Rotterdam; city of crazy architecture

Wow what a day we had today! Rotterdam is wonderful :) The weather was lovely this morning so we got out and about to see the sights. First of all, we took a boat trip up the river Nieuwe Maas to Kinderdijk. Kinderdijk is a village about 15km out of Rotterdam, and is the origin of "the cat and the cradle". Story goes that after the massive floods of 1421, a cat was spotted in a cradle, jumping back and forth to balance it so that no water came in. When the cradle was fished out of the water, they found a baby still dry and safe. Hence Kinderdijk means "child's dike" in Dutch.

There are 19 windmills, which were used to drain water from the area and prevent flooding (using archimedes screws). Some of them are really quite old -dating back to the 1700's.

Rotterdam really is an interesting looking place. Because it was completely destroyed in WWII, the city had to be rebuilt. But, unlike other cities which were rebuilt the same, Rotterdam was completely redesigned and modernised. And I guess the trend just continued on.

These are the famous Cube Houses. Ok, so we make a terrible cube...

We got to go inside one, they're really quite neat inside!

"Alles van waarde is weerloos" - Everything worthwhile is powerless

We went to the biggest market in Holland, and bought some great cheese.

It was aged Oude Noord Hollandse, and it was taasty

Then we washed the cheese down with a Stroopwafel - large thin hot waffles with melted caramel inside! Slightly spiced like speculaas too! If you're wondering about the health our dietary experience here, take comfort in the knowledge that we had broccoli and couscous for dinner. And for those wondering some more, no we have not visited any coffee shop of any sort.

We were planning on climbing the Euromast tower in the afternoon for a view of Rotterdam, but it started to rain so we decided not to. We did see people abseiling off it though.

So we went underground instead. Turns out there's an under-river pedestrian tunnel here too.

Mish in the Maastunnel.

We came across some very strange building shapes, sizes and colours (I will post on flickr soon). Also these random sculptures of this naked guy are ALL over the place... nooooo idea what or why... but then we came across a whole building of them!!! weeeeeirddddddd

Also visited the Walk of Fame!!

Johnny Cash

Carlos Santana


Bon Jovi

Dame Edna?!?!