Cities of Holland Part 2 of 2

[matt]

A couple weeks ago, I spent a week in Holland on business travel. I had 2 days in Amsterdam, 2 days in Haarlem, and the rest of the time I was in Rotterdam.

Much of Rotterdam was destroyed during WWII. Because of this, many of their buildings have a real modern feel, although there are some beautiful classics as well.

Here are some of the modern structures that caught my eye.

Cube Houses

An interesting blend of styles

Why build one glass box, when you can have 3?

Westin

Interesting public venue, I believe, with a bit of an industrial feel. Note those cranes are actually lights.

This building had a light matrix capable of displaying animations along the entire side of the building.

Another interesting blend of styles

Here is a modern building built atop a classic structure. Note that Rotterdam is the busiest shipping port in the world. Its probably no coincidence that this building looks like a shipping container. Note in the background you can see the building with the light matrix displaying an animation.

Rotterdam is also know for its shopping district. Much like downtown crossing in Boston, but much bigger.

Many of the streets were very wide, but for pedestrians only. Here, the street continues down a set of stairs where shops also exist below street-level.

They do an excellent job of illuminating their structures at night. Here are just a couple.

In this one, again you see the building with the light matrix just showing a crescent moon.

[runawayjim]

awesome pics!

did you get to see the cactus building while in rotterdam?

[matt]

awesome pics!

did you get to see the cactus building while in rotterdam?

[runawayjim]

HA! No, I must've missed that one.

I missed a lot of things while in Amsterdam, too

[matt]

I was impressed with how clean the cities were. People not only disposed of their cig-butts (yeah, everyone smokes there, ew), they even ASHED in the designated places - OUTSIDE. Amazing!

But an unusual amount of gum on the sidewalks... must be the folks trying to quit smoking.

All the restrooms were spotless, too, even in the train stations. Of course... you had to pay to use them.

[runawayjim]

I was impressed with how clean the cities were. People not only disposed of their cig-butts (yeah, everyone smokes there, ew), they even ASHED in the designated places - OUTSIDE. Amazing!

But an unusual amount of gum on the sidewalks... must be the folks trying to quit smoking.

All the restrooms were spotless, too, even in the train stations. Of course... you had to pay to use them.

[Randy@Tacoma]

I like the paying for restrooms idea. Sorry if your broke, youll just have to crap in your pants. And yes you should have had a for me while you were there. Im going this coming July. Ill have wait to experience the real coffeeshop. O well.

[Ronald]

Thanks for sharing your pictures. It's also interresting to read how you experienced Rotterdam. I hear your complaint about how everyone smokes here. It's disgusting, and I feel like I'm the only one here who is acually NOT smoking.

I'm glad you consider out city clean. When travelling through, say, Germany, I allways get the idea that their cities are much cleaner and that we do a bad job when it comes to keeping cities clean. You put this in perspective.

I recognize all your pictures, I pass through many of the areas shown frequently. When exactly where you in Rotterdam? I took some pictures here last week aswell, I'll post them soon. Anyway, I hope you had a good time here.

[runawayjim]

I'm glad you consider out city clean. When travelling through, say, Germany, I allways get the idea that their cities are much cleaner and that we do a bad job when it comes to keeping cities clean. You put this in perspective.

[matt]

Ronald,

I was there Nov 14th-21st. I thought the technician I was working with was the only person in Rotterdam who didn't smoke. Now I know there are two. jk

Please feel free to correct me if any of the statements I made in regards to the pictures are false.

[Ronald]

^ Lol!

I guess you found our weather to be very mild? 60 F mid-november does not occur every year, but this year has been exceptionally warm anyway!

Your information is pretty acurate. I would like to add a bit of info to a few pictures:

Interesting public venue, I believe, with a bit of an industrial feel. Note those cranes are actually lights.

the grey, boxy building across the square is downtown's largest cinema

This building had a light matrix capable of displaying animations along the entire side of the building.

the entire facade of this building (where a telecom company is located) was meant to become Europe's biggest TV screen. That proved too expensive. Now you have hundreds of green dots that light up.

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