The Cube Houses (Rotterdam, the Netherlands)

Last stop on the road trip (ROAD TRIP!!) was Rotterdam. This was a city i had wanted to visit for ages, ever since i saw the video from the Beautiful South song. Before we left Brussels, A cautioned me that Rotterdam was really nothing like the video.

Although there were no open fields in sight, nor brazilian dancers, nor scuba diving men, i still loved the city. Its skyline is very Miami-esque.

The Cube Houses in particular were out of this world. They are built on a bridge/overpass, and are very eyecatching. After all, any building that looks like it could topple down at any moment is eyecatching.

The next time i visit Rotterdam, i'm going to make it a point to go inside and see how on earth the flats are laid out.

Part I - 9. Cubic Houses (Rotterdam, Netherlands)

De Hoge Veluwe National Park (Honderloo, the Netherlands)

The next morning, on the way to Rotterdam, we stopped by de Hoge Veluwe National Park. If you are an outdoors/nature lover, you will love this park.

To quote wikipedia:
It is approximately 55 square kilometers in area, consisting of heathlands, sand dunes, and woodlands. It is situated in the Veluwe, the area of the largest terminal moraine in the Netherlands. Most of the landscape of the park and the Veluwe was created during the last Ice Age.

The park is quite expensive to visit: its €8 per person, and €6 if you want to take a car, which means we spent €22. Of course, if you spend the whole day there, it is totally worth it. But given that we only had 3 hours to spend, was quite steep. The best thing to do when you get to the park is to leave your car outside and take one of the free white bicycles they have at the entrance. The park is quite flat, so very easy to bike or walk around. 

Note: Avoid the restaurant in the centrum.. its overpriced and completely not worth it. 

Wozoco Apartments (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

After Groningen and the Wall House, next stop was Amsterdam and the Wozoco Apartments, which are also known as Oklahoma.

Amsterdam's buildings are quite cool for most part.. a quick circle around the Ring will show you buildings that look like they were made out of cartons, buildings that look like pieces have been shaved off, etc. 

  

Part II - 19. Wozoco Apartments (Amsterdam, Holland)(I cant bring myself to call it Oklahoma..) were also fabulous.

 

Its a normal building block - except for these huge cubes sticking out of it.. cubes inside which people live. Definately mind boggling.

We also stopped by Muiden on the way to Almere (where we spent the night.. in our attempt to avoid Amsterdam), and got to see Muiden Castle.

Also almost got a parking ticket, but thats neither here nor there.

The Wall House (Groningen, the Netherlands)

This weekend, we went on a road trip (ROAD TRIP!!) to the Netherlands to see a few more weird buildings.

So the plan was to leave the house at 8am on Saturday, and be in Groningen by noon. Alas, the car had a flat the night before. So first thing on Saturday morning, A went to a mechanic. Alas, the mechanic's car jack stand malfunctioned, and almost toppled the car onto the next car. Further alas-ing, the mechanic did not know how to fix it, and called an expert. Alas, the expert was on holiday. Finally, about 3 hours later, the car was brought back down safely, and at noon, we started on our way.

Groningen is a university town towards the north of the Netherlands. We made a beeline for the Wall House, but caught glimpses of alot more bizzare buildings en route. They included the Cow building, the Measels building, the Pyramid building, and the Building Blocks building. My own nomenclature.

Finally, we got to Part I - 26. Wall House (Groningen, Netherlands). A really strange little house, with a very sluggish canal running beside it. The house is in two sections, separated by a larger than life wall (which requires some serious repainting, if i may add). 

The house is then divided on the one side into what can best be described as boxes. Of course, each box is a different color.

On the other side, there is a long passageway, with the entrance at the head of the passageway. Pictures speak a gazillion words, so i'll ixnay on the explanations. Here are the pictures.