Day 11 Rotterdam!!

Today was our trip to Rotterdam! The marketing class along with Brandon left around 9 this morning and headed there. We had to take the tram to the train station and catch a train to Rotterdam. It was about an hour ride which wasn't bad at all! Once we arrived we immediately went to a bike rental place not far from the train station. I was so excited to ride bikes because it is really apart of the culture here and I wanted to try it out! However, I don't remember the last time I was on a bike so it's been pretty long. But what everyone says is true you immediately pick it right back up! Once we all got comfortable with our bikes we took off to head to the port of Rotterdam and ride through the city. I have to say riding a bike in the city is harder than it looks but you pick it up pretty fast. The hardest part is turning on the bike I almost crashed into some people later into the day, luckily we didn't though. As we arrived at the port we all really loved the building structures and the modernness of the city! Everything there is very modern and almost futuristic looking and many of the buildings are an odd geometric shape that looks cool. When we first got there we had to lock up our bikes which was confusing at first but very easy after a couple times. It was finally time to board the boat to go down into the port and do the tour. On the tour we got to see all the different ports and ships that carrying different items into the port. The port of Rotterdam use to be the largest shipping port in the world but now it's just the largest in Europe. I liked the tour overall because we got to see something different and it's cool to think that almost everything that comes into Europe by sea enters through here.

 After our tour of the shipping ports we went to the horseshoe building to grab some lunch. This was by far the coolest building I've seen! The building has markets, restaurants, some shopping and even apartments inside. One the ceiling of the building there were bright paintings of flowers which were really pretty! We went to a food bar and I ate some pasta with shrimp in it and a fruit salad. The food was pretty good! They also had many other options. Once we left here we went to the lake. The ride over to the lake was longer than to the port and to grab lunch we went through many residential areas. It was cool to take in the city because it's very different from Amsterdam it's not as many people and it's not as fast paced at all. When we got to the park the first turn to enter the park is where I almost crashed! I was so scared I was going to hit the other people but they stopped! We rode to this restaurant/ bar right on the water. It was such a beautiful view! By far one of my favorites yet! We sat and enjoyed watching the water, seeing a really windmill, people fall off their boats, and just the environment! We sat for some time the. Decided to leave and head to feed the deer. It wasn't far from the restaurant at all. Once we arrived at the deer sanctuary Ashley and I bought ice cream to try and feed them. It seemed like the deer didn't want any ice cream because they wouldn't come to the fence at all they just looked at us like we were crazy and kept eating grass. I decided to just eat my ice cream but Ashley kept trying and FINALLY one came! Then a few more did and hey all wanted ice cream! It was the cutest thing ever! Too bad I didn't have mine for them but they took too long. After feeding the deer we headed back to return our bikes and head back to Amsterdam to make it to dinner. On the ride back we went up a small hill which was kind of hard to peddle up just because we had been biking on flat land all day but we made it back! We made it to the station with 2 minutes to make it on the train back. We had to fast walk then run a little to catch it and we made it just in time! I had a lot of fun in Rotterdam. It was nice seeing another city in the Netherlands and comparing it to Amsterdam because they were both so different but I like both of them for different things! Rotterdam is great city to come if your in Amsterdam and you need to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and you just want to relax and enjoy the atmosphere and take in the environment.