From Bike Jams to Coffee Joints: Our Utrecht Experience

Exploring Utrecht and Amsterdam: Biking Culture, Local Foods & Unexpected AirBnB Woes | We Should Move Here Travels Podcast

Join Brittany and Josh in this latest episode of 'We Should Move Here' Travels podcast as they explore Utrecht and Amsterdam in the Netherlands. They delve into the unique bike culture, share their adventures on public transportation, and recount their experiences with vibrant local cuisine. While they rave about some incredible food spots and the welcoming community, they also touch upon unexpected issues with their Airbnb stay. Tune in as they assess whether Utrecht hits the mark for their potential new home and gear up for their next destination: Ghent, Belgium.

00:00 Welcome to the Travels Podcast

00:36 Exploring Utrecht and Amsterdam

00:48 Bike Culture in the Netherlands

02:40 Airbnb Woes and Local Cats

06:17 Coffee Culture and Cafes

09:00 Food Adventures in Utrecht

20:57 Grocery Shopping and Local Community

24:22 Yoga and Fitness Experiences

25:48 Yoga Studio Experience

26:55 Language and Community in the Netherlands

28:34 Political Climate and Social Issues

30:23 Cost of Living and Travel Plans

31:35 Public Transportation and Health

34:34 Reflections on Utrecht and Amsterdam

48:40 Final Thoughts and Next Destination

@WSMHtravels

Transcript

Brit 0:11

Hello and welcome to the We Should Move Here. Travels podcast. My name is Brittany.

Josh 0:16

I am Josh

Brit 0:17

and we are your host. We are currently in Utrecht the Netherlands.

Josh 0:24

Mm-hmm.

Brit 0:24

And it's been a really great trip so far.

Josh 0:27

Yeah. Yeah, it has been. Getting to explore and travel around a new country always something I look forward to.

Brit 0:34

Yeah, me too.

Josh 0:35

Yeah.

Brit 0:36

so we are staying in Utrecht. But we also have been to Amsterdam, which is about a 30 minute train ride from Utrecht. So we got to explore that as well.

Josh 0:48

Yeah, as far as getting around between the two cities and in the cities, the public transportation and just how everyone that lives here gets around has been incredible. The bike culture,

Brit 1:02

oh my gosh, I wasn't expecting that. Like the bike culture is wild. Mm-hmm. There are way more bikes than cars.

Josh 1:11

They're insane. It's kind of like the Wisconsin gun culture, but, or

Brit 1:17

what

Josh 1:17

It's kind of like the United States gun culture, but with bikes for every one citizen. There's like two bicycles here. Yeah.

Brit 1:26

I mean, at least. Yeah, there's a crazy amount of bikes on the street, just like parked on the side. Mm-hmm. There's a wild amount of bikes parked.

Josh 1:35

Yeah. If there's a light post or a fence or, the standard bike parking areas they mm-hmm. Are full over full and they still have all these bike parking garages that you see on social media and they're insanely full. And you don't get car traffic jams here. You get bike traffic jams.

Brit 1:55

You do? Yeah. We got caught in a couple of them. Mm-hmm. Because we've been riding the bikes. Yes. We got to. Explore with some electric bikes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So

Josh 2:03

we've been using the dot, I'm pretty sure it is. Mm-hmm. the.app. Yeah. And riding those around, which has been pretty fun. Very similar app to like the Lime and all that. Very similar app. Very obviously similar way to use them. But yeah, it's been incredible to be able to explore the, around the city as much as we have with being able to use those and experience the culture in that way.

Brit 2:27

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Oh, for sure.

Josh 2:29

So why don't we just go ahead and kind of say what we think about Utrecht and the Netherlands so far.

Brit 2:35

Okay.

Josh 2:35

You wanna do that? Yeah. Yeah. You wanna go first?

Brit 2:38

Well, um,

Josh 2:39

go ahead. Be honest. I

Brit 2:40

really hate and despise this Airbnb. I despise it.

Josh 2:47

Why do you hate and despise this Airbnb?

Brit 2:50

It wreaks of cigarettes. No hate to cigarette smoke smokers, but we don't smoke and I have asthma and it's just not great. Not a great situation. So we've cracked the windows every single night. We have one more night left here.

Josh 3:08

Mm-hmm.

Brit 3:09

And we just found a massive spider outside of the windows that we have cracked. It is massive. And now we can't crack the windows, so well, we're gonna, everything's gonna smell like smoke. We're gonna smell like smoke, and my lungs are gonna inhale all this smoke smell. And I hate it.

Josh 3:31

Yeah. It's, um, not great. As soon as we opened the door, we walked in the first day we were here and the smell of cigarettes has just been there the entire time. I thought for sure that we would get used to it, but no, every day, every night. And we even sent a message to the Airbnb host. And he's gonna give us a little bit of a refund for it. But

Brit 3:58

yeah. And he seems really nice. But

Josh 4:00

yeah, he's been a, he's been a great gentleman, but yeah, either him or a previous tenant might have been heavy into smoking cigarettes. And it's not, it's not marijuana, it's cigarettes.

Brit 4:14

No, it is cigarettes for sure. Yeah.

Josh 4:17

And yeah, it's gross. It's sticking to our clothes, it's sticking to the blankets. To do our best to sound dampen This room, we have a couple blankets and stuff hanging around the walls, and it's just mm-hmm. Even more noticeable. With those hanging up.

Brit 4:38

Yeah. So the smell in this Airbnb particularly is just really gross. But also I really don't like the spider that lives outside. There is a cat that is outside every day when we walk out and adorable. She's really, really cute. Mm-hmm. She, like, the first time we saw her, she came up and like snuggled on my leg a little bit. It was so cute. Mm-hmm. But yeah. So there are cats everywhere.

Josh 5:08

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. They're, they're very much around, like you said, we got the one directly outside the Airbnb door that just hangs there. There's one not too far down the street that's kind of across the street from a, a church. And then throughout Utrecht there's. Like free roaming cats that

Brit 5:26

Yeah.

Josh 5:27

That seem really nice.

Brit 5:29

Yeah. And they all seem really happy and loved. Mm-hmm. So,

Josh 5:32

mm-hmm.

Brit 5:33

Yeah.

Josh 5:34

There's been a couple of coffee shops that we've gone to as well, that have a cat that just hangs out inside him.

Brit 5:40

So when he says coffee shop, he means cafe. Oh,

Josh 5:43

yes. Cafes not

Brit 5:44

cafe, because there's a difference there. Mm-hmm.

Josh 5:47

Mm-hmm.

Brit 5:48

A coffee shop is where they sell weed. Mm-hmm. But a cafe is where you sit and have coffee,

Josh 5:55

but it has to specifically say coffee shop.'cause the name of the place can have coffee.'cause there's a good one down the street called Coffee and Iic or Coffee and IK

Brit 6:05

Yeah.

Josh 6:06

Normal coffee place.

Brit 6:07

Well, I hope so. We went there this morning. I'd be feeling it by now,

Josh 6:11

but if it's says, I think if it's says Coffee shop though, that's the one that's got, that's gut marijuana.

Brit 6:17

The coffee culture here is incredible. It's so good. I have not had a bad iced coffee here. I don't think at all.

Josh 6:26

Yeah. I've tried all of your iced coffees. I've had mostly, what have I been having?

Brit 6:33

You have had some matcha. You also, you had that one lavender ice latte.

Josh 6:42

Oh, I did have that one. Yes. That was

Brit 6:43

incredible. Mm-hmm. That was so good. Mm-hmm.

Josh 6:45

That's a good one. I feel like that's a pretty common lavender. Ice latte. Pretty common thing. I

Brit 6:50

think that was at the place called 30 mil.

Josh 6:53

It is. Yep. Yeah, that was it. Yep. That was very good.

Brit 6:56

That was really good. Um, very

Josh 6:58

lavender forward. So

Brit 7:00

yeah, there were little lavender pieces in there. But the coffee culture is really good here. I do appreciate that. Iced coffee seems to be readily available, at all places. We are still in kind of a bigger city, even though Amsterdam is probably the biggest city in the Netherlands, we are in Utrecht, which is also a big city.

Josh 7:24

Yeah. Yeah. I've enjoyed it all the espressos and matcha and lattes, I've been kinda trying little bits of everything where I can go. So some hot, some cold but it's been, it's been really enjoyable.

Brit 7:38

Yeah. And there's a lot of places that are really walkable or bikeable near us.

Josh 7:44

Yeah.

Brit 7:44

We've been taking the bike to a lot of cafes and restaurants and places to eat.

Josh 7:50

Yeah. Yeah, we're, we're staying in this Airbnb in, uh, Lombok West of Utrecht, and it is very. Family kind of oriented area. Lots of families. Some young couples. Uh, we spent, I think it was the second night we were listening to a group having a, a nice party over here.

Brit 8:13

Oh. They were having a time. They were having a time. I was like, can we hop over there? That sounds so fun. But no, they were up for a long time. They were, that night they were up until at least like 3:00 AM

Josh 8:27

Yeah, I was gonna say, I fell asleep and woke up. It was pretty early and they were still going. So,

Brit 8:31

and then we went for a walk in the morning. Mm-hmm. And there was like beer bottles everywhere. There was Yeah. By the place

Josh 8:37

there, there's still a cardboard box where they're all stacked up nicely inside of it over there. So, and

Brit 8:42

then that night after they had another party. Mm-hmm. So it was like a, a multiple day thing.

Josh 8:48

Who knows what they were celebrating. But I, I was just love that for them. I, I was just saying the fact that it's a family area,'cause there's, there's a lot of nice restaurants and coffee shops, like you said, and very walkable.

Brit 8:59

Yeah.

Josh 9:00

and speaking of nice restaurants, the food here has been incredible. I have enjoyed, I think just about everything we have tried.

Brit 9:10

Yeah. I haven't tried something that I didn't like.

Josh 9:12

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I will say that there hasn't been a ton of what I would think is like local cuisine or like Dutch specific.

Brit 9:24

We had bitter ballin.

Josh 9:26

Mm-hmm.

Brit 9:27

Which is a deep fried kind of meat pie thing. Mm-hmm. but we had a vegan version. Which was delicious. It was really good. Yeah.

Josh 9:38

We had stroop waffles.

Brit 9:39

Stroop waffles. That's a thing. Yeah. Those are good. They're really sweet.

Josh 9:44

Yeah. Very sweet. Mm-hmm. Nice little snack though. I feel like, uh, a lot of the food that's been available has been of. Wide variety. You know, it wasn't very Dutch specific or, or Thai, Asian cuisine. German. We've had little bits of everything. And it hasn't been intentional, it's just what's available. Very diverse community here.

Brit 10:06

Yeah. It's been fun to try new things and, you know, never really knowing what to expect with your next meal. Yeah. So, yeah. That's been really great. What's been your favorite restaurant?

Josh 10:17

Oh man. I would have to say on our food tour that we went on, which was a vegan food tour, but on the food tour we went on. There is a restaurant called Copper Branch.

Brit 10:31

Mm. They had a vegan burger.

Josh 10:33

Mm-hmm.

Brit 10:33

Oh, this burger was so delicious. It had, you wouldn't think this would work, but it does. It had raspberry jam and a garlic mayo all vegan along with the burger. And it was melt in your mouth. Delicious. It was so freaking good. You gotta go here. I know. If you're not vegan, we're not vegan. And we loved it.

Josh 10:55

Yeah.

Brit 10:55

Loved it.

Josh 10:56

It was delicious. And then we went back the next day'cause the tour gave us a little coupon booklet and so we went back and we had a nice iced tea and we had a sandwich and a vanilla shake.

Brit 11:10

Mm-hmm.

Josh 11:11

Vanilla protein shake. And that was all delicious. It was. That was one of my favorite restaurants we'd go into. Probably my favorite one. What about you? Did you have a favorite?

Brit 11:21

my favorite place that we went to was Jasmijin and Ick. So J-A-S-M-I-J-N, and IK. This place was so good. I say that a lot, but it really was it was a Asian Thai cuisine. Mm-hmm. And they had this meal for two where they surprised us with what they weren't gonna bring out. So that's what we did, obviously. And we had a green curry chicken. Mm-hmm. That was amazing. But my favorite thing about that meal was the soup. There was like a, a green, vegetable, but very spicy kind of soup.

Josh 12:10

Yes.

Brit 12:11

That was delicious. It definitely made my nose run a little bit. It was a little spicy, but it was so good that.

Josh 12:20

And that was the very first meal when we had, when we got here, we, I

Brit 12:23

know, and we were so jet lagged. We're probably still a little jet lagged. Honestly. This has been jet lag here has been a little insane.

Josh 12:31

I was gonna say the recovery has been like nothing we have ever experienced before.

Brit 12:37

No.

Josh 12:38

I just, I can't get over how, how hard it's been.

Brit 12:42

Yeah. I mean, that first day we got here in the morning at nine or 10, and then we were so tired. I got no sleep on the plane, so we slept for eight, nine hours

Josh 12:58

about that. Yeah.

Brit 12:58

And then we went and had this meal and then we came back and slept a little more until the next morning. And then we tried to recover, but it just didn't work out the way we thought it would.

Josh 13:10

No. It was a rough time. I wouldn't say we didn't plan it well. We just did not have the energy to push through that first day when we landed here. We were both so tired from the travel day.

Brit 13:25

Yeah. Which, I mean, it's only eight hours we've done longer.

Josh 13:30

Mm-hmm.

Brit 13:31

But gosh, this was a lot.

Josh 13:33

I think because of. Just the anxiety of how long this trip was gonna be, um, having all the plans for the podcast.

Brit 13:43

Mm-hmm. All

Josh 13:44

the thoughts, the ideas, everything we wanted to do, that all just contributed to us being a little more anxious, a little more hyped up for the trip. And also on the plane ride here, we were in the very back of the plane last row against the toilets, the back. So the ch the chairs didn't lean back. It was

Brit 14:04

so uncomfortable. It

Josh 14:05

was, it was.

Brit 14:07

Yeah,

Josh 14:08

so that was rough, but I was gonna say,'cause I just pulled up the picture. That meal that we had, the watermelon with peanuts. Crumble on top of it was spices.

Brit 14:20

Mm-hmm. That

Josh 14:21

was memorable.

Brit 14:22

Yeah. There was a spicy sauce on it and it was like cubed watermelon. Mm-hmm. With that spicy sauce. And there was definitely a li some lime juice in there too. Mm-hmm. Delicious. So good. Oh my gosh. We gotta go back there. We should go back there. We should go back there tonight.

Josh 14:40

We may, we will. We do have groceries that we bought. We got a salad. We have, we have a salad. Yeah. That was a great, that was a great restaurant. As far as a funny food story, when we went to Amsterdam, we got. Fries from, from the place on your food wishlist. What was the name of it?

Brit 15:00

It was Fabel Friet.

Josh 15:02

Fabel Friet. we got these fries after 20, 30 minute wait, went off to the side to buy a canal and we're eating these fries. All of a sudden we just hear A and Brittany looks and there's bird poop

Brit 15:18

on our fries. The bird shit on our fries. Oh.

Josh 15:23

We each got like five fries before this and we're like, oh, this is really good. And then it bird shit

Brit 15:28

out. Yeah.

Josh 15:30

Oh.

Brit 15:31

It was really unfortunate.

Josh 15:32

And they were good fries. I will say though, after that, walking around, there are these fries places everywhere.

Brit 15:40

Yeah.

Josh 15:41

I'm sure Fabel and Friet, great fries, but these fry places are on lots of streets and lots of'em don't have lines.

Brit 15:52

Yeah, you don't have to wait in line at Fabel Friet. You can find good fries really anywhere. But

Josh 16:00

where you do can wait in line or where you should wait in line.

Brit 16:03

Where you should wait in line is Chun Chun sandwiches. Mm-hmm. That was worth the hype. Totally worth the hype. These sandwiches were absolutely incredible. They were mouth watering. We talked to the guy when we were waiting mm-hmm. Before we got in. Mm-hmm. And this guy said that his favorite sandwich there was the ribeye bulgogi, and that's what I ended up getting. And he said to add avocado onto it because it makes it less sweet and kind of counteract that a little bit. So that's what I did, and it was delicious that way. I would definitely recommend that. And then you got the garlic shrimp egg. Mm-hmm. One that was also really buttery. And so delicious as well. Yeah. And the bread is like, so, it's so fluffy. Mm-hmm. And thick. Mm-hmm. It's a thick piece of bread. Mm-hmm. We were full after that. We were only gonna do one sandwich, but then we were like, well. Come on, we're here. We're not gonna be back here, so we should do two sandwiches, which was a mistake because then we couldn't eat as much as we wanted the rest of the day. But whatever, it was worth it.

Josh 17:13

Our foodies took over and ruined the rest of the food day for us. So, but they were delicious. They were that that was a good meal. Yeah. But like you said, we, we it ruined the day for us, but we came back and had more food two days later. I'm pretty sure we hit every single food spot that you had marked.

Brit 17:33

We did. Mm-hmm. Yes. I would also recommend going to Lourens bakery. Mm-hmm. That place was really great too. It was a really fancy vibe inside. And they had cookie croissants. We got a pistachio cookie. Croissant. So delicious. So sweet. So pistachio white chocolate. What mark did you ask for? Can't ask for anything else, right?

Josh 17:58

You can't. It was delicious. It was,

Brit 18:00

yeah. And they also had a really good ice latte.

Josh 18:03

They did. They did. Yeah. And all these places, out of all these places, Chun had the longest line.

Brit 18:11

Yes. We waited for maybe a half an hour.

Josh 18:15

Well, we probably were that 45 minutes. Yeah, 45 minutes. We probably were. And then we, we decided to sit down inside for that. Uh, a lot of people, uh, take to go, but they said it was about the same wait time. So we sat down. And it is a small place and most of these places are really small just because of the old architecture here. Mm-hmm. It's really small buildings.

Brit 18:35

our one tour guide said that the houses are very thin and long because taxes used to be on the width of the house mm-hmm. Rather than the actual, like, size of the house. Yeah. It used to be on just the width. Mm-hmm. So there's a lot of really long and thin townhouses.

Josh 18:54

Yeah. I'm trying to think if there were any super noteworthy foods or meals. Noteworthy. Noteworthy. Um, that's a

Brit 19:04

new girl reference. If you don't,

Josh 19:06

I would probably just say that the vegan food tour that we did Was amazing for multiple reasons. Mm-hmm. Our guide, Tessa did a fantastic job. She was very knowledgeable. She's a local, lived here her whole life.

Brit 19:26

Mm-hmm.

Josh 19:27

And got to lead us around the city to some parts that most tourists probably never see unless they have someone taking'em around.

Brit 19:36

Mm-hmm.

Josh 19:37

cause we spent a couple days here before we got to do the tour. We had planned it to be the second day, but because we were the only ones that booked it for that day, they had us move it to a couple days later, which is fine. But even us walking around those first days, we didn't find some of the areas that she led us to and they were really fun and. The one part that I love, that I remember was the street that they have started the poem on the street and every Saturday they etch in a single letter.

Brit 20:13

Mm-hmm.

Josh 20:14

And it's along the whole street.

Brit 20:16

Yeah. So Utrecht citizens do not know what this poem is going to say. Mm-hmm. And they can like guess what it's gonna say. Mm-hmm. Um, but nobody knows. So it's gonna take hundreds of years to finish this poem. Mm-hmm. Um.

Josh 20:31

Well, depending on how long the poem is, no one knows how long it's,

Brit 20:34

oh, yeah. But we saw one little brick that said 2070. Mm-hmm. So we're assuming that it goes there at 2070. Mm-hmm. So

Josh 20:45

at least another, we are not

Brit 20:46

explaining this well.

Josh 20:47

We got, I, we got a picture of it, but but that was pretty cool. I enjoyed that part. And again, that food tour in general was a really nice food tour.

Brit 20:56

Yeah.

Josh 20:57

As far as grocery stores, we're fortunate enough to have a supermarket. Attached to our building.

Brit 21:04

Mm-hmm. It's right next door. Yeah.

Josh 21:06

Yeah. So we, and we didn't know that going into it. We just showed up and, oh here's a grocery store. So we've been able to go in there and get some snacks. Like I said, we got some stuff for some salad that we're gonna have our a tuna salad tonight. And overall, as far as ingredients, what's available in pricing, everything seems very comparable in price and just about everything's available. I don't think there's anything we're missing. There are some things that are niche to the United States that won't be here and aren't here, but nothing that we wouldn't be able to handle.

Brit 21:45

Yeah. I mean, we would have to find some Caesar dressing. Oh yeah, again, us with the seed or salad. Um, but we didn't find that anywhere, but we'll see how the dressing is that we got tonight. Mm-hmm. I think it's a dill mustard dressing, so yeah. I'm excited about that. Yeah. As far as grocery stores, there are grocery stores everywhere, so, and I think certain grocery stores carry different things and some of them were bigger or smaller, so. Mm-hmm. Really just depends on which one you go in. But they all have like a bakery section, produce snacks, freezer, frozen meals, things like that. So,

Josh 22:26

we even walked into an Aldi's.

Brit 22:28

We did. Mm-hmm. There's an Aldi here. Yeah.

Josh 22:30

Mm-hmm.

Brit 22:30

I did buy a pair of jeans here. Mm-hmm. So there's some inclusivity here with like sizing and stuff. Maybe you have to search a little bit. If you're not, if you're like over a size 10 in women's jeans, just because. People here are very tiny

Josh 22:49

and tall. And

Brit 22:51

tall. Yeah. All of the jeans were like way too long on me.

Josh 22:54

Dutch people are so tall.

Brit 22:57

Yeah, for sure. But I mean, you can find it. Yeah, you can find it. There's a lot of shopping districts and areas in Utrecht As far as a sense of community and belonging, I do feel like I saw a lot of that here. I think that people have distinct communities that they're already a part of or involved in.

Josh 23:20

there does seem to be some very tight knit groups. Like we said, the area that we are in currently is very family forward. Yeah. So there is a bunch of what seems like parent groups that are connected and kid groups that are connected with all the biking. We've seen a lot of bikes that have plastic baskets in the front of the bike. Not small baskets like we have in the us, but massive baskets kinda like sidecars for motorcycles and parents pedal their kids to school and there's a lot of parents that pedal alongside their kids, like on their own bikes going to school. We've seen that a ton.

Brit 24:02

Mm-hmm.

Josh 24:03

Again, to community. We've seen groups of kids, groups of parents with their kids. So it just seems like a very family oriented area that we are in. We've seen a lot of, yeah, a lot of friend groups. We talk about the party. Obviously there's a little bit of a drinking culture, a little bit of a party culture here, which is cool. We've gone to yoga while we've been here. Uh, that was yoga moves and they have several locations. Very friendly. We enjoyed ourselves there quite a bit.

Brit 24:35

Yoga moves was incredible. Mm-hmm. Our second class was at the Flow studio, fly studio and yeah, the fly studio and our instructor was absolutely incredible. Mm-hmm. The first one was great too, but the second one was like, I was. Listening to a yoga video. Mm-hmm. She was so great. And I did not feel judgment from others in either the fly studio or the hot studio. Mm-hmm. Because we tried them both. The hot studio, I will say, wasn't as hot as what we usually

Josh 25:11

Yeah.

Brit 25:12

Do. Mm-hmm. Um, so I would say it was warm. Maybe low nineties.

Josh 25:18

Yeah. High eighties. Yeah.

Brit 25:19

Yeah. So it was warm, but it wasn't hot, which is what we're used to. and it didn't have infrared light, which I really appreciate in our studio. But. It was just really great. Being involved in both of these classes and in both of these studios, I think I was somewhat nervous about us going to a yoga class and being really judged for being an outsider and we didn't have that.

Josh 25:47

Yeah. Yeah. We didn't at all. The instructors, like you said, were great. They were very helpful in getting us set up because each yoga studio is a little different where you lay your mat, where you looking. We borrowed mats from them, which was very nice. They allowed us to do that. Allowed lots, borrow yoga towels. There were people inside the classes where when we didn't have the correct equipment with us, both had people that helped us out, just other patrons of the yoga studio, so mm-hmm. That felt like a piece of community that was very accessible.

Brit 26:20

Yeah. Mm-hmm. And I think I could see us going to those studios Oh, often. Mm-hmm. I could see us doing that.

Josh 26:27

They, they were very nice. They were well maintained, very clean studios, so, yeah. And they even had, well, I'm not sure about the women's side, but the men's side, they, there was showers in there, so

Brit 26:39

Yeah. The women's side had that too. Yeah. Yeah.

Josh 26:41

So that's not something that we have, not that we would, we're close enough to'em. And we were close enough here that we just quick bike back and took a shower, so. Mm-hmm. Um, but yeah. So the community there was very open and friendly.

Brit 26:54

Yeah.

Josh 26:55

We didn't, as far as a language barrier, there were a couple times where. People didn't speak English or didn't have a lot of English vocabulary to carry on long conversations with, but the majority of people spoke English very well and we were able to have long conversations with.

Brit 27:17

Yeah. And there were several times where we pulled out Google Translate and read things or tried to communicate in that way too which was very easy. Easy to do. Yeah. So,

Josh 27:30

so I mean, overall, I think if we were committed to being here long term, I think it would be something we would obviously learn a bit of Dutch, but it wouldn't be something that we would have to become completely fluent in. And I don't think it would inhibit our ability to make friends or be more integrated into the community.

Brit 27:51

No, I don't think so either. I think there's, uh, plenty people who speak multiple languages. Our tour guide in Amsterdam we did this boat tour and our tour guide said that he knows five different languages. And he learned all of these languages when he was in school grade school. So I think he learned like three. When he was in elementary, middle school, and then two more in high school, uh, which is really cool to see the difference mm-hmm. In their education.

Josh 28:23

Mm-hmm.

Brit 28:24

Uh, I certainly wish I knew more languages than just the one, but we'll work on that. Yeah.

Josh 28:31

No, it, it was really cool to see that. And we met through a couple different tours, various people, very educated and very friendly to talk to, and it kind of, I leans into a little bit like the political climate and, and how we connected with people personally. And it seemed like everyone was. Fairly happy with the state of affairs here in the Netherlands.

Brit 28:59

Yeah.

Josh 29:00

But in other parts of Europe, while we've been here, there have been protests. Whereas here everyone has been. It seems like good with the status quo of the politics. There have been some Palestine and Gaza protestors, but other than that, as far as how the government operates here, it seems like everyone's happy or content.

Brit 29:27

Yeah. And the protestors, it did seem like they were very safe. Mm-hmm. Um, sometimes with protests it can, in America it can feel unsafe mm-hmm. Um, to be a part of a protest, but it did seem like they all felt safe and they just wanted to get their point across. Yeah. Yeah.

Josh 29:49

And I think that the political climate also goes into the LGBTQIA plus community and how comfortable they are. And it seems like they're very comfortable.'cause walking around here in Utrecht and in Amsterdam, we saw a lot of people that were out and holding hands. Mm-hmm. And you know, it just seemed like a place full of love.

Brit 30:13

Yeah. Yeah. Didn't seem like anyone was giving them any hate or anything like that, so, yeah, really great to see that. As far as the cost of living. This was the most expensive Airbnb that we have for this whole trip. So we're gonna be here in Utrecht, and then we're going to be, if you listen to our last episode, you already know. Um, but we're going to also go to Gent Belgium, which yesterday we had learned that it is Ghent. Did I say that right? I

Josh 30:48

think, yeah. Ghent, you did pretty okay.

Brit 30:51

We got made fun of a little bit for, not for saying Ghent, And then we will be in Augsburg, Germany, and then Graz. Mm-hmm. Austria. So that is this whole trip. Hopefully none of them smell like cigarettes, none of the other ones.

Josh 31:05

Hopefully it, it does seem like quite a few people smoke here.

Brit 31:08

So many everybody smokes here, but I think that's like a Europe thing. Everybody smokes.

Josh 31:14

Yeah.

Brit 31:15

I, I don't, I don't know.

Josh 31:17

Very interesting considering like everything else as far as their healthcare, which they have good healthcare. Yeah. I mean, we have seen an abundance of ambulances, so. I assume access to quick healthcare. Is there. As far as the public transportation, we were talking about the bikes. All their public transport, or almost all of it is now electrical. Our tour guide on the boat tour in Amsterdam explained that there was a deadline for everyone to have their boat switched over to electrical motors and be no longer diesel. He said that there were a few out there still that needed to be switched over, but for the most part people had switched over to electric motors. Yeah, yeah. So as far as kinda health forward and planet forward stuff, it's interesting that the Netherlands overall is doing very good things to switch over to electric power and renewable power. But then everyone smokes. So not that those are directly hand in hand, but I think typically you see, you know, health for planet, health for people kinda interlock.

Brit 32:35

Yeah. It's very interesting. Yeah.

Josh 32:38

But I mean it's felt safe here. It's felt clean. There were multiple times we were walking outside and we're like, this air's good. but it's been really nice to. Be in on as much of the health of a place as we have been here. Mm-hmm. As far as biking, walking, public, transportation, food, just the healthcare system. We've kind of been deeper into this than we have in any, any other country we visited. And it's really cool to see.

Brit 33:10

Yeah. And we're looking at it, I think, in a different way. Public transportation blows my mind. If we lived here, we would not need a car.

Josh 33:19

Oh, no way.

Brit 33:20

And the actual thought of that just, it blows my mind.

Josh 33:23

I know. But there's the grocery store right next door. There's grocery stores within walking distance. There are those bikes, like I said, that have the baskets. You could easily bike, get your groceries, put'em in the basket. Mm-hmm. Bring'em back. It's

Brit 33:37

so easy.

Josh 33:38

So easy. And they make it easy for bikes. They make it easy for public transportation. The car culture, like the people who drive cars here, must have nerves of steel.

Brit 33:50

Mm-hmm.

Josh 33:51

cause we talked to several of our guides and several people here. And no matter what the fault is on the driver of a vehicle, if they hit a pedestrian, if they hit a biker, doesn't matter if the biker was in the wrong. They said it's on the vehicle. And bikers are everywhere now. Most of the time. Just about everywhere. There are specific bike lanes and there's specific car lanes, so you're very separate.

Brit 34:16

Yeah. But there's stop and go lights for bikes. Mm-hmm. And some bikers will blow past mm-hmm. On a red light.

Josh 34:22

And I think it's'cause they know of this rule. They're like, I don't care. Like it's on that car to stop. Not me. Which is a little nuts, but it's, we always stop. Yeah. Oh, I'm not brave enough. It is so cool to see a city set up the way this one is for the people.

Brit 34:41

Yeah, I agree. I do love the city. I really love the public transportation. I love the food. It's been a great foodie spot, I think for us. Great food spot. I'm so glad that we came. Mm-hmm. I wish we were in a different Airbnb, but it is what it is. However, I don't really whatcha laughing at

Josh 35:03

just the amount of time we're spending on this Airbnb. It really does affect the whole place.

Brit 35:08

It really does. It affects, it affects your ability to get rest. Mm-hmm. And then to be able to go explore. Um, but anyways, I don't. See us here. I don't, no, I think that there's a lot of things that we really like, like, and we didn't even touch on water being safe to drink. Mm-hmm. I mean, it is super filtered, very safe right out of the tap.

Josh 35:32

the climate's great, wonderful climate's. We, we've loved the weather. We've worn layers. all be it, it is September, so does fall. But it's been nice, you know, it's periodic rain, some wind, but it's been in the sixties, which is wonderful. Lots of great things.

Brit 35:50

Yeah. A lot of really good things. But I also, it's not one that I would put in my top three.

Josh 35:58

Yeah. It doesn't feel like home.

Brit 35:59

There's no, it's not a drawing. Mm-hmm. Kind of feeling Yeah. That I got in the other places. Right. That I have in the top three. Yeah. To push Portree from number one. For me, it's gotta take a lot. Mm-hmm. And this is not even close.

Josh 36:15

Yeah. And, and I don't want to poke at something. But you had such high hopes for the Netherlands.

Brit 36:23

I really did. Yeah. I thought that this was going to be, honestly, I thought maybe the Netherlands would be the place, but It's not, at least, at least Amsterdam and Utrecht are, is not

Josh 36:36

right.

Brit 36:36

I love it here, but it's just not what I thought it would be.

Josh 36:41

And our focus has been on Utrecht. We picked this city and did the research on this city because it had so many things in our criteria and it's hit lots of them. But it just doesn't, it doesn't have that feel. And it's something where you were so hyped up for it and ready for it. And it just, it, like you said, it doesn't have that draw.

Brit 37:06

No. I mean, I need, in order to make it worth it to move to. A new place. Leave our friends, our family, everything behind, and take what is only in our suitcases mm-hmm. To move to another country. Mm-hmm. It has to be worth it. And I just don't see the Netherlands being worth it right now. Mm-hmm. Maybe there are other places within the Netherlands that we would love Yeah. And that we could check out. If you, as listeners have any idea, please let us know. Yeah. at this moment am not putting the Netherlands in my top three.

Josh 37:49

No. Yeah. I am with you there. A hundred percent. I, I don't wanna sound like a broken record or repeat what I've just said, but it hits so many marks on our list. Pretty much all of'em. There wasn't a ton looking through this as we were getting ready to record that. I was like, oh, it doesn't have this. No, we are so well connected in this location. We are within 15 minutes of walking to Utrecht Central.

Brit 38:21

Which

Josh 38:22

takes you directly to Amsterdam Central and the airport. So we're very connected. That way we can get anywhere. we met a couple that came from Dublin and they were just here for the weekend, which. So many people in Europe do anyways, which is just driving me crazy.'cause I wish we could be fair, we could go to Canada and we probably will more often now. Oh

Brit 38:47

yeah.

Josh 38:47

But to be able to go from a place like Dublin to here and they were like an older couple.

Brit 38:54

Mm-hmm.

Josh 38:55

And just enjoy another culture that's so different from yours for another weekend, which they said is awesome. And I love that. And I think to be in a place that is like, that would so cool. that was another part of criteria that I think I didn't have down that I would like as someplace that is very welcoming to have travelers like that.

Brit 39:19

Yeah. Where we can just go for the weekend. Mm-hmm.

Josh 39:22

Mm-hmm. And I mean, unfortunately there's a lot of that in the world right now. Just not in the United States, but lots of places where they're trying to have close border policies. Mm. And I don't want to be in a place like that.

Brit 39:35

Yeah.

Josh 39:36

But again, there's so many on here that we were going through that it checked these boxes. I'm just scrolling through right now. There's not one more. I'm like, oh, that really doesn't hit, we felt safe. We felt like we could get things we need. We don't need a car. We felt healthy. If we lived here, the amount of steps we were getting 16,000 steps a day. No problem. Not even thinking about it.

Brit 39:59

Mm-hmm.

Josh 39:59

And just exploring. Yeah, just exploring. And that would be how it would be every day.'cause we would either bike to the train station, walk to the train station, go to work, have to walk back. It's, it's a walking, biking, health community. Health country.

Brit 40:16

Yeah. I mean it's, the infrastructure is just so different from the us. Mm-hmm. And I absolutely love the infrastructure. I think it is brilliant. It is made for people. It is made for people, all people. It is accessible for everyone.

Josh 40:35

It is. It is It, it is to benefit the people, not to benefit car companies or oil companies. It's together. It's connected.

Brit 40:44

Yeah.

Josh 40:44

It's connected.

Brit 40:45

It's connected.

Josh 40:47

Mad. I'm gonna throw with this microphone.

Brit 40:49

You got so passionate about that.

Josh 40:51

I'm gonna be like. What's the podcast? The basement yard or basement pod?

Brit 40:56

Oh,

Josh 40:57

he just grabs the mic. I need to start doing that. we, and we both felt it pretty early on.

Brit 41:03

Yeah. I mean, I think everywhere it, within my top three, I have felt that it was, it was one of those spots, you know mm-hmm. That had that draw right away. But here I felt that it wasn't.

Josh 41:18

Right away. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Brit 41:19

I feel like you, you feel it or you don't.

Josh 41:21

we were both upset about it, and we were like, oh, do we not need to spend. You know, six days in a place to know or not know. And I, I think it'll be different for each place, but for here it was day three, I think, where we were both like, this is a great place. It's not the place.

Brit 41:41

Yeah.

Josh 41:42

And like you said, maybe there's another city or another area of the Netherlands where someone could give us a suggestion or we might do research on and find. Mm-hmm. And come back. But Utrecht Amsterdam is not it. We didn't think Amsterdam was gonna be, that's not why we, that's why we didn't stay there.

Brit 42:01

Yeah. No. Amsterdam has some great food spots though. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Those food spots, we went to Chun, we talked about Fabel Friet.

Josh 42:11

Mm-hmm.

Brit 42:12

We talked about, but like, you can go to any french fries spot mm-hmm. And get some fries with, what's the mayo? Truffle mayo.

Josh 42:19

Truffle mayo. Lots of truffle mayo here.

Brit 42:21

Yeah. Uh, Pat's pancakes. Mm-hmm. Delicious. Lourens talked about that. Bun Bunn with all of the cinnamon buns.

Josh 42:29

Oh, bun

Brit 42:29

Bunn. Those were delicious. Dumpling bros.

Josh 42:33

Dumpling bros. Those soup

Brit 42:35

dumplings.

Josh 42:36

Mm-hmm.

Brit 42:36

Definitely hit up some food spots while you're in Amsterdam. Oh, yeah.

Josh 42:40

Yeah. This is a great place to come for vacationing foodies.

Brit 42:44

Yeah, for sure.

Josh 42:45

If that was our idea coming in. Like, Hey, we're just here to get a bunch of different food, try a bunch of different food. It'd be a perfect place. Yeah. Because then you're, you're eating and then you gotta walk around or you gotta walk to public transportation. So you got, you got plenty of room to eat more food. Yeah. You don't have to worry about driving. So you can have some drinks.

Brit 43:07

Yep. Oh yeah. Mm-hmm. That must have been different for you. Yeah. It's never different for me. I don't, I'm a passenger princess. We, we know this. Um,

Josh 43:18

it, it was nice'cause we, when we went to Amsterdam is where we did some of our drinking when we did. And to just be able to hop back on the train and take a 30 minute train ride to get here was incredibly easy We found out here that all you have to do is go up to the turnstiles with a contactless card and tap it and it'll let you through. You don't need to prepay for a ticket and actually they charge you extra dollar 50 euro, extra buck 50 euro where you can just. Tap your contactless card and get you on. And get you off.

Brit 43:56

Yeah.

Josh 43:56

And it's really easy and it's very inexpensive. And even our bike rentals we were doing through dot, we ended up doing a hundred minutes for seven days, which we used up, and then bought some more that was under 15 Euro.

Brit 44:12

Mm-hmm.

Josh 44:13

So total transportation, we probably spent maybe 40 a piece between everything.

Brit 44:19

Yeah. Which is not bad.

Josh 44:21

No,

Brit 44:21

not bad at all.

Josh 44:22

No.

Brit 44:23

Yeah. I mean, overall, I think, like you said, we have hit a lot of these and the Netherlands does have all of these. This on paper seems like it could be our place, on paper. But then you come here and that's why we have to do the in-person research.

Josh 44:41

In-person research,

Brit 44:43

because. We didn't get the feeling.

Josh 44:46

Mm-hmm.

Brit 44:47

And it's a feeling that's really hard to describe. Like, I'm I wanna describe it, but it's just really hard. It's difficult, like when we were in Portree, I just envisioned us there. I felt so connected there. And not just to you, but I do think that Portree made us feel more connected. But also to nature, to the environment, to the community. Yeah. It just felt so connected there. Yeah. And I think that's just the only word I can use to describe it is connected. Mm-hmm. But it's a, it's a feeling. It's a, it's a draw.

Josh 45:27

Mm-hmm.

Brit 45:27

That just, it draws you to the place.

Josh 45:30

Yeah. I agree completely. You know, I had said before, like, it's a connected community here. We just don't feel connected to the place, which is a, a bit of a bummer with as much as this is hitting. But yeah there's just something missing and I, it's

Brit 45:46

hard to pinpoint it.

Josh 45:47

It is because it's, it's a beautiful place. It's got great architecture. So with places on our list, like Portree and Stockholm, Quebec City, Tokyo. Or Japan in general, you can go out and it feels like not very far, and have some breathtaking

Brit 46:08

Mm.

Josh 46:08

Scenery, some breathtaking nature. And when we took the train between here and Amsterdam, it was kind of what we're used to in Wisconsin. It was farmland, fairly flat, you know, kind of little bit of hills, but nothing crazy.

Brit 46:25

Mm-hmm.

Josh 46:26

So I think that changes the feeling as well, where when we were in Quebec City, when we were in Portree for sure, and when we were in Japan, you took a train and within 30 seconds of being outside the city, all of a sudden you were like, whoa. Like, you know, lots, it's, yeah, it's funny. But you know, there are a lot of different stuff going on and. Obviously those places didn't check all the boxes.

Brit 46:55

Mm-hmm.

Josh 46:55

But they had those moments where you're like, oh my gosh.

Brit 46:59

Yeah. We didn't have any of those moments really here, except for like long canals. Like that was really beautiful. I loved great canals. Yeah. Loved the canals. But it is, yeah, like you said, there's just a lot of flatland.

Josh 47:14

I think that's definitely something that's missing. The city's beautiful though. There's a lot of beautiful streets. You know, there's cobblestone streets. We love Cobblestone Street, you know,

Brit 47:25

old architecture just really beau a lot of beauty within the city. Mm-hmm. But when you go outside of the city, there's just, just flat land.

Josh 47:34

Yeah.

Brit 47:35

Which is very similar to Wisconsin.

Josh 47:37

Yeah. Yeah. From what we saw. Again, maybe it's, it's different than other parts of Netherlands, you know, further north, further south. If you listen to this and you know of a spot, let us know so we can maybe come back and check it out.

Brit 47:50

Yeah. But

Josh 47:51

I think that's. I think that's what we're just missing from this place. I would come back, just have a vacation for food.

Brit 47:59

Oh. I would come back for sure. For

Josh 48:01

food.

Brit 48:02

I would wanna stay, I think, Closer to the city center. Or in Amsterdam for the food.

Josh 48:09

Yep. Yeah. If, if we were coming for vacation, we would be opposite of the train tracks, like you said, closer to downtown. Utrecht there's hotels there that you could stay in or closer to. Amsterdam, really anywhere. You could get yourself within 10 minutes walking. Use Google. Get yourself within 10 minutes of walking to a train station and then

Brit 48:31

yeah,

Josh 48:31

get yourself there. No problem. I would do that 10 times outta 10.

Brit 48:35

Yeah, me too. Me too. Yeah. I mean, overall really loved it here.

Josh 48:40

Do you wanna talk about or wanna say, maybe leading up to our next place where we're going? Anything that you, maybe this changes for you going into the next place?

Brit 48:51

I think I have less expectations for the next place and the couple places after as well. I don't know that I have a whole lot of expectations, so, I think that'll be helpful because I did expect a lot out of the Netherlands, and maybe that was my problem.

Josh 49:11

Mm-hmm. Like you were over hyping it in your head.

Brit 49:14

Yeah. I just thought that everywhere you walked there was gonna be canals just everywhere. Like Venice and I, Venice gave me that feeling, so I guess I expected that it was gonna give me the feeling and it didn't. Yeah.

Josh 49:31

Yeah, I, if I remember correctly, I said that Ghent was gonna be the place, didn't I for you?

Brit 49:38

you did say Gent was gonna be the place for me. Mm-hmm. Well, they do have chocolate waffles. Beer.

Josh 49:45

What's the go wrong? What could go wrong?

Brit 49:50

The Airbnb does look really nice.

Josh 49:53

I think. That the place you stay affects you and the kind of connection that you're trying to get from a place affects you. Because we came in doing our best and we both have talked about this, the mindset that we live here now, like, could we move here?

Brit 50:10

Mm.

Josh 50:10

And that's definitely affected us for sure.

Brit 50:14

Yeah.

Josh 50:14

It, it has not been all easy days doing this and trying to have these feelings. I know it's affected me in my mood because I just haven't, like you said, I haven't been happy with the draw here.

Brit 50:29

No.

Josh 50:29

And haven't been happy where we are in this Airbnb,

Brit 50:33

I think you and I have been somewhat disconnected as well here. There's a lot of things that have been unexpected. Mm-hmm. Like parking the bikes, they need to be in the parking zones. Mm-hmm. Makes sense. But also we have struggled to navigate at times when it is rush hour and there are so many bikes around you and you don't know where you're going and it's, it can be challenging.

Josh 51:02

Yeah.

Brit 51:02

But we figured it out. Mm-hmm. It's just, we've maybe been disconnected in those moments. And then the smell here, you know, that's unexpected. Not something that we wanted. I just think that there's been a lot of unexpected things that have caused us to kind of. I dunno,

Josh 51:22

not communicate as effectively as we usually do.

Brit 51:26

Yeah. And I also think that at the beginning of a trip, we always kind of lean into it. I think that you and I. Both slowly learn each other's specific communication needs for each trip. Yeah. And we're just still learning on this trip. Mm-hmm. And we always will be. But sometimes it's just a difference in how we're looking at a situation. And I think you and I've said this before, but we're really good about talking and talking things through. But we've, we've struggled to do that a little bit here.

Josh 52:03

Yeah. So yeah, I think some things have just definitely affected my mood. I don't think it would be a shock to anyone to hear this and be like, yeah, you're gonna, you're gonna miss on your communication a little bit when you, you were so excited for a place like, oh my gosh, we could move here. And then we get here and we're like, Ugh.

Brit 52:23

And like we said, I mean, there are things that we absolutely loved about it.

Josh 52:27

Mm-hmm.

Brit 52:28

But I think you're right. I think that's a really good point that we were really looking forward to the Netherlands and to Utrecht specifically. And I think it just I don't wanna say it let us down because in many ways it didn't. Um, I just think it's different from what we were expecting Yeah. To feel maybe. Yeah. Yeah.

Josh 52:52

Mm-hmm. Completely agree. I am ready after being here six days now I am ready to move on and, oh, see what we can see.

Brit 53:05

I am also very ready to head to Ghent. I am so excited. I think moving forward, we are going to have better communication. We are going to talk everything through, we're gonna have chocolate and beer and waffles, and it's gonna be great. Who could say no? Yeah, it's gonna be great.

Josh 53:29

We have definitely noticed our, uh, our age a little bit on these as well, or like, oh, we can. Double dip days of drinking. That's not a,

Brit 53:41

oh my gosh,

Josh 53:42

that's not a thing. Can't do that anymore.

Brit 53:44

We had one night where we drank maybe five or six drinks.

Josh 53:50

Are you talking about the all you can drink boat tour?

Brit 53:53

Yes. I was. So we were both, well actually no, let's scratch that. We're not talking about that. We woke up actually fine.

Josh 54:03

Mm-hmm.

Brit 54:03

So nevermind.

Josh 54:04

But I think we felt it throughout the day.

Brit 54:06

I did. Yeah. Mm-hmm. For sure. Mm-hmm.

Josh 54:08

Mm-hmm.

Brit 54:08

I felt it two days later.

Josh 54:10

Yeah. That and then also jet lag definitely affecting us more than it has in the past.

Brit 54:16

Yeah.

Josh 54:17

But theres, there's so many things that go into that too. So. Just poor sleep beforehand. Planning. Usually we come in late at night and we can sleep right away. This one we were in early in the morning, had to wait. So

Brit 54:30

yeah, a difference in how we prepared. Mm-hmm. So something to consider for our next trips, but thankfully we're taking a train to Belgium.

Josh 54:40

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So nice little two and a half hour train ride. yeah. Any, anything else that you can think of?

Brit 54:48

I just, I really appreciated it here, but I think it's, I'm ready Yeah. To go to the next place.

Josh 54:55

Yep.

Brit 54:55

Do you have anything else?

Josh 54:57

Nope. I'm right there with you. Ready to move on with our exploration and see what the next place has to offer us.

Brit 55:05

Yeah. Hopefully we get the feeling.

Josh 55:07

I hope so too.

Brit 55:09

Yeah. So next episode will be about Ghent If you have any ideas of other places that you would like us to travel that you think that we would like, please let us know. You can contact us through our website or through any of our socials. And don't forget to follow, like, and subscribe to all of our socials on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Thank you so much for listening and until next time.