A day in Utrecht

Last Sunday I visited the beautiful town of Utrecht. This is for me only 40 minutes by direct train, so getting there is really easy.
Utrecht was founded by the Romans and the Roman border also ran here.

Stone that markes the border of the Roman empire

Utrecht has many canals just like Amsterdam and other Dutch cities, but characteristic for Utrecht are the cades, as you can see here.

Utrecht is known as the 'Domstad', because the Archbishop of The Netherlands resides here. Unfortunately the Dome is no longer Catholic, but in protestant hands since the Reformation.
Here you can see the Dometower, that is seperate from the Dome itself. It is 110 metres high and you can climb it. I have done so twice in the past and I can say that the view over Utrecht is spectacular!

I was there to visit the museum Catharijneconvent, an old convent that is now a museum of Christian art.

Museum Catharijneconvent.

Here there is an exhibition about Saint Francis. This is one of the most beloved Saints of the Roman Catholic Church, and he was very much beloved in his own time as well.

His love for animals and nature, his poverty, his humility, but also his fierceness are all things that can inspire us even today.

Spring flowers at the museum

Before I visited the exhibition, I listened to a lecture about it and this was very good and interesting and it gave me more insight in what I saw at the exhibition. There were paintings, drawings, sculptures etc, by Rembrandt, Fra Angelico and other famous or not so famous artists. I really enjoyed it.

I bought a couple of good books, one about Saint Francis in the musuemshop, and one in a normal bookshop.
It was so warm that day, people were sitting on the terraces and I could unbutton my coat. I love it when that is possible, it really gives me the idea Spring is coming. The beautiful Springflowers at the museum also gave that idea!

And even more Spring flowers