July 22: trip to Rotterdam

On the second and final full day of the Amsterdam trip, we took a day trip to Rotterdam. I found this amusing, and still do, just because it was such a nested activity: a day trip during a field trip during a study abroad. And miraculously, my camera dried out and worked again after I left it as deconstructed and open as possible overnight, which is why these last 50 pages of the gallery exist!

1678

Just across the courtyard behind the Hans Brinker Hotel is this mysterious Gothic-looking volume. I'm not sure what it is — it looks somewhat churchlike of course, but with odd fenestration if so, and also it is completely separated from the public streets.

1680

A bedecked morning, looking east along the Singel toward the Muntplein as we walked to Centraal Station to catch the train to Rotterdam.

1681

That fabulous screening again down Heiligeweg.

1683

This lovely woodwork at the corner of the Rokin and Wijde Kapelsteeg recalls Finnish National Romanticism. I'm also loving the neon pince-nez.

1688

The grand structure of the Centraal Station.

1693

On the train, heading east out of the station and then curving quickly south: it's NEMO!

1696

And hey, it's a clearer view of that colored-glass building by the tracks! It forms the edge of the Funenpark development.

1700

A layered view of what I'm assuming is another rail station in the southern reaches of Amsterdam, though I'm not sure which, maybe Amsterdam-Amstel.

1701

The Amsterdam Arena, looking like an enormous, gritty spaceship in the gray light.

1702

Eventually we made it out into the countryside. The... cowntryside.

1705

Another bucolic view. The countryside between Amsterdam and Rotterdam felt bounded and finite more than I've noticed in other rural areas, which I think has to do with the relatively speedy trip and the frequent evidence of towns and cities not far away, but also because of the geometric boundaries of the land in the form of windbreaks and canals.

1710

Paralleling the tracks for a minute was this elevated road with a dense, seemingly random jungle of columns supporting it.

1715

Upon arrival at Rotterdam Centraal, we bid varweel to our high-contrast train...

1716

...and delved into the madding crowd.