We arrived by train to Rotterdam this morning. The weather was cloudy but with no rain, so it was great. One of the first intersting building we saw was this cinema cladded with corrugated metal. Check out the big bulletin!
The city was bombed in the second world war. As a result, many of the buildings are relatively new. Old brick shophouses that are so common in Delft and parts of Amsterdam are a rare site in this city. Instead, we find tall sky scrapers by famous architects like Renzo Piano, Foster & Partners, and MVRDV... Somehow, the Dutch liked gravity-defying cantilevers, like those pictured below...
Renzo Piano's KPN Telecom building with its characteristic slanting facade with blinking lights, supported by a lone convex shaped pillar. Check out Craig at the end of the advertisement pasted along the glass walls of the building's reception hall.
Designed by UN Studios, the Erasmus bridge is easily amongst the most iconic bridges in Rotterdam. We were all wondering if it was designed by Calatrava, due to the resemblance of it to his works. Well, we could also tell it apart as Calatrava's works are almost certainly more... graceful, for lack of a better word. Still, an engineering marvel nonetheless. Reminds me of P3... Sigh... P3... Sigh......
Elita bought a pair of 219 Euros boots, as the rest of us waited patiently for her to find the right size. 219 Euros!!! You know how much Transformers that can buy???
Myself, Margo and Elita. Margo is Craig's childhood friend living in Rotterdam who has kindly offered to drive us around. It would have been impossible to visit so many places withing a day if she hadn't been our tour guide. Thanks Margo!!! As a token of appreciation, I photoshopped a photo... as seen below:
Seebeh Leng~ Tuesday, August 29, 2006 |
Temperatures have been falling like crazy these few nights. Time to put on more clothes. Before that, let's get up close and personal with more of Delft's canal dwellers...
On Monday morning, we braved heavy showers and took a train to Amsterdam where we spent a day sight seeing! The city is arranged in a radial manner, dissected by canals and waterways. Many parts of the city were like Delft, except it is littered with coffeeshops (selling weed, magic mushrooms, liquid coccaine, you-name-it-we-have-it) and sex shops (selling porn, sex tools and prostitution).
We walked pass a huge ABN AMRO and saw through its glass walls posters from its television advertisement. In the commercial, people we throwing down old and torn couches through the windows from their apartments 3 storeys high! The ad then ended with them carrying nice green couches back to their home. The couches were the bank's metaphor of a bank, as the slogan read "dump the old banks", and join ABN AMRO... Dumb but interesting...?
The sleazy side of Amsterdam where prostitutes dance and tease behind glass windows. We were there pretty early in the evening, so we probably missed most of the action (we only saw 2 asian and 2 ang-moh aunties parading in their lingerie behind the glass cubicles). Also pictured is a sex show theatre with a pink elephant as its mascot.
We left the city after dinner via train. It was tiring, as we did alot of walking (40% of which in the rain). Even so, we had an interesting conversation throughout the journey home... The train ticket is a special promotion that allows us to use the train for an unlimited number of times for 2 days in the next 10 days from the day of purchase. We were thinking of going to Amsterdam again on Saturday. Hopefully then we can check out Renzo Piano's Nemo museum... I'll be contented to just look even from the outside!
We arrived by train to Rotterdam this morning. The weather was cloudy but with no rain, so it was great. One of the first intersting building we saw was this cinema cladded with corrugated metal. Check out the big bulletin!
The city was bombed in the second world war. As a result, many of the buildings are relatively new. Old brick shophouses that are so common in Delft and parts of Amsterdam are a rare site in this city. Instead, we find tall sky scrapers by famous architects like Renzo Piano, Foster & Partners, and MVRDV... Somehow, the Dutch liked gravity-defying cantilevers, like those pictured below...
Renzo Piano's KPN Telecom building with its characteristic slanting facade with blinking lights, supported by a lone convex shaped pillar. Check out Craig at the end of the advertisement pasted along the glass walls of the building's reception hall.
Designed by UN Studios, the Erasmus bridge is easily amongst the most iconic bridges in Rotterdam. We were all wondering if it was designed by Calatrava, due to the resemblance of it to his works. Well, we could also tell it apart as Calatrava's works are almost certainly more... graceful, for lack of a better word. Still, an engineering marvel nonetheless. Reminds me of P3... Sigh... P3... Sigh......
Elita bought a pair of 219 Euros boots, as the rest of us waited patiently for her to find the right size. 219 Euros!!! You know how much Transformers that can buy???
Myself, Margo and Elita. Margo is Craig's childhood friend living in Rotterdam who has kindly offered to drive us around. It would have been impossible to visit so many places withing a day if she hadn't been our tour guide. Thanks Margo!!! As a token of appreciation, I photoshopped a photo... as seen below:
