Dom Tower of Utrecht

If you spend any length of time in Utrecht you will have ample opportunity to photograph its largest landmark, the Dom Tower (cathedral tower). At 368 meters, it is one of the largest European towers constructed during the 14th century. At one time it was part of the cathedral. However, the unfinished nave collapsed in 1674 and the tower has been free-standing ever since.

It has an impressive carillon of 52 bells. Warning: if you are a light sleeper, do not book a room close to the Dom. Those bells ring all night, playing melodies every hour. I was about a kilometer away, so the noise didn’t bother me, but one of my coworkers came to work looking haggard and mumbling, “The bells, the bells….”

The next shot was taken from the plaza, which would have originally been inside the nave.

The remaining cathedral building still has the flat wall where the collapsed nave was closed off.

View of the cathedral from the plaza:

I was playing around with the angles to show the separation of the two buildings.

Utrecht Buildings

You didn’t seriously think I’d finished posting my Utrecht photos, did you? 🙂

Silhouette of church roof:

Rather baroque university building near the Domplatz:

Orange university building with nice brickwork:

Office section of a church:

Row of old white houses on Springweg:

Corner building wih iron ties on the side:

Corner building dated 1897:

Another building with fine ironwork ties:

Old brick tower with very colourful shutters:

Utrecht Whimsy

Knitted fish spotted in a kitchen window:

Wire bicycles with Jakarta travel brochures:

The Pusher’s Apostrophe: I’ve given up trying to tell people how to punctuate  “hash joints”…

Colourful metal necklaces

Multi-tasking on the flight from Paris to Amsterdam. He wanted to make a change in the document on my laptop while he was doing his email.

Karel V Hotel, Utrecht

The five-star Grand Hotel Karel V is in the center of Utrecht. The original building complex dates from the 14th century and was home to the Teutonic Knights for 450 years. Karel V (Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire) and his sister Maria of Hungary stayed there in 1546. In 1808, King Louis Napoleon forced the Teutonic order to surrender the building and it was turned into a military hospital in 1811. Between 1986 and 1999, the building was neglected. After 3.5 years of renovation, the building re-opened as a hotel (info from the folder holding my key card).

The photo above was taken in the courtyard, behind the main building. It’s quite a large complex with a spa (I didn’t have time to visit it), a couple restaurants, and a modern Roman wing.

The photo below shows the building from the front. It was a bit too wide for a wide angle (canal makes it difficult to get enough distance), so I photographed it at an angle. My room was in the former attic, at the right end of the building, just under the chimneys.

Same courtyard, from a different angle, with the Dom Tower in the background.

Hallway leading to my room. The porter said the beams are original, so I checked the joins and pegs. All hand-carved.

View inside the room, showing only half the room. It was quite large, with a high ceiling with beams and two triangular windows. It was too dark at night, but generally quite comfortable.

Photo in the corridor showing the original attic. My room stretches across the entire width of the building.

Room in the Roman wing. My coworker ended up in a deluxe two-level room. The bedroom (huge bed with a canopy thingie) and two marble bathrooms were downstairs.

Study upstairs, with desk, TV, couch, and a/c. Rough life!

Utrecht Canals

Oudegracht canal with the ubiquitous Domtor (cathedral tower) in the background.

Small restaurant on the wharf. Many of these warehouses seem to have been converted into artists’ studios.

Water basin:

Sepia view on a rainy morning.

Utrecht Windows

Two bicycles, facing each other, in front of a red building with a vine

Commercial building in the city center:

I was struck by the beautiful lace curtains and sometimes rather elaborate still-life arrangements in ordinary windows. Unfortunately, I couldn’t photograph one window with porcelain jars because a man was sitting at the table, drinking coffee, behind the window both times I checked (morning and evening). I guess he really liked the view.

Detail of a library window.

Love the red shutters…

Triangular window in my hotel room, with a view of the Dom tower.

Residential buildings in the historic city center

Message in the door of a house. I’m not sure how the letters were fastened to the glass. The passageway was quite dark.

Utrecht

I was in Utrecht for business last week, from Monday evening until Thursday. Although I put in plenty of 12-hour work days, I did manage to take a few photos. The hotel that I chose was in the center of town, near the old section of Utrecht, with canals. The canal in the first photo was only a few blocks from the hotel.

Below is a a church roof, underexposed to show the silhouette.

Tile peacock decoration on a building on Neugerachte.

The Dom tower is visible from almost every place in the center of Utrecht, so I have a lot of photos of it. There was good light on the second evening.

Love the colours of the boots and bicycle. If I hadn’t been so rushed I would have taken this shot at a lower angle. When you’re wearing business clothes it’s a lot harder to get down on the ground to take some shots.

The first morning it rained. I photographed this tulip near the large canal in front of the hotel.