Utrecht

People have asked me why I decided to go to the Netherlands in August in the first place.  It is so easy to forget these things.  I have said: the cycling, the tall men to dance with, the fact that there was a new direct flight from Dundee to Amsterdam.  But in fact I recall now these were not the reasons.  It is true I wanted to find taller men for dance but that was not the main reason.  I did plan to hire a bike and the cycling turned out to be a big feature of the trip but that was a pleasure properly discovered after I had got there. The flight was indeed convenient but it was not at all the determining factor.  In fact I went largely because I wanted to visit La Bruja, a milonga which had been cancelled at fairly short notice after I had booked my flights.  The timing of my first trip had been planned around this milonga after seeing the very slick video of the encuentro organised by the same people.  Even though the music in the video was not live with the dancing (which is the way to tell if the dancing really is good), it was very well edited.  I liked the embraces,  the separate seating and most of all the style of the whole thing.  It looked a bit like Buenos Aires in Europe.  I still wanted to see the regular milonga run by that organiser.

Besides, I had enjoyed my August trip to the Netherlands so much - the cycling, the laid back, friendly people; the milongas too, mostly for the novelty I suspect but I had particularly liked the Cuartito Azul milonga (review), in Rotterdam, and the setting had been lovely. Most of the guy dancing at that milonga had not been great but I had had a very pleasant afternoon there, met nice people and enjoyed my dances with them very much.  I wanted more of that sort of thing.  I asked my husband if I could go back for a weekend the following month and was delighted when he said yes. Did I? he said, when he came in while I was writing.  I think he thought I was asking already about some new trip but the chaos accumulated over Christmas and while I was away on the last trip is still lapping around us so there are no travel plans as yet.

First stop this time was Utrecht and the Tuinhuis milonga (review) on a Friday night in early September.  I was not impressed by what I saw from the train.  The area around the station was an enormous building site.

I walked for what seemed ages through the railway station which somehow became a labrynthine shopping mall. It expelled me unexpectedly in a pretty, historic pedestrian street full of bars and cafes with people enjoying the late afternoon sunshine. There were curious smells of unfamiliar aftershave and baking. 

Very low on phone battery I went looking for a cafe that would let me recharge but found myself captivated by the huge spire of the Dom tower, dating from medieval times.

It pulled me towards it as I imagined it must have done to travellers for centuries. Inside the dom looked austere but I read later it was stripped during the Reformation. It seemed in remarkable condition for a 14th century building. 

On the way to the Dom I had seen down a side street part of the word "Winkel" on the side of a building. Jacob, who had moved to Utrecht, had told me this was the venue for a local milonga. I have since heard the floor can be sticky but I hear all kinds of different things about the same floor. I decided to have a look. 

The bar was beside a canal and had a terrace just catching the last of the afternoon sun. I was lucky to find a spot and ordered cava and some croquettes, the vegetarian equivalent of bitterballen a popular dutch snack, which I hadn't yet tried. 

So unlike the UK, no one was on their phone. Many people were engaged in conversation with friends, mostly two or three men together at a table, or two or three women. Some just watched the world go by on bikes or on foot. One table of guys cracked jokes with the tables around them, chatting and flirting. It was a good atmosphere. Most of the clientele was aged about 35+. Later when I walked to the bus I saw trendy cafes a little further along with younger clientele and coin operated boats on the water.

At my cafe several women were drinking something temptingly deep pink in Dutch beer glasses. In the interest of cultural exploration I ordered a small one - Wiekse rose, a fruity red beer made by Heineken. As I sipped it I was struck - incongruently - by how by healthy and relaxed Dutch women looked. They were not slim, not waifs, but not too heavy either. In general they looked capable, active bikers and most of all, happy in their skin. I wondered if that would still be true if I asked them but the people I would be most likely to talk to were tango dancers and many tango dancers everywhere are a one or more sizes smaller than the average, with some notable and alluring exceptions.

 I dragged my case over cobbles and missed having a bike. You can see so much so easily and quickly by bike. You can just explore, follow a whim. You are not tied to a route or a time. It is healthy and liberating.  I had looked exhaustively into hiring a bike on this trip but when you are not starting and finishing at the same place and your trip involves crossing the border by train to Belgium it all becomes complicated.

I hung about opposite Sumo for a bus, a bit disconsolate when I could be on those cycle paths, but enjoying the sun. I caught a Number 7 to Simon Bolivarstraat, 15 minutes away.

My friend Laura was hosting the milonga and I was invited for dinner at her house nearby.  When I arrived she was singing and her friend Henk was playing guitar. We ate a delicious vegetarian meal and walked  to the venue, a sort of freestanding wooden building with glass windows, to  to set up the milonga.  It was in the middle of the tangled but well tended community garden which felt like a series of dens. It was only a short distance but I had to take bearings to be sure not to get lost.  By the time I had returned from setting up, got ready and gone back to the milonga it was well underway. The feeling there was relaxed too. 

 I learnt on my trip to Tango Train in Amsterdam in December that a Dutch friend is about to move to Utrecht to be more centrally located for dance in the Netherlands.  It is the Dutch city I would most like to visit again. It is historically significant in the Netherlands and the wider region, there is much to explore and it has a lovely vibe.