You think Amsterdam is cool?! Go to Utrecht!
Authors . City life . UncategorizedHello there, my name is Liza Heslenfeld. My name might sound German for you but I am not. Although where I come from is not that far away from Germany, it is the Netherlands! I can here you thinking about something that is typical Dutch and it is not the windmills or the tulips… But although a lot of (young) tourists come to the Netherlands for that one ‘special’ thing my little country has a lot more to offer.
Even though most tourists visit Amsterdam when they come to the Netherlands (each year around 18 million tourists visit Amsterdam (De Telegraaf , 2017)) I think my own city Utrecht should not be forgotten. It is only about 20 minutes by train from Amsterdam and it has a lot to offer. If you compare Utrecht to Amsterdam there are a few important differences that I would like to talk about:
It is smaller
The first visible thing is the surface. While Amsterdam has a surface of around 219 square kilometres (Wikipedia , 2018)Utrecht has only around 99 square kilometres (Wikipedia, 2018 ). For a lot of visitors this is actually a good thing because it is a lot easier to see a big part of the city and because of the smaller surface it is also easier to discover the city by bike or even walking. Also, the number of inhabitants of Utrecht is a much lower. Utrecht has only around 338.000 citizens (Gemeente Utrecht, 2018)where Amsterdam has over two times the number of citizens (around 859.000) (CBS, 2018). For a small country as the Netherlands this is a big difference. But I also see this as a plus because the chance of walking into someone you know on the streets is a lot bigger, what I like.
It is a student city
Even though Utrecht might not have as much citizens as Amsterdam the percentage of students is higher in my lovely city. Utrecht counts over 31 thousand students (Studiekeuze123, 2018)who are also living in the city where Amsterdam counts over 41.000 (Studiekeuze123, 2018)in Amsterdam living students. This means that 9,4% of the inhabitants of Utrecht is student where in Amsterdam that percentage is only 4,6%. So, if you are up for meeting peers Utrecht is definitely not a bad choice.
There are less tourists
One of the things that you maybe will not find annoying as a visitor of a city but will find annoying as a citizen of one is the number of tourists in the city. I think I can speak for a lot of people when I say I prefer living in Utrecht instead of living in Amsterdam and the reason of this is that it is a little bit quieter and not as many tourists. When I speak with friend living in Amsterdam they mostly complain about the number of visitors coming to Amsterdam and which leads to the packed and crowded streets. A visit to the supermarket can take you ages if you live in the city centre. This is not a crazy thing because while Amsterdam attracts yearly around 18 million foreign tourists (De Telegraaf , 2017)Utrecht only attracts around 1 million foreign tourists per year (Algemeen Dagblad , 2017).
People are more friendly
Ok this one is maybe not a real fact but my experience. I think people living in Utrecht are friendlier. Maybe because of the fact mentioned before that says there are less tourists or maybe it is just how they are. If I speak for myself I can definitely say that when I walk out of my house or when I am just around in the city I feel really blessed that I can live in Utrecht and that is what could be the reason of my happy and friendly attitude. This could be the explanation for all the kind citizens from Utrecht.
It also has canals
A lot of people go the Amsterdam to see the beautiful and unique canals and I cannot disagree with them that they are very pretty. But in Utrecht we also have canals where you can also go on by boat, canoe or water cycle. Not only in summer but also in winter the canals look really beautiful and one plus is that when the ice is thick enough in the winter you will see a lot of people ice-skating on it which is a typical Dutch tradition.
It has the Nijntje museum
Maybe this makes no sense when you read it. That is why I will explain this a little bit more. Nijntje is a cartoon character in the form of a little white rabbit with clothes on. In a lot of country’s Nijntje is very famous of the children books where you can see and read about the adventures of Nijntje and his friends. Nijntje is from origin a Dutch cartoon character and is even that famous that he got his own museum. Nowadays the museum attracts especially a lot of Korean, Japanese and Chinese visitors. Fun fact is that Nijntje even got an own traffic light for pedestrians in the centre of the city. This is a famous and loved place for pictures. On the same place as the Nijntje traffic lights there is a pedestrian crossing where the stripes are not white but the colours of the rainbow. This is a sign for acceptance of everyone regardless of sexual orientation or belief.
It has the Dom Tower
Last but not least one very important thing that Amsterdam will never have is the Dom Tower. Something the Utrecht citizens are very proud of. Fun fact is that the clocks of the Dom Tower can also play songs. The whistle blower did this for instance on the day that the famous DJ Avicci was found dead. The Dom made a tribute to the DJ by playing the songs ‘Wake me up’, ‘Without You’ and ‘Hey Brother’.
I can go on for a long time naming all the fun things Utrecht has compared to Amsterdam but that will make this blog way to long. I hope this convinces you to visit my beloved city.
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