Nederland 🇳🇱 gebonden

The translates to, Netherlands bound 👍

We were up early to pack the remaining few things and get ready to head to the Netherlands. J took Dubi for a quick walk while A tidied the apartment up. We walked over to the Waller train station, a short 15 minute walk away. The weather cooperate without the forecasted rain. Being a Saturday morning there were definitely larger crowds at Bremer HBF, where we transfered from the regional train.

Our first leg was on a newer speed train to Osnabruck, reaching speeds of 200km/h! The second leg from Osnabruck to Amsterdam was an older, more spacious, and comfortable train, with speeds up to 130km/h. We sat in the last car, and appreciated the relatively quiet 4 hour journey, although it was mildly stuffy with minimal cool airflow... The last leg between Amsterdam and Rotterdam was a bit grimy, felt like being on the late night drunk bus in Vancouver. 😵‍💫 Not because anyone was noticeable intoxicated, just it was in dire need of a power washing!

On our arrival to Rotterdam we were greeted with a full-on Carnival festival outside the station; drums, loud music, festive feather costumes, and large dense crowds. We managed to find a spot to cross the parade to get to the hotel. J had read about the festival, but wasn't aware we would be staying so close: two blocks! Even on our 18th floor room we could hear the heart drumbeat of the procession below.

The afternoon was gorgeous and sunny, so off to explore we went. We briefly entertained the idea of festival street food, but the lines were very long and the crowds too busy, so we moved on. Finding our way to Witte de Withstraat, brought more crowds of a different type. The street had a similar feel of Whyte Ave in Edmonton, but much narrower. We ended up settling on burger joint called Hamburg that J had noticed earlier. It was a cafeteria-eatry style service, pumping out early 2000s tunes.

Later we headed out to Ferry, one of the many gay bars in Rotterdam. We arrived fairy early, so the line up was short and quick. The clientele was quite diverse, and many seemed to be reviving fashions from the late 80s and 90s.

On our "early" walk home around midnight we were surprised to see multiple groups of young adults, from the street parade, darting around as if running away from something(police?). A few waves passed us and we were on alert if needing to get away from a mob/riot ⚠️😵‍💫 (Our thought 💭process was likely linked to a shooting 🔫 that happened earlier in the day.)Read more