Nether say Nether

This morning Matt and Brendan and I woke early. Ellie is going to Hungary, Matt to Nirenberg and then Munich, and Brendan and I to Amsterdam. We barely made our train, but we did it. As usual, the morning was gray, and the blades of windmills spun in and out of oblivion. Much later the sun came out, and I found myself in the Texasiest landscape yet. Fields upon fields, no mountains, and lots of phone wires. A strange propensity of reclining cows, a flock of sheep, horses, ponies, and baby ponies. I spot storks flying over the fields, a bird feeding its young'n, a gas station named 'Brand Oil,' and house roofs dressed in shiny blue solar panels. It's been five hours and we're still in Germany.

The thing that struck me upon arriving in Amsterdam was how un-foreign it all seemed. Signage was in English; people spoke English, and Dutch looks like English. I felt more like I was in New England than in Europe. The day we arrived was uneventful, and consisted of finding food, doing some wandering on foot, and making plans for the rest of our journeys. The following day we went to the Van Gogh Museum, where I discovered just how prolific Van Gogh had been. I enjoyed being able to see the progression of his style and several notable (aka textbook famous) pieces. Afterward we caught a walking tour and tried to do some more wandering. The following morning we intended to go to the Anne Frank House, but due to train complications we ended up leaving early and going to Rotterdam.

Though we arrived in Rotterdam at noon and had to leave early the next morning, with the help of a 10pm sunset we were able to see enough of the city to fall in love. First of all, our hostel was inside the famous Cube Houses, which were literally across the street from the train station. Convenient much? Thanks to Brendan's sleuthing, instead of just walking past a landmark, we got to reside in it for a night. We dropped off our bags and picked up a map and embarked on adventure. From the very beginning I was overwhelmed by the awesome architecture. The city was so damaged in WWII that it had to be almost entirely rebuilt, so it is very modern; very different from most of the Europe we had seen so far. In addition to the buildings, the city just had a great artistic vibe. Every corner had sculptures or street art. It felt like a living museum.

Unfortunately, the Netherlands Architecture Institute was closed for renovations (inescapable, I told you), but we got to see the Museumhouse Sonneveld, a completely restored mansion that was built in the Nieuwe Bowen style in  1933. It was funny how something that was once so obviously progressive and ahead of its time could now be considered almost Ikea-style. Still, it was a beautiful and innovative house with a particularly breathtaking stairwell. We meandered Rotterdam, approximating the path of the self-guided walking tour on our map, and found a steel skatepark, a sculpture garden, the 'ethnic neighborhood,' a shopping district, and downtown. Dinner just added to the brightness of my memories of Rotterdam. Given vague restaurant recommendations by the glittery concierge at the hostel, we chose to heed his sagest but vaguest words: go where the locals go. We ended up at a Surinamese/Javanese/Indian restaurant, where even the 'English' menu couldn't quite help us, but where it was almost standing room only and trafficked by even more people getting food to-go. This tiny room overflowed into the street with hungry patrons, and those of us waiting circled like vultures looking for enough open seats for our respective parties. I still don't know exactly what I ate, but it was delicious and made me wish I could find food like this in the States. Chicken soup laced with white rice, soy sprouts, and other delicious things, which mingled around a hard-boiled egg. The bowl was not much bigger than my two cupped hands, but suddenly my having ordered an additional entree seemed overzealous. I was full. To-go, please.

It was still broad daylight at 8pm, and we dropped off our food and did even more wandering, this time towards a red bridge that had caught my fancy. To be honest, everything caught my fancy. Berlin might have been the most anticipated destination, but Rotterdam, which I did not even intend to visit, was high up there on the favorites list.

 The next morning began our famous trans-France trek, as described in the earlier post, Disney Ride.