Casteel de Haar and Rotterdam

The next morning, which was the Sunday the 19^th, we wanted to see as much of Netherlands as possible. First we headed to the Casteel de Haar, a medieval castle, near the Hague. The drive was 1.5 hours, and the GPS failed us here for the first time, coz the road we were travelling on was newly built and still under construction. After making 2-3 trips along the same road, we finally reached the castle by 1 or so. Like all European castles, this one was extremely well hidden by the woods around it, and consequently, it was again an exercise to find it. Entry to the complex was 14 euros per person, plus parking for the car. The castle complex was a revelation again. It had an open air market, with items ranging from 20 eur to 13000 euros! The place was bustling with tourists, and shoppers, and there were well over 200 cars parked in the parking, right in the middle of nowhere. An alien would have been very surprised to find such dense human concentration suddenly :D

Roaming around the souvenir shop, and the market, we eventually reached the castle, a tour of which would have costed us another 5 euros! Stupid Europeans. Due to lack of time, and the costs involved, we turned back towards the car. Thie 15 euros spent here, were definitely not amongst the more well spent ones, considering that we did not see the grand interiors of the castle. An interesting buy would have been a huge 5 person garden tub, 10x10 feet alteast, worth (or not worth) 13000 euros! 13000 euros! Who buys something like that! It had innumerable faucets, and other knobs, which we did not stop to decipher, especially we were not likely to be buying it anytime soon!

We headed to Rotterdam, the grand port of entry to Europe from here, with me at the wheel. Seeing Rotterdam was a childhood dream, based on what I had seen in the Childcraft series’ World Atlas. The city did not disappoint us, and we had a gala time, driving around the streets, making an error or two at signals, eventually reached the Port Street, which offered breathtaking views of the port, the ships, and the huge Erasmusburg bridge. It being Sunday, we got free parking! Aren’t we lucky! We parked right outside a shop offering Surinamese food, and walked along the harbor, click-happy, and very happy having reached our destination without losing our way. Coming back to the car, we had a Surinamese sandwich. It tasted especially good, coz it was quite spicy, not too unlike Indian food. And the chics serving it weren’t too bad either! ;)