From July 15, 2013 to July 23, 2013:

324 days of #vanlife

The summer of 2013 was the one we ‘dubbed’ the whirlwind European summer.’ We had a job with a New York company to visit some of the main cities in Europe, with just a week spent in each. Armando would scout for unique local shops or restaurants and film short interviews. It was a crazed, slightly manic type of travel with a lot of extremely great and not-so great moments:

We’d gone out for coffee in Prague at 9 a.m. and were gone perhaps an hour. Maybe even less. We came back to find Mork’s side window staved in and all of Armando’s gear stolen. The police finally arrived late in the afternoon, but we were apparently on the wrong side of the street and not in their jurisdiction. The second group of police came, took our statements, and shrugged. They told us it was most likely some junkie. It was one of the moments we had where we really had to assess if we wanted to continue our journey or not. Thankfully, we decided to go on.

The first place we stopped at in Amsterdam, Netherlands was next to this sentence.

We stopped at a restaurant near a lake and had some beer. We asked for the check several times; the last time the waiter told Armando I’d paid (I hadn’t). First night in Amsterdam and a stoned waiter gives us free drinks. Not too shabby. Ha.

It’s incredibly hard to find parking in Amsterdam. We found this one by chance, but were told we couldn’t stay long.

We assume the reason the Dutch are such proficient cyclists is due to their lack of parking. One warning if you ever go to Amsterdam? If you’re walking, keep your eyes peeled in all directions for bike riders: they will run you over without apology.

We finally found glorious parking across from the city, on the north side.

A pier near the regular place we decided to park. The north side was such a great mix of ships and alternative artists, plus there was a free ferry to Amsterdam every hour. It was perfect for us.

Speaking of art, this was a bicycle that was pretty amazing, don’t you think-? Grin.

A lazy afternoon on the north side beach.

Armando caught this whopping fella, and even impressed the locals. They told him it was a ‘very expensive fish.’ Not a clue which type of fish- ask Armando. Or maybe you know-?

There were two interesting things in the north side bay: a submarine and a boat hotel (a boatel-?). You can see them in the distance, just beyond Mork.

We were delighted with the quirky architecture of Rotterdam. These apartments by architect Pier Blom and called Cube House are quite famous.

Bridge into the heart of Rotterdam.

Inside the Cube House buildings. We even got to take a quick peek inside the ‘museum’ to see what the apartments actually look like. A little too claustrophobic for me, but the shared space included a giant chess board and a wig shop. I thought that was pretty cool.

We searched for quite a long time to park somewhere ‘in the wild’ in the Netherlands. It was almost impossible. One of the locals we asked said it was because the Dutch love to charge money for everything, and ‘if we could make a profit from tourists breathing the air, we would.’ Ha. We finally found a random field with a vast view for the night.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our journey to the Netherlands. Have you ever been to Amsterdam? Rotterdam? What did you think? Any other places you love in the Netherlands, that visitors really have to see? Let us know in the comments below! Stay tuned for more WDN adventures and thanks for joining us. Mel, Armando, Ziggy and Mork

 

 

• Netherlands