02/05 - Rotterdam

Time was ticking right at the moment we get up. We were leaving Rotterdam in the early afternoon. So during our remaining time in Rotterdam, we visited the cube houses, the NAI (Netherlands Architecture Institute), and Rem Koolhaas' Kunstahl. After Kunstahl, we returned to our hostel to pick up our backpacks and said farewell to the friendly hostel dog.

In order to save money, we never took the Thalys during this trip. The route that we took from Rotterdam to Paris involved some train changes at Antwerp and Lille. Each of us only spent 3 euro to reserve a domestic TGV from Lille to Paris Nord, and our Interrail Pass took care of the rest.

01/05 - Almere and The Hague

It was indeed contemporary architecture that drove us to revisit the Netherlands. This was a day reserved entirely for architecture.

In the morning, we took our time wandering in downtown Rotterdam, passing by an urban plaza designed by West 8 a few years earlier. At Rotterdam Centraal, we hopped onto a train heading to Schiphol. Our destination was Almere, a new developed city northeast of Amsterdam. By midday, we reached Almere. From the station, we walked through a series of pedestrian arcades and shopping area until reaching the waterfront area where OMA was responsible for the masterplanning. In a few parcels of land we could find a number of interesting architecture done by renounced architects like Alsop and SANAA. On our way back to the station we dropped by UN Studio's La Defense, a colourful office complex widely published earlier.

From Almere, we took a train to Amsterdam Sloterdijk, where we stopped for a bowl of tomato soup, at the same restaurant where we had lunch in April 2008 when we visited Amsterdam. After the refreshment, we headed off to Den Haag (The Hague), where Netherland's central government is located. Again architecture was our main draw. We visited the Dance Theatre by Rem Koolhaas, the city hall by Richard Meier, and a new metro station by again Koolhaas. Before we returned to Rotherdam, we paid a quick visit to the Dutch parliament.

After dinner, we made a special visit back to Belgium's Antwerp, because I have left my mobile phone at Bed, Bath & Bread. Luckily someone was there to open the door and we left happily with my mobile phone for Rotterdam to spend our final night in the Netherlands.

30/04 - Keukenhof

We took a morning train from Antwerp to Rotterdam. After off loading our backpacks at the hostel, we decided to head for the famous Keukenhof Garden. After all, it was a pretty nice day to see some flowers, indeed a few millions of flower bulbs! We dropped by a mini market for some can-food, water and snacks and off we go to the Rotterdam Centraal.

All trains going to Amsterdam were packed with cheerful youngsters, excited, noisy, and half drunk. The very day that we arrived in the Netherlands, it was the Queen's Day! Though we had no intention to revisit Amsterdam and exhausted ourselves in drinking, we went with our plan and get off at Leiden. After over 1/2 hour standing in a cramped exit vestibule on the train, we were relieved to find ourselves sitting on a bus heading to the garden.

Keukenhof is the largest flower garden in the world, displaying several million of flower bulbs each year from late March to early May only. This was our first time and probably our last time that we would come to Keukenhof. We enjoyed our time wandering around the flower beds, taking pictures of the fist-size bulbs, until late afternoon.

After dinner, we took a walk from our hostel in Rotterdam, reaching as far as the concrete Euromast Tower.