Day 9

We started the morning slowly (recovering from the painful computer experience of the night before) by having a sleep in, lazing around for a bit and then joining some of the residents in the complex that we're staying in for a morning drink. Steve's mum's cousin, Ineke, surprised Steve with his favourite Dutch licorice (salty Dutch licorice powder) that we aren't able to get in Tassie. It was pretty gross.

Gross...

Once I managed to get Steve to put the nasty stuff down, we all caught the tram into Rotterdam to do some sightseeing. Turns out that the place we're staying at is only about 20 minutes away from the city, which is pretty convenient! We had just gotten off the train when Steve had to inconveniently pee (again) so we went off in search of a public toilet. We saw a Macca's sign and thought we would head towards there but ended up going into the local department store. $0.30 EUR (ah, the Dutch) and a few minutes later we ventured into the heart of Rotterdam.

It's a fairly small city on the scale of things but small in a cosy kind of way. We wandered around and checked out some of the old haunts of Steve's parents in their younger days. Stopped off and had a drink at one of the bars that they used to frequent (apparently it hasn't changed), found the nightclub that Steve's parents met at, where they used to get their grease fix after a big night... it was pretty cool : ) Steve made some new friends along the way too.

Steve and his fellow Dutch men and women

We snacked as we walked  we found some smoked Dutch sausage with mustard, potato chips with peanut sauce, a cheesary where we picked up some delicious old cumin cheese for about $1 EUR and raw salted herring (not together obviously), which is Steve's dad's favourite that he can't get in Australia. Sounds disgusting but it was quite tasty.

Tasty fishy

Having been sufficiently fed and watered, we caught a taxi to the Euromast near the waterfront. We went up and took in the view of Rotterdam from 100 m in the air. We also went up the Euroscope, a rotating elevator, that took us to 185 m in the air. I've obviously been on too many amusement park rides because it felt Big Drop-esqe....

After the Euromast, we walked around the waterfront where the Dutch Army have a demonstration area set up with obstacle courses and rides in army vehicles. We also went and checked out the underground tunnel that runs under the Maas River. Sounds boring but it was pretty cool. It was built in the 60's or so (maybe earlier) and has three layers - one for cars, one for push bikes and one for pedestrians.

We caught the tram back to Ineke's place and then headed off to Emmy's (Steve's mum's sister) place to catch up with her and her husband. We watched the sun set across the Rotterdam skyline from their backyard  and then followed it up with bbq dinner for us. We soaked up the ambience and then headed back to get some sleep for another big day.

One thing Steve forgot to mention in Day 8's blog was that we got to have a go on Ineke and her partner, Harry's, scooters! You don't need a licence to ride a scooter in Holland and scooters are allowed on the bike paths. Steve understandably had no trouble but I got off to a wobbly start. I had Steve chasing me down the street for a little bit in fear that I was going to fall off but I pulled it together and made it around the block. Unfortunately the police happened to be cruising down the street at the same time and pulled me over... It all turned out ok though once they were satisfied that I had a licence and it was my first time on a scooter. I think I gave Ineke a few gray hairs....