Rotterdam by bike

Onto the Netherlands but not Amsterdam. Yeah sure it's a great city but I need to see more of this country.

Rotterdam is the country's second largest city and it offered me numerous side trip opportunities when I wanted. The country is extremely flat making it perfect for cycling lengthy trips. Luckily for me my host, Jan, had both a city bike and racing bike I could use at my disposal.

So the first day I set out for The Hague some 30 kilometers or 16 miles away. I was taking a chance here as rain was in the forecast not only on this day but for the entire length of my stay.  I quickly realized the seat was a little too high for me and there was not adjuster to make it better. It was going to be a long ride!

Yay Windmills! No tourists Yay!

Windmills, dikes, and cows later I passed through one of the Netherlands most culturally important cities, Delft. It's a big university town with that picture postcard Dutch look. I stopped in the main square to have some of the free cheese samples and stroopwafels to make a breakfast out of before continuing on.

Main Square Delft. Excellent Cheese Shop on the right

Blue sky here but it rained right before and after this photo was taken.

Delft is considered the most Dutch city in the country

The Hague houses some government functions while the others lay in Amsterdam. One big sight is the peace palace in the north of town where the world hammers out issues relating to multiple countries.

Peace Palace

I didn't realize how modern this city would be and one only needs to look at the city hall. It's ultra modern with a hollow interior and lots of glass to let light in.

City Hall

Highrises dot the inner city. Just outside them is the Binnenhof,where the Senate holds sessions as well as the prime ministers office. Here they were setting up for Prince's Day happening tomorrow.

Binnenhof/Dutch Parliament

The Hague. A nice biker let me pass here because he noticed I was a football fan from my bag

I ended up taking the train back as the threat of rain loomed and I wasn't sure I could ever have kids from the seat digging in with every pedal of the bike.

The next day had more chance of rain than the previous so I walked around Rotterdam. And it rained. Hard. I stopped in the tourism office by chance as it's connected to the local soccer team Feyenoords' fanshop. What a fantastic setup they had. It had a scale model of all the new buildings and one of the entire city where you could interact per screens and choose what you wanted to look at.

Rotterdam was strategically bombed flat in WWII by the Germans causing the Dutch to surrender in fear their other cities would take on similar fates. After the war they decided to rebuild in a modern style with skyscrapers instead of the old way it was.

Later that night we met up at a bar with the CS meeting and met some interesting people. There was even a guy from Philly. I try and stay away from Americans when I'm here because who wants to meet them honestly.

Got about two hours of sleep before I was off to the airport. I was super tired but all the dutch teenagers kept me entertained singing drunk dutch schlager songs at 4 am. Nice way to end the day or start it in my case.

Downtown Square with City Hall

Skyscrapers engulf the river on both sides with the Erasmus Bridge lit up