Rotterdam, in Summary

  So this Friday, I decided to go visit my friend Dan, who I've known for a while and took an ICE to Rotterdam, Netherlands. The way up was pretty smooth, and despite some police presence in Lüneburg (terror threats you know), the ride went smooth til about Amersfoort...at which point I was delayed for 3 hours because my train was halted....and we found out later that there had been a fire on the Ultrecht tracks. Eek.


  However aside from that, I arrived safely at the Rotterdam Centraal station, where I then met up with Dan's roommate Remco and was kindly escorted to their apartment. That night I got a quick driving tour of Rotterdam, and got to see some of the cool highlights such as unique skyline (one of very few in Holland), and Dan's university. Some fun facts about Rotterdam:

This image of the Rotterdam Harbor compliments of Wikipedia

-Rotterdam is sixth largest metropolitan area in Europe

-Rotterdam has the largest port in Europe (lost the title of 'busiest' in 2004 to Shanghai)
-Roughly 1.3 people live in Rotterdam

'Cube Houses' (from Wikipedia)

-Rotterdam is home to some very unique structures such as the 'Cube Houses' (picture will be shown below), The Erasmus bridge, and the Euromast (the tallest point in Rotterdam).

Coat of arms :)

Now, I had intended to make many many photos...but my camera died from me being stupid and forgetting to turn it off  on the train while removing the old photos on it. The only photo I have is one of the view from Dan's room when I was helping him carry supplies from his party.

Erasmus Bridge (wikipedia)

The self proclaimed "crazy germans" Chris and Dan (pic fro Chris)

  Anyways baaack to my blog. Saturday was spent being lazy...mainly because I was pretty done in from my travels..and because the boys were throwing an 'oktoberfest' of their own in the apartment. Armed to the gills with 80 liters of beer and many mugs, Rotterdam Oktoberfest a la Dan & Remco began at 4 PM and continued on til the wee hours of morning. The following morning, Dan was kind enough to take me to the train station on his bike, inadvertently giving me a biking tour of Rotterdam...which is why there aren't any pictures of my own on here. If you took the photo you will be given credit, I promise :)

The German girls in attendace, Remco, and I raise a toast (pic from Chris)

After a long ride from Rotterdam to Amersfoort, I made all my connections home. The only few bumps in the road was bawling slightly in front of some old ladies on the way from Amesfoort to Hannover, and accidentally splitting my pants on the Hannover platform in front of about 5 guys from the German military. Otherwise, I'd say my weekend was educational, fun, and well worth all the hours spent travelling !

Til next time :)