Rotterdam

Rotterdam sits a bit inland from the coast, just west of the center of the Netherlands.  Rotterdam is the Netherland’s largest port city, in contrast to Amsterdam, which was perhaps the world’s greatest port city around the 17th century.  Rotterdam was almost completely destroyed during the invasion of the Nazis, and has been rebuilt in an eccentric and audacious architectural style.

I began my first day by taking a peaceful walk from the train station to my hostel.  After checking in, I went to spend the afternoon exercising in the park.  I then wandered a different path home, seeing a few more green spaces and odd pieces of art along the way.

In the evening, I went for a quick dinner and a pub crawl.  This crawl was a bit lackluster compared to others I’ve been to, but a beer is still a beer.

The next day, I was feeling a bit worse for wear, so I spent the day lounging at the hostel.  I made housing plans for Amsterdam and did some research on what to do for the months of November and December.  Right now, Spanish immersion in Colombia is looking good.

In the evening I went out for a pizza dinner at a lovely pizzeria down the street.  I had a marvelous, cheese-less pizza that was topped with capers, raw tuna, and pistachios.  It was an unexpected and delicious combo.

The next day, I went looking for a walking tour of the city.  While I found some advertised online, none of them seemed to appear when I arrived at the starting point.  In lieu of a professional tour, I looked up some of the top sights and set out on my own.  Highlights included the town marketplace, which is a tremendous arch filled with shops on the ground floor, and the cube houses, which literally are peoples houses.  Apparently they feel like normal apartments on the inside (including floors which are flat and level).

After seeing these essential architectural landmarks, I went looking for the maritime museum.  In the meantime, I saw a garbage truck (operated by a single man) lift a dumpster out of the ground and dump it in the truck.  This was done by a robotic arm controlled by the truck’s operator.  I was amazed.  European efficiency rocks.

I then arrived at the Maritime museum and entered a large exhibit they had on the vast array of technology and techniques involved in drilling for oil and gas.  This exhibit was tremendously interesting, and I spent the bulk of my time at the museum within it.  A wide variety of oil platforms, oil drilling ships, and other types of support craft were covered, with detailed videos explaining the technology and history of each.  I am continually astonished by the ingenuity and intelligence of humanity.

After a quick lunch break, I returned to the hostel to join a tour covering some of Rotterdam’s street art.  The art was scattered amongst the alleyways of the trendy bar area near our hostel, and some of it was quite lovely.  The highlight was probably the one with the men standing on top of each other, which one could become a part of through the ladder rungs on the wall.

In the evening I enjoyed a performance by two singer songwriters in the hostel bar.  The performers were on a small tour they’d organized themselves, and hailed from Portland, Oregon.  After the performance, I went out for drinks with some friends I’d made on the walking tour earlier.

The next morning I went for a much-needed healthy lunch and a picture of a gnome carrying a rather strange object before heading to the train station.

On to Amsterdam!