For our first weekend in Rotterdam we decided to explore and get ourselves settled. However, before that happened, we each had a little time in the air.
Friday, January 3, 2020
[Duane] I boarded the plane in Oregon. I sat, slept, ate airplane food. I landed in Amsterdam.
[Linda] I flew from Baltimore-Washington International to Amsterdam, with a connection in London Heathrow. It was a pleasant flight; the family next to me was from Cork and very friendly. Upon arriving in Rotterdam around 3 pm on Friday, I briefly cleaned the apartment, unpacked, and then went out to explore the city with Duane. We found a cute "French" boulangerie with a solid selection of breads and pastries; however, much to my disappointment, they did not make galettes des rois for Epiphanie. Jetlagged, we ate an early dinner at a nearby restaurant, Grand Café-Restaurant Loos, and then called it a night.
Saturday, January 4, 2020
[Shannon] I was the last to the party. I arrived at Amsterdam International Airport Schipol (AMS) Saturday morning after a 6 hour flight from Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ). I was off the plane, through customs, had claimed my baggage, and found the shuttle driver that Stolt had sent. It was about a 45-50 minute drive to Rotterdam and I picked up my apartment keys at a nearby hotel (the Stolt office building was closed on Saturdays) and headed to my apartment. Of course, I couldn't open the door and had to knock on my neighbor's door for help, luckily my neighbor is Linda. Once in the apartment, we planned to meet up with Duane and some short unpacking commenced while we waited for his arrival.
A little bit after 9 am Duane arrived and we left to visit a nearby bakery. We went to Jan Bussing Boulangerie, a bakery mere minutes from our apartments and so delicious. Once we had finished indulging in our croissants (au chocolate and au fromage) and plum hazelnut bread, we headed to Duane's apartment. It was about a 20 minute walk from Linda's and my apartment, but it was very nice and much larger (although, I think my apartment is still too large for one person). After, hanging out for a bit and Linda teaching us how to turn on the gas fire heater, we headed out for the Markthal (Market Hall) and farmer's market which Chris Johnson '18 had told us about. We first went into the Markthal for a little bit and looked around.
The Markthal is the epitome of multiple discipline zoning, but that doesn't really give it justice. All I know is that the building itself from the outside stands out, and looks like an interested apartment complex. However, the inside is indescribable...
Food stands, delicious restaurants, several floors, and all surrounded by beautiful artistry and apartments. What more can I say other than I'll be back with my camera and euros ready for stroopwafels. Unfortunately, we only spent a little time on the main floor looking at the food stands, as our main goal was outside at the farmer's market.
The farmer's market was huge and only open on Saturdays and Tuesdays. We ended up splitting up. Duane and I walked around the food section twice. The first time we were amazed at the prices, and the second we started to work. We only bought fresh produce. We filled our two shopping bags until my shoulders hurt, but we still made it in at under 20 euros (I love this market). I was pleasantly surprised, but also concerned at what would fit in my small refrigerator at the apartment. We met back up with Linda a little after noon, and decided to go get some food.
We decided to eat at Jamie's Italian which was connected to the Markthal. We spent a decent amount of time just relaxing and enjoying ourselves, and the food was delicious.
After finishing our meals, we decided to split a Creamy Panna Cotta before heading back to the farmer's market. We did a quick walk around to check out the non-food items at the market before deciding to divide and conquer for some more shopping before dinner. Linda headed to a butcher shop and did some more shopping for her apartment. While, Duane and I went to find a phone store (as I was the only one without internet, hence the assist from Duane, thank you!). After buying a SIM card, Duane and I brought all the food back to my apartment, before Duane headed back to his apartment. We all met up again for dinner. The first dinner we cooked in Rotterdam was nothing special, but it took a little getting used to. There were three people in a small one person kitchen. However, it turned out great and we finished cleaning up the kitchen before we all dispersed to relax and unpack our apartments.
Sunday, January 5, 2020
We had a later start to the day, as we had planned for a museum day, which would open at 11 am. However, first, we stopped at a cafe for a nice brunch.
Then we walked to the museum, unfortunately, it was closed for renovations. But we did walk around Het Museumpark (The Musuem Park) and saw the plans for the big dome that is connected to the museum. We then decided to visit Het Nieuw Instituut (The New Institute), the modern art and architecture museum.
The main exhibition space was being renovated for the next exhibition so the tickets were half of the student's price. The museum did have several exhibits. The first was on Hoodies.
After we wrapped up at the museum we went to the Huis Sonneveld (Sonneveld House), which was a separate exhibit connected to the Museum.
Directly following the tour at the Huis Sonneveld, we split up. I did a little shopping and went back to my apartment as I was still tired from the previous day, and Linda and Duane went to check out the church and the cube houses.
[Duane] We walked over to the Grote of Sint-Laurenskerk (Square of Saint Lawrence Church), the only remaining medieval church in Rotterdam after WWII. Unfortunately, the church was closed on Sunday afternoon; we slowly circled the church eating our stroopwafels. We then went over to the Kubuswoningen (cube houses); one of the houses was a museum, so we also got to go inside one of them. The inside was very cute, and the house was efficiently designed and laid out.
[Shannon] We all met back up at my apartment to get started on dinner before we called in an early night to get ready for the first day of work.
Monday, January 6, 2020
Our first day of work started at 9 am (well actually more like 8:50 am). We all found ourselves in different departments and different office floors. Duane wound up in the Energy and Conservation department, I found myself on a project that bounced between Fleet Management and Fleet Support, and Linda was on a project across several different departments. On our first day we were not all able to meet up for lunch, but we all were able to discover the wonderful canteen on the ground floor (amazing food for great prices, I am so happy!!!). After work we all the office together and made our way back to my apartment for dinner.
January 7-9, 2020
The rest of our working days for the week looked very similar to that first day, except we were able to all meet up for lunch in the canteen. Our evenings also looked very similar except for some occasional grocery trips (thank you Albert Heijn). We did, however, start brainstorming our travel plans for the next couple of months. Here's a little sneak peek: Monday we confirmed the bus tickets to Antwerp and Amsterdam for this weekend.
Links to the places we visited:
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen: https://www.boijmans.nl/
Het Museumpark: https://rotterdamseparken.nl/site/parken/het-museumpark/
Het Nieuw Instituut: https://hetnieuweinstituut.nl/en/museum
Huis Sonneveld: https://www.huissonneveld.nl/
Grote of Sint-Laurenskerk: https://laurenskerkrotterdam.nl/en/
Kubuswoningen: https://www.archdaily.com/482339/ad-classics-kubuswoningen-piet-blom
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