Holland

Here I am still stuck in Rotterdam with Kris because he still has something to do here and tomorrow, we'll be here for a week. I spend more of my day writing my thesis while he went off to work and when he come back, we search for dinner or foods. We always end up at McD which is just situated across the hotel because he always come home between 6-7pm, which literally mean, all the shop in town is close. Adding salt to the wound, we stay in a hotel which is out of town because it suppose to be nearer to the port where Kris need to be everyday. Taxi ride to town cost Euro20 for less than 20min ride & the train station is like 30min walk (not really a walk in the park when the temperature is below 5C) and the wind is so strong that I can feel that I am almost blown away (please remember that I am not model stick thin)..hehehe

But last weekend, we do manage to explore the city which is very nice and interesting. Rotterdam is know as the port city and it has the biggest port in Europe (Port of Rotterdam) although it used to be the biggest in the world before Singapore took over, and now Shanghai is dreaming to be the lead (they come 2nd). 

So,basically you see port every where in the city & of course you will see lots of water around here (the country is after all under sea level). 

First time we tour the city, we just asked the taxi driver to stop us at the Maritime Museum as I can see from the map, the main attraction in Rotterdam is just a walking distant from each other. We were lucky that the day is sunny although a bit chilly, and we manage to find all the places we wanted to go to.

As you tour around the city, you will realised (if you pay that much attention), that almost every where there is a mention of the word "Erasmus". For example, the picture below is the Erasmus Bridge, it symbolised the city of Rotterdam. Quite new as if I am not mistaken, it was build in 1996 and the bridge is connecting the Northern & Southern part of Rotterdam. The local give it a nickname, The Swan.

FYI, Erasmus is a Dutch humanist and theologian who was the leading Renaissance scholar of Northern Europe. His criticism of the Roman Catholic Church led to the Reformation but he opposed any act of violent and condemned Martin Luther (the theologian, not Martin Luther King). Anyway, toward the end of our city tour of the city we stumble upon a Saturday market but unfortunately, it was almost closing time when we found it.

As expected there are many fruits, vegetable, cheese and flowers stall. Wish we had found it earlier.It would be an interesting place to find something out of the ordinary and probably find some bulb for my bro.

We eat at a Thai Restaurant which cost us Euro54 for two (we ordered Tom Yum Gong, 6 small pieces spring roll, 5 stick of baby chicken satay, rice and coke). Could imagine how much I can eat with that amount of money in a Thai restaurant in Malaysia.Huhuhuh....


On our second day tour of Rotterdam, it doesn't turnout out good because we suppose to go somewhere but end up nowhere! Hahaha...So, we just wonder around the city centre & it look pretty deserted as it was Sunday & most shop are close on Sunday (I miss KL!).

But as we wonder around without any direction, well.. well...what do you know, we end up at the 'happening street'.Hahahha...there are absolutely everything & everyone there. All kind of shops and restaurant (why didn't we find this the day before..heheh). After a while, we both need to pee but we just can't seem to find a single public toilet. Actually, I never see any around the city so far. Wonder where these people do their 'business' when they need to. I guess the canal provide a good spot..:)

Finally, we end our weekend with buying some Chinese takeout for our dinner and some snack along the way. Kris decided that we took the taxi instead of the train which we used earlier because he really need to pee! Though it is expensive, I do enjoy the taxi ride because if not here, where would I got the change to get a ride in a Mercedes & Chrysler or BMW. But before that, decide to take a picture with Papa Santa!