My Dutch Holiday

Rotterdam Rambling – Day 1

I awoke thinking how blessed I had been to have had friends who would go out on a limb for me and a fellow Christian sister who opened her home to me despite her apprehensions, in the face of my calamity. Indeed, I recalled a fellow passenger on my unfortunate bus ride to Amsterdam enquiring with another Dutch as to how to find a cheap place to stay for the night, which I had all but avoided thanks to Taryn and her landlady who would put me up for the next few nights.

In a chastised mood, I had no particular plans for the day and I meekly followed Taryn and Yixian to Erasmus, artfully dodging (but failing) to get a free ride on the tram ride in, carrying books and smiling through Yixian’s suan-ing like how a thoroughly indebted person should.

My observations of Rotterdam, as Taryn put it, is more like a ‘new urban ghetto’ where the economically aspirant immigrants, Surinamese, Ghanaian, Malian, Sikh, Chinese or otherwise seek to assert their identity in the midst of the Dutch-ness of the society they live in. Around Taryn’s neighbourhood, shops proclaim expertise in the reparation of Surinamese goods, a strange meld of Chinese-Surinamese shops and calling cards which offer cheap rates to the African continent. A veritable (overused word warning) melting pot indeed.

In the evening, Yixian, Rachel (her housemate from China), Taryn and myself got a bit of sightseeing in at the harbourfront and on the Eramus Bridge, which looks like a swan. Another thing about Rotterdam is the architecture, which is significant because it was practically razed by the Germans in WII.

Den Haag – Day 2

Sneaking into 1^st class on the train, I made my way to Den Haag/The Hague for a day trip. Upon Taryn’s recommendation, I headed towards the Madrodam, where apparently every single important Dutch landmark is recreated in miniature form. I was mildly amused and fascinated by the various landmarks but it didn’t bowl me over, although the entry fee nearly did.

Now, normally, I know nothing about art. Zip, zilch zero. Hence my apprehension going to the Mauritshuis, where there are a couple of famous Rembrandts and Jan Vermeer’s A Girl with a Pearl necklace is hung. I thought I would be thoroughly bored but the free audio tour in English provided the context, history, attention to detail of the paintings which made my experience there thoroughly educational and enjoyable. I highly recommend it. I spent so much time wandering Mauritshuis that I had only 1 hour to scramble to the Esher in the Palace, where the pieces of the famous Dutch graphic artist were on display.

Rotterdam Roving – Day 3

Musuem Boijmans opened at 11am and I was pleasantly surprised to find a special on the Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte (which cost a heart-breaking 13 euro) along with a special on Jan Ader and other random exhibits. The cost of the museum (and a distinct lack of time) shelved my plans to visit the cubist houses and I went to take a boat to Kinderdijk, which was a scenic park some distance away from Rotterdam, where actual windmills still work and drain the polders (although now helpfully assisted by more modern water pumps).

I ambled onto the boat thinking I would be able to but a ticket on board. Boarding (albeit very very slowly) were a group of elderly Dutch people who were out on a day trip from Utrecht. Little did I know that I had boarded the boat at the wrong place to buy tickets!

Getting off at Kinderdikj, I tried to get into the only working windmill to get a look inside, only to discover to my dismay that I had to fork out 3 euro extra for it. Summoning my most doleful-lost-blur look, an elderly Dutch couple whipped out their tickets and I got in free! My luck ended when I tried to return onto the boat back and was asked for a ticket, to which I coolly asked how much it would cost for a return to Rotterdam, in total saving me 7.50 euro. Eh it’s a BIG DEAL to a poor student like me.

–summons doleful-lost-blur look-

Next! My Moving In and pictures !