Roadtrip to Rotterdam

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to return to the Netherlands, this time with my American friend Shivalik and German friend Niclas. The goal of the trip was to go beyond Amsterdam to see the rest of the country. While Amsterdam is definitely an awesome city, Shivalik pointed out that conversations with people who travel to the Netherlands tend to go something like this:” Where did you go? The Netherlands. Where were you in the Netherlands? Amsterdam.” At the end of the weekend, I can confirm that we achieved this goal. Two days were still not enough to truly experience the land of tulips and cheese, but it was a great time nonetheless.

We arrived in Rotterdam via Niclas’s car late Friday night (the Autobahn is fast, but not that fast), so other than exploring Witte de Withstraat, which seemed to be an area where lots of students hang out and walking across the Erasmus bridge to take in the city’s amazing skyline, we had to wait until Saturday to properly explore the city. After a nice canned breakfast catered by REWE, we made a trek over to info center at the Centraal Station to pick up a map of the city. From there, we followed part of the “Architecture Walking Tour” back to the City Hall, where our car was parked, Laurenskerk, a medieval church that was the only late Gothic building to survive the Rotterdam Blitz, and my personal favorite, the Cube Houses (see pictures on FB). I felt mixed emotions walking around all the stunning modern architecture. I think the natives of Rotterdam really did a marvelous job rebuilding their city after WII, but it was only possible because the old city was completely leveled by the German Air Force. One can really see the worst and best sides of humanity by looking at pictures of the city in 1940 and then today.

We checked out Rotterdam’s Chinatown to try to find something good for lunch, but all of the restaurants were really expensive. Luckily, we were able to convince good ol’ Aldi to provide lunch for us at a reasonable price before continuing our journey up north to the Hague. Back in the car, I was a bit bummed that Niclas wanted to skip both this picturesque town called Delft and the central part of the Hague to head straight for the beach in Scheveningen, but he was the driver, so I didn’t want to give him a hard time. When we arrived at the beach, however, I had a change of heart. I realized that I hadn’t gone for a swim in nine months! It was the most amazing feeling in the world to run into the North Sea for the first time and dive in head first. I think Niclas and I lasted a good 5-10 minutes before the adrenaline disappeared and the cold set in. In any case, we chilled at the beach (it actually did start to get cold with the wind) afterward until it started to get dark and then found a reasonably priced Thai restaurant on Keizerstraat for dinner. Unfortunately, it rained a bit Saturday night, but I got Shivalik and Niclas to play a couple rounds of 20 Questions with me before we called it a night.

Sunday was spent making our way back to Heidelberg. Since neither Niclas nor Shivalik had ever been to Cologne before, we stopped there for about two hours on the way back to see the city’s iconic cathedral. I couldn’t help but be reminded of my first time in the city with my Midd pal Dylan back in December. What was cool for me was also getting to see the inside of the cathedral this time around, as well as making the journey to the top of one of its towering steeples. I doubt I’ll make it to Cologne a third time before heading back to the US in five weeks, but some more adventures for the conclusion of my time abroad are definitely in the works! Danke fürs Lesen und bis nächstes Mal!