Jun 18, 2026
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Utrecht’s Hidden Gems Await
A charming 30-minute train journey from Amsterdam reveals canal-side cafés, a soaring medieval tower, and culinary treasures worth discovering.
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Love Netherlands
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Dear Netherlands,
It’s easy to miss the thing that makes the Netherlands special. It isn’t the windmills or the tulips or the canals, though all of those are real and beautiful. It’s a particular kind of attention — the way a Dutch baker arranges the croissants, the way a Dutch cycle lane goes exactly where you need it, the way a brown café has the same four regulars in the same four seats for forty years. Pay attention to that, and you’ll start to love the Netherlands in a way most visitors never do.
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Photo: Shutterstock
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In today’s email:
- Utrecht Day Trip from Amsterdam: The Complete Guide
- At The Café — Café Papeneiland — The Café on the Corner Bill Clinton Loved
- Around The Web — Maastricht Day Trip from Amsterdam: The Complete Guide, Dutch Surnames of Limburg: Origins and Meanings, 5-Day Dutch Heritage Itinerary: Trace Your Roots Across the Netherlands + more
- From Love Netherlands — Dutch Surnames of Utrecht: Origins and Meanings
- Dutch Food You Will Love — Kroket — The Older, Stranger Cousin of Bitterballen
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Utrecht Day Trip from Amsterdam: The Complete Guide
👉 Read the full story
A Utrecht day trip from Amsterdam is one of the finest decisions any visitor to the Netherlands can make. Just thirty minutes by direct train from Amsterdam Centraal, Utrecht delivers everything the capital promises — medieval canals, golden architecture, excellent food and drink, a lively university atmosphere — without the crowds. And yet surprisingly few visitors make the journey. That is their loss, and perhaps your gain. Love the Netherlands? Join our free newsletter for hidden Dutch gems → inlovewithnetherlands.substack.com Why Utrecht Makes the Perfect Day Trip from Amsterdam Utrecht is the fourth-largest city in the Netherlands and one of its oldest, yet it rarely appears at the top of visitors’ itineraries. That oversight is difficult to explain once you have walked along the Oudegracht — the city’s sunken canal, lined with basement wharves that once served as warehouses and…
👉 Read the full story
Have you been there? Do you have a memory of this corner of the Netherlands? Hit reply and tell us — we’d love to hear your story.
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At The Café
Café Papeneiland — The Café on the Corner Bill Clinton Loved
Café Papeneiland sits at the corner of the Prinsengracht and the Brouwersgracht, in a 17th-century building so charmingly crooked that the Delft tiles inside lean slightly to one side. It’s been a café since 1642. Bill Clinton stopped in once, ate a slice of apple pie, and the café has never quite let it go — there’s a small framed photo behind the bar. The apple pie really is the order: thick, warm, just enough cinnamon, served with whipped cream that doesn’t come from a can. Sit by the window upstairs and watch the canal boats turn the corner below.
👉 Visit the café
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Around The Web
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From Love Netherlands
The Dutch surnames of Utrecht carry the fingerprints of a province that shaped the Netherlands. Utrecht stands at the heart of the country — a crossroads of rivers, a seat of bishops, a city of merchants, and a land of water-meadows where families rooted themselves for generations. The surnames that grew from this soil reflect that rich layering: names built from castle towers, from river-bends, from trades practised in narrow alleyways, and…
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Photo via Love Netherlands
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Dutch Food You Will Love
Kroket — The Older, Stranger Cousin of Bitterballen
A kroket is a finger-shaped roll of crumbed and deep-fried beef ragout — the same filling as bitterballen, but in a single satisfying portion the size of a thick chip. You eat it slid into a soft white roll with a smear of mustard, called a broodje kroket, and it’s the Dutch lunch counter’s defining order. The most famous come from automat-style FEBO walls in Amsterdam, where you slot a few coins in and pull a hot kroket out of a glass-fronted cabinet. There’s no shame in it — half the city has eaten one before a tram home.
👉 Read the full story
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