Day Two-Rotterdam

Woke up at 8am! I was really nervous that I might not sleep all night. The last time I went to Europe the first few days I would wake up at 3am, and not be able to get back to sleep. Since it doesn't get light until almost 8:30am, I had no idea what time it was. I was afraid to look at my watch, for fear it was 3am and that would jolt me awake. Thankfully, Andy could tell I was stirring, and said, "You did it! It's 8am. Hurray". He is so supportive.

I had gotten a few things at the market, so that I could make Andy a sandwich in case he didn't have time between films to eat and a little yogurt to eat in the morning. I was really careful at the market with the yogurt after Simone's French yogurt aka pudding experience. She couldn't figure out why their yogurt tasted so good and they had so many flavors. Turns out, she had been eating full fat pudding! Anyway, the yogurt was the probably the best I have ever eaten.

Our hotel doesn’t' have breakfast until March, so we thought we would go out and find something. The gal at the front desk directed us to the Central Station where she said we would find a good breakfast. It looked like a cute cafeteria where you went to different stations to order food. Again, we ran into not knowing what anything was so we asked the girl making coffee what to order. She said a couple people didn't come to work because they sick, so they weren't making food. All they had were pastries. Then Andy asked if when they did make food, if they made eggs. She said they didn't make eggs, but the Engel's down the street did. The Engel's does serve eggs, but they're obviously for Americans as the brunch was 28 Euro per person. They didn't open for 2 ½ more hours, so we kept moving.

I remembered where a couple of bakeries were, but didn't have a good feeling that they were open as we walked through the dead 9am Sunday morning streets. During my walk about the day before, I didn't really run across coffee shops (maybe because they mean something else here) or even restaurants that served breakfast. We ended up getting coffee and pastries at the film festival lounge, which is conveniently opened early and across the street. We now know.

Since it was Sunday and everything opened later, I headed back to the hotel to plan my day. I decided to go to the cube houses and a couple other things that were in the area. I was pleasantly surprised to find the cube houses just a few blocks past the Hema store (which is also near 2 H&M's in case you are wondering).

Piet Blom built the Cube houses in 1984. The concept of the thirty-eight homes was to build them like trees in the forest. They were really neat, and I managed to get pictures before my camera died! It was only 11:30am, and I was without a camera. Oh, well. I had to go to the bathroom, so the camera will have to wait. I remember walking by a big toilette sign on the way to the houses. I wandered into this weird fenced in area, when this old man in the little guardhouse came out. He said something to me, probably "can I help you? or You aren't supposed to be in here?" I said, "I'm looking for the bath room". He said "blah blah bibliotheek" and pointed. I had no idea what he said, but obviously that wasn't the bathroom. I left the little caged area, and saw what he was talking about. The library! Of course, Bibliotheek was the library and they would have a bathroom. Excellent. Except that they were closed. The first Dutch word I have learned. I thought that old man must get a kick out telling people to go there, because I saw 3 other tourist types looking at the closed sign.

Luckily, it wasn't dire that I find the toilet so set out on my next sightseeing sto, Saint Laurenskerk. I am finding that the map isn't a good indicator of where things are. I guess because everything looks like it is far apart when it is really only a few blocks. St. Laurenskerk, was built between 1449 and 1525. It is the only Late Gothic building which survived the Second World War. It was badly damaged during the Second World War but the reconstruction became a symbol for rebuilding the city and public life afterwards. I noticed a big old building on my way to the cube houses. So walked back that way. Lo and behold, when I got closer to take a picture of the plaque on the wall it, is what I'm looking for. I hear organ music, (it is Sunday), so I decide to head inside. I think some sort of mass may just be ending, but I see some other people walking around. I was really bummed that my camera was dead, as it was very beautiful. Not in a Paris church beautiful way, but it was very cool. I did take some video, but I'm not as good as Andy is with the video so I'll have to go back with my camera.

I paid my 40 cents, and lit a candle, which is what one does when visiting a European church. I think my mom and I hit every major church in Paris (except Saint Chappelle, which I'll go to on this trip) and lit candles.

I was glad to have found this old building because the one thing I know when looking for bathrooms in strange city is to churches, department stores or hotel lobbies. Sure enough, I paid 20 cents to use their bathroom.

What I am now referring to as "the trifecta area", of Rotterdam. I found the Bram Ladage and a stoopwafels cart one block from the Hema store. Bram Ladage is where you go when you want the Belgian frites. I had decided earlier in the day, that I was going to have frites with mayonnaise for lunch. I had a small order with fritesauce, which I was praying to God (candle lighting might come in handy) was mayonnaise and not the gravy that the man in front of me was eating. I'll try that another day, but today I want mayonnaise. The frites come in a cone and are a yellow color. OH, I just figured out why the weird color. I bet it is the double frying. Any way, fritesauce is mayonnaise. It was the most delicious bite of heaven.

About 10 steps away, was the stroopwafels. I was going to buy a package to take back to the hotel and then noticed super stoopwafels for 1 euro, which the man was making. I bought stroopwafels at Trader Joe's, and thought "I've had these'. BUT to have a still warm one the size of a small plate, that might have topped the frites. It is still out for debate which was better. That was a very enjoyable break.

After lunch, I went into Hema. To my delight, I discovered they made a hard-boiled egg, bacon and arugula sandwich. I have found a breakfast place. Whoo hoo. Okay, so Hema. Today I had more of an opportunity to look around. They had men's, women's, children and baby clothes, accessories, make up, basics like shampoo, toothpaste and even contacts that you could buy. I saw one little wall of misc sporting goods, which was odd but neat. I think there was a restaurant upstairs. I'll have to check that out another day. I wanted to run downstairs to pick up some baked goods for breakfast the next day.

Downstairs they had house wares, a little sewing section (I bought a really cute appliqué), and even paint! The kind of paint for your walls of your house. There were a small section of curtains, and I'm debating if I should go back and get a really cool black-flocked scrolly floral pattern for my dining room. The selection in any of the departments wasn't vast, but every item they had was cool. I honestly could have bought up everything in the store. I also picked up some real cool postcards and these floral paper garlands. I'm not sure what I'll do with them, but I liked them and decided the trip was about buying things I loved and figure out purpose later.

Another odd food item. You could order a sausage (I think knockwurst), which was just the meat with mustard and wrapped in waxed paper. No bun.

If you are keeping count, that was my third trip to Hema of the trip.

I wanted to hit the fancy department store, as it was on the way back towards the hotel. Bijenkorf is the Netherlands (maybe only Rotterdam) equivalent of Nordstrom. And if there is one thing I know is my way around a department store. Something is very comforting being in a new country, but knowing you can find the home department on the top floor. People were saying to us before the trip that it was going to be soooo expensive. Well, what they didn't know is that it is sale season. While I can't understand Dutch, I can read 30%, 50% and 70% off! Had I been in the market (or mood) to look for clothes I would have left with some really great deals. Even their private label was cooler than anything I had seen. My favorite departments were the kids/baby clothes. OMG, really funky designs alongside Polo. Wacky. Oh, and did you know that Espirit is popular? They had a whole Espirit women's department, and kids clothes. AND, there was a huge Espirit store down the street, but I digress. It was just weird seeing Espirit when it isn't the 80's.

The home stuff was really neat. I'll have to go back with my camera and take a picture of a pair of these crazy speakers that I saw. They were two 3 foot sitting dogs, but the head was cut off and the base of the neck was a speaker. Not describing very well, but they were neat. As I finish up my loop on the top floor, I see a sign that appears to say "visual" and bins of stuff, along with big fixtures. Can it be? Are they selling off visual items? Yes, they were! There wasn't a lot of stuff, but what was there was pretty neat. I'm trying to figure out whether I can get the white-flocked metal chandelier outline home! I picked up a few gifts for people who I know will appreciate something that was used in a Rotterdam department store Christmas display (you know who you are!).

They also had a really nice cafeteria type restaurant (not as neat as Harrod's food hall, but fun), but I was too full from my lunch. It was time to head back to the hotel, because my bags were getting heavy. On my way out for the day, I went by the H& M that had the cute shirt that I tried on. They weren't open yet, but I could see my cute shirt through the window and it looked like they might still have my size. I thought if I can't stop thinking about this shirt, I just need to go in and buy it. The store was a mad house, but they had my shirt! The only thing, and probably the reason why I didn't buy it on the first day is that it doesn't fit. It is a little tight though the boobs, but I didn't care because it was so cute.

I went back to the hotel to drop off my bags, charge the camera and rest my leg. I think a bath in the giant bathtub with my new Kneip lavender effervescent tablet will do the trick.

Andy wasn't due back for another hour or so, I needed to get out so I didn’t fall sleep. I headed out to Studio Hergebruik, which is a store, which carried functional art (bags,clothes, etc) created out of recycled materials. I had time to get there before it closed and it want' too far. Except that I guess it doesn't matter that you close at 5pm, and it's only 4:45pm. Closed. I'm really getting to learn that word. That's okay I know where it is now, and have plenty more time to check it out.

I decided to take a different way back, and check out the city. Along the way, I found the Ing bank, which was very handy, as I needed to get more cash out. A nice way out of ATM charges! I stopped off at the Film lounge to get a cup of coffee. There weren't any seats, so I took it back to the hotel to wait for Andy.

Since we are in love with the restaurant from yesterday's dinner, we decided to eat there again. Why stress out and try to find something when this place was excellent, menu also in English and reasonably priced. We decided that one of us should get the pasta (which ended up being me) and Andy got baked scallops and we shared (I shared my pasta too). We decided the next night he can get the pasta, and I'll try some seafood. Andy's scallops were amazing, and really good when you mixed the sauces of both of our dishes. Remember when I said had if we had bread, we could have sopped up our plates? Well, tonight they served us bread and we sopped. We didn't care, it was so good.

In Seattle, when the server never comes back to check on your table, I complain of bad service. Now I'll just say, they must be from Rotterdam. It was nice to sit and talk with our wine, and kill a couple of hours before Andy had to go to an industry party at 10pm.

On our way out the door, the server asked us how our meal was. We said we had been there two nights in a row, and might just eat there every night we were in the city. He said we should because in two weeks, they were closing for good! Unbelievable. He didn't know (or say) why. Andy told me the restauarnt is also one of the festival venue, thus pretty much everyone had a Rotterdam bag or festival badge on.

I was happy to go back to the hotel room after a few glasses of wine and go to bed.