Rotterdam... and the crazy Box House's

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Well I finally made it to the Netherlands. I must admit I've been keen to get here since leaving Australia nearly eight months ago. I'm not quite sure what was driving me to visit this country so much but i gotta tell you... Dutch woman riding bikes in gorgeous little summer dress's is as good a reason as any to stay!!!

After leaving Antwerp I headed north about one hour into the Netherlands and ended up in Rotterdam about an hour later. Heading across on the train I suddenly realised why they all rides bikes around here.. it's just so flat... On one hand you could almost call it a 'boring landscape' at first glance but upon a closer look you soon realise there's an amazing little network of rivers, canals and well designed farmland. I don't how true it is but someone told me the highest point in south Holland (The Netherlands) is only about eight metres high above sea level???? surely that can't be right... anyway, it makes for a good story so I'm sticking with it.

The main reason I stopped in Rotterdam was the box houses. By now you would have seen the crazy box houses in my pictures. Apparently some world renowned architect came up with this wacky idea and actually convinced someone to build them years ago. They’re quite large too and actually go right across a main road at one point. Well believe it or not but there is a hostel inside some of them too!!! So no prizes for guessing where I stayed for a few days and for the record it was really cool too I must say. I mean it's not every day you get to stay in a three story house/apartment that basically looks like a box falling over onto a road.

The interiors were all on crazy weird angles but they were still very well designed and surprisingly spacious. In fact if you came home late at night and weren't thinking too straight one could almost think you were still drunk even if you were stone cold sober. Anyway you'll get a good feel for them from the pictures I took. I did my best to capture them but like all photos there never as good as the real thing.

Also I spent some time exploring Rotterdam. The city centre was very heavily bombed back in the war so about 80% of all the buildings in town are fairly new and it has some very modern architecture as far as major European cities go. The other interesting thing about Rotterdam is the fact that it has the largest sea port in Europe.

After leaving Rotterdam I also headed across to The Hague which is over on the south west coast. The Hague is home to the international law court were they hold all the international criminal cases. It is also home to most of the political scene in the Netherlands. Once again I found a nice hostel there and spent a few more days checking out everything it had to offer.

My favourite part about The Hague (other than the Dutch girls on bikes of course!) was the nightlife that was literally down on the beach. There's a section of the beach about 10 mins out of the city centre were you can actually go to nightclubs that are set up in permanent tents down on the beach, in between the sand dunes! I went one night with a guy I met at the hostel and at first we thought we were definitely lost but all of a sudden we saw some party goers walking towards us up the beach. Basically they were heading home for an early night as we were heading out... they were also kind enough to point us in the right direction.

The other bonus you'll find about going to a night club that’s on the beach and behind the sand dunes (and get your minds out of the gutter right now guys!) is that there is no noise restrictions... at all!! I've never heard music so load... it was simply mind blowing. In fact it was one of those rare night's were you would have seen me on the dance floor pretty much all night long and I'm talking proper house dance music too (Jules you would have been so proud of me carving up the dance floor.. rave style)... beside's I couldn't talk to anyone anyway.. they all spoke Dutch.. Ha!

Anyway so far so good in the south. More to follow soon as I head up north towards Amsterdam...

Travel Dog

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Comments

[nora odoi]

Atlast
I was in Holland way back in 1990s and managed to visit the box house but did not photo it. Now i try to explain it to my people but they can not conceptualise it. This was another attempt to get a glimpse of it. Thanks

[nora odoi]

The changing house
In addition to the box house i crave to look at the house whose occupants have a different view of their surroundings whichever way they choose.