So I was meant to have posted this like two weekends ago, but things have been a bit manic at work recently. Anyway, back to Charlie’s stag weekend, and day 2 in Rotterdam!
We were meant to go to a Jazz Cafe for lunch, but after walking for what seemed like forever, we discovered it was closed. So instead, we eventually stumbled across a really nice restaurant come cafe kinda place.
It had a really nice laid back Dutch Sunday kinda feel to it – Grand Cafe Wester Paviljoen it was called, and I’d recommend it!
After that we walked some more (it seemed like ages actually and it was FREEZING) to Euromast. We decided to get on a tram at one point as it was so cold, but unfortunately it took us right past Euromast, and dropped us further away than we were when we got on.
Anyway, we eventually got to Euromast (above). It is the tallest building in Rotterdam, at 186 metres tall. Unfortunately the very top of it was closed. Boo! By far and away the best thing about Euromast is that in the lift on the way up, it plays Aerosmith’s Love in an Elevator! Now why hasn’t anyone thought of that before? I have a video of it, but I’ll have to upload that separately.
So we could only get up to the viewing platform outside at like 100 metres up. This was the view.
It was pretty neat but to be honest it was soooooo cold, that I just ran around the viewing platform, took a couple of photos and nipped back in.
After that it was back to the hostel for a bit of a kip. We were meant to go on an all you can eat pancake boat tour round the river, but it was fully booked. Good tip if you’re off to Rotterdam though!
In the evening we went to the Thai restaurant next to the hostel called Lulu. It was really nice, so again I’d recommend it.
Then it was off to a mini festival to see one of Charlie’s favourite bands, The National play. The festival was in a really cool concert hall called De Doelen. It was a really beautiful building, and they served beer in an orderly fashion too!
Before The National’s gig, John discovered some dude with a toy hard hat on leading people away like some pied piper. So we followed until we were led into a tiny room where you sat on the floor.
I was worried it was going to be like some weird naked group dance therapy session but it was actually two guys who were going to play an improvised piece of music on a specially tinkered with piano and a saxophone. They played for about 10 minutes. It was er unique, and part of a Music Mining thing (don’t really know what that is).
Now what I haven’t mentioned up until now is that when we arrived at the festival, John provided us all with comic moustaches. Unfortunately mine was the only one that stayed on all night, but it did get a lot of attention, with people asking for my photo and stuff. I have a feeling it might have been because I looked a bit like Hitler with it (which was unfortunate), but the other annoying thing is everyone kept thinking it was real. Like I’d try to look like Hitler!
Anyway after The National’s gig, which wasn’t really my cup of tea (bit all kind of the samey, no beats to it) we drank some more and did some crazy dancing to some DJs in the foyer (and yes I did break dance). Back to the hostel, and the bar was closed, so we were pointed in the direction of what Lonely Planet voted The Best Bar in the World (quite a claim). It was called De Witte App, and again I’d recommend it. We rocked up at about 2.30am on a Sunday morning and stayed until about 5 (maybe?) when they threw us out.
The barman was crazy, played any song you wanted (yes I did ask for Don’t Stop Movin just to get things going), let me go behind the bar for my photo, and gave us crazy amounts of shots for very little money. So yes, it is good!
Obviously completely stocious by this point, we then headed back to the hostel for a well deserved kip! Apart from someone who will remain nameless and fell asleep on the toilet for two hours.