link Interactive GPS Map

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link When I Needed Something New

It all started as one simple question: "Can I afford this"? Yeah, that was it, and the answer was no. Initially it was just a checkbox in the college experience. Just another side quest I could pursue as a student. But in time it became something much more.

I grew up in Colorado, but I spent a significant portion of my childhood in Boston. In Colorado I was in a ranch house one hour from middle school with 30 acres of land. Living in a place like that as a kid is a dream. I dreamt up hidden alcoves on the ridge as little bases, made hikes into the brush and lost uncountable eggs during easter. I didn’t need to go into town often, not for snacks and not even to hang out with friends.

But the hazy idea of "living close to friends in a little neighborhood" did start growing on me, but it preoccupied very little of my time. But when I moved to Boston for other reasons that idea was put to the test. It passed the test.

I got exactly what I dreamed for, and while I spent most of my time in Boston as a poor teenager with little free time I already got to experience a taste of something that had never crossed my mind: Urbanism.

That drastic shift (30 acres to 0.1 acres) made everything mundane feel extra special. Biking to the library, buying marshmallows on a whim, playing frisbee at the park. And, having now experienced many different kinds of urban areas, I can say Boston does urbanism especially well. It is safe, quiet and fast to get anywhere I want to go. Suddenly the richness of life’s experiences became equally attainable to me.

And I can’t forget the trains. There was a quick and punctual commuter train that ran from my suburb to Boston. A world renowned city became so accessible the question was more who could I convince to come with me than whether I could go.

All good things must come to an end, however. I’m doing college in Colorado now, albeit in a more urban area than before. But Colorado urbanism for a city guy is simply worse. It’s dirtier, louder and slower to get anywhere by electric bike. And, well, buildings look worse. The whole experience was downgraded for me. Colorado simply appeals to a different kind of person.

I’ve gotten swept into urbanist thinking now. I’ve read papers on the subject and studied maps. That sort of thinking came into my life right when I started college and the option of studying abroad became possible. And with my love of Boston urbanism it makes sense what continent I’m thinking about: Europe.

And so, with a general dislike of my current location and a vision of life in another I began to look into studying abroad as my solution, albeit temporary. My first observation was "wait, this is cheap". And indeed, my school told students that an exchange semester is likely cheaper than in-state tuition. My second became "wait, Utrecht has an exchange program". Utrecht, the city with the highest percentage of bike commuters. Utrecht, the city that consistently improves the urban space with an eye for pedestrians and bikers. And that’s not even mentioning how beautiful it looks. I would have paid more for Utrecht, but it was one of my cheapest options. And they even have urban planning classes I can take in English?

And so I signed up for the experience of living in a better city. Living out the urbanist dream. But I did not have any expectations beyond that.

link More Than I Bargained For

There’s something about studying abroad that appealed to me, too. My college is pretty tiny and doesn’t place well on global academic rankings. Utrecht University, on the other hand, has over 40k students and is top 50 in some rankings. I wanted to see how I would like a well-rounded top school, like going to a top state school in the US (or if those global rankings are to be taken at face value even an ivy league).

I’d say I got absolutely the best experience out of it a STEM kid could have hoped for. I came in with an open mind and got lucky with who I met. From there I met some great people that introduced me to a lifestyle I hadn’t even known I was missing. One full of casual meetups, weekly meals, clubbing and travel. They came from all over Europe. They were a big group of different, interesting people that I can now call friends.

My experience helped me understand what I was missing by spending all my free time programming something for a tiny audience. And when you pair that lifestyle with a dense urban area like Utrecht you get a real dynamic experience.

In just one day, I went from:

1. Going to Urban Planning class
2. Biking to the local Jumbo
3. Biking to a local seller that sold large roll up maps
4. Going to a friend’s place for drinks

And all that was spontaneous. Great people, city planning and public transit enables all that.

I went from thinking "Density lets me bike places" to "I love everything about cities".

link Pushing Myself

I very quickly identified the mentality that would help me get the most out of my 4 month experience. I would "do something new every day". That of course meant I would leave the flat every day, always on bike or foot. I logged 1.68 million steps during my time abroad, with an average daily over 15k.

And I didn’t need to force any of it. Utrecht is a vibrant area with a twice weekly farmers market, hundreds of small stores (like the 5 hours per week map seller I frequented), 13 museums within the city and beautiful streets and buildings that are worth visiting simply to see (recessed canals???). And duplicate that over the entire country (even the small villages like Houten). It was all easily within reach.

Using my Museumkaart I visited the:

• Spoorwegmuseum
• Centraal Museum
• University Museum Utrecht
• Museum Catharijneconvent
• Het Utrechts Archief
• Museum Speelklok
• Kasteel de Haar
• Diamant Museum
• Rijksmuseum
• Teyler’s Museum
• Royal Delft Museum
• Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen
• Zeeland Maritime Museum
• Textile Museum
• Mondriaanhuis
• Utrecht University Botanic Gardens
• Nationaal Militair Museum
• Philips Museum
• Nationaal Fietsmuseum Velorama
• Zuiderzeemuseum

And I mean it by "new". I rode nearly every intercity train in the Netherlands. I visited Baarle-Nassau, a small village and geographical fun fact. I walked (ran…) 4 kilometers to visit the Maeslantkering, the largest storm surge barrier in the world, and gunning even for the largest machine in the world. And if my plans were too ambitious I could always just walk around the streets and explore, watching the clock so I could gun it to my next city and still get back to Utrecht before the trains stopped running (and when, not if, I failed, there’s a certain unexplainable vibe you can only experience by getting stuck in an unfamiliar city).

But I don’t need to harp about my coverage. The GPS routes I took speak for themselves. They say there’s a difference between travel and vacation and, let me just say, I don’t need a margarita at the beach but I do need a kayak.

link Utrecht

The city I stayed in, and the one that shaped me the most throughout my study abroad experience.

Utrecht served as the hub for many of my bike adventures, precisely because the Netherlands is the most bike friendly country in the world. I wanted to prove it for myself, so I went on 2 large biking trips through the Dutch countryside along the dedicated biking paths (one to Montfoort and the other to Amersfoort).

With the friends I met abroad we would make dishes from our native country and share them (as a US southwester I went with enchiladas).

I branched out in other ways food wise, but not every one hit (like the "appelbollen" which contained creme, an unwelcome surprise coming from someone more experienced in apple pie). I also discovered doner kebab in Europe and, while German kebab is peak, I still ate kebab in every city I traveled to. Doner kebab with potatoes, or fries, is the best street food period.

I discovered a local school card seller, only open on Saturdays during inconvenient hours, through a friend who noticed a curious sign on a seemingly unused storefront. He knew I would be interested, and how right he was!

On my first visit I discovered that "school card" is a specific type of hangable poster, most commonly used for maps, and that school cards made before the 1980s were commonly paper on fabric. This style of map is not only durable and valuable but cheap and beautiful. An amazing combo for a map nerd on a budget. It became my weekly haunt if I were not traveling that day, which was not often. I continue to collect school cards now, most recently from Boulder, CO.

I went to immense lengths to take these maps home! While biking my widest map home I hit a bridge and was thrown to the side, luckily the map was protected by garbage bags!

The local school card seller was not the only hobbyist store I visited. I also found a model train store selling models of the very NS VIRM trains I was riding daily.

I tried to visit museums in Utrecht whenever I had time to myself and I wasn’t actively traveling. This exhibit was at the Centraal Museum and was dedicated solely to chairs (like the famous Rietveld chair made by a local). This chair was made out of a bunch of circuit boards!

I really loved my little city and I hope to return again, maybe even as a resident!

As a tribute to the train station that enabled all of my adventures, I also took a timelapse of Utrecht Centraal.

link Delft

A local city accessible by a transfer in Rotterdam. It was a great city for getting pottery, as the origin place of Delfts blauw this was no surprise, but the view from the Nieuw Church was also quite beautiful, showing Delft’s surprisingly precise grid pattern, unlike other large cities in the Netherlands.

It was a nice place to observe a small Dutch city’s urban planning in action.

link Lucerne

The first city I visited, after Zurich. It became my benchmark for a good trip.

Firstly, Burgenstock. The best views of my trip (approximately tied with Sirmione). Gives an authentic but spectacular taste of a swiss hike without spending too much time, if you prioritize other things in your travels. Also has the highest exterior elevator in Europe. My ÄSS BAR purchases were indispensible in getting me to the top without the elevator. The bus to the start of the trailhead is also fantastic, weaving through swiss farmland and on the edge of steep cliffs.

Meggenhorn Castle was also spectacular. I visited this at night, a poor idea, but it meant I got a beautiful view at the ferry terminal all to myself. I think I visited when the castle was hosting a private dinner for royalty and I had to tiptoe around. Rest assured if I visited this castle during the day I probably would have considered it the most beautiful view.

link Amersfoort

Amersfoort was a day trip haven for me. I went to a faw different sights there, like the Mondriaan House, but the vibe and proximity made it a destination for me. It was the destination of one of my long distance bike rides, with the fall leaves falling around me, and at the end I was rewarded with some freshly baked poffertjes in the square.

link Nice

This was a city I aimed to visit from the beginning, since it was an interesting logistical challenge to make it out there by train alone. It was also the French Riviera, widely considered one of the most beautiful places on earth. It was also importantly a place to escape the cold and rain of the Netherlands in winter.

On the train ride there (I took the Eurostar to Marseille then the local TER to Nice) I decided to get out early for an hour in Antibes. I enjoy getting off of trains early when I like the city or the terrain, one of the luxuries made possible by cheap and punctual train service.

In my neverending quest for lookout points I took the bus to the Fort du Mont Alban. On your tippy toes you can just about see the Nice skyline. Hopefully they open up the top of the castle for views eventually, because as is there’s a lot of trees obscuring the view.

One of my favorite day trips in Europe was visiting Monaco. Firstly, I took a detour at Eze which is the local tourist trap, you can get some nice limoncello there though. There’s also a very nice hike from Eze to the coast.

The urbanism of Monaco is striking (they have public elevators as replacements for stairs) and the view is unique. I’m saving Monte Carlo for when I improve at poker.

link London

London, while a late visit, became my favorite visited city in the world after this trip (even over Utrecht!). I love London’s history and how it has stayed true to that history even while growing, like keeping its historic businesses and rail network. It’s beautiful but also functional, a city that continues to serve the purpose its had for 2 millennia.

They’re just like me!

My favorite kind of food is actually British food as well. I know that’s an unpopular opinion but I like hearty food, like potatoes and beans, and British food specializes at that. This opinion is likely to change after visiting Japan, don’t worry!

I made the trek out to the Greenwich Observatory by Thameslink because I wanted to see the world’s geographic prime meridian. In actuality I enjoyed learning about the Greenwich Observatory’s role in the standardization of the world’s time more (the TIME talk was inspired by this visit). I also managed to capture 0 longitude, which is approximately 50 feet east of the line.

link Lake Garda (Italy)

This was, without a doubt, the most beautiful place I visited, and the hostel was very cheap too. I started with a quick detour to Verona.

I went to the Castelvecchio Museum in the middle of pouring rain, primarily to get dry. I learned that it was a small, local, art museum. The best part, however, was the view at the top. It’s a little bit of a maze up there but my extendable selfie stick got me the shots I couldn’t reach.

My hostel was in Peschiera. I rented an electric bike and rode from Peschiera to Sirmione to visit the Grotte di Catullo, the ruins of a Roman villa on the lake. The smell of olives and the mountains penetrated everything in this area. After I jaunted around in the south, I returned to Peschiera late at night to eat a pizza and walk on the shore. If I was allowed an extra day on any of my trips I would have chosen this.

link Amsterdam

Everyone knows Amsterdam. From my GPS tracks you might see that I spent surprisingly little time in Amsterdam. I enjoyed local dutch cities more and Amsterdam will be a repeat trip in the future anyway. I arrived in Schipol and stayed in an AirBnB in a old rowhouse with my family, that was the nicest accomodation I stayed in for 4 months!

The Rijksmuseum gave me an appreciation for Dutch art in particular. It is known for depicting more realistic, sometimes embarrasing, situations with an extreme level of expertise still.

The Diamant Museum was a decent place when you forget to book a Rijksmuseum timeslot. Royal Coster Diamonds is the company behind this museum and they’ve actually made a few of the diamonds in the Crown Jewels of British royalty, so they are the real thing!

I made it a priority to visit Kramer Kunst & Antiek. It is rather expensive but it’s a top tier place for a specific kind of souvenir: earthenware tiles. In 1650 Delft became the hub for the highest quality hand painted earthenware tiles. This store sells a huge variety of them, and some are cheap enough for a college student. It’s a resilient but beautiful gift.

As much as I enjoyed Utrecht, I cannot deny that Amsterdam is beautiful.

link Rotterdam

I loved Rotterdam for giving me the big city feel I felt was lacking in the Netherlands. Rotterdam is highly metropolitan but still has a lot of the urbanism I enjoy in smaller Dutch cities, like pedestrian only streets and row houses

I went to the Markthal for dinner. I already knew this was a highly popular indoor market for food, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were spots to eat above some restaurants, giving you a relaxing spot to peoplewatch. The building also has inward-facing windows, a really interesting architectural decision. The Kijk-Kubus houses are nearby, as well as a beautiful stretch of waterfront, so it’s a great nighttime spot.

The Maeslantkering is the largest storm surge barrier in the world. It also contains the largest ball and socket joint in the world, at a diameter of 10 meters. It’s one of the largest machines in the world, rivaling German mining machines. I visited by metro, which required a 4 kilometer jog (to get there before they closed), and my return trip involved a walk at dusk to get to the closest station. If you plan better than I did you can get a tour up close, but I had to suffice with a view from a nearby hill. it’s awe inspiring to see what us engineers can make when the world demands it, literally holding back 360 meters of the ocean’s fury, and since 1997 it has closed only once for a storm.

link Other Highlights

link Cats!!!

My personal policy is to pet every cat I see. That policy came into effect many times throghout my trips, they must also love the urban environment as much as I do.

link Trains!!!

I found that swiss trains generally stood uncontested as the most beautiful train rides in the world… if you had to force me to rank them though, I really do love all of them.

link Amersfoort Boulder

400 drunk guys drag a boulder multiple kilometers then bury it after being ridiculed. It’s a real "Dudes Rock" moment.

link Baarle-Nassau

A small Dutch village containing 30 enclaves with Belgium (and counter enclaves of the Netherlands). You can easily cross the border more than 10 times traveling in a straight line. During WWII this village had strategic importance for Belgium, who could station intelligence and artillery in their enclaves.

link ÄSS BAR

The only proper place for a college student to get lunch in Switzerland, you can’t afford anything else. They exclusively serve a selection of pre-made sandwiches and they do not make additional sandwiches throughout the day. This allows them to keep down the price. Make sure to grab a backup sandwich or two as well as a pastry… or two.

link Markets

They just do markets better in Europe. My recommended choices are:

• Markt Waisenhausplatz (Bern)

Surprising variety of pop culture items, more than any other market I saw (other than Camden Lock).

• Mercat de Colom (Barcelona)

Expensive and absolutely marketed for tourists but I have to shout them out because the painting I got for 10$ is really nice decor.

• Christmas Market at Zurich HB

Fills the entire main atrium and is a great thing to explore while waiting for the train. It has a surprising variety of non-western Europe goods.

• Christmas Market in Cologne

Right next to the Dom, it has a great vibe. My leather wallet came from here.

• Camden Lock Market (London)

Grungy market far outside of central London. Best for finding something that fits a unique aesthetic. Very dense and feels like an urban jungle.

• Market Vredenburg (Utrecht)

Close to Utrecht Centraal. I just liked grabbing cannolis from a place that imported them from Sicily.

The biggest thing to note is that markets generally sell region-specific goods, so go with the flow and purchase items local to the region or you’ll just get poor tourist imitations.

link Einstein’s House (Bern)

A disappointment for the size and quality of the information, but nothing beats the feeling of being in the place where Relativity: The Special and General Theory was conceived and published. The humble origin of a gamechanging idea.

link CERN (Geneva)

A must for an engineer or scientist. The stuff you could see on a public tour was not overwhelmingly exciting, but I was satisfied by the gift shop where I spent 100$ to get my favorite hat and mug, among other things. At least the tours are given by CERN engineers on rotation, so they will talk about in-progress work on CERNs infrastructure and capabilities. If you’re in Geneva there’s no reason not to go.

link The Centre for Computing History (Cambridge)

A large warehouse full of computing equipment, including most PCs from the 1970s to 2000. You can read the plaques or suffice to play the silly old games they have preinstalled on the computers. If you get sucked into them just remember you probably can emulate them online later, you should see more of Cambridge!

link Chianti wine tour (Italy)

Going on a wine tour in the Chianti region of Italy, south of Florence, gave me a new appreciation for the different kinds of wine. They’re also less expensive than you might think and, as long as you’re fine being in a large group and perhaps being herded like cattle, they’re pretty good. Our tour also let us see olive oil production!

link Dutch Parliament tour (Den Haag)

The official tours operated by ProDemos get you into the actual Dutch House of Representatives. This is essentially the same tour schoolchildren in the Netherlands are given. You don’t move around much so be prepared to spend all of your time asking questions and listening to answers.

link ASML (Eindhoven)

I’m extremely interested in past and current technological history, so a company that is essentially indispensible in the current industry interests me. ASML manufactures lithography machines for FABs, or chip fabrication factories. We started with a visit to the Philips museum, as the origin of ASML before it broke off, and ended with a bus ride to the ASML campus to take a look. We couldn’t, and shouldn’t, go inside so we were satisfied with a selfie.

link Skybar (Eindhoven)

As poor college students we absolutely did not belong in an expensive skybar meant for businessmen. The pictures were absolutely worth it though.

link Der Baumkronenweg (Germany)

This is a series of elevated bridges south of Fussen. The walk out here in the morning was extremely pleasant and, for a completionist like me, technically means I entered Austria!

link Gouda cheese shops (Netherlands)

Pronounced "Houda" in Dutch. Get some small cheese wheels when you visit and they become a great snack for the next week. Some shops have weird flavors like black truffle or whiskey.

link Teylers Museum (Haarlem)

The oldest museum in the Netherlands. It truly feels like a scientist’s laboratory inside, with all the old instruments and specimens. They even have Hendrik Antoon Lorentz’s real nobel prize here, if you want to know what one looks like up close.

link Lichtenstein

To my surprise Lichtenstein has a very distinct vibe from its neighbors, Switzerland and Austria. Go here for one of the most imposing mountain views I’ve ever seen and completionist country status. The train network is very poorly connected to Lichtenstein so it was a serious time commitment for me (I slept in Zurich HB but that’s another story entirely).

link Herge Museum (Louvain-la-Neuve)

Tintin is a very nostalgic comic for me and I still love the character, so I made the trek out from Brussels to see this. It’s a big museum you can spend a couple of hours in. There’s a metric ton of information about Herge’s approach to comics that is fascinating and explains why I love Tintin so much, from the attention to accuracy to the character building.

link Bosco Verticale (Milan)

An urban planning first, this residential skyscraper gives every resident a balcony with a maintained garden including trees. It’s debatable whether the idea truly succeeded because it’s essentially unaffordable for all but Milan’s richest politicians. I especially liked that the Wonderwoods project in Utrecht is being done by the same architect, and as my interest in Utrecht continues to grow even after I’ve left, I will be watching that project with interest.

link Pyramid of Austerlitz (Netherlands)

I biked out here from Utrecht. I came so late that there was no one on the pyramid with me, I had the place to myself for 30 minutes. You can just about make out both Rotterdam’s and Amsterdam’s skyscrapers from out here!

link Munich Residence

This surprised me because it was the most opulent place I had ever seen. It simply never ends, room after room of imported tapestries and gold covered picture frames with paintings of old Munich royalty.

link Neuschwanstein Castle (Germany)

This is an obvious tourist site, but it needs to be mentioned. King Ludwig II built this castle with the goal of making the true fairytale castle, and the amount of private commissioned art and gold plating suggests he achieved this goal. He never lived to see his most ambitious project completed, a shame for sure, but you can join the thousands of tourists in seeing it yourself. The best spots are actually Hohenschwangau Castle and the Marienbrücke bridge in my opinion, but the whole complex is worth a visit.

link Nationaal Fietsmuseum Velorama (Nijmegen)

This museum does a great job of establishing a narrative by showing bikes in chronological order, along with the country of origin. It’s a good compliment for the Netherlands as the biking country.

link Textile Museum (Tilburg)

This museum demonstrates the history of textile production to the modern day… by showing you the working machines! They have in-house artists that also make their pieces on the machines in front of you that you can buy. You might be surprised how advanced these machines are. Finally you can have the world’s most personal dishrag.

link Burgemeester Reigerstraat 47 (Utrecht)

This is the address of the "school card seller", some of which included maps. My regular visits to his temporary storefront (he only sold for a few hours every saturday) made me a fan of roll up maps, 3 of which I flew back to the US with me. I have since acquired 4 more and am now gradually building my collection.

link Poolcafé Hart (Utrecht)

A pool hall I frequented with friends. I became a fast fan and now I’m always at the table if the bar I’m at has one.

link Zaanse Schans

A neighborhood of Zaandam, in the Netherlands, where many historic windmills from all across the country were relocated in the ’60s. I quite enjoyed how the windmills were still being used for their original purpose in large part, like for log cutting.

link Zaandam Time Museum

This small museum paired well with my visit to the Greenwich Observatory. It’s next to the more famous collection of windmills in Zaanse Schaans but was still a worthy use of time. It then inspired my visit to Greenwich Observatory later.

link Lake Zurich kayaking (Zurich)

I found a small local seller who rented out kayaks. I had to wait around an hour for him to come but I was able to negotiate a cheap rental right then and there, very helpful! The resulting trip was my favorite kayaking trip ever, and I did it in record time, speedrunning so I wouldn’t waste too much time there.

Also, the elites don’t want you to know this but you can kayak through the tunnels on the Limmat river. Ask me how I know. My 360 camera unfortunately ran out of battery so I can’t provide any personal pictures but the tunnels do have an exit, well some of them do.

link SONMAT (Utrecht)

This Korean fast food fried chicken place became my favorite restaurant in Utrecht after I went in following a haircut. It was small and felt locally owned while also being cheap. Great times were had eating on the grass by the canal.

link Scheendijk (Breukelen)

This is a neighborhood of Breukelen, in the Netherlands, and if you know anything about Breukelen it makes perfect sense why this is the "cape cod" of the Netherlands. Breukelen was the historical commuter hub of Amsterdam, so very rich families live here. This is where the single family homes are, as most of the Netherlands comprises of row houses and town houses. Scheendijk in particular used to be a peat bog, mined out for fuel starting in the 1630s. The islands in this bog, called the Loosdrechtse Plassen, have summer homes separated by water. It looks interesting from the air so I made the trek out here and walked from Breukelen station (there are no buses, people out here have cars). The Netherlands, however, is always walkable so the houses closer to shore are accessible by foot.

link Other

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