From Amsterdam we took a fast train to Utrecht where we were met by Ad. We first met Ad and his son at Halong Bay in Vietnam.
Utrecht is one of the Netherland's oldest cities. We arrived at the railway station and it is a part of the Hoog Catharijine shopping centre and is ginormous!
Ad lives in a family house in a lovely quiet street near to Utrecht and we were able to walk into the city centre easily. He is now retired from the marines but works part time as a counsellor.
The city was decorated with Christmas lights and we saw Black Pieter handing out sweets to the children. If the children are naughty they say he will take them to Spain in his sack.
We walked around the city and saw the 13th century canal wharves which are below street level. Like Amsterdam, the city gets older and older the closer you walk to the centre. Ad also pointed out the house boats that are floating brothels in the canal Red Light District. There are 40,000 students in the city making it the Netherland's largest student community.
There were many places called "food in the wall'' shops where you put money in the slot and get a hamburger or hot sandwich.
We had some wonderful Dutch dishes cooked by Ad; witloof and ham, tongue fish, as well as smoked sausage and pickled cabbage.
We haven't seen as many traditional windmills as we thought we would but this one in Utrecht had been used to mill timber at one time.
We took a trip to Batavia Haven and on the way passed dozens and dozens of wind generators. At the harbour there were several wooden tall ships and a yard where they were making new tall ships and training the next generation in the craft.
Further on from Batvia was a lovely small town called Elburg where we walked about the old city inside the rectangular city walls.
Ad bought some delicious Dutch cakes so we could celebrate John's sixty first birthday.
