The ‘youthful’ Dutch city that changed my mind about being vegan

Utrecht is an eco-conscious hub of sustainable shops and thousands of bikes (Picture: Isabel Fraser)

It’s not every day you go floating down a motorway on a boat, but in Utrecht it’s a right of passage. 

‘The Netherlands is known for our canals, but less known is their history,’ explains our guide Jitte (pronounced Yetter). ‘The one you are on right now had a whole other life 50 years ago.’

Once a medieval moat, in 1971 the Catharijnesingel canal that flows through Utrecht’s centre was filled with cement and turned into a motorway, in an attempt to up the pace of city life.

Reopening the restored canals in...