Le Palais idéal (Hauterives, France)

There is nothing ideal about the palace of Ferdinand Cheval. That doesn't stop it from being utterly magnificent.

Ferdinand ol' chap took 33 years to build this palace, using rocks and stones he picked up during his day job as a mail man. He started off with stuffing the stones in his pocket, then upgraded to a basket, and when that wasn't doing the job, he invested in a wheelbarrow.

Clearly the wheelbarrow worked, because the palais, whilst no Buckingham, is huge. It incorporates different ideologies and faiths. It has, amongst other forms of architecture, a hindu temple and an islamic church.

I realised after that i was so fascinated by the construction of the palais that i had clean forgotten to get a picture of the palais in its entirety. Of course, that's what google images is for. For now, my paltry pictures below will have to do.

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.