Torture Dungeons and Towers!

This week started with two back-to-back field trips to Den Haag (The Hague). The week also started off with a continuation of the weekends beautiful weather of cold rain and wind. Nothing like spending most of the day riding a bike in the rain! I'm just glad I haven't gotten a cold yet (knock on wood). At least it hasn't been torrential downpours all day though. Just a lot of rain showers and cloudy, misty weather.

On Monday (7/27/15) we biked as a group to the city and had a presentation at city hall. More free breakfast and coffee! After the presentation we broke off into groups and had a walking tour of downtown Den Haag, lunch, and then a biking tour of Den Haag. I got to see much more of the city than I did the last two times I was here. And it was interesting receiving these tours from city officials. One of the guys leading the bike tour was an older man who has worked at the city for over 30 years. He was very friendly and talkative. He told me quite a bit about the city and the area in general.

The inside of Den Haag city hall. It looks like something out of I Robot.

The main shopping district of the city.

An old city street that has been converted into an enclosed shopping mall.

The Parliament Building. Where the Dutch government does it's magic. I learned that besides the Parliament Building, most of the government agencies, the international embassies, and the home of the royal family are all located in Den Haag. But technically the capital of the Netherlands is still Amsterdam, not Den Haag. Who knew?

View of the Plein (Square in English) and the Den Haag skyline in the background.

A traditional old neighborhood.

The International Peace Palace, home of the UN's Court of Justice.

Apparently the Peace Palace was built in 1913, the year before WWI started. It didn't do a very good job at first.

According to our tour guide (the city official) the Netherlands was chosen as home to the Peace Palace because it was a "small, neutral, and not powerful country"

After the tour we all met up at the Grote Markt and soon headed home. For diner I ended up having fondue with Tiffany and Anna. It was really good! They gave us bread and vegetables to dip into the pot of cheese. I was happy. In the evening a group of us hung out in the common room of the girls' dorm. It felt like freshman year all over again!

On Tuesday (7/28/15) we were off again to Den Haag. This time we had a morning presentation at the main office for Dutch sustainable safety. We had a presentation and then another bike tour of the area (am I sensing a pattern?). The tour was interesting though. After the tour we had free time to have lunch in the Plein and then had time to do some fieldwork for an assignment we have about redesigning a roadway in Den Haag.

Another beautiful day in Holland!

View of the elevated tram line in the Beatrixkwarter of Den Haag. The city decided to make the elevated train tracks into a piece of art. I approve.

Red Light!

Green Light!

Our tour of Americans looking at a freeway.

The royal palace! This is where the royal family usually lives! Unfortunately the royal family does not live there at the moment, as the house is currently undergoing renovations. Too bad, no tea time.

Will they let me in?

Our lunch location on the Plein. I didn't realize how many people were staring at me when I took the photo.

This is what happens when 8 people split the bill. Who wants all of those dollar coins anyways?

In the afternoon we still had some free time to see Den Haag. A group of us decided to tour the Prisongate Museum! This is the facility that originally was the city gate in the 1200's or so, and then later became the prison. We saw the prison chambers and also the torture dungeons. Those were a little creepy. 

The tour was in Dutch, so we had to use audio recordings in English. Can you tell that we're Americans?

This is a device used for public executions hundreds of years ago. Someone would be tied down and then the bat underneath would be used to crush all of their limbs. After that the person would be stabbed to death. Could there be a better way to go?

Outside of the prison chambers.

The inside of the torture chamber. I'm not going to go into any explanations.

Such an innocent looking building from the outside.

After that uplifting experience I went home to Delft for the rest of the evening.

I went grocery shopping at my local grocery store, Jumbo. I feel like such a local. I went through the whole check out experience without the cashier having to switch from Dutch to English, like a pro.

Found some sleeping ducks in old town!

Wednesday (7/29/15) was a quieter day, in terms of the program. We had a lecture in the morning about public transit and train scheduling and then had all day to work on outstanding homework assignments. I finished up a couple of assignments, but also managed to sneak in a three hour lunch where I went back to the old town. I'm never there to experience it during the day and most of the stores close at 6! We had a quick lunch and decided to climb to the top of the tower of the New Church. Over 300 steps on a narrow spiral staircase to a beautiful view, but it was not for the faint of heart at the top. It had a very narrow balcony around the top of the tower and the winds were quite strong. I'm not afraid of heights, but my heart was pounding by the end! We also got to go inside the New Church and the Old Church as well as part of the combo ticket.

Looking up from the base of the New Church. That's about 350 feet to the top. The lower balcony is above the scaffolding where the building transitions from four sides to eight. The upper balcony is above the clock face.

Sarah on the narrow staircase

View from the lower balcony with the Old Church on the left.

Me on the lower balcony.

Me and Garrett on the lower balcony.

Garrett pondering life.

View over the rooftops of Delft from the lower balcony.

Obligatory selfie from the lower balcony. 

This is how wide the balcony is. Very narrow, especially when passing someone. And it's a straight drop down from the side.

The view from the upper balcony.

TU Delft building in the middle and the skyline of Rotterdam in the background.

View of the Markt Square from the upper balcony. The Town Hall is in the foreground and the new train station is farther back on the right.

Another obligatory selfie.

Looking down on the Markt Square.

View inside the New Church. The New Church was originally built around 1400, but has been rebuilt over time. The current tower was built in the 1800's. The Old Church was built around 1200.

A stained glass window in the New Church.

In the evening I worked on some more assignments and then had dinner in my dorm. In the evening a group of us went out for a drink. We went to a place that had tables right alongside the canal. And they had board games. We ended up playing Clue (in Dutch of course) while sitting next to a canal. Not a bad way to end the day.

Rain, Rain, and More Rain. Plus Some Wind.

Already we reached another weekend. Three weeks down, two to go until the program is over. With another weekend, I had the difficult decision of deciding where to go and what to see. I decided this time to head to the city of Rotterdam. Rotterdam is the second largest city in the Netherlands, and is only about 15 km from Delft (about a 10 minute train ride). Rotterdam is interesting because it is a much more modern city than compared to the rest of Holland. It has actual skyscrapers and the downtown seems more like an American city than a European city. Rotterdam was completley bombed out during WWII, and instead of rebuilding the city like the way it was before, the city decided to start from scratch. This means that most of the city was built after 1945. The city is also much different from a cultural point of view. A lot of the architecture is very modern and different, and the public art is things that wouldn't be found in Delft or The Hague. I thought it was super interesting to visit and feel the difference. I liked it a lot.

Saturday (7/25/15) I took the 10 am train with Kyle and Maggie from Delft to Rotterdam. A fun thing about Saturday is that it rained. A lot. And it was windy. Sustained winds of 30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph. The worst summer storm in 100 years to hit Holland happened on Saturday. So all day we were dodging rain storms and intense wind. That wasn't going to deter us though!

Our first destination was the Maritime Museum. Rotterdam currently has the largest port in Europe, and I was excited to learn about that history. It was about a 20 minute walk from the station to the Maritime Museum, so we were able to see some of the city.

The main park heading down from the train station

This statue is called "Santa with a Butt Plug." I wonder if Portland would ever install a statue like this.

Pretty art on the side of a building.

The Maritime Museum was really cool. We spent about 2 hours exploring. They had an interactive exhibit on the history of the port, and they had a giant 3D map of the landscape from today and from 1700. There also was a cool exhibit on houseboats and one on the history of the cruise ship industry. 

The 3D map of the Rotterdam landscape today

Painting of a Dutch Ship

At the Maritime Museum.

At the museum we actually bought combo tickets for both the Maritime Museum and a 75 minute narrated cruise of the harbor. Our next destination was our boat ride. This was at the peak of the storm, so we stayed inside. All of my photos are a little water logged.

View of a docked cruise ship.

The Erasmus Bridge in the rain, one of the most iconic structures of Rotterdam.

Another view of the Erasmus Bridge

A large freight ship

So many shipping containers!

Interesting architecture.

After the boat tour we decided to take more refuge at a restaurant. We ate at a place near the river. It was really good! By the time we were done the rain had somewhat subsided. We decided to walk to the Market Hall across the city to meet up with some of our other friends from the group. Apparently the storm had knocked power out on the train tracks near Delft for awhile, and all of the trains running between Delft and Rotterdam had been shut down for a couple of hours. Good thing we weren't trying to get back!

The Market Hall was really cool though! It just open last year, and it's this giant enclosed market. Surrounding the market are apartments that have windows looking down into the market. I was impressed. We got some desert while we waited for our friends.

We found some things to entertain us during the walk to the Market Hall.

This is the main street in the Cool District of Rotterdam (that's the actual name of the neighborhood). Each block has an adjective written over the street.

Is that blue sky?!?!

The inside of the Market Hall. Each window is an apartment.

View from a table. The walls of the market are covered in a giant mural.

The outside of the Market Hall. It's pretty massive!

After meeting up we decided to head out to a bar someone had heard about across the river. It was about an hour walk, but the sun had finally come out and it was actually a really nice walk!

More Rotterdam Art.

View of the harbor near the Maritime Museum

What a different view with no rain!

But still pretty windy.

View from walking across the Erasmus Bridge.

And a view of the Nieuwe Maas River.

The Erasmus Bridge looks a lot like Boston's Zakim Bridge

View toward the north at sunset.

Is is obvious that I'm a civil engineer and like bridges?

One last photo!

Actual skyscrapers! We're not in Amsterdam anymore.

Our final destination: The Fenix Food Factory. I was told we were going to a beer garden, but instead we were brought to a renovated warehouse that is now a bar. It was pretty cool inside though. The whole warehouse was renovated and has random furniture and nick-knacks here and there. The bathrooms were in old shipping containers. Overall it was probably one of the most hipster places I have ever been in my life, but it was cool. 

We hung out at the warehouse bar for a while and then someone tried to lead us to a club-like bar that was supposed to be located in a former grain silo. I was pretty excited to say I went to a bar in an old grain silo while in Europe. We walked about 15 more minutes into another warehouse district. When someone's Google Maps GPS told us that we were there, we were located in a very dead area near the river. I thought we were in the wrong place, but it turns out the bar is only open for special events and it was closed that night. I was disappointed that we walked all that way for nothing, but I wasn't too sad to leave the warehouse district of Rotterdam. We ended up walking back to the downtown and went to a couple bars in the Cool District that I had walked through earlier in the day. It was a fun time! I ended up staying out pretty late and taking a 4 am train back to Delft. It's crazy how much later bars are open here than in America!

On Sunday (7/26/15), it was time to work on some homework assignments. I ended up waking up around 1 pm and saw that it was another rainy, windy day. A group of us met up and worked on an assignment where we needed to ride a "bike superhighway" that connects two cities in Holland. We decided to ride from Delft back to Rotterdam, as we didn't want to be caught too far away if it did downpour. Fortunately we weren't caught too badly. it did rain most of the way there, but it never came down too hard. Nothing a rain coat can't handle (on a side note, my raincoat is probably the best item that I brought on this trip. I would be very unhappy if I did not have a raincoat, as I've probably used it at least 50% of the days so far).

The ride was nice. It went though the countryside between Delft and Rotterdam. We saw some canals and fields. Once in Rotterdam the route became a little difficult to follow, but we made it. We went and saw the Maas Tunnel, which is a tunnel under the Nieuwe Maas River. The tunnel was built in the 1930's and has a separate section for cars, bikes, and pedestrians. It's cool there is a bike and pedestrian tunnel, but it looked like it could use a makeover.

Farmland between Delft and Rotterdam

Which way to Rotterdam?!

Another canal. This one is wide enough for shipping!

A very small town we had to ride through on the way.

So many destinations!

To access the tunnel pedestrians and bikes need to use an escalator. I feel like there must be a better option for bikes than using the escalator. I was afraid I was going to drop my bike and hit someone! 

The bike part of the Maas Tunnel.

We ended up just getting coffee and then biking back to Delft. It was unlimited pancake night for 8.50 euro, so we had to get back for that! The special pancake (remember, think crepe) this week was bacon with pesto, arugula, and onion. It was delicious! The perfect way to end a busy, rainy weekend.