Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Rotterdam, The Netherlands (updated March 1st 2012)

We first visited Rotterdam in November 2009, our colleagues gave us a fantastic wedding present which included tickets to a Night at the Proms on the Friday evening, a meal at the fantastic Ivy restaurant (http://www.restaurantivy.nl/en/) and hotel accomodation. Rotterdam is the 2nd largest city in the Netherlands and is perhaps most famous for being the largest port in Europe amd one of the largest in the world.

The hotel was great, in the words from Booking.com, it is centrally located in the Kop van Zuid, overlooking the famous Erasmus Bridge and the river Maas, Suitehotel Pincoffs offers stylishly decorated rooms and suites whilst still upholding its historic charm. Dating back to 1879, this 4-star hotel is a shining example of classic design amidst a city of modern architecture.

Suitehotel Pincoffs



 We didn't know quite what to expect from the Night at the Proms, the theme was pop and the concert featured ABC who some may remember from the 80s with the headline act being Roxette who were probably most successful between the late 80s into the 90s. Most people will remember their hit "it must have been love" which was featured on the sountrack from the movie Pretty Woman. It was a great night, a lot of fun with ABC rolling back the years to get the crowd on their feet and Roxette finishing it off.

Marie Fredriksson - Roxette 
Per Gessle - Roxette

Our general impression of Rotterdam was that it is quite a modern city as you can see from the photo below, with the Erasmus Bridge, a major city landmark. Thanks to our colleagues and their generous gift we had a really great weekend in this Dutch city.



On February 19th 2012 we visited Rotterdam again to spend the day at the 39th ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam. For both of us this was our first time at a professional tennis competition and the experience really lived up to the expectation, it was fantastic. We watched the doubles final followed by the singles between Juan Martin Del Potro and Roger Federer, for the organisers and the fans, the dream final. In the end Federer won in straight sets, luckily for us, unluckily for Del Potro.










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