John's Grandma's Birthday

Last weekend John and I drove to Rotterdam (about 3 hours away) to help celebrate John's grandma's birthday.  His aunt organized a surprise dinner for her at a nice restaurant in a village outside of Rotterdam. I met most of John's 6 aunts and uncles.  I also met some of his cousins. 

L: John's Oma (grandma in dutch) entering the restaurant with John's dad and mom

R: Oma Rook reading birthday card.

  

Some of Johns relatives and our waiter.

  

Random Rotterdam

These are some pictures from around the Rotterdam Harbor area.  On the left is a view of the bike tunnel under the River and the on the right is a really old escalator.  It had wooden ribs on the escalator.  The tunnels were made between 1937 and 1942 (I kept getting conflicting dates) and I think it's still all the original fittings.

  

Left: John is holding hands with Peter the Great.

Right:  Old boats along the Harbor.

  

Me on the stairs by the swan bridge and John is getting into a water taxi.  The water taxi is a really fast way to get around by boat.  It was pretty fun.  John really liked it. 
  

Our feet grew a little while we were in Rotterdam.
  
  

Boat tour of Rotterdam Harbor

John and I took a hour long boat tour of Rotterdam Harbor.  It's the busiest port on earth.  This is a picture of one of the tour boats, and we got to drink coffee on the boat.  The swan bridge is in the background.

 

A view of a nifty building and the euromast; and two modern skyscrapers on either  side of the old Holland-America shipping line hotel.  The older building is now Hotel New York.  The taller building on the right is the tallest residential building in Rotterdam.  
 

There are several tunnels under the river.  There is a pedestrian tunnel, a bike tunnel, and a tunnel for cars.  The building with the green dome is one of the ventilation shafts.  You can also see the Euromast in the distance. 
  

A couple of boats on the river.  The "Rotterdam" on the left is an older steam powered cruise ship.  The boat on the right is a modern cargo ship that was getting unloaded.

 
  

Cube houses in Rotterdam

These are the Cube houses in Rotterdam.  They are cubes balanced on one of the corners.  There is one that is open to tour.  They were built to bridge the old harbor area to the market area.  We went in one of them and discovered that you have to be very creative to live here.  You can't go to the local IKEA and buy new furniture if you live here.  It looked like everything had to be custom made.  There were lots of steep stairs as well.  I think they're interesting to look at, but not to live in. 

    
This is a view across the rooftops.  John is sitting in the roof area.  John was almost too tall for this place. 
  
  
  

New stuff in the Apt.

A picture of our dining room table.  John's parent's were "renting" the table while he was in the US.  They let us have it back for our place.  :)   and a view from the dining room to the "accent wall".  The next thing will be installing the laminate flooring.  

  

A view of our bedroom with our new authentic persian rug (at least that's what the rug store guy said).

Rotterdam-Euromast

This is the Euromast in Rotterdam. It's located on the harbor. It was built around 1960.  It was the tallest structure in Rotterdam until a taller hospital was built and the Euromast was knocked out of first.  The white spire was added in about 1970 to make it again the tallest building in Rotterdam.  The white spire has a rotating observation deck that goes up and down.  If you get motion sick, I would stay away from the rotating deck.  The Euromast is not the tallest building anymore.  There were lots of really cool looking buildings on the harbor and in Rotterdam. 

  

John and I at the top of the Euromast, and some stairs that wrap around the outside of the Euromast.  It was pretty scary going up and down them, especially when the wind blew!

  

Views of Rotterdam from the Euromast:  Really big rotary (the white building was the taller hospital), park and river with the swan bridge 
   
  
  

Fun Pics

One day it was pretty chilly, and most of the canals were in the process of freezing over.  I was biking through the Stadspark  (park by our place), and noticed all the geese crossing the road. I think they were looking for some liquid water.

John and I were on our way to his friends house for a New Years Eve party and this is one of the roads. It was foggy and then the fog froze on the trees, making for a pretty drive. 

Redecorating Update

John and I have been busy redecorating and remodeling our place.  

We decided to paint our bedroom with a morrocan theme.  The back wall is dark blue and the rest of the walls are light blue.  At the moment our floor is blue.  Eventually we will put down a laminate floor and do something nice with the ceiling and drapes, so it won't be so blue anymore.

     
Here's a couple shots of our living and dining rooms.  One wall is dark brown and the rest will be cream.  

     

I'll keep posting updates as we make our place awesome. 

Ice Skating

Last Sunday John and I participated in a great Dutch tradition.  We skated on a nearby lake, Hoornse Meer.  The winter has been chilly enough to freeze a lot of the local lakes, ponds, and canals.  There were lots of people out on the lake. The dutch are crazy about skating.  The news said that skating shops were making restocking runs to the warehouses 3 or 4 times a day.  It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for skating.  I started out a bit shaky, but by the end of the 5.5 mile trek, I was a pro and even passed a couple people. 

Here's a shot of the lake.  There was an unofficial track around the lake.

 These are all the bikes of the people ice skating.

 

There were lots of kids being hauled around by sled.  We saw one kid sleeping on the sled. 

 

Proof that john and i were skating:

  
 There was a guy who biked out to the middle of the lake and sold soup and little pieces of cake. It was tasty.
    

Wrapping up after a day of skating; and eating a sausage along the way.  There was a restaurant that was selling sausages and hot drinks along the shore. 
  
A view of a windmill.  We biked past this windmill on another nice day (see my previous posts)