In the city of Utrecht, the Netherlands

 “Once a year, go somewhere you’ve never been before.” -– The Dalai Lama

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(in the Netherlands) The city of Utrecht is found along the Kromme Rijn (Winding, or Crooked, Rhine), Oude (Old) Rijn, and Vecht rivers and the Amsterdam–Rijn Canal. Its original Roman name, Trajectum ad Rhenum (Ford on the Rhine), later became Ultrajectum, and then Utrecht. The city still has many buildings that date back to the early Middle Ages. Until it was overtaken by Amsterdam in the Dutch Golden age, Utrecht was the most important city in the Netherlands. It was (and still is) the See of the Archbishop of Utrecht, the most important Catholic leader in the Netherlands. The University of Utrecht is the largest in the country. One of the unique features of the city is the wharf system in its inner canals. Before the city was fully canalized, parts of the Rhine River flowed through the city center. Most prominent of the historic buildings is the Gothic Cathedral of Saint Martin, the construction of which lasted for some 260 years, beginning in 1254. The city was chartered in 1122 and had a city council as early as 1304. Utrecht’s greatest prosperity was in the 11th and 12th centuries, but throughout the Middle Ages it remained the most powerful and important town in the northern Netherlands. Under its bishops, it became the capital of a powerful principality and a cultural, commercial, and industrial (mainly cloth-weaving) center until it was surpassed by Amsterdam (26 miles [42 km] northwest) in the 15th century. These days. Utrecht has lots of museums, including the Central Museum (art, history, archaeological findings), the Netherlands Railway Museum, the Netherlands Gold and Silver Museum, the Clock and Watchmaking Museum, the Museum of Modern Religious Art, the Old Catholic Museum, and the National Museum “from Music Box to Barrel Organ.” All that remains of its Cathedral are the transept and tower, the latter being the tallest church tower in the Netherlands). The cathedral’s nave collapsed during a storm in 1674 and was never rebuilt; the chapter room, which is joined to the church by a Gothic cloister, is now the main assembly hall of the university. Other longstanding churches are Jans Church (founded in 1040), Sint Pieter’s Church, Nicolai Church, Jacobi Church, Buur Church, Geerte Church, and Sint Catharijne Church (1468; now the city's Roman Catholic cathedral) -- all in a variety of styles reflecting numerous additions and/or restorations. The Paushuize (Pope’s House) was completed in 1523 for the only Dutch pope, Adrian VI, who was a native of Utrecht. The city’s 17th-century Maliebaan is one of the finest promenades in the Netherlands. In the 19th century the old city ramparts were made into parks, which soon resulted in the development of modern residential districts.