17 –18 April ’04, Sat & Sunday. Friday we found this little village not far from our campground called de Bilt. It is really “quite charming” and the people are very helpful when called upon. Well, we call upon a lot !! Window shopping turned into all out shopping. We are trying to make our “home” our own and this can be somewhat trying. Our van is very small and sometimes, but not always, we are in each others way. But the truth is, we are really loving it. Grocery shopping is high on the list for today. We expect we will have to grocery shop about every other day because of the size of the van and especially with the refrigerator being so small. One thing we learned today (Sunday) is the grocery store is CLOSED !!! Live and learn…. Back to de Bilt, they enjoy a very peaceful existence just a few kilometers out of Utrecht. Everything around here is flat and has these canals rambling everywhere. The roads are very nice but become somewhat confusing when they start to co- mingle with the bike lanes which co-mingle with the pedestrian areas. The “freeways” around the main town areas are very busy and you will find grid lock at “rush” times. Friday we also ventured out to find a business that specializes in the needs for the “caravan” or as we call them the camp trailer. We bought a nice barbecue that folds up into it’s own small carrying case. Also on the list we needed and found gas for the stove as well as some kitchen items. Earlier in the day we purchased a couple of folding chairs and a table. Saturday we got up early and headed out to the internet café to do some web work and get some emails sent. Then we walked about being a tourist. By the end of the day we both found ourselves “walked out”. We had walked a ton and our legs were showing it. For dinner we had planned on a barbecue of left over sausage and Swedish pancakes. This may not sound great but it really hit the spot. This morning (Sunday) after fried eggs, pancakes, and coffee we headed out for another day of sightseeing. We walked out of our camp grounds and headed into town (about a 35-40 minute walk) and went to our appointment for a tour of the Dom Tower. The Dom of Utrecht had the first stone laid in 1254. It is built in the “Gothic” style. In the tour we climbed to the top of the tower which is 465 steps up and 465 steps down. This tower houses the 28 bells for the church. While there we were entertained with 2 ringing….load but really beautiful. The Dom was the cathedral, the main church of the diocese of Utrecht. In the Middle Ages, this diocese covered the major part of the present Netherlands, over 1,100 parishes. The construction of the entire cathedral complex took up more than 250 years to complete. After 1580 the Dom was no longer a Catholic cathedral because of the Reformation the Dom came into the hands of he Protestants, during which many statues and other ornaments were “removed or destroyed”. Less than a century later a tornado raging over Utrecht caused the nave of the church to collapse. The tower and the cathedral were separated and have never been rejoined. After walking out of the Dom we saw a open house at the De Universiteit Utrecht. We decided to join in on the fun and found that Sunday is the “Culturele Zondagen” or loosely translated to a day of culture for all who come by. Our first bit of culture was a wonderful presentation by the orchestra and a large choral groupe that entertained us with the classics. Afterwards, we found a brass quartet, and then wondered into a presentation of poems that were spoken in Dutch. We didn’t think we would get much from that so, with the walk back looking us in the face, having hiked the stairs of the Dom and, it started to rain, we headed back to the van. This will be our first time to go to the laundry room and catch up on the dirty clothes we’ve collected this week. We bought our coins for the washer and the dryer and headed out clothes in hand. All went according to plan until we went to dry the clothes in the dryer….WHAT DO YOU MEAN “IT DOES’T WORK?”. Now what do we do with two bags of wet clothes, no dryer, and being Sunday no buddy working to be of “service”. Tomorrow’s looking real good now…..rain or not!