As soon as we arrived in Utrecht and stowed our luggage, Macy led us out to the Domtoren, just a few blocks away, and then to lunch. We all sampled Loffel beer, which is excellent, and enjoyed an excellent lunch. Some of the guidebooks say that the Dutch do not make very good salads, relying heavily on iceberg lettuce. That’s true in cheaper places across the countries we visited, but not in good restaurants like this one. When I get home, I will acquire goat cheese and make good salads with goat cheese medallions and balsamic vinegar. The photo shows Ron drinking coffee, in the approved-by-Annette manner, pinky finger lifted.
We could have skipped any eating out and just had breakfast all day long. Our apartment was officially a bed-and-breakfast, and each morning Hans brought huge amounts of food — croissants, hard rolls, other breads, cheeses and cold cuts, yogurt, fruit, marmalades, and four kinds of spreads.
Of course, we did eat other meals — mostly take-away or street food, with everything from Turkish pizza to herring broodje (sandwich) and stroop waffel from the Saturday market. Stroop waffel are thin, crisp waffle sandwiches with syrup in between. They’re an institution in Dutch street markets, and delicious when fresh and warm.
All kinds of fancier restaurants lined the canal, and some were even on boats. Macy and I ventured to a canal restaurant for appetizers and cappuccino the last night, and enjoyed watching the restaurant boats, with waiters hopping on and off with food and drinks.
Mary Turck
News Day 