Overall, I really love Utrecht. We’ve been here for 2 days and I’ve enjoyed exploring the city a lot. I’ve seen many cute cafes, the canals are pretty, and I love walking through all the urban green spaces. It’s also a city full of life and people of all different ages. I even really enjoyed walking through the mall, which seems so arbitrary and boring, but it had an awesome design, with a lot of open area and bright lighting. You could even see through into the canals from inside the mall. Additionally, outside the mall was a lot of underground bike parking. We learned that this was the biggest underground bike parking in the world. The bike parking garage emphasizes how important biking is to the culture here in the Netherlands.
Other things I’ve enjoyed about Utrecht include how safe I feel here and the old architecture. I was walking with two friends late last night and we felt fine. Even though it was dark and we were in a big city. I think part of this is because how trusting the culture is here, and also because it was crowded still. Many people were out and about, so we would get help easily if something happened. For buildings, I’ve seen a lot of old churches and cathedrals that are just next to the city center and main shopping districts. Biking here has also gotten less stressful as I get used to it more. The first day, it was intimidating because a lot of people don’t follow traffic laws. However, people seem to be nicer here if you make a bike mistake, which I’m thankful for.
I’ve also enjoyed exploring some fun vintage stores (one gave us free drinks while we shopped?) and seeing all the stores that have cats. I must have ran into five cats already that just live in stores or wander the streets. We also went to a bar on accident that had “keep Portland weird” on their menu, which was a fun surprise. It makes me think maybe the world isn’t so big after all. 
above is a cat from the cafe, the canal through the city and underground bike parking.
Looks beautiful. And you had me at cats! Xoxoxo mom