Rotterdam: Semana Santa 2011 Part 2

ROTTERDAM

Impressions: A short (less than a day) visit, but more than enough time to see most of the city. Rotterdam is a major port city and is known for its modern architecture, but really isn't a tourist city, no matter what a guide book or tourism office might tell you. My hostel was in the cube houses, one of the main tourist points in the city, and a couple of bridges, the library, and the train station (other architectural tourist stops) were all a quick walk away, so there was plenty of time to spend hours at meals, sleep, wander around parks and ports, etc. A day was more than enough time, but it was a nice stop. Also, I always think it's nice to see a non-capital city as well as the capital to have a bit of a better impression of a place.


Cube houses in Rotterdam where I slept for the night
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cube_house

Food: Since I only spent about 20 hours (including sleeping) in the city, I didn't try too many different types of food. Actually, I just had 2 meals. Dinner at a cheap but delicious Italian restaurant with a Singaporean girl from my hostel: Salmon and spinach pizza with white wine. Breakfast: Free from the hostel, but delicious and filling. Probably the best hostel breakfast I've ever had. Fresh bread, cheese, cold cuts, yogurt, cereals, a cappuccino machine, toast with butter and chocolate sprinkles (apparently a Dutch thing....also something I ate when I was little.)

People:Met a girl from Singapore who's living in London as soon as I got to my hostel, and since we were both traveling alone and were hungry, we went out for pizza and wine. Spent the evening in the restaurant talking about traveling and new places and food and people and life. The rest of the people there seemed to be students and were celebrating the end of their volleyball season. Very jolly, very dutch, very friendly. In the morning, I ended up wandering around to see some parks in the city with a Russian sailor that I met who was also staying at my hostel. He was there for a nautical career fair and likes to quote Russian sayings in very broken English and has an unnaturally large neck. Good company though for a morning. We took pictures of tulips together in the park before I left to catch my train. Didn't see the Maritime Museum. I probably wouldn't have gone anyway, but he wasn't interested in seeing it at all since, according to him, "His life is a maritime museum."


Tulips in a park


Another photo from a walk in the park