dutch lessons

because it's just too much to try and describe the awesome ridiculousness of this weekend, i shall instead present some of the lessons that i have learned in the last 72 hours:

• speculoos = gingerbread. otherwise known as the food of the gods. it comes in all forms in this wonderful country, from cookies to sprinkles (hagelslag!) to spreads to bread with marscapone filling. food of the gods, people. for serious.

• rotterdam may not have the needle, its ferry may be called a "waterbus" - but its harbor totally beats seattle on bridges.

 

 and boats! happy harbor festival weekend!

• if you can take a boat instead of a train, do it. even if you have a bike.

i still can't figure out this perspective, but it was pretty cool.

(waterbus from rotterdam to dordrecht.)

• canals continue to be awesome. (dordrecht, den bosch)

• always bring your bike. it may seem like too much hassle, but it will always be worth it. there is nothing better than hopping from boat to bike to train to bike and getting to wander as much and as far as you like... on a bike! on my trip out from boston, my favorite part was parking the car, pulling off the bike, and riding around the city. why did it take me so long to remember this?!

• every good dutch town has at least one massive church. also, the "nieuwe kerk" (versus "oude") is likely still at least 500 years old.  (dordrecht, den bosch)

um. this church is not hiding.

• cities that are called "den bosch" may not actually be named "den bosch." (apparently 's hertogenbosch is just too much of a mouthful for the dutch, as well as non-dutch. really? i never would have guessed. (however, this does prove complicated sometimes. thankfully the train station is listed under both names.) despite identity issues, though, it is a lovely city - pretty much just what you'd think a city named for "the duke's forest" would look like - medieval, lots of cobblestones, picturesque canals, even a giant floodplain on the other side of the original ramparts that protect the city... you know, back when the city was a fortress. in the thirteenth century. yeah.)

• the dutch national team had never scored more than 9 goals in a single game. until last friday night. (11-0, netherlands v. san martino.)

this kid was so. happy.

(though he did not just vomit up confetti. even if it appears so.)

•  always take the scenic route. but remember that maps come in handy for a reason.

• netherlands fietspads can be tricksy, even when they call you by name. (erica is the genus for heath plants.) but generally they lead you to, from, and through, some pretty awesome scenery. (it helps when you're in a national park, too.)

 

• van gogh is still my favorite. wow. 

• sculptures should always be in parks. they may not make more sense, but it sure is pretty.

 

• dutchlands has a desert? what? (not to mention vast fields of heathers.)

• dutch road signs in general can be misleading. what would you think when you see the sign for "wildrooster"?

(ps. wildrooster means "cattle grate")

• molen hunting is so much fun!

chasing mindmills

today, we chased windmills.

(or, as alex likes to call them, mindmills.)

so, this week has been... kind of rough. (at least for me.) it started out with internets being gone, and very difficult to find... anywhere. we've had more classes than we're used to, we're in this new city that i'm not really used to or comfortable in yet, i'm kind of getting sick... and i miss home. i've been gone for 2 1/2 weeks now, and i'm kind of done with this traveling thing. it's been fun. but i'm tired.

we've been riding to class at erasmus university the last couple days, which has been awesome on the fietspads! yay for real, actual, distinctly separate bike lanes. and little bike traffic lights. they're adorable.

on the way home from class yesterday, gary and i checked out the fantabulous cube houses (which we ride under on the way to class). apparently piet bloom started designing them in the 70s, and eventually made this whole little village in downtown rotterdam (next to the library - aka book mall) - they're pretty crazy. one of them is open for viewing - and while you'd think they're all wasted space? they do a pretty amazing job with the interior design. kind of space-ship-like, but pretty awesome.

yup. cubes.


i really liked that i could see myself in the window reflections.

look! it's neighborcat! on a motorcycle? superawesome cat, clearly.

superawesome cat returns! she was in awe of me and ruby. we're a good team.

and then last night, of course, i crashed. badly. so tired. but i refuse to get sick, and i was soooooo looking forward to our kinderdijk adventure today! about 14 of us have bikes at this point, and wanted to ride to the molens - kinderdijk is a world heritage site about 16km from rotterdam, and goooooorgeous. lots of windmills from the 1730s-40s, pretty much looking exactly like how you would expect windmills to look in 1740. and you get to ride your bike around. and go into a windmill. and watch the sheeps and cows and pigs. it's almost too much.

except it's totally not.

molen!

molen!

molen molen molen!

molen molen molen molen!

i really just can't get enough of the flatness of that horizon. omg.

although maddie and i are parted, ruby is doing her darndest to try and take her place. we're a good team.

:)

clearly, this post has been much more about posting awesome pictures than sharing adventures... but i think that is important too. maybe i've been chasing windmills (mindmills) this whole week, trying to make rotterdam comfortable and happy and what i want it to be, when i really just need to take it easy and let it do its thing... and let me do mine. our weekend starts again tomorrow... i'll try to start this adventurous weekend with a better attitude. (and i will totally do my readings this weekend. totally totally will.)

time to go chase those sleepy mindmills... till the weekend ahead of den bosch ('s hertsgodenbosch, officially. wtf.), then dutch national football game, then the great dutch inland desert, then delft? this is going to be a very. busy. weekend. mindmills, get ready.

internets!

finally. the internets have returned to us!

all is well with the world again.

i bought a bike!

still no wifi.

no. wifi.

for a bit this morning we had wifi at the hotel, but only on the iphones. and then it was gone for everything.

we are so sad. it should be this good thing that will get us to go out and experience the world - be happy! go forth and wander! see the city!

but by the time we had class, a bunch of us wanted to go look at used bikes - we wandered between bike shops, desperately trying to find a cheap bike that would be able to take us around the city and out into the dutch countryside! some of us had bought their bikes in amsterdam, but for those of us who waited for rotterdam? we were not impressed with what we found.

and then we were cranky. and had no wifi. we went out to find lunch, and then decided to head downtown to check out the rentals at the train station… where we found our bikes! they had a great selection of really decent bikes - and promised, promised, promised they would buy them back for about two-thirds, including the locks. compared to renting for 3 weeks… it should work out. and now i own a bike!

lauren is locking up her bike, but mine is the red one to the left - blog, meet ruby! we shall be great friends :)

the other great part about heading to the train station to pick up our bikes? clearly the ridiculous signs.

will someone please tell me what the kiss & ride is??

:)

kinderdijk, dortrecht, delft, den haag, hoge veluwe - here we come!

(of course, the rest of the evening was spent finding ridiculous beers, and no wifi. none. WHERE IS THE WIFI IN THIS CITY.

we are so, so sad.)

on to rotterdam

sunday morning, and it's time to head out from amsterdam.

of course, it's raining. or pouring. and maybe some lightning and thunder. but mostly rain.

of course, before i really cared about the continued rain (ugh), it became clear that i apparently bought some things in amsterdam - and my bags were, well, rather full. very full. i felt rather silly - and by silly i of course mean awesome - bumbling through amsterdam with my stuffed backpack, my stuffed messenger bag, and my lavender fields hat. oh, erica.

we made it to the train station, managed to miss the first train to rotterdam - leaving us with a chance to figure out if the "sprinter" train is actually faster than the "intercity" or the "snel" train. oh dear. otherwise, the train was pretty uneventful, other than getting stuck in utrecht for a while and then invaded by red and white dutch football fans. oh, and the rain. pouring more than i'd ever seen. (the effect was possibly magnified by the speed of the train, but whatevs. that train was going fast.)

and then, rotterdam! and huge big city-like buildings. all of those big skyscrapers we didn't really see much of in amsterdam - at least downtown amsterdam - are all over rotterdam. we figure out the tram system, find the hotel baan! where we have spacious rooms with shelving! and giant windows facing the river and general awesomeness. and, blessedly, wifi.

i wandered around in the afternoon, through a big flea market, down the street to the comfort of albert hein (phew!), then gary and i went windmill hunting again in delftshaven, the older section of town across the river. it's funny how much i miss the older buildings of amsterdam. my immediate feeling during my first wander was mostly crankiness - why did we have to leave amsterdam, where i was finally comfortable and felt at home and come to this city that is fairly nondescript and… just kind of generic? of course, i kind of feel bad about this - i don't want to not like rotterdam immediately… i'm keeping an open mind. at least for these first couple days.

pretty park near our hotel...


delfthaven is adorable. this is also home to rotterdam's only brouwerie. awesome!

awesome little floating park in the canal. so pretty.

molen! gary and i found a molen!

i really, really love the dancing people on the library building.

i really want this bike. who wouldn't want the tulipkaart?!

of course, the baan family gave us the most wonderful welcome that night - they put out a huuuuge spread of sushi and crackers and dips and satay and shrimps and olives - so very very good! after dinner, we went over to our corner bar - the ouder slauis for some scrumptious vaguely sour belgian beers. sleep came pretty soon after that, though - there's a cold going around the group, and i'm not ready for that. not going to get sick. sleep is good.

also, this is the view from our hotel.
and a bit later... have i mentioned that the skies in rotterdam are amazing?

also, did i mention we there's no wifi at the hotel? (... now, tuesday night, we finally had the internets returned to us. but until then?)

tears. lots of tears.