Week Seven: The Webbie Invasion

[Shannon]  Hello!  This week we stayed in town, as everyone was coming to us this time.

Friday, February 14, 2020

Today was the day of the highly anticipated Webb Regional Meeting.  To start off our day of Webbies, the three of us left work a little early at 4pm and walked over the Erasmusbrug (Erasmus Bridge) to the hotel, De Rotterdam.

Once, there we made our way to the Sky Bar to meet with Paulo Almeida '95.  Once there Chris, Max, and Rob arrived with Rob's high school friend.  We also met a couple new Webbies: Gabriel Poritz '15 and Cody Owen '15.  A little before 6pm, we all left the hotel and took the subway to Mark Martecchini's house.  Once there we enjoyed some appetizers and met some more alumni.  We saw Tim and Will again and we met Leah Sosa '08, Julian Nedermaier 'E17, Robert Bunnel '77, Gabriel Weymouth '01, and his daughter.  Of course, we also caught up with President Keith Michel '73 before we all left for the restaurant, Dewi Sri Centrum.  To get there, Mark Martecchini set up two water taxis that took us around the river area, including a little detour to gaze at the SS Rotterdam.  At the restaurant, we had a wonderful meal and listened to the presentation on the new academic center.  We also had some nice conversation that didn't end until about 11:30pm when we finally left the restaurant.  We then traveled in a pack of 15 to Witte de Withstraat.  From there we stayed on that street while we slowly lost members of our party.  Eventually, we ended with a group of 9 to walk back to our apartments.  Chris and Max split off to go to their apartment, and the rest came with us.  Tim and Julian were staying in Linda's and my apartments, and Rob and his friend were staying at Duane's.  Although, Duane dropped his stuff off at Linda's apartment before leaving, and once we got back they just decided to stay.

Saturday, February 15, 2020

The next morning we woke up a little before noon, and the seven of us went to Tensai Ramen for lunch.  After lunch, we said goodbye to Tim and Julian.  The rest of us wandered over to the area around the Markthal and looked around the Cube Houses.  There we met up with Max.  At that point, Rob and his friend went back to Amsterdam and Duane went back to his apartment.  Max, Linda, and I decided to take this day and check out the windmills.  We initially wanted to take a ferry, but it was already too late in the day.  Instead, we took the subway and then the bus.  It was a little windy, but the Kinderdijk was still so peaceful.

When we arrived back in Rotterdam, we met up with Duane at the Markthal.  While we waited for Duane to show up, Max and I tried herring at one of the stands inside.  Then we all settled into Elliniko, a greek restaurant.  We accidentally gained a free appetizer, fried cheese, which was a very nice way to end this day.

[Duane]  This day was a slow day by force.  It was a calming day.  Had a nice dinner with Shannon, Max, and Linda.  A very necessary chill day.

Sunday, February 16, 2020

[Linda] Sunday morning, I visited the Maritime Museum, which is only about a 15 minute walk from my apartment. I then went to the center of town to do a little shopping. In the afternoon, I met up with a new friend I had made from Rotterdam, and we enjoyed high tea at the Nieuw Rotterdams Café. In the evening, I met up with my friend from Delft and we had dinner.

[Duane]  This day was my only day in Europe where I stayed home and did nothing.  I did not step foot outside of my apartment.  It was nice.

[Shannon]  My day was similar to Duane's, a chill day at home.

Monday, February 17, 2020

Monday was nice.  We went to eat dinner at the Euromast.  They had some very delicious food, and it wasn't too expensive either.  It was generally, a very nice night other than the pouring rain that had us take an Uber back home.

February 18-20, 2020

This week was business as usual.  I think this is when it hit me that we only had a couple weeks left in Europe, so we all started to gear up for our last weekend.

Links to the places we visted:

Rotterdam

Erasmusbrug: https://www.holland.com/global/tourism/destinations/rotterdam/erasmus-bridge-rotterdam.htm

De Rotterdam: https://www.oma.com/projects/de-rotterdam

SS Rotterdam: https://ssrotterdam.com/

Maritime Museum: https://www.maritiemmuseum.nl/en

Euromast: https://www.holland.com/global/tourism/destinations/rotterdam/the-euromast.htm

Week Three: Brussels, Kinderdijk, and Amsterdam

[Shannon]  Hello!  If you are reading this, I would like to thank you for reading my extremely lengthy post last week.  Warning: this week is probably worse, so buckle up.

Friday, January 17, 2020

On Friday, we spent quite a lot of time back at the Witte de Withstraat.  Our first stroll down Witte de Withstraat for the day was with Chris Johnson and Mark Martecchini '79 for lunch.  We walked from the office building to Hamburg, a very delicious burger restaurant with Dutch beef.

After work, we went to the Meent, which is a side street of Coolsingel, that is a popular shopping area.  We went to visit a small Japanese store, Nishi, that Linda found a couple days prior.  I bought bubble tea.  Then we walked around the Meent to check it out and look for food.  After walking for awhile, we came upon the Markthal.  Here we also looked for food, and then headed back towards the Witte de Withstraat.  At this point, it was around 7 pm, and all of the restaurants were full or required reservations.  Eventually, Linda and Duane decided to go back to the Markthal and eat at an Italian restaurant that we had briefly looked into before.  I was currently fighting off the start of a cold, and wanted an early night before a long day of travelling.  So, I went into a nearby shoarma restaurant before heading home.  Linda and Duane, however, stayed out pretty late.

[Linda]  Duane and I headed back towards Stadsdriehoek to have dinner at Fellini, an Italian restaurant in the Markthal. The food was super tasty. While there, my desk buddy, Julius, met up with us. Once we were all done eating, Duane, Julius, and I returned to Witte de Withstraat to grab drinks. We stopped at Obba's Day & Night for beers and chatted for a while. Julius was meeting up with old friends the next day, I had an early bus in the morning, and it was past Duane's bedtime, so we decided to split a little past midnight.