For me, Holland had forever conjured in my mind images of endless fields of colourful tulips, with narrow bike paths along the edges of the fields, on which you would ride your beautiful bike (complete with decorated basket of course) and pass ornate old windmills every 100 meters of so....
So of course when Michael and I travelled to Amsterdam as a stop on our honeymoon tour, I felt almost offended by the alternate visions that met me. And not a tulip in sight (unless you counted the tulip decorated trinkets you could buy in every souvenier shop). So naturally, I was eager to return to find my ideal Holland. And that we did.
Very early Good Friday morning, Michael and I made our way to the airport to take a tiny airplane up to ... Rotterdam. Already, 20 minutes before landing, I could tell we were going to see a very different Holland. From the air, the moats of water, bridges and windmills could already be seen. On the bus ride from the airport into town, we drove alongside small waterways, crossed several little bridges and passed dozens of big white geese. Not to mention the windmills. There were daffodils growing all along the roadside, and flashes of colour everywhere. This was the Holland I had been dreaming of.
I will take a moment here to mention that from the moment we touched down in Holland, we found the language really easy to understand. Being almost fluent in German now, we found that we were reading and listening to what could only be described as slightly drunk Denglish (German English). While we could not reply in Dutch, we understood almost everything, from the train announcements, to advertisements, to the waiters serving us at each restaurant.
Anyway, once in town, we navigated the underground rail network to find our way to our hotel. Being so early in the day (not even 9:30am) we just wanted to drop off our bag. Although the reception lady was not so keen on our request, she said yes and soon we were off exploring the township of Rotterdam.
After buying a map from the visitor centre, and getting some local advice from one of the visitor centre guides, we made our way by foot around the town according to the route suggested. Through the centre of the main shopping strip, we stumbled across a lovely old church, but for once, it's architectual beauty was well and truly eclipsed by the buildings around it. Rotterdam, as it turned out, was a city full (I mean overflowing) with the most unusual, modern and unique architecture we have seen. Every building had something different about it. Nothing was plain or normal.
Emerging at the other end of the shopping strip, we came up alongside a massive building that was like a large rounded tunnel. It turned out to be a place called the Market Hall, and inside the tunnel was indeed a market hall full of fresh produce, restaurants, and little eateries, while the outer casing of the tunnel was an apartment block. From inside the market hall, one looked up in awe at the colourfully decorated ceiling that arched overhead, but one could also see the windows all around which allow the residents to see into the market hall. It was rather unusual.
The food was good too, as we stopped for a quick snack to keep us going after our very early start. Walking across the plaza from the Market Hall, we saw more amazing architecture, in hotels, museums and even some apartments known as the Cube Houses. Cube on its own sounds normal for a house shape, but not when you see how they stand. These cubes are held aloft about 10 meters above the ground on a large concrete trunk, with the cube turned on its point. The overall concept is for the houses (all butted up against each other) looks like a forest of trees. A very modern forest.
One of these cubes was open as a display home for the public to see the living space inside. It was weird. I don't know that I could live like that. The bottom floor of living space contained the kitchen and lounge, and being in the bottom half of the cube, the windows were on an angle slanting downwards so you could see the train tracks below etc. It was slightly unnerving and your senses were rather put out. It felt strange. The next floor up was technically middle of the cube, with the windows in the bedroom and study still slanting on a downwards angle, but not really allowing for as strange a view. The top level was like a little sun room, with windows slanting upwards all around you, allowing you to see the top of the house forest in all directions.
All furniture inside these houses has to be purpose made to fit the strange spaces and slanting walls. It was quite fun to tour the house but I certainly couldn't live there. The internal staircase (inside the trunk of the tree) would alone be too much for me to cope with, very steep and winding.
We continued our path of wandering past the Weisshuis (White House), which at one point was the largest building in Europe. Wandering along a river channel, we came to the maritime museum, outside of which was a very famous statue. This statue is called 'The Destroyed City' which is to commemorate the bombing and destruction that took place in Rotterdam during the war. Just across the road, we could see that we had ended up back at the information centre, so we had walked a large loop. Down a side street not far away, we found lunch.
Lunch was the so called 'Best Burger in Holland'. The burger bar where we chose to eat looked really nice and had posters claiming that it had won best burger for the whole of the Netherlands 2014/15, but had also previously won the title of Best Burger in Rotterdam. We thought we should take the chance on this place.... except that it was completely empty. However, it turned out that we were really lucky. We walked in at 12 on the dot, asked if they were open and we were told to pick a table, the whole place was free. By the time we walked out after eating absolutely amazing burgers and chips with truffle mayo, there was not a free seat in the house.
Down the road from lunch was an interesting art gallery that we were interested in exploring. But I have to say, one of the best bits of the whole gallery was the cloak room! Not because the gallery sucked, but because it was the coolest cloak room system ever! In the centre of the entrance hall stood a large cylindrical frame covered in ropes which spanned up and out to the ceiling. These ropes attached at a point on the ceiling then dropped to end with a coat hanger. These coathangers dangled over our heads in a large circle. The task you performed involved choosing a rope, turning the key to release it from its slot, then feeding the rope upwards as to lower your coathanger. You then attached your coat to the hanger, pulled your rope to propel your jacket skywards and then lock your rope into place, taking the key with you until you were ready to retrieve your jacket later! See, cool!
Before long however, we were roaming the hallways of the Dutch Masters and I was honestly so excited to be standing in front of some of the original artworks that have been a part of my studies and passions for many years. Picasso, Degas, Van Gogh, and Mondriaan to name a few.
We also visited the modern quarter, with a large selection of audio visual installation pieces and even a live dance performance rehearsal underway. Some of it I must say was almost too crazy for me, and I love modern interpretive art.... but the dancing was amazing.
By now, it was almost 4pm, and we were exhausted. We made our way to our hotel to see if we could finally check in, and then proceeded to fall asleep! We had a lovely nap, then woke about 7pm with the sun still shining in our windows.
Needing dinner, we went back to just near the Cube Houses and found a nice Italian place where we both ordered a pasta dish. The food was cheap but the portions were massive and neither of us could finish the whole bowl. That is saying something for me, I never send food back to the kitchen! Rolling back to the hotel with food baby bellies, we slept very well that night!
The following morning, we allowed ourselves a small sleep in as the day prior had been quite exhausting and long. We in fact ended up leaving the hotel close to the time that we had dropped off our bag the previous day. The train station just happened to be right across from the front door of our hotel so we were able to go straight to central for a spot of breakfast. A muesli and coffee later, plus a quick external observation of the Central Station itself, and we caught the next train to The Hague.
The train trip was uneventful, and as soon as we were off the train, we made our way on foot to my most desired museum. Now, we visit museums all the time, particularly in the various countries that we visit. I have spoken over and over again about the various artists that I have studied and followed over the years, of which there are many. But none compare to the man whose works adorned the museum we were about to enter. This man I think I love not only for his amazing images, but because he is an outcast. He was for the longest time, sometimes even still today, not acknowledged by artists and the art world as an artist. They believed him to be a mathematician or an architect. And yet the architecture world says he is an artist. Best of all, he failed a large number of subjects at school including mathematics!
I am of course speaking of M.C. Escher. This man is synonymous with mathematical images of symmetry and tessellation, and stunning lino prints of glossy reflections. The museum itself was broken into 3 floors. The first of which was dedicated to Escher's early works, where a distinct trend towards real life, still life and landscapes could be seen. This included one of my favourite pieces, the 'Hand with reflecting sphere'.
Moving towards the second floor, the inspiration of Escher's architecture college days and his love of symmetry started to develop. His trippy mind bending images filled the walls of this second level and people could be seen standing before a single image for ages just trying to decode it, understand where it started and finished, just trying to fathom how a man could have conceived let alone drawn and carved such an image.
The third floor was an interactive level, where installations let you become a bit more experimental with Escher's works, and some recent modern art works inspired by Escher were also on display here. By the time we walked out, we had infact spent well over 2 hours just admiring the beautiful twisted images of Escher. For me it was a bit of a dream come true.
Once back outside in the sunshine, we realised that we were rather hungry. A nice wander around the city centre of the Hague, and we came across a nice lunch spot. We both chose simple baguette sandwiches, but with delicious fillings. Just what we needed.
Our next adventure involved a tram ride out to the sea side. Now as Australians, we think of the sea side as being a bright sunny golden sand area that reaches as far as the eye can see with beautiful blue water lapping at the sand. This was more like something out of a movie. We walked along a boardwalk, where a long row of restaurants stood between us and the sand. The greyish yellow sand was barely visible and the grey water was still. The wind was also another displeasing factor, and between being blown about and the chill factor, it is safe to say that we didn't last long on the boardwalk!We did however take time to admire a series of quite cool statues along the boardwalk. These statues were all made of metal and each statue was of a stereotypical little fat man with long tubular arms and legs. There were statues of a small man hanging his head in shame against a wall, another about 10 times as big sitting on the fence, with my head only reaching his knee. Another was as small as my hand! They were so cute and unique and such a lovely mass installation art piece!
But no matter how nice those sculptures were, the wind was just too much. We took shelter behind buildings and made our way back to the tram stop along the main road rather than along the beach front.
Once back in the centre of town, we were both in need of a warming drink. So we stopped for coffee (hot chocolate for Michael of course) and a Stroopwaffle - (more on these later), and also the free wifi! It was by this stage almost 6pm, so after a quick spot of shopping, we made the journey back to the railway station, and caught the train back to our hotel in Rotterdam.After a long, cold, windy day, we decided on dinner within the confines of our hotel. The hotel we were staying at did have a rather nice little restaurant in the lobby and Michael thoroughly enjoyed the special (a pizza, salad and beer for 8 euros) while I almost licked my plate clean after devouring a delicious terriyaki fish and potato dish.
Thankfully that evening allowed us an earlier night - which was good with a big day ahead of us!
We had been watching the weather report for the weeks leading up to this trip and we had been quite unsure of when to make the most special day trip of this holiday. We were waiting for a really nice sunny day. We had almost decided to make this trip the day before but had made the call not to, and we were so pleased. In the end, the day we went it was sunny and bright and just beautiful.
Rather than go on and on about it, I will let photos do the talking here. But to give the pretence, we caught two trains and then a bus to get to the famed Keukenhof gardens - the Tulip festival that runs for only 6 weeks was happening, and quite honestly, had been the main reason for our trip to Holland. I mentioned right at the top my dreams of Tulips.... well today I got it!
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| The things you see on the way... |
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| Dutch Bicycles |
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| CLOGS! |
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| The biggest orchid I've ever seen! |
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| And the most unique colours! |
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| 'You spin me right round, baby right round...' |
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| High heeled clogs were a thing?!? |
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| Mmmmm, fresh warm gooey stroopwaffle! |
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| apparently this is fun and games? Catch the clog! |
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| Traditional Dutch dancers |
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| Every home should have a flower pot chair! |
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| Theme for this year was Van Gogh! |
Being Easter Sunday, of course the Easter Bunny was riding a dutch bike!
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| What everyone came to see - the Van Gogh garden.... |
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| Sadly it still hadn't bloomed! |
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| Ah... a masterpiece! |
I say crazy cool cause it was playing Lady Gaga!
We finally made it back out of the park and caught a bus and two trains back to Rotterdam. Tonight however we had made a pact to get ready straight away and go out for dinner as it was our last night of holiday. It may have had something to do with the fact that I had seen a really nice sushi restaurant and given that we were staying in a shipping seaside town, well I thought the sushi surely had to include better quality seafood than in Munich.
So go to the sushi place we did. And eat our fill we did too! It was an all you could eat with an iPad ordering system. We ate every last mouthful and it was amazing! We even finished with an ice cream - matcha and black sesame for me!Our final day dawned and we only had a few hours before our flight back to Munich. So we made the most of it. Dropping our suitcase at the main train station in a locker, we scoffed a quick muesli breakfast at the station before taking another walk through the town of Rotterdam. We saw some strange sights, and some more amusing statues.
The next stop was a wander over the Erasmus bridge. This in itself was quite an architectural wonder!
But I couldn't help but stop in wonder at the wild daffodils just growing on the roadside.
More amazing architecture
A dutch cheese sandwich for lunch (because what came next was not allowed to be eaten without a healthy pre-meal).
We then hurried over to the Poffertjes Salon! It was here that I got the real deal. The soft fluffy baby bite sized pancakes that were covered in a thick dusting of icing sugar with a lump of slowly melting butter on top. Additional toppings were at the consumers request - I went with rum raisins! And it was fresh rum let me tell you! What a feast!
Michael went with..... chocolate of course. To go with his hot chocolate!
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