Rotterdam in a day

 Rotterdam : 

Rotterdam is a major port city in the Dutch province of South Holland. After being almost completely reconstructed following WWII, the city is now known for bold, modern architecture and beautiful cityscape. 

Well, Rotterdam is a modern city with high rise buildings along side the buildings with architectural, engineering marvel. 

It is surprising to see how quickly the city was rebuilt after destruction during WW II. 

It has a bit of history as well goes as follows:

The Maritime Museum's vintage ships and exhibits trace the city's seafaring history. 

The 17th-century Delfshaven neighborhood is home to canal side shopping and Pilgrim Fathers Church, where pilgrims worshiped before sailing to America. 

If you search the places of interest you will hit a list of about 15 to 20 places. I do not say all of them are worth visiting. Again it depends on one's interest and liking.

I do not spend much time & money on museums & painting unless I know its worth. Many museums are private collections and not really a museum. Hence I end up skipping many museums and art exhibitions. One of the reason for this attitude of mine could be due to many such museums and art exhibitions that I have experienced already in past visits. 

Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen

Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen – with an ultra-sustainable energy system and its own heat and cold storage – has been very popular. You can look at art there (the building houses about 151,000 works)

You may like to visit the green roof or eat at restaurant Renilde

It is a marvellous building completely covered with mirrors on the outer side. Finding your self in the mirror is fun. 

Do not forget to book the tickets online if you want to visit the exhibition. 

Markt Hall :

This building is another beautiful one. Architects must have really exercised the imagination to full extent in Netherlands. 

There are lot of small and medium restaurants with various cuisines including Indian and Asian.  

PC: Internet

Garden:

Trompenburg

This is a quiet botanical garden with lot of diverse green trees, shrubs, flower bulbs with an area of 8 hectares.  It is open all the years. You can buy ticket at the main entrance. Place is well connected by public transport. 

I did not find any birds except for one water bird. 

Cubehouse :

The club houses complex is close to markt hall.

I would not hesitate to call this as that some crazy architect has fulfilled his or her enchanting desire of creating something different. 

They describe it as innovative and space optimisation. I have difficulty to agree to this statement. Not sure whether the residents are really happy. Very tiny and expensive. It does not seem to worth its cost if you look at cost / space ratio. Nevertheless it looks different and funny. 

Do not burn your pocket with private tour etc. Go there and buy a 3 euro ticket on the spot and you can visit one house. All house are same i understand. 

Erasmus Bridge: 

Beautiful bridge. Ideally the picture should be taken from across from a distance to view the beauty. I could not take such a picture though. 

A tricky building next to the bridge. I do not know what was the need for making a "cut & twist" in midway. 

A speed boat below the bridge. 

PC : Internet

I strolled through shopping street and market place leisurely. I did not visit euro mast and the zoo. 

I would have visited maritime museum but did not have not time. 

You get to see many different kind of buildings along the way. 

No clue.

It is one of important city in Europe, commercial centre, key port. 

Krishna Valley - Hungary

In second week of September 2024 we took a short break and visited Hungary.  We mean myself and my better-half. 

Why Hungary ? Hmmm.... Well, we just try and explore some new places of our interest. We zeroed in on Budapezt. Specially Krishna Valley in Hungary.

We actually wanted to visit this place together with our son and daughter in law. My son & DIL live in Gurgaon, India. Plan was that they visit us in Netherlands and we travel together to Hungary.   

For some petty reason DIL did not get the VISA and plan failed. I had any way taken a week off to spend time with them, so why not use it and  thus stuck to the plan. Plan was to spend three days in Krishna valley first and then two days in Budapezt after.

Budapezt is 1,45 hrs flight from Amsterdam. We landed in Budapest on 8th Sept 2024 at 1700 hrs. 

What is Krishna Valley?

Krishna Valley Indian Cultural Centre and Eco Farm in Hungary is one of the largest and oldest ecovillages in Europe. It is a member of the Global Ecovillage Network of Europe, and its research institute has an observer status in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Krishna Valley’s representatives cooperate and share their experiences with a wide range of international organizations, including universities and higher educational institutions.

The 300-hectare farm was established in 1993 with the purpose of educating people about the values of ancient Vaishnava culture, self-sufficiency, organic farming, cow protection, vegetarianism, as well as natural, God-cantered lifestyle. The centre of the community consisting of 150 monks and families is the Radha-Syamsundara temple, which has been built in the local architectural style, but inside it is richly decorated with Indian motifs, pillars, colourful dioramas and paintings. 

The building itself fits nicely into the landscape and it is surrounded by agricultural lands, a Cow Protection Centre with seventy cows and oxen, a botanic garden, family houses, a school, a guesthouse, a vegetarian restaurant and other guest facilities.

Frankly I have copied the above paragraph directly from their web portal. 

How to reach Krishna valley : 

The location : Krisna-völgy IKKB, Somogyvámos, Krisna-völgy 1, 8699 Hongarije

Krishna valley is about two hrs from Budapezt airport by car. There is a public transport but not convenient. Even if you take the public transport to the place it drops you 2 km away from the place. you will have to walk 2 km. It takes much longer than car. I really do not suggest to take public transport.

You can book a taxi from Krishna valley itself in advance. The krishna valley can organise a taxi from which ever place you decide. Taxi from Krishna valley is reliable and not expensive. 

We had booked a Krishna valley taxi in advance.

How to book the guest house and taxi:

Just visit Krishna valley website and choose the guest house and make the booking. Guest house incharge will get in touch with you for further assistance. You can ask for the taxi with the incharge. https://krisnavolgy.hu/english/ 

Guest house incharge is very helpful. 

There are different guest houses available. One is with in the complex others are outside the complex house. 

Elephant guest house is inside and Kamala guest house is outside the temple complex. With in guest house there are different category rooms available. Make your choice and book it.

What to expect in Krishna Valley:

If you are looking for a ancient Indian spiritual experience, tranquility, then this is the right place. Do not expect hustle bustle of the city life.

About 135 people reside in side the area. There is a "Gurukul" style school, cow shed, farm and a temple of "Sri RadheShyama" . Many other devotees who are living outside the complex are also associated with the Krishna valley. 

There is also a restaurant which provides vegetarian " Saatvic" food. If you are staying in Elephant guesthouse then break fast is included in the room charges.  The restaurant opens at specific time. You also need to book the dinner in advance. Check the opening time. 

Immerse yourself in spiritual activities of the place. Morning aarti, Keertan, Bhagavata katha, every day.

Walk around the farm, cow shed,  do meditation. Enjoy saatvic food. Just forget your other regular routine for at least few days of your stay here. 

On special occasions there would be festivities also. 

We stayed there for full three days. It was wonderful, blissful experience. 

Enjoy the pictures now :

In the past years the number of visiting guests has increased to 25 thousand annually. As Krishna Valley is not an open-air museum, the guests can get a glimpse into the daily life of the village residents. Visitors can take a tour around the organic garden, the cowshed, the souvenir shop and there is a restaurant as well. One can take a short walk from the reception to the main building through the botanic garden – Indian style pavilions, ponds, huge elephant statues and special species of plants come into view on the way.

They have made the village resemble the holy Dham Vrindavan in India. So that who can not visit Vrindavan can reenact the same experience of visiting Vrindavan.