Today, Mom and I woke up and decided to take the Waterbus to Rotterdam. First we stopped by the hotel bakery and grabbed a brownie and a pastry for breakfast. When we got to the dock, the waterbus was about to leave in a minute, so we just got on real fast after buying a ticket from the dock attendant. (I think it was 2 euros). After the waterbus pulled away from the dock we learned that the boat we were on only went to the other side of the canal and back. WHOOPS! So once we returned, we made sure we got on the right boat in about 15mins.
The trip to Rotterdam was about an hour on the waterbus, which made about 5 or 6 stops along the way at different towns. It was interesting to see the enormous barges loaded with coal, steel, or gravel. Its amazing ships that big are able to 1)float and 2) be safely transported through the canals past each other. Oh, and everyone but us took had their bikes along on the boat with them because everyone rides a bike everywhere and the waterbus is like a ferry for bikes. After 2 full days of watching and avoiding being ran over by bicycles I still find it amusing to watch all the people with their bikes. We saw several men in suits and nicely dressed women riding their bikes through Rotterdam.
Once we arrived at Rotterdam, I wanted to exchange my USD to euros so we looked for a bank. Once we got the bank, the employee told me that I can not exchange money in banks. I thought she was kidding but I guess she wasn't because she told me to take the metro to the "centraal" station where there was one booth for exchanging money.
We took the correct Metro train by luck after playing charades with a women who did not know english. After exhanging money, Mom and I walked around the center of the city and found a nice stretch of restaurants with outdoor seating. It was nice and sunny, so we sat down at a place called "coconuts." We both ordered club sandwiches, which had the most flavor of any club sandwich I've ever had...mmmm. And they were huge.
On the way back to the dock, we accidentally took the wrong metro and ended up on the opposite side of the canal than where we needed to be. We just had to catch another to get back to the stop that we missed, but it took us a little while to figure out which one to take.
Once we were back in Dordrecht, Mom and I had sorbet at the restaurant while we waited for Tom to get off of work. Tom's coworker then drove us all to Amsterdam, where we will stay for the remainder of the trip. We just had dinner at the hotel's restaurant and are now ready for bed.
I'm excited to start sight-seeing in Amsterdam tomorrow morning!
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