Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories - Canals of Utrecht (Premium)

Episode Date: June 8, 2020

This is a preview episode. Get the full episode, and many more, ad free, on our supporter's feed: https://getsleepy.com/support. Canals of Utrecht  Narrated by TK Kellman. Drift off to sleep with this dreamy travel adventure in a lovely European city.     About Get Sleepy Premium: Help support the podcast, and get: Monday and Wednesday night episodes (with zero ads) The exclusive Thursday night bonus episode Access to the entire back catalog (also ad-free) Premium sleep meditations, extra-long episodes and more! We'll love you forever. ❤️ Get a 7 day free trial, and join the Get Sleepy community here https://getsleepy.com/support. And thank you so, so much.  Tom, and the team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi, Thomas here. You're listening to a preview episode. You can enjoy the entire story tonight by subscribing to our supporters' feed. There you'll get access to the entire back catalogue, bonus episodes, and more, and it's all completely ad-free. Click the link below to learn more and thank you so so much. Me and the team really appreciate your support. Beneath your feet you feel a hard surface. You look down at your feet, to find an old stone bridge. Above the sky glows the soft blue and gold, dotted with small puffy clouds.

It's a beautiful day in the Dutch city of Utrecht. The bridge crosses one of the city's canals, which encircle the center of town. To your left is a small row of white stone shops. To your right, brick row houses, line the edge of the canal. The sky here is large and full of movement. A breeze catches the clouds and pushes them across the blue backdrop. Every few minutes, one of the larger clouds is whisked in front of the sun.

As you look up, you see the edge of one such cloud turned from grey to gold, as the sun illuminates it from behind. The cloud gets the shadow on the ground and you feel your cheeks earn from warm to cool. You close your eyes. Light plays upon your eyelids as the clouds move away from the sun. The temperature rises just enough to warm the tip of your nose. Just as you're getting used to how

this feels, the clouds shift again. Even with your eyes closed, you can follow the dynamic movements of the sky. From light, shadow,, to cool. As a cloud above passes over one corner of the sun, the light on the back of your eyelids darkens just a bit on the right. The breeze gently puzzles your hair, and you open your eyes. From your vantage point on the bridge, a sprawling Dutch city lays out before you. Now you understand where the painters of the Dutch Golden Age got their inspiration. The quality of the light here is singular. You can imagine the same sky stretching out over a wheat field with a single tree.

Perhaps it's playing a game of light and shadow over a small country village, with hay bales stacked against a barn in the distance. Or maybe the clouds trace their path over a brick and stone city, like this one, with shops and homes and canals and the steeples of elegant churches, dotting the skyline. Just as this thought crosses your mind, the bells of a cathedral chime nearby. The sound reverberates through the city's winding cobblestone roads. The echoes of the high and low notes intermingle.

These bells hail from the domed tower. It stands tall above the shops to your right. In fact, it's the tallest building in all of Utrecht. There's been an unwritten rule in the city for centuries. Nothing stands higher than the built-hour of this mighty cathedral. It's the centerpiece of this mighty cathedral. It's the centerpiece of the skyline here. It towers over 100 meters in height, and is the tallest of its kind in all of the Netherlands. It was built in the 1300s as the crowning portion of St. Martin's Cathedral.

Many now call it the Dom Church, but this tower stands apart from the rest of the cathedral, which sits behind it, disconnected. The nave of St. Martin's Cathedral collapsed in the 1600s, leaving the tower separated from the main building. And so it has stood tall and square and alone ever since.

While the bottom two portions of the tower are boxy, the third and topmost section is lacy and open. The bell-free is here, sending the sounds of the bells all across Utrecht. They can be heard clearly nearby, where you're standing, and in the outskirts where the city gives way to fields and farms. You leave the bridge and follow the bells toward the church. Cobblestone streets wind up from the canal. You walk slowly, being sure to enjoy the unique sound of your steps on the stone. The streets are narrow and close, lined with quaint shops. There's a coffee house and the shop selling lace and fabric.

There's a chocolate shop with beautiful cakes and parts in a wide glass display window. People sit at fatigue tables outside the cafes. Some idly flip through the morning paper. Others talk with friends, laughing quietly at a private joke. You smile as you walk. This is a happy city. People here are friendly and welcoming. It might be nice to stop at one of the cafes you think. Perhaps you'll do that later after you explore a bit more of the town.

The path leads you under an archway beneath the dom tower. The other side opens up to a charming square, similarly lined with cafes and shops. This is the area where the nave used to stand. Now, the space between the two parts of the church makes for a cozy gathering place on a fair weather day like today. From here, you follow the road as it slopes. Gathering place on a fair weather day like today. From here, you follow the road as it slopes gently down and to the left. As you walk, you feel the knobby edges of the cobblestone beneath your feet. Cyclists pass you on the street. Some gently ding their bells to warn you of their passing. There are so many bicycles here.

In fact, some say there are more bicycles than people. The Netherlands is a small country and very flat, so traveling by bicycle makes sense. What freedom you think to hop on a bike and go explore? Before long, the street brings you to an outlet at the Old Canal. This is the heart of the city. On weekend mornings, the streets on either side of the Old Canal transform into an outdoor market. There you can find people selling apple tarts, little puffed donuts covered in powdered sugar

and flowers by the hundreds. Stalls with large metal buckets filled with tulips stand at every corner. There are yellow, white, paint and purple tulips that you can have wrapped in paper to take home and put in a vase on your kitchen table. On market days, the streets are bustling with people, but here, now in the early evening, it's quiet. The old denial in Utrecht is different from many of the canals you'll find in the Netherlands' larger cities. Not only does it have roads that follow it above, but there is also a path on either side at the water level. Black metal stairs lead from the street down to the water's edge.

You take one such set of stairs, hearing the playing of the metal reverberate with each step. At the bottom, you see large black wooden double doors on both sides of the water. These were the old warehouses for goods delivered by boat to the city. You imagine what might have been stored behind these doors in days past. Money, spices, and tea, brute vegetables, and grain perhaps. Now these old underground rooms have been transformed into restaurants and coffee shops.

Faint notes of live music trickle out from one of the sellers behind you. Ahead, there is a traditional Dutch pancake restaurant. The kitchen and main dining room are inside the old cellar. The dinner rush is on its way so the waiters are setting up tables and chairs at the edge of the canal. You walk over to the restaurant and look at the menu. Dutch pancakes are like large crepes. You can get them with an assortment of savory and sweet toppings. There's apple and cheese, mushroom, pineapple, and one with an assortment of greens.

There's chocolate for dessert or berries and cream. You can also get a traditional pancake with the rich, dark syrup. You'll always find here in a tall yellow bottle. It sounds like you can't go wrong here. You take a seat at one of the tables closest to the water. The waiter arrives with a pleasant smile and takes your order. You pick one of the pancakes that look especially good on the menu and a nice cool drink. Across the canal there's a family of ducks sitting on the bridge ledge by the water.

One ruffles its feathers. Another grooms itself. A third has just decided to go over a swim. It flaps its wings lightly and lands on the surface of the canal in a gentle slide, sending tiny ripples across the surface of the water. Laisley, it kicks its web feet, and meanders leisurely across the canal, looking for a snack. It paddles past a handful of leaves that have fallen into the water. The leaves have pointed edges.

You watch them spin as the current tosses them softly from side to side. They look like little rafts for dragonflies, making their way down the mighty river. But if the leaves were rafts, the ducks would be the size of enormous tankers. How funny the world looks when you see it from a different angle. You're not sure how long you watch the family of ducks go about their evening business. You aren't paying attention to time, but after a while, the waiter returns with your food. The pancake arrives on an enormous blue and white ceramic platter.

While the pancakes are thin and delicate, they are rather large in size. It looks absolutely delicious. You savor the first bite. The combination of flavors isn't like anything you've had before. And it's wonderful. The food warms you as the evening air is beginning to cool. When you finish your dinner, you look across the canal once more. The ducks are all in the water now, following the current as it takes them under a little stone bridge. The current as it takes them under a little stone bridge. You wave to them as they pass. One of them turns to you and quacks. You imagine it might be wishing you a good evening, which makes you smile.

Now, it's time to be on your way too. You thank the waiter on your way, too. You thank the waiter for your meal, and climb back up the stairs to the main street. It's a little darker now, and the street lights begin to flicker on, one by one, along the canal and up the cobblestone streets. There's a stall renting bikes just ahead of you. An after dinner ride sounds more than pleasing. You choose a bike that's just the right height and unlock the wheel with a little key, which lets out a gentle click. You hop up onto it and adjust the seat with ease.

You push forward and start to pedal away from the old canal. The city is particularly flat and laden with bike lanes, which makes for an effortless ride. It feels nice getting to use your arms and legs in tandem like this. The breeze blows through your hair as you turn left and right and left again. You pedal under streetlights and pass rows of trees where birds camp out, watching for a snack. You pass classic Dutch houses with fancy and intricate gables on the roofs. Summer Square, summer round. Some have curlicues or small arches on top. They remind you of toppers on wedding cakes, the way they stand out in white above the

red buildings. You pass a statue of a rabbit, and the state theater and performing house. The road leads you around to the right, past grocery stores and more cafes. You cross over smaller canals and through blooming little parks nestled between residential streets. After one intersection, you find yourself peddling through a much larger park. This is the Wilhelmina Park, named for a famous Dutch queen. There's a statue of her here in the center of the lush green park. She's wrapped in a coat and hat. She looks quite regal as you glide past.

You continue on to the next part of town. This is a residential area with small, quiet streets lined with individual homes. The broad windows of each home send a warm glow through open curtains out into the street. Inside, our tables set for dinner and rows of bookshelves on living room walls. Through the neighborhood you go, riding along effortlessly. You pass under a bridge with unusual decorations. The underside is lined top to bottom with square white tiles, each bearing a different blue chair.

There's so much art here, and often in the most unexpected places. That's your favorite part of the city so far, you think? You turn past bushes with pink and purple flowers, past a tall brick wall with a shiny iron gate leading into a college campus. You see students sitting outside on the lawn watching day turn to night unsolved blankets. Some are reading how others are circled up talking with friends or playing card games. Here you turn to the right and follow a bike trail away from the main road. It curves down to a forested path beside a long, lazy river. The river is narrow, almost like a canal.

The trees stand tall and bring to your right. To your left, the water flows along the bank, sometimes turning white, where it passes over tangled tree roots that overhang the edge. The air is crisp and clean here. You can smell the damp earth and wet leaves mixed with a fragrant of Roma of flowers. The path leads you deeper into the woods, small lights in the ground guide the way. You hear the sounds of birds settling in for the night and small animals returning to their burrows.

Up ahead you see a warm blow through the trees. What could it be, you wonder? As you get closer, you realize it's a tea house in the center of the woods. It has tall glass walls and a fireplace in the corner. People sit at cozy tables, warming their hands on cups of hot tea, colorfully painted teapots, hanging from hooks by the fire.

You park your bike at a return rack near the entrance and walk into the tea house. Inside, there's a calm chatter and the clinking of ceramic cups. You order a part of your favorite kind of tea and take it outside on a tray. The lawn of the tea house slopes gently down to the bank of the river that you followed here. You sit at one of the tables by the water. Small robots pass in either direction. There are groups of friends, families, and solo travelers here, taking advantage of a

nice evening for a relaxing paddle up and down the river. Once the tea is cooled off a bit, you pour yourself a cup. You enjoy the warm sensation of your hands on the outside of the mug. When you take a sip, it warms you from the inside as well. The rich smell of the tea rises up to your nose with the steam from the pot. You think back on all you've seen today, the dumb tower, the shops and homes, the intricate cables, the family of ducks out for an evening swim. You smile thinking of them.

You remember the delicious pancake and can still taste its wonderful flavors on the tip of your tongue. After finishing your tea, you head down to the river's edge. You listen to the steady sound of the river flowing by. Small ripples form at the edge of the water. It's undeniably calm here. A warmly lit tent to your left is calling your attention.

It offers rubble rides up and down the river and canals of Utrecht. You ask about going back to town this way, and the guy tells you, yes, of course. The guide unties a green rowboat and lays plush white cushions on the wooden seats. You step into the boat and sit down, feeling yourself sink into the softness of the cushion beneath you. The guide gets into and takes up the wooden ores on either side. The guide rose you along the lazy river, past the teahouse and dock out into the forest. The river twists and turns, left to right.

Among the trees, all the while you listen to the sound of the paddles rolling behind you. There's something innately pleasing about the soft, rhythmic swirl of the oars through the water, you think? It will take a while to get back to town, the guide tells you, and lots of people use the trip for an app. You do feel a bit sleepy, you think? It's been quite a day exploring this beautiful city. The boat rocks gently, back and forth, to the rhythm of the ores pulling beneath the surface of the water, which laps quietly at the sides of the boat. You feel your eyelids grow heavy.

You slide down farther into the cushions and allow yourself to relax. You feel safe and comfortable here. It's dark now and the stars have made an appearance overhead. You lean back to look at the canvas of black of above. But before long, it's replaced with the darkness behind your tired eyelids. The beauty of Utrecht and the rocking of the boat, back and forth, has cradle to you into a safe and restful sleep. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room.

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