After our Romania and Greece trip, we wanted to explore Netherlands as we did not venture much into our host country, to be honest except for Amsterdam, Hague and a few other sights.

We decided to take the Weekend free pass from National rail to go around the country a bit.

One of our first trips was to Rotterdam, a city bombed during WW2 and was rebuilt from scratch to its current landscape. I booked a tour from Inside Rotterdam to explore more and get to know the city more intimately. Sufficient to say, I saw the city in a whole new light and was able to appreciate the culture much more. Among the top sights I took in was a tunnel that an artist paints every 2 years, the hackerspace inside a former fruit warehouse, the junkyard where a renowned artist creates his work. We rode on a street which was considered THE most dangerous street in Netherlands with a safety rating of 1.08 out of 10, with 10 being safest. Explored a neighbourhood where every apartment had a walkway no matter which floor they were on, to create a feeling of space for people came from the southern regions to work in the ports. Also, spent time at Stroop Rotterdam which is as much about building a community and creating as about being a cafe.

Our next trip was to Amsterdam where we enjoyed going to the Rijksmuseum for the IAmsterdam Sign and around the city taking in a canal ride and having a drink at Wynand Focnick.

Our last trip was to Maastricht to explore Dominican Boekehandel which is a bookstore set inside a church, check out the other churches, rounding out with a fantastic lunch at Lunch & Zo. The month of August has been unbelievably lazy so no posts probably on August

Nik