Rotterdam: off the Backpacker Track

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"Money is earned in Rotterdam, divided in The Hague and spent in Amsterdam"

Hi Everyone!
I have spent the last three days in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. I forget why I decided to come here other than I found a cheap hostel. Amsterdam is going to be very expensive, so I needed a break from that. Rotterdam is an interesting place, it is very Urban. It was bombed to the ground in 1940 during WWII. Instead of restoring the buildings and architecture of the past, they decided to rebuild completely differently. The buildings are very modern in their architecture. My favorite is the Cube houses. They are supposed to represent abstract trees. Each cube stands on its corner. They are yellow, which is strange if you are going for a tree theme. Apparently there is a hostel in them now. I didn't stay there. I stayed at the Mafkees. (Dutch for Silly Head.) It used to be an ice rink which they remodeled to put 124 beds in one big room. I get to stay in the girls dorm, which only has 24 beds. Last night I even had it all to myself. Ha. The fun thing about Rotterdam is the distinct lack of tourists. Everyone seems to be going about their business.
On Saturday when I got here there was a huge open air market taking place. There were hundreds of stalls with very cheap prices, 3-10 Euro for new clothes. There was even a fabric stall. It is a good thing I don't have room in my luggage because I was tempted to buy new clothes.
On Sunday I went to the Boijmans-van Beuningen art museum. (I saved 4,50 euro with my student ID). They had several Van Gogh and Monet paintings which I enjoyed seeing. In addition I found a painting that I loved by Jan Toorop, called The New Generation. It was fascinating. The paint was thick but very orderly. In the thick paint there were places where the paint had been scratched away in tiny designs that you could only see up close. This style is called 'salad oil type.'
Otherwise, the museum was full of the usual western art homage to christian symbolism. I saw at least three John the Baptist heads.
I Enjoyed the relaxed pace here Now it is on to Amsterdam!

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Photos

Cube houses
Designed in 1984 by Peit Blom. The walls and windows slant at 57.4 degrees.

Fries with mayo
I tried the mayo, but it is not to my taste. Too bland.

Giant Fountain
Located on a street called Weena.

Pencil building
The top is a pencil and windows are sunglasses.

McDonalds
Despite the rumours, this is the first place I have been to that you can stand in one place and see 4 McDonalds.

Giant Street lamps
There are four of these and in the middle is a computer that you can use to move them around.

Hole in the Museum floor
Interesting exhibit where the floor is cut away and a mannequin peeks his head up. If you look down the hole you can see the basement where the mannequin is propped up on a table full of magazines.

Van Gogh painting
Pretty yellow trees.

Hostel room
pictured here are 10 or the 24 beds in the room.

Central library
right next to pencil building. This has 6 floors of books, most of one floor is dedicated to English books. Yay!

Comments

[jenny's mom]

It's a bird...its a plane!
right above the central library, is that an actual huge bird in the sky? or a kite maybe? a small plane? judging by their trees for buildings (cube houses) and a pencil building with sunglasses, maybe their planes are birds?

[anonymous]

It is a bird. On Tuesday and Saturday the market is there so they are hanging around for food!

[anonymous]

The giant fountain is called 'Hofplein' On special significant national occasions associated with the Royal family or National soccer team they make the water Orange