Rotterdam - In the Steps of Toto

Rotterdam is a very modern city.  Since there was a lot of destruction during the war, most of the buildings are very modern, with little of the old style architecture we saw in the other cities we visited. 

A collection of really weird  buildings.

Some cube shaped houses.  I imagine it would be hard to put anything against the wall, and the people who live inside probably hit their heads a lot.

 

This car had recently driven out of the parking structure.  No really, we are not sure if it did or if it's just someone's idea of art.

We visited what Bram's friend called a "boat graveyard", filled with an assortment of old boats.

We can never decide who's in charge.

In the boat graveyard, there was also some pretty heavy duty ship yard equipment.

Another example of the Dutch language.  Check out that word.  Not only is it 19 letters long, it also has a jfsh next to each other. 

 We came across Rotterdam's "Walk of Fame", with the footprints and handprints of various celebrities.

Gloria Estefan:

The band members of Toto!

Roy Charles

John Denver

And... Shrek?

 

Two dimensional trees are all the rage in Holland.

Den Haag - It's All an Illusion

One of the cities we visited was Den Haag.  We saw the Escher Museum, which celebrated one of our favorite artists. One of my favorite pieces I saw that day was a true illusion.  Can you see it?

The chandeliers in each room were art in their own right!  We had fun looking at the various chandeliers.   

On the top floor were various illusions you could put yourself in, like a room that made my husband look very very small and me look very very tall.  Another one looks like an infinite column with an infinite number of me's.

Den Haag is the seat of the government.  Here is a picture of the Dutch parliament, the Binnenhof.

 
Inside the Binnenhof is the Knight's Hall.

Den Haag is an interesting blend of old and new.  In the foreground are the buildings of the Plein, while in the background, modern skyscrapers are being built.

Enjoying the cold weather.

Leiden: The story of a Bell and a Chinese Restaurant

Leiden was a very beautiful city criss-crossed with many canals.  It has a famous windmill that you can visit. 

One of the central squares, bordered by canals.

The central square used to house a market for the buying and trading of cattle.  A bell was rung during the trading.  This bell still exists, and now lies between a Chinese and fast food Japanese restaurant.  

(Actually, there are quite a few international restaurants in Leiden.  I think it's because they have the university, perhaps, with people coming from all over the world.  Indeed, Leiden does have an international feel.  We even ate at a Mexican restaurant, complete with barstools shaped like saddles!)

Bram and I took a canal cruise.  

The canals are crossed by thousands of bridges, which our boat driver advised us not to hit our heads on by standing in the boat.  It was a real possibility - these bridges were low. 

And I saw the observatory at the University of Leiden!  I know a lot of people who have worked there at one time or another.

Flowers along the canals were in full bloom.  It was a bit early for tulips, but there were thousands of daffodils!

Since there are so many canals, having a houseboat is really popular.  The houseboats came in all different shapes and sizes, and were interesting to look at.  A lot had a boat parked out back.

And especially for my brother - the Netherlands makes a lot of beer!

Around the city, there is something like 100 poems written on the sides of buildings in all different languages.  Of course, both of the ones I saw were in French.

A lot of the houses had various shapes for the top parts of their facades.  This was to help distinguish between the houses before they had numbers.

I had this interesting pizza/crepe hybrid.  I don't know if this is Dutch food, or just someone's idea of interesting food.

After dinner, we enjoyed the nice twilight city.

Holland - tulips, windmills, and interesting shoes

We just got back from a trip to the Netherlands.  It was a lot of fun, and it was everything that I expected the Netherlands to be like.

It had tulips:

It also had lots and lots of bikes.  Check out this parking structure for bikes!  It had three levels, plus at least another thousand bikes scattered around outside of it!

The Netherlands also used to have 10,000 windmills.  Now, it has about 1,000, which are all now protected monuments.  I photographed about half of them.

And of course, klumpa!  (aka clogs).   The Dutch really like their klumpa.  They even have the high heal variety.  

And another interesting thing about the Netherlands - everyone is really tall.  I never felt so short.  In the bathroom, the mirror was so high I could just see the top of my head!

In the next few days I'll post more pictures - so stay tuned!