From Utrecht to Rotterdam, Europe’s largest port

Broken bridges on the Vecht River forces us to take the Amsterdam Rhine Canal from Weesp to Utrecht. This huge canal provides commercial traffic an easy and quick connection to the Rhine. Given the low water levels on the Rhine we were expecting few barges to make that journey as they could not carry a full load. That seemed to be the case.

Utrecht is the country’s fourth largest city, with a population of 378,000. There is evidence of human settlement dating to the stone age. In 50 CE the Romans built a fort here, at a point where the Rhine was easily crossed. It was part of its northern defenses against Germanic tribe intrusion. By around 1100 it was called ‘Trecht” from the Roman Traiectum. “U” was added to denote the “uut,” “downriver” in Old Dutch, to distinguish it from a crossing on the Maas. Thus the city came to be called Utrecht.

The first of only three non-Italian popes

The Union of Utrecht was signed here in 1579, a cornerstone of the Dutch Republic. At that time Utrecht was the Netherland’s most important city, surpassed by Amsterdam in the next century. The first church in the city was built in the 7th century under Dagobert. Utrecht then became a center of Christianity leading to the papacy of Utrecht-born Adriaan Florenszoon Boeyens as pope in 1522. There was not another non-Italian pope until John Paul II. The Bishops of Utrecht under feudalism exercised temporal power as the overlord, collecting rent and ruling as they saw fit.

Construction of the present cathedral, most often referred to as the Dom but also known as the Cathedral of St Michael, began in 1254 on the site of a Romanesque church lost in a fire. The Dom’s tower remains with us but the nave came down in the storm of 1674. The flying buttresses needed for its support were never built due to financial constraints. The building was sealed afterwards, the area occupied by the nave turned into Dom Plaza, as it remains today.

Inside it is light and airy and expansive. The windows are large and tall but there is no stained glass. It is plainly decorated as is common for Protestant churches in this country.

After a 45 minute wait at a lock we entered the De Lek River, which becomes the Nieuwe Maas near Rotterdam. Along the way we encounter huge barges, some carrying containers stacked four or five high, the pilot houses hydraulically lifted so the pilots can see. As we entered Rotterdam harbor we are rocked by high speed water taxis zooming by. We swing into the big wakes, cutting into them at a 45 degree angle.

More on Rotterdam coming up.