Hi everyone,
I am still in Rotterdam doing Change Management workshops for the Supply Chain group. Instead of taking the taxi (cost is $45 for about a 20 minute ride to the office) I like to be adventurous and take the public transportation. I also went to Middelburg yesterday, which I will explain below. I am in Capelle / Rotterdam again tomorrow and then take the really fast train to Cologne.
I haven't had the camera, so I got all the pictures off the Internet.
The metro in Rotterdam. It is right outside my hotel and I ride it 4 or 5 stops to Kralingsezoom. It is still about one mile from the office, but I had looked on the map and it looked like there was a walkway that I could take. I leave early enough to walk a ways. I happened to look at a map and it showed a parking shuttle on the walkway, so I decided to take it. When I arrived, I was met with an unmanned vehicle that loads you and drives about 3 miles, stopping along the way. My stop is the second stop. The vehicle has sensors and takes off when it is full (we packed in about 20 people like sardines...the dutch way). If I ride it alone, I could wave like I am the king. It was really cool!
The Eastman office in Capelle an den Ijsel (Capelle on the Ijsel river). It is very nice.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yesterday I went down to Middelburg, a small town in Zeeland and close to the Belgium border, to do a workshop (one of our plants is there). I didn't have time to ride the train, so the HR Manager from Capelle drove me down. She goes down quite a bit. It took us about 1.5 hours because she drove me the scenic route, which was great! It was foggy, but we could still see fairly well. Pictures below are from the Internet.
Zeeland - Sea land in English. As you can "sea," it is surrounded by water almost.
Our route on Google earth. It is very rural and so we drove through many dorps (villages) with the church in the middle. It was like one long Kodak moment. On the way back from Middelburg (see report below for trip to Middelburg), Rita, the HR manager who was driving me, took me to her house in Oostvoorne (by the N15) for dinner with her husband. He works for a plant Eastman used to own. He also loves to cook, so he made a 5 course meal of Indonesian and Indian. It was unbelievable (Rice, Garang, Chicken Marsalla...Indian style, bread sticks, another chicken type curry, peanut sauce, mango sauce, and other things I don't know the name of). I tried everything, at least twice. We then had some homemade apple pie, dutch style (with crumbly cake like strudel instead of pie crust) with whipping cream. It was unbelievable. I had sparkling water to drink which I still do like. They tried to offer me alcohol, tea, and coffee multiple times until I explained I didn't do that for religious reasons. They were amazed when I told them I had never had alcohol. Rita said she didn't drink coffee, and I told her she must be the only one in Europe who doesn't. Her husband then took me the 35 minutes back to my hotel where I relaxed.
Yesterday I went down to Middelburg, a small town in Zeeland and close to the Belgium border, to do a workshop (one of our plants is there). I didn't have time to ride the train, so the HR Manager from Capelle drove me down. She goes down quite a bit. It took us about 1.5 hours because she drove me the scenic route, which was great! It was foggy, but we could still see fairly well. Pictures below are from the Internet.
Zeeland - Sea land in English. As you can "sea," it is surrounded by water almost.
Our route on Google earth. It is very rural and so we drove through many dorps (villages) with the church in the middle. It was like one long Kodak moment. On the way back from Middelburg (see report below for trip to Middelburg), Rita, the HR manager who was driving me, took me to her house in Oostvoorne (by the N15) for dinner with her husband. He works for a plant Eastman used to own. He also loves to cook, so he made a 5 course meal of Indonesian and Indian. It was unbelievable (Rice, Garang, Chicken Marsalla...Indian style, bread sticks, another chicken type curry, peanut sauce, mango sauce, and other things I don't know the name of). I tried everything, at least twice. We then had some homemade apple pie, dutch style (with crumbly cake like strudel instead of pie crust) with whipping cream. It was unbelievable. I had sparkling water to drink which I still do like. They tried to offer me alcohol, tea, and coffee multiple times until I explained I didn't do that for religious reasons. They were amazed when I told them I had never had alcohol. Rita said she didn't drink coffee, and I told her she must be the only one in Europe who doesn't. Her husband then took me the 35 minutes back to my hotel where I relaxed.By the way, on the trip from Middelburg to Rita's house in Oostvoorne, I made Rita talk dutch to me. I got about 75%-80% of it, and tried to speak with her. I am getting better all the time. However, there are a bunch of Germans in the Capelle office, and I keep getting Dutch and German mixed up.
This is the town of Middelburg, with the Eastman plant circled in red. Notice the moat around the old city. It was very much like a quaint town and beautiful. Look at the middle of the city with the circular road around the city center. Very typical.
A windmill along the way.
The Ouddorp (old village) lighthouse one the beach. These are very popular beaches in the summer.
This is driving over the bridges and dams. After the flood in 1953, when 1850 people were killed, they build dams at each of the openings to the ocean.
These are the tops of the dams, with the actual locks lifted.
A view of the dams / locks from the shore. They can stop completely the ocean from coming in.
There were also a lot of wind farms along the way.
This is the town of Middelburg, with the Eastman plant circled in red. Notice the moat around the old city. It was very much like a quaint town and beautiful. Look at the middle of the city with the circular road around the city center. Very typical.
A windmill along the way.
The Ouddorp (old village) lighthouse one the beach. These are very popular beaches in the summer.
This is driving over the bridges and dams. After the flood in 1953, when 1850 people were killed, they build dams at each of the openings to the ocean.
These are the tops of the dams, with the actual locks lifted.
A view of the dams / locks from the shore. They can stop completely the ocean from coming in.
There were also a lot of wind farms along the way.
2 comments:
Thanks for the update. It is fun to see and hear what you have been up to. Wish that I could have joined you for that meal. Sounds amazing. I'd like you to bring me a piece of that pie home! We love you. Everyone really misses you.
Marta and I just read your blog. She is so sad that she can't read it on her own personal computer. She thinks she isn't good enough to be your friend. Oh, I have to go. She is crying and I need to go console her. Please consider her as your friend so I don't have to keep feeding her chocolate to help her overcome her distress of not being able to read your blog at her house on HER computer.
Sincerely,
Your better friend than Marta.
Faye
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