This past weekend, we played tourists in our own town by checking out some of the top sites/icons in Rotterdam.  First off, we visited the Maritime Museum.  Rotterdam in a port city and has been referred to as the “Gateway to Europe.”  The Maritime Museum houses not just maritime artifacts and artwork but also an interactive experience in which you get to see what it is like to work on an offshore site and test yourself on some of the skills needed and jobs required at the site.  The museum also has several boats in the harbor that you can board.  After the museum, we had lunch at a restaurant on a docked boat and then our son insisted that he must drive a miniature boat around the harbor.  Twelve Euro for 15 minutes seemed steep, but I was never so happy for 15 minutes to be up as he is not the best driver!

After our water-themed morning, we decided to check out the cube houses (you can go in one model home) and the large church from the 16th century that survived the bombing during WWII.  We went to the Museum of Rotterdam and learned more about the SS Rotterdam, the ocean liner from the American Holland Line that is now docked in the city and serves as a hotel.  Finally, we walked to Centraal Station to check out the architecture and then drove over the famous Erasmus Bridge.

The next day we checked out the zoo and the Euromast with panoramic views of the city and the city park next to it.

My fitness tracker was very pleased with me over the weekend and there’s more to see, but for one weekend that was plenty.

We ventured out to a cool park for kids called Plaswijck Park that is just a few minutes from our house.  The park has animal exhibits, water play, boating, playgrounds and other attractions such as the miniature town that kids get to ride pedal cars through, a zip line and an awesome tiny boat that goes down a steep slide and shoots into the water.  The upside-there is plenty for the kids to do, the downside-as a parent you don’t get to ride on many of the attractions (I’m not going to lie about being jealous I couldn’t ride around the town or go down the boat slide thing!).  All in all, it was a nice day in a lovely, park setting.

It took moving across the ocean but we are no longer landlocked!  That’s right, the beach is just 25 minutes from our house.  The first day we went to the beach we checked out Scheveningen, a more touristy beach.  Lots of restaurants and attractions surround the area and we enjoyed eating at the boardwalk while our son played with Dutch and British kids in the sand.  The second day at the beach, we tried an area called The Sand Engine.  This was a more nature-oriented area.  Here we were able to stroll along the water’s edge, collect seashells and rocks and watch people kite surfing.  There were tons of dogs playing in the surf and even a small lake hidden behind the sand dunes.  Between the town and the beach, there were a number of bike and walking trails for exploring the area.  It was a pretty peaceful day (until it was time to go at least), and  I think we could get used to hopping in the car and heading to the beach!