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Well I survived Amsterdam and had a great time in Rotterdam.
What can I say about Amsterdam? I didn’t much care for the area around the station- otherwise known as the Red Light District. I dared not venture into its confines at night for fear of my virgin eyes. I got there in the late afternoon, so after I found my hostel I set out for a walking tour of the city. I found all the points of interest that were in my guidebook and really enjoyed my walk. Once you get into the more residential area along the canals it is really nice and pretty. Just some places get more attention than others.
In the morning of my second day there I went straight to the Anne Frank House Museum. It was really really cool. They still had the pictures Anne had pasted onto her wall- she had Ginger Rogers, Greta Garbo, Ray Miland and someone else I knew but forget now, among other pictures. It was cool to see a place I had read about all those years ago in fifth grade or something. Very sad too. Got a little misty-eyed at the end, but that was
Garden in Rotterdam
Margalit being artistic it.
Next stop was the Van Gogh museum up at the Vondelpark. That was another emotional rollercoaster ride. The line was crazy and the crowds were horrible inside, but the paintings were awesome. I mean, I learned about these in class! It was great to be able to go up to them and get really close and see the brushstrokes and the real colors. Absolutely incredible. There was this one reddish-blue-purple that was so cool to look at. It just looked good and felt good to look at. So I got some ideas for my paper, then saw the Rembrandt and Caravaggio show that was also there.
I then skedaddle over to the Rijksmuseum- the state museum and saw tons of cool Dutch stuff. Delftware and silver works and Vermeer and more Rembrandts and still lifes with grapes luscious enough to eat. I’m sorry I can’t be more specific, but I was pretty tired by this point. Museums really wear me out!
I got lost on my way back to the hostel to pick up my stuff so I could go to Rotterdam and stay with Margalit. I ended up on the opposite side of the city
Old Rotterdam
What survived World War II and had to beat a hasty path back to the hostel when I finally figured out where I was. I was so lost that when I finally found myself I had no idea where I had been. I still don’t know where I was! But I made my train, so that’s all the matters.
Margie met me at the station and we took the tram back to her apartment in the northern part of Rotterdam that didn’t get bombed in WWII. It is a really nice apartment that she shares with a Chinese girl from Italy. In typical Margalit fashion, she made me come with her to a friend’s apartment fifteen minutes away to pick up a mattress for me to use. The girls who lived there were really nice and even helped up take the mattress back. So three out of the four of us were walking through the streets of Rotterdam after dark, carrying a mattress on our heads. We must have made quite a sight.
The next morning we did a very typical Dutch thing and rode bicycles down to a modern art museum in the downtown area. It was so cool to use the
Margalit and Me
Why is her head bigger than mine? little bike lanes and have our own traffic signals and everything. I was pretty winded by the time we got there though. And my butt hurt. The museum was cool though- Van Boyman- but spelled more Dutch-y. We had lunch there before go to another part of old Rotterdam along a canal that survived the bombing. If this is what Rotterdam looked like beforehand, then the world really lost something special. We got to see a barge go under a raised bridge, then we biked farther into downtown and walked around a bit before having dinner at this Moroccan place. I had the couscous. It was delicious and the restaurant had a great atmosphere. I felt bad having to speak English though, but those Dutch are down with the English language- like hot dogs and ketchup- not natural like hot dogs and mustard, but still really good.
After a short time at happy hour at one of Margie’s regular bars we turned in for the night, tired by our exercise that day. Biking is definitely a great way to see a city in the Netherlands and Rotterdam was a very cool place. Add it to my list!
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