"This could be Rotterdam or anywhere. Liverpool or Rome...

...Cause Rotterdam is anywhere. Anywhere alone"

On Friday last week we signed the lease for our new place, yay! All went smoothly and we met with the landlord at the apartment yesterday to collect the keys and do a check-in or snag list. So all is ready to go when we get back. Our furniture hasn’t left Cape Town yet but should be leaving in the middle of Feb to arrive in Rotterdam in the middle or end of March. So hopefully it will be well timed and we will arrive back from our travels at the same time as our furniture!

Below are some pics of our new place. The apartment is fairly modern as you can see in the kitchen, bathroom, down lights, aircon and walk-in wardrobes. However, you will also notice that the walls are not straight but are at an angle which will make hanging pictures interesting! Will post more pics when we have arranged our furniture in it. The apartment feels bigger than our place in Wynberg but still wondering where things like golf clubs and bicycles will go… at least there are no boats to worry about! Not yet anyway.

An interesting thing about our apartment is that the landlord is not entitled to automatically increase the rent by 10% each year. The government dictates how much the rent should go up each year and apparently it is only 2% or 3% a year, not 10% like SA. Also, the landlord can choose whether he wants to put it up or not and apparently not everyone does. Our lease contract also states that we may not grow cannabis or use drugs on the property. So long as that is clear!

Amsterdam is an hour away on a slow train or 20 minutes on a speed train so we headed out for a visit on Saturday. The city was really busy with many tourists even on a windy winter’s day. From the train station we wandered through the older parts of the city, through the red light district, over many canals and through the flower seller-lined street towards the Rijksmuseum. Amsterdam is a beautiful old city and we loved the old buildings; so narrow and tall. For Bron it was really good to be back in a city she had been before with her sister on Contiki almost 7 years ago.

Walking through the red light district was pretty weird, you don’t know where to look! We weren’t sure whether it was rude to look or to look away. There were also many ‘coffee shops’ with the smell of herbs floating past. We were saddened by this area though. You can’t get away from sex and drugs anywhere in Amsterdam, it really is in your face everywhere you go. An interesting thought is how to bring up children in that area and how the Oude Kerk in the red light district manages to reach people when it is surrounded by easy access to instant satisfaction.

After queuing for about half an hour and passing the airport-like security, we made it into the Rijksmuseum. There were quite a few visitors to the museum and we wondered how long you would have to wait to get in during the peak summer months. You would think they would have the security and ticket thing down by now. Hoping the museums in the rest of Europe are a bit more organised!

The museum houses a vast collection of art ranging a few centuries and including famous Dutch and other artists. There are also various temporary exhibitions. The main attraction is probably Rembrandt’s original The Night Watch. We enjoyed the museum but it is much smaller than the National Gallery in London. Sadly, we would probably go back to the National Gallery before going back to the Rijksmuseum.

After the Rijksmuseum we took a walk along the Prinsengracht past the Anne Frank House to Dam square and then along Dam Rak Straat back to the Central Station. We stopped in at a local bakery and tried a croissant filled with ham and cheese, very yummy! But we still miss the Viking Bakery and parcels we used to get! =) It was a fun day out and we are looking forward to going back, especially in the summer! Places on our to-visit list include the Anne Frank House, the Van Gogh museum and the Rembrandt House. We also want to pick up some tulip bulbs and grow our own tulips on our new balcony! =)

After a slow start on Sunday we headed to the Boijmans van Boningen Museum in Rotterdam. This museum is similar in size to the Rijksmuseum and has similar collections. Also, not as impressive as the National Gallery but worth a visit. Next time we will probably go back on a Wednesday when entry is free ;-)

Monday was an admin filled day including picking up the keys for our new place. Today, Tuesday, we caught a speed train from Rotterdam to Berlin to start our exploring holiday! The trip was about seven hours but the train was pretty comfortable with much more leg room than on an aeroplane! It was good to get an idea of what where we live looks like and to watch the scenery change as we went past. We passed a lot of rural farm like places which varied from open fields to quite wooded areas. Travelling by train certainly beats flying! The journey itself might be a bit longer but it is definitely more relaxing and no security checks! The group of business men next to us even brought their own beer. So next time we know what to do!

So we have three nights and two days to explore Berlin before heading to Prague on Friday for four nights. Thereafter we head to Munich for three nights and Innsbruck for one night before joining Michelle and Graham in Austria for a week of skiing! Our accommodation is booked to the end of the skiing week but after that there are no fixed plans. We will probably head to Italy, Spain and France; time and money permitting. 

We are feeling more relaxed after organising a place to stay in Rotterdam and signing a lease this week. Other admin to sort out when we get back is registering at the IND, opening bank accounts and organising our furniture to be delivered. But for now we are happy to be travelling =) We had dinner in a pub-type-place last night and made friends with the barman/waiter dude who happens to captain the third cricket side at a local club. Justin was very stoked at this meeting as he is keen to get back into his cricket! Cricket and watching live cricket is definitely one of the things we will miss about SA and Cape Town. So we were happy to have a chance meeting with someone in the local cricket world even if we have to meet and play with Australians and Kiwi’s ;-)

Until next time when we will bring you news of Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate and Check Point Charlie, have a good week!

x

Not your typical South African museum...

Amsterdam street art

More Amsterdam street art

Amsterdam houses

Bron in Amsterdam

More photos of Amsterdam

The old harbour in Rotterdam

Some of the interesting architecture in Rotterdam

and some more

and still more

and more

and still more

A windmill in the old part of Rotterdam

Mathernesselaan (our new address)

Some photos of our new apartment

And the view from the apartment