Netherlands: Last day in Rotterdam
Today was our last day in Rotterdam – definitely a little bittersweet. I’m glad we’re coming to the end of the trip, but the hotel has become very homey and comfortable over the last few weeks, and I’m a little apprehensive about moving to another city and another hotel. I’m also, just to be honest, running out of cope.
Several of us had made up a list of all the things we needed to do before we left Rotterdam, so I tagged along on several of these. We went to the nearby windmill in Delftshaven, which was so cool. They let us go all the way up these incredibly steep ladder-stairs (and when I say steep you must remember that I’ve been in Rotterdam for three weeks and my definition of steep has been well-recalibrated. These. Were. Steep.) to see the various levels of the windmill, which was running and whoosh-whooshing past us the whole time. And we could go out on the viewing platform, although they had (wisely, I’m sure) roped off the bits where you might actually get whacked by the blades. The grinding stones were also not in motion, but you could see all the parts and where everything fitted together. I thought about buying some flour from them, but then decided that it was too heavy for me to take home – I’m already running terribly close to the weight allowances for carryons.
- Got me…
Then some members of our party were interested in poffertjes, tiny little pancake pillows doused in strawberries and whipped cream and powdered sugar and chocolate, or some combination of the above. We ate ourselves silly and got powdered sugar all over our clothes – we realized that the cracks in the table and the booth were well-encrusted with decades of powdered sugar.
The next stop was Boots. These Europen women, they have Boots. Sexy gorgeous knee high Boots made out of pajama-soft leather (note: I did not accost people to stroke their footwear. That would be inappropriate.) We went to a few places before E found the perfect, charmingly zany pair for her. I also saw a pair that I wanted, badly, but they were 280E and I simply could not justify it. So instead I moped about it. I am sure that one day my virtue will be rewarded. (I did take a photo of them and of the bottom of them, where they thoughtfully provide the web address. Just in case.)
Just for future reference
A quick stopover at a record store later, we headed back to Hotel Baan just in time to change for dinner. Our last dinner in Rotterdam! It was surpassed in its brilliance by our last night at the Oude Sluis, where things got very silly very quickly—the bachelor party filled with guys dressed in naval outfits didn’t help. There was theft of hats. And inappropriate drinking. And there may or may not have been wine babies. I’m not saying.