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.
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