this particular morning i woke up in rotterdam at six am to an unfamiliar techno alarm. i realized where i was and that today would be the grand finale in europe, brushed my teeth, and was out the door. sleepy eyed, and half-awake, i glimpsed at the map, bought my ticket, and jumped on the train to utrecht centraal.
because you need the equivalent of twelve dollars in change to purchase the train ticket, i had a variety of breakfast snacks for the ride there. i ate a glazed donut, sipped down some tasty soymilk, and dozed off for the remainder of the trip. when i arrived, i had to wait a few minutes for the bike rental to open.
i really, really wanted a picture of the gentleman who was operating the bike rental. he just screamed dutch biker. he was sporting the infamous beatles over-the-ear hairdo with a shag of bristly silver hair, wrinkles of wisdom, and tiny wire frame glasses sufficient to see only for someone with such beady eyes. he wore a well tailored light blue lab coat, tarnerished with shop grease, and stood about five feet and two inches tall. his dutch tainted english was raspy and patient. i was enchanted by this guy's style, which seemed to have been frozen sometime in the late sixties. on account of this, i did not think twice about the coaster brake cruiser that he rented me, even though there were thousands of bikes available.
in any case, i left my deposit, told the guy i'd be back in four hours, and rolled my department store cruiser up the little gutter built in adjacent to the stairs for bicycles. with a sense of urgency, a phrase my dad tried to ingrain in my head since i was a child, i pedaled swiftly down the bike lane in the direction of the sun, needing to head due east. as you can see from my route on the map, its not quite as simple as this, as rarely is there a street in a strictly cardinal direction.
it was cold as a cold hell, and i had no idea where i was actually going. this was reminiscient of the alleycat i did when i first moved in milwaukee, only this time i was riding with the sun in my eyes, without my balaclava or the insulation of a shot of jamison and a few pbr's. intuition can be a funny thing when you think you have it.
first on my list was the dom tower, the highest cathedral in the netherlands. it is pretty magnificent; it stands all alone as the rest of the nave was destroyed in a storm a few hundred years ago. this was a nice, easy find to kickoff this architectural scavenger hunt of sorts, and it gave me a certain sense of ignorance to the blistery weather.
i continued to ride for twenty minutes before i realized that i wasn't even really awake yet. you know that feeling when you get out of the shower in the morning in a drafty house and all you want to do is get back into bed? this thought soon overpowered my desire to tour utrecht. as my extremities tingled towards numbness, i began questioning what my options were.
i wasn't thinking so much; it was more like listening as a third party to the quarreling between the left and right hemispheres of my brain. mr. objective thought the best idea was to find the nearest cafe and burrow for warmth. mr. irrational, one stubborn son of a gun, questioned himself, but did not call off the mission. my legs continued a steady cadence waiting for a decision. needless to say, neurons were misfiring, and i was beginning to really wonder if this was the sort of daze that sets in with hypothermia.
i had lost any interest in trying to follow the map, unwilling to stop, favoring the chance that i would soon find some major landmark. at that point, it would make sense to locate where i was, thaw out, and recollect myself. i knew i was in trouble when i got into a labyrinth of a residential complex. all i needed was an open store. it was a white out, snow everywhere in this ghastly part of town, and there wasn't much in the way of businesses.
finally, i found a bus stop with a map. heavens to betsy it had a "you are here" sticker. if you revert to the first photo, i was somewhere around where my wrist would be (if it was pictured). i was several kilometers south of de uithof, the university of utrecht, at the far right. i blew hot air into my hands, told my feet to hang on, and got back on the bicycle, steering with fists curled up inside my inadequate gloves. i focused on keeping the sun to the right and my newfound sense of direction. i finally confirmed i was no longer lost when i saw the stadion galgenwaard ahead on the left. this sign was actually in the harbour of amsterdam, but is fitting for this particular blog.
within minutes there were signs for de uithof. when i reached the university, i locked my bike up to the first pole i saw and scampered into the building, b-lining it towards the bathroom. i jumped into a stall, not for the toilet, but to take off my shoes and socks and revive my feet. my bare feet were bright red; after several minutes, they returned to a normal complexion. after squatting in that stall for about thirty minutes, i went back outside and toured the university on foot.
there are some great buildings here, my favorite being the universiteitsbibliotheek by the dutch architect, wiel arets. it is a beautiful library, both inside and out. with glazed, papyrus stamped concrete, and the same graphic fritted onto the glass, the building has an organic texture on an otherwise very clean and open composition of spaces. the interiors are all black, the floors white, with a stark red upholstery on the furniture and desks. although this seems counter-intuitive in terms of a palette for a library, the spaces were all comfortably (and most naturally) illuminated. a full cover story can be found at on archinect at http://archinect.com/features/article.php?id=92824_0_23_0_M if you want to see more. below is one of my shots taken:
after bridging it over through the mazes of circulation in koolhaas's educatorium, i returned to the base of the bibliotheek for a hot slice of pizza. mmm, mmm, mmmmmm. this hit the spot and established what would be a mood of elation and excellent navigational skills for the remainder of my self-guided tour of utrecht.
on the way back, i visited the double house by mvrdv. i love this project. for those of you who are not aware, the exterior is made of a plywood that is traditionally not used as a building product. it is a process piece, coated with a resin, used for forming concrete, and ultimately disposed of. it allows for a very liberal facade, allowing windows to be placed where light is most needed. beautiful, right?
here's where my experience with bikes could have really helped me out. as i stood across the street photographing, my zoomed in lens caught an elderly gentleman on the first floor, visible behind a glass door, fiddling with something on his bicycle. like a window of opportunity to speak to a compelling girl gone by, i knew this would be a moment i would regret hesitating.
in one heartbeat, it made complete sense. why not introduce myself and see if i could offer some assistance with his bicycle? i justified that aiding his ailing bicycle and lavish praise for his home was a fair exchange for a tour of at least a single portion of the double house interior. in the next, this seemed like an absurd invasion of privacy.
how many perfect strangers came a-knocking on his door, asking to stroll through his house? right hemisphere, "these kudos came all the way from chicago, feasibly with a favor to offer in a time of need!" left hemisphere, "but it could be terribly offensive to suppose an old dutchman needs any help with his bicycle!" damnit, i thought to myself, just do it. this time mr. objective triumphed over my stubborn (and some would say better) half, which at this very minute, is still second guessing the verdict.
i begrudgingly headed back towards utrecht centruum, aware that i was in the right spot at the right time, and squandered the opportunity. even still, i was in a great mood, as the sun came up and raised the temperature to withstandable riding conditions. i passed a few more stops on my map on the trek back, the last one a square adjacent to the late enric miralles's deconstuctivist addition to the city hall, where took the following picture.
in my opinion this department store cruiser against a trash receptacle was a better photograph than his depiction of the monumentality of a medieval room incorporating the diverse conglomerate of residential utrecht...and you wonder why people stereotype architects as a lofty breed?!
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