Wandering through the Netherlands – Part 3

We got up early to get the most of our days. We drove to the southern Netherlands with one of the early morning trains. With a fast train (we paid 30,4 EUR for a return ticket) we travelled 100 kilometres in less than an hour. City Delft, which is located between Rotterdam and Haag, charmed us. They don’t call it small Amsterdam for nothing. The sun took care for a couple of degrees more after many days of storms and rain showers. It also got us more positive and we could walk without our hoodies and unzipped jackets, which was a big luxury. On one side there’s a mighty baroque church Nieuwe Kerk, which is standing opposite the city hall. There are row houses by the big square and there are expensive restaurants, tea shops, coffee shops and stores on the ground floor. In any store we came, there was blue and white ceramics, which is one of the city’s characteristics. We weren’t really thrilled about the ceramics, but we were thrilled about the city, cheese productions, a little teashop where we stopped and an excellent restaurant where we finally ate something Dutch and warm. 

 

On the south we also visited Kinderdijk village, which is famous for windmills. It has 19 windmills and because of that, it is on Unesco’s list of world heritage so there’s a ton of tourists who come to see the mills. It was very windy, but we didn’t care. It was definitely worth it to travel to the southern Netherlands to see this beautiful village. 

 

The city with the biggest harbour has, to be honest, disappointed us. We were impressed by authenticity of Dutch cities (for example Amsterdam, Delft and Edam really impressed us) and maybe we expected too much from Rotterdam. We found ourselves in a crowded cities with highways, rushing people, crowds and honking boats. So European. The city was practically gone after World War II because of bombing and is newly built and has an appearance of cosmopolitan European cities. The shopping mall, which locals brag about was closed. It is built in U-shape and is a place of many shops, restaurants, pubs and also apartments. If we had seen the inside, it probably wouldn’t disappoint us. Interesting to see (but probably not to live in) is the street Kubuswoningen. The architecture is really unique as the futuristic apartments are shaped like cubes. The walls have 60-degree angle. We walked on Erasmus bridge (Erasmusbrug) to the other side of the city and before it was dark found out how big the harbour really is (and we only saw a part of it). Incredibly big. Our Slovenian coast is probably just a quarter size of this harbour. In the coffee house of the hotel New York (which is one of the oldest and most elite hotels in Rotterdam) we met Silva, who was a schoolmate with Saša, one of my friends with whom I travelled. We ordered oreo cakes and Silva a traditional Dutch cake tompoes. It was good, but we decided that oreo is the best (but we didn’t tell Silva that). But we found out everything about Netherlands, their customs, holidays, their king and his family. We talked late in night. We left the city wet (yes, it’s been another rainy day) and a little disappointed at Rotterdam but comforted with a lot of sugar. We drove back to Amsterdam and fell into our beds. 

 

 

In the morning we packed our bags and visited the train station one last time and drove to the airport. We were charmed by Netherlands. So much that we were planning what to see next on our flight home. Jam, Amsterdam and Netherlands really put a spell on you. Or maybe visiting the coffee shop had bigger effect than we thought.