Adv 10. An Adventure of the Antartic Kind

Rotterdam = (translation) 'big' dam

I went on a day trip to Rotterdam with the ESN group. Rotterdam is the port city in Holland. There are a lot of trading boats etc. I've decided to call it the glass city. The Germans bombed it in the Second World War, the Dutch soldiers on their bikes were no match for the German tanks, Rotterdam was completely burnt to the ground, there were only four buildings left standing. The Nazi's threatened to do the same to Amsterdam, it was then that the Dutch army surrendered.
So they had to rebuild the entire city, and they are still building, its like the city has a itch that they must keep sratching. A lot of the Dutch think Rotterdam is an ugly city, but i think that is just becasue it is so differnt from any other city in Holland. Every other city has quaint canals and small apartment housing. Rotterdam is the city of 'modern' architecture. of odd shaped buildings, minimalistic in style, very 'square' you could say. And buildings with a lot of glass, more than the Otago University Library.

I've decided i dont much like this kind of architecture, its too harsh. The block type buildings are unemotive. too 'design' minded.
However, we did visit some very interesting apartments, these were COOL!!! And so odd.
They are the cube houses, and there is a forest of them, they are like trees. you climb stairs inside the 'trunk' and in the tree top, there is three floors. from the outside they look really small and you wonder how anyone could ever live in there, but inside, is actually really spacious and theres a total of 100m square floor space... go figure


We had a really great day, very long though, and VERY COLD. I think this was perhaps the coldest ive ever been in my whole life. Rotterdam is the Wellington of Holland. My wind breaker i think was the life saver of the day. I had long johns and long socks on under my jeans, i was wearing a skin hugging singlet, two long thermals, a hoody, my big jacket and my wind breaker, a scarf, and a wooly hat underneath two hoods. i could have done with another jumper! I look like a ridiculous eskimo, but at least i got through the day without too much discomfort, and thank God the sun decided to bless us a tiny bit with its presence in the afternoon.

we went to a cool museum, i cant remember the name it was a really long dutch name, but it had a lot of differnt type of art. I saw so many original Dali and Kandinsky paintings!!! these are two of my favourite painters :) so it made me happy, they are so cool. and there was some really intersting conceptual sculpture there also.

For dinner we rode on De Pannenkeokenboot along the Maast canal. This was the best ending to a great day. We had all you could eat pancakes, dutch style. the music was great, the view was terrific, the company was good, and of course the pancakes were delicious.






right: Simone eating pancakes aboard De Pannenkoekenboot









And the Rotterdam architecture looks cool at night.