Because we wanted to stay and enjoy the free market in Amsterdam a little longer than everyone else, Keith, Kelly, and I made the trek to Rotterdam on our own. The train ride between Amsterdam and Rotterdam was beautiful! We passed many, many fields of tulips in every color, including this one that had 2 different shades of purple!
Arjen lives in one of the coolest houses I’ve ever been in, a “cube house”. The city of Rotterdam was basically destroyed during wars so most of the buildings in the city are relatively new. The cube houses were built in the 1980s, and while they seem modern for the current day, I imagine they were way ahead of their time back then. The entire house is literally shaped like cubes turned on one edge. All of the rooms have 45 degree angles for the walls and ceilings. The history behind the concept of not just the single cube house, but the whole village of cube house, is very interesting! Floor space is a minimum in these houses, but that just means that you have to be creative with your storage. Art can’t always be practical, and Arjen’s house is definitely a piece of art!
Here is Arjen's living room. Notice the orange built-in couch.
Arjen's kitchen is at the far end of this picture. Notice the slanted walls. I can just imagine sliding down those for fun!
This is the coolest room in the house, the zen room with windows all around, an ultra low table, and pillows and futon mattresses for sitting on. The room just gives off a cool vibe and makes you want to never leave (unless you need to stand up and stretch)!
Many of the Spring Source employees who attended the conference came to Rotterdam for the party. It was really nice to hang out with everyone outside of the conference environment. We enjoyed some wonderful food, did lots of chatting, and mainly hung out in the room of windows at the very top of the house. This room was the coolest hang out spot I’ve ever seen! Kelly and I got the idea to create our own game of Loaded Questions. We started out with a small group playing, but as everyone else joined us upstairs and saw how much fun we were having, we ended up with practically everyone joining in. Jill was busy looking up questions for us online, and we made up a few questions on our own. Everyone had a blast! I love that game!
Before we knew it, it was very late and everyone had to head to their hotels in Rotterdam or to catch the train back to Amsterdam. Since we were staying with Arjen, we just had to repack our stuff, then hit the sack. Keith was leaving the next day to go home, so we packed one of Kelly’s luggage bags full with purchased items to send home with Keith. Between the walk from the train station to and from our Amsterdam hotel, the train trip from Amsterdam to Rotterdam, and dragging all of her stuff up to Arjen’s house, I think Kelly has really learned the value of traveling light!
Keith caught an early train back to Amsterdam for his plane ride back to The States, while Kelly and I caught our train to Paris!
Enjoy the pictures of our Queen's Day celebrating in Amsterdam and in Rotterdam.
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