Hey everyone, I am in Rotterdam!
I am now officially ON VACTION NOT DOING WORK for the next week and a half. Then it’s back to London and back to researching for me.
I met up with Aaron in Brussels at the Pantone Hotel, which, yes, is paint chip themed hotel. We were on the orange floor. It was pretty amazing. At breakfast I almost accidentally ate a raw egg, because there was a bowl of raw eggs right beside the bowl of hard boiled ones. I cracked it open and thought, “Gosh, Europeans really like their eggs soft boiled,” and then I noticed it pouring out of the egg cup. Another excellent job.
And now we are in Rotterdam, in a hotel in a barge in a canal! It is called the H2otel. Every piece of furniture in the room is spray painted silver, which, truly, is a marker of style and class. My general inclination while travelling is to stay in wonderfully silly accomodations whenever possible, and that particular goal has been realized quite effectively on this trip.
Rotterdam is fascinating – the city was completely bombed out in World War II, and rather than reconstruct, the way many European cities did, they took the opportunity to just start brand new. So the architechture is mostly very interestingly modern, with odd smatterings of pre-war buildings. As a post-war-ist, I kind of love it.
And my goal of eating mainly cheese and beer on this trip is going very well: yesterday we had fondue for dinner, and today we had dinner on an all-you-can-eat pancake boat, which is a wonderful thing that really, really exists in the world. You pay your 15 euros, you get a seat by the window and a cruise through the harbour, and you get to go and get as many pancakes as you want from the pancake closet (actually a thing) and top them with as much ridiculous stuff as you want. Topping choices included peaches, apples, salami, wedges of brie (cheese requirement fulfilled!), syrup, nutella, sprinkles, candied ginger, and weird little candy covered cruchy bits. Also, some of the pancakes had apples and bacon baked into them. And pannekoekenboot is my new favorite dutch word.
Tomorrow we are going to Baarle-Nassau/Baarle-Hertog for the day, which is a Belgian exclave in the Netherlands with dutch enclaves in it. The purpose of this trip is mainly to take pictures of ourselves jumping from one country to the next and to go to this restaurant that has something like 500 kinds of beer. And then on Thursday, we’re going to Gouda for the day. The purpose of that trip is mainly cheese.
Some pictures! For your edification.
The color scheme of our room at the Pantone, where everything has a color number. Everything. Including the teas at breakfast.
Rainy Brussels from the Pantone Hotel fire escape
Canals and bicycles abound in Rotterdam
Rainy Rotterdam skyline, as seen from the Pancake Boat
Aaron likes pancakes!
I also like pancakes! I like them with jam and brie! (Weird.)
Also, I was in Liverpool last week and lots of things happaned including me refusing to go to any Beatles-themed attraction that you had to pay for, me not understanding anyone’s accent, and also me discovering wine that comes in a pre-poured plastic glass with a tin foil top like a yogurt container that you can get for two pounds at Marks and Spencer, which I took as proof that the British understand my needs. But I will write a proper Liverpool report later!
Oh my god Xan, I got a new computer and lost all my bookmarks, and then I went away for a month with basically no internet access, and somehow in there somewhere I did something unthinkable and FORGOT THAT YOU HAVE A BLOG. I am so glad that I remembered today!! Can we have a phone date when you get back to LA, please? The Xandra-less-ness of my life at the moment makes me sad.
PEE ESS: I have a funny story for you. The lovely and talented Darlene, late of the Road Dog Divas, was one of the performers at the folk festival this year. I asked her if copies of the two RDD CDs still exist (my copy of everythings in boxes having been lost in a move at some point over the past five years, and Kate’s copy of Pony having been scratched beyond playability… do you still have your copy?), and her response was a surprised “you actually had a copy of Pony?? …oh yeah, I guess this was where we sold them. this was pretty much the ONLY place we sold them”. Anyway, I did manage to pick up a for-real copy of everythings in boxes at the merch tent, because they had like three copies there miraculously, and the lovely and talented Darlene emailed me today to let me know that she put my brand-new bootleg copy of Pony in the mail for me on Friday. I’ve promised to mp3-ize both and send them to Kate and Chris; do you want also?
I love you. Hooray!!
Hello hello! Yes, I have a blog, and I miss you, too! I sent you a ridiculous postcard, I hope you get it because it has pies on it.
I still have my copy of Pony somewhere, but I think it’s probably in my storage unit right now. I want an everything in boxes because I’ve never actually had a copy!
I LOVE YOU TOO! HOORAY! Next time I come to London (which hopefully will be next fall, maybe?) you should come for a visit!!!