Castella Me More

Arriving back in the Netherlands we resolved to go to the last few major cities we had not yet been to. This had the added bonus of going to our first major Roman site since we left the Danube which was very exciting.

After waking up in a beautiful lay-by we spent a little while exploring the local area and went over to this bunker. Created under the Nazi occupation it was moved here in 2017 which must have been such a faff given its 100 tonnes weight! I imagine that's why they didnt bother to straighten it up

Before going into Utrecht proper we stopped by one of the most exciting destinations of the day: Hoge Weord. This was one of three Roman Castella that were present in the Utrecht area and this one had an enormous Roman museum.

This boat, De Meers 1, was perhaps the coolest of their artefacts. Unusually converted it had a cabin on it for the skipper of the boat who had likely made it himself for his long journeys supplying grain to the Roman forts. This makes it exceptionally interesting because when it sunk in an accident, its cabin was covered in sand which preserved it in the forming bog excellently for over 2,000 years. The converted cabin that the skipper had made, with all his ad hoc solutions and handcrafted oddities, are quite reminiscent of the feeling of making Moira: not perfect but at least its your own.

The rest of the museum had some really good multimedia exhibits and was designed to look like a castellum as well. Extra roman points for that.

Since it was completely unadvertised we were stunned to find a petting zoo with donkeys, cats, pigs, guinea pigs, and these very cute bunnies.

Heading into the centre of Utrecht itself we enjoyed a nice bit of shopping around and some excellent Dutch streets criss-crossed with waterways. All of this brought us to the very centre of the city and its most famous landmark: the Dom.

Underneath the Dom was a multimedia exhibit, they love them here, in the ruins going back to the centre of the Roman fort and the several Churches that once stood on this site.

One particularly cool little bit was these ancient, literally, cat paw prints on some Roman roofing slabs.

We headed through a few more shops and then the 30 minute cycle back to Moira on the incredibly Dutch cycle lanes. Needless to say Utrecht is absolutely towards the top of our favourite cities.