The Netherlands

I decided to do some sight seeing in the Netherlands with Marina after a meeting we had in Amsterdam. The meeting ended on Friday and we stayed through Saturday. Admittedly one day is not a lot of time to see a country, but it isn't very big!! I had been to Amsterdam several times so we headed straight to Rotterdam on Saturday morning. It was about an hour train ride from Amsterdam. It is one of Europe's major ports and is well known for its modern architecture.

Once off the train I headed for the most important place I could think of... anyplace to fill my belly! I found a nice little cafe that overlooked the citys famous bridge, a little harbor, and one of its more famous residential complexes.

These are the houses... One of them was converted into a architecture "museum" so we were able to go inside. I can't even begin to describe the layout for these "houses" but I will give it a shot. Each cube is one residence and the "stem" has a front door in it at the ground level. When you open the door you are faced with a steep spiral staircase. Once you are up the stairs it opens into a first floor living/ dining/ kitchen area. The next level up is the bedroom/ den type area. All of the cabinets, shelving and most of the furniture is built in to maximize space (and presumably reduce the need for lugging furniture up and down the stairs). There were a couple of them for sale... but I wasn't tempted. :oP

I think this was a bar or restraunt. I don't remember, but the theme struck me as funny....


This is what the dutch refer to as a pissoir (that's urinal to you). This one is quite fancy and very permanent looking, most of them were plastic. They seemed to be everywhere... the dutch must have small bladders. Yes. You do just use them in broad daylight, out on the street, or wherever they may be. I found it quite humorous at first... but as the day drug on... they came in handy on a few occasions!

After skipping about town in Rotterdam we headed for The Hague. When you first exit the train station this is the sight that greets you.... and you thought you had trouble finding your car in the wal-mart parking lot!

We mostly just wandered around, but at some point we took a tram down to the beach. I didn't wind up with any beach pictures for some reason... here are some pics of random places of interest. I wanted to track down the International Criminal Tribunal... but we were pressed for time and it was pretty far down my list (I'm not that nerdy!).

Yea... I finished another post! Now I am only three months behind...