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A Day in Rotterdam
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Today we woke up to the rays of bright and beautiful sunshine! We know this is not typically something worth hearing about, but we have not seen sunshine in a LONG time here and we were excited about it! We decided we HAD to go outside and enjoy the nice weather while it lasted...
So, we headed to the nearby city of Rotterdam. This is a city we had gotten mixed reviews about, so our expectations were rather low. But, when we got there we were pleasantly surprised! Rotterdam is the largest shipping harbor in the world. It was completely destroyed in the 1940's during WWII, and then rebuilt in the years following. Because of this, it is completely modern and unlike any other city we have seen in Holland. If we didn't know any better, we may have even thought we were in America! There are many high-rise buildings and all the architecture is very modern and unique. The city even experimented by building a futuristic cube-shaped apartment complex. The idea of the complex is to combine the "public" and the "private", with the ground level consisting of public businesses and the upper levels private apartments. The cube shape is purely for aesthetic purposes (and it really did look neat).
We started out walking through a large outdoor shopping mall. As always, we enjoyed WINDOW shopping, but didn't find anything special to buy! Within a few blocks we had then made our way to the harbor. We visited a Maritiem Museum and learned about the history of shipping in Rotterdam and toured a real ship on the harbor. After this, we walked to the other side of the city and saw the famous Euromast Space Tower (if you have ever seen the Space Needle in Seatle, it is the exact same thing). We were able to take an elevator to the top and get a magnificent view of the city. The only downfall was that it was ridiculously windy on the top of the tower to the point where we could barely stand it! Nate especially got a lot of weird looks after his already crazy hair style took a wind beating!
We had a great time in Rotterdam and are looking forward to spring so we can start travelling outdoors more often! We will keep you updated. FYI- Andrea's knee is doing MUCH better! She is planning on making a full recovery withOUT surgery! Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers- they were much appreciated! More thumbnails ...
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