Refreshingly Rotter-dam Good!

Trying on typical Netherland's Shoes

Fisherman in the Oude Haven

One of the many shopping streets in Rotterdam

The "Central Park" of Rotterdam


The "Cube" apartment complex


Matt harassing a statue of baby cubs


Self explanatory


The Erasmus Bridge

One of the many harbors

Me in the open air harbor musem

Rotter-dam!

Me hanging on the Erasmus Statue

Matt, Erin, and Allison outside the Oude Haven with the modern city in the background

Famous statue out front of city hall. Three generations (Child, Mother, Father, Grandfather) representing Rotterdam's past, present and future.

So excited to experience Rotter-dam!

Modern Skyscrapers of the city

Ahh finally back on track! First things first: HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDEO! And now for the bloggerooney: This past weekend was Halloween and as a result a large portion of the gang headed out to Dublin to enjoy the festivities with a little Irish flair while another group took advantage of the long weekend to visit Stockholm. However, I was not a part of either of those groups. When the time came for booking the various trips, Matt and I both kind of dropped the ball on the visits. As a result we found that we had nearly the entire Nachbahrhuis to ourselves for three days. There were only three other Americans in the house, and the entire city felt a little quiet as most of the locals headed home to enjoy the long break.

However, deciding not to let the weekend go for naught, Matt, Erin, Allison, and I decided to do a little independent traveling of our own and see a relatively close city – Rotterdam, in the Holland district of the Netherlands (I learned on this trip that Holland was actually not its own country, but rather the lower two levels of the Netherlands). We left with the mentality that we had to make our day trip to this coastal Netherlands city, better than the other two Halloween trips combined. Armed with our backpacks and an extra layer of clothing – as the winter air has slowly begun to move in on Northwest Europe – we spitefully headed out to enjoy ourselves. Though we jokingly embarked on our adventure full of a jealous need to outdo the rest of the group, (often exclaiming "Rotterdam" to the Wayne's World theme song - hence the "Rotter-dam" that I have written several times during my blog) that sick/twisted/humorous mentality actually helped us overcome a lot of the difficulties on our trip whether it was the 3 hours of sleep we all had, the 5 hours of train rides we endured, and the various travel cancellations that left us stranded for a couple of hours at random train stations.

Rotterdam was a refreshingly modern city. It is the largest port in Europe, and as a result – like almost everything else prized in Europe, was a major target during WWII air raids. It was particularly demolished by the Germans when the Allies took the city. Rotterdam was razed to the ground. In a matter of a couple of years, the medieval style city was turned into rubble. The only two remaining structures from the past were the belfry tower of the Sint Laurenskerk (Saint Lauren’s Church), which was built in 1525, but had just undergone heavy reconstruction, adding cement floors (instead of wooden floors) which ultimately lead to its successful resistance of the German bombardment. The second monument was a 1622 statue (the oldest in the Netherlands) of the philosopher Erasmus - who was born in the city.

As a result of the heavy bombardment, Rotterdam is a modern day city of glass -- a stark contrast to the medieval stone cities that we typically visit. With sky scrapers cutting through the blue skies, splitting clouds apart, it felt like we had stepped into a US city as we exited the train station in Rotterdam. One of my favorite architectural designs was the cube apartments (see my picture above) which look like a bunch of dice sitting on point propped on the top of 3 story buildings. My other favorite item was the statue in front of the town hall of a young child holding the hand of her mother and the father with his hand on a grandfather. The statue was supposed to represent the city of Rotterdam rebulding after WWII - its past, present, and future.

It was a crowded and busy Saturday afternoon when we made the trip to the city with the most and largest skyscrapers in the Netherlands. We followed the tourists office’s recommended walking tour through the city. The tour guided us through Rotterdam, which is a shopper’s city with a number of different streets full of restaurants and shops. One of the most famous being the Beurstravere, which is an outdoor shopping center situated below street level. In addition to seeing the shopping sites of the city, we also were there on Saturday and participated in the street fair. The roads were packed as vendors enticed customers to purchase everything from fish to leather gloves and boots.

One of my favorite parts of the walking tour was the Oude Haven. The Oude Haven is a small shopping and restaurant area with a number of houseboats and giant fishing vessels, as well as floating restaurants. The old rickety boats slowly lapped against the posts they were shackled to with thick ropes and chains. A fisherman stood in the harbor making cast after cast from the shore, trying to get a bite on his rod. In some areas, captains of the vessels were making repairs to their boats in the safety of the inner harbor. Some of them were painting – their chins, cheeks, hands, and arms covered in the same color as their boats – others making repairs to doors, floors, bows, and roofs. Most of the old boats appeared to be wooden, some old and worn, while others were beautifully stained. However, there was one common theme – the tails of all the ships were engraved with female names – the names of mothers, daughters, lovers, and loved ones sit as a testament of the captains' affection, proudly painted into the boats beauty.

From there we made our way through the port to the outdoor open air museum of the inner harbor, where cranes and ships are on display, free for tourists to walk through. The possibility of a tour around the harbor is present, as various ship captains offer tours while walking through the harbor. After the open air museum, we headed down to the Erasmus Bridge, which was a beautiful tribute to modern architecture. The center of the bridge looks like a wish bone coated in wires hanging over the water. As we continued our tour of the waterside, we found another harbor area that was equally as beautiful as the one we had seen before. We stood looking at the beauty of the wooden sailboats with their masts jutted out into the sky and line after line of boats appeared to be a forest of ropes and wooden masts.

After the harbor, we headed over to a beautiful park just outside the harbor center. I was reminded of Central Park in autumn in the center of New York City. It was quiet, but cold in the late October air. The paths wind through the center of the green grass patches – like cement rivers cutting through a forest. In the center of the park, there was a restaurant, which reminded me of the spire tower I’ve seen in pictures of Seattle. The harbor by the park had a couple of restaurant boats that housed everything from Chinese restaurants to WWII museums to laser tag.

Before we ended the day, we grabbed a bite to eat, where I enjoyed a typical Dutch dish called Kipling, which translates into, wait for it, “Kipling” in English – at least that’s what my baby-faced waiter was informed of by the head cook. He then said, that the actual translation into English meant “to be in an argument”, but that had little relevance to our dinner. It was basically fish and chips chopped up into pieces.

Overall, Rotterdam was a beautiful modern city. It was refreshingly new from its restaurants to its skyscrapers to its train station. It was a worthwhile visit and I enjoyed my time there!

Whew! Now that I finally got over my writers block, I hope to get back on schedule, so as to not deprive you of my adventures. Until, next weekend, Tot Ziens!