There are so many cities within the Netherlands that people have advised me to visit! Since I have the time and will likely never live here again, I figured why not. I was a little skeptical if I would like Rotterdam since I didn’t much care for the Hague as I love the big cities and there is really only one big city in the Netherlands.
Rotterdam was about 2.5 hours away by train and I hopped on the train at 10 am immediately following my class. Katelyn was going to join me later after her class and then we planned on also stopping in Gouda for the cheese tasting experience.
When I first arrived it was raining heavily and I wanted to explore things that I wasn’t going to have the time to see with Katelyn. I took the train to a part of the city called Delft. Delft was a historical neighborhood however, with the rain and Google maps not quite cooperating, I didn’t find what I was looking for and decided to return to the city center.
On the way to the city center I passed by the Euromast which is a huge lookout tower. On a clear day it apparently offers very scenic panoramic views but there was no way I was seeing anything on a day like today. In the city center I finally caved and bought an umbrella and then browsed the farmers market that was set up. I think my favorite thing has to be tasting the various cheeses they sell at the market!
Katelyn arrived rather late since she was having trouble with her train ticket so we started with Markt Hall in the center of the city. Markt Hall is a massive food hall offering food from all over the world. I don’t know how I have survived this long without Indian food but I saw the stall and ordered pani puri, paneer, and mango lassi.
Close to the Markt Hall were bright yellow houses called Cube Houses that were built on a slant and looked like they were falling down. Most of the houses are a hostel, but there is one that is set up as a museum so visitors can get a peek at what living in one is like. The visitors cube was two floors and resembled a tiny home. The first floor had a tiny kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. Upstairs, there was a cute little sunroom with windows all around. Since the house is slanted, all of the windows open like they are just going to swing out. The angles inside versus outside are pretty trippy since you expect everything from the outside to be slanted when in reality, the only things that are slanted are the windows. The cubes were pretty cute and I bet I could live in one currently until I realize just how much stuff I own.
Katelyn and I both have museum cards which grant us free admission to museums in the Netherlands. To take advantage of it, we decided to check out the Depot Boijmans. The Depot is part of a larger museum that is currently under construction and therefore inaccessible. The Depot was housed in a large shiny silver building that is shaped like a ball. It reminded me of the Bean in Chicago. Since it was a depot and not a museum, it was where all the art that is not currently on display is housed. It was also where all the art conservation of the works took place. Many of the rooms served as working spaces for the art conservationists so that you could watch them. The whole depot was made of glass and everything was encased in glass. Several of the rooms were storage where rows and rows of paintings were being stored until they were loaned out to museums around the world. I think it was interesting how they displayed the art so you could also see the back of the paintings and the signage and in some cases more artwork, if it was meant to be an altarpiece. The museum definitely had a different vibe than traditional museums and it was pretty cool to be able to explore it. I enjoyed the stomach butterflies when walking on the clear glass and being able to see all the way down.
Attempt number 2 to see the Delft neighborhood was made following the museum. This time I found a specific location on Google called Historish Delfshaven. This little neighborhood had canals running through it and had architecture that was very similar to Amsterdam. I loved the iconic medieval houses! They come up on Google whenever you look up Rotterdam so how could I not see them. The historical town was the part of Rotterdam that I had been waiting all day to see and was worth it. It was just so picturesque.
Katelyn and I spent the rest of the evening sipping on hot chocolate at a cute little cafe in the historical district. Both of us were definitely still recovering from our weekend trip to Vienna and Prague!
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