That was my first encounter with Utrecht; the company was located near a shopping centre in Utrecht Lunetten, one of those colourless apartment-block areas created when a town expands to house its growing population. Colleagues showed me more of Utrecht proper, including the imposing structure that makes it relatively famous, the "Dom". Much later, when I'd moved to Leerdam to work for a software company, and both Leiden and Amsterdam were just too far away, it was in Utrecht that I shopped to fulfil my computer needs. I even found a shop, though it closed not much later, called "Mic Mac" to make clear that it catered both to PC and Mac users, and, presumably, as a playful reference to a wicked witch from Disney's animated version of "The once and future king" which in Dutch was known as "Madam Mikmak". This shop even had a very large graphic tablet for the Mac in its window display that made me drool and want to buy a Mac. Alas, the "Mac" part did not last long. All Mac inventory was thrown out (I read about it later in a Mac magazine and kicked myself for not having been there to pick up some spoils) and the shop either was replaced by or renamed to Hajo's Computer Shop. And those are the details I remember about the old and culturally rich town of Utrecht.
The train station Utrecht Lunetten, hiding nothing of the cheerless housing around it.
Coming into Utrecht from Amsterdam; the increasing ugliness of the buildings is a sure sign that a main station is being approached.
Same again from another direction. The train pulls into Utrecht Central Station, of which the main hall runs seamlessly into a large overhead shopping centre called Catharijne. The sides of this hall are lined with fast-food bars, including, and this was quite a find, Charlie Chiu's, a welcome change to the eternal fries and milkshake; they serve fast-food babi pangang and baked bananas.
Because the station runs into Catharijne which has several exits, leaving the station can be a disorienting business, as one wonders on which side of the station one has ended up.
A sure sign that one is on the right side of the station: "Muziekcentrum Vredenburg" (which has an exit of its own) and the shopping alley not far off. At the left in the first picture is a crude bit of wall just sticking up from the pavement, possibly the remains of an older building.
At a walking distance from there: houseboats, tall buildings and a poster with a large eye on it.
Town of towers: some distance from the centre, a narrow tower sticks up over the rooptops. Nearer the centre, a taller tower with bells in it. Quite near the station and the computer shop I used to visit, a top-heavy crenellated tower.
One special feature of Utrecht: shady lanes running parallel to wide street. One moment, I'm in the hustle and bustle of a busy street. I dive into a narrow street to the left or right, and suddenly I'm in a long, shady lane. I pop back through the narrow street again and am back in the bustle. It's like hopping between dimensions.
These two inflatables were up and hanging when I happened to be in Utrecht with a camera. To this day I have no idea what it meant. I've been thinking of captions to go with this one: "Upper class screws the workers"? "Two big dummies"?
