TRAVEL AND LIFESTYLE DIARIES

Earlier this year I went to Drenthe, one of the 12 provinces in the Netherlands located in the north eastern part of the country, and the only province I haven’t visited. I spent an extended weekend in Drenthe, visiting the capital city, Assen and a few towns and villages nearby. One of the towns I dropped by is Meppel. Meppel’s historical centre is relatively small. You can easily walk around in a slow pace for an hour or two and you have seen everything you need to see. I find the historical centre of Meppel quite charming. The shopping centre area is evocative of other Dutch towns though; having the same architectural style, the same brickwork, the same atmosphere. But if you walk to the direction of De Reest river you’ll see a lovely area of the town where you can find a small haven, a charming wooden draw bridge, a stunningly restored circa 1859 windmill and a pancake boat restaurant. Meppel actually has 3 windmills, 2 of which are located in the town center. I was able...

Rotterdam Centraal Station at night. All main railway stations in the Netherlands: Amsterdam Centraal - Den Haag Centraal - Rotterdam Centraal - Utrecht Centraal have undergone massive modernisation and renovation. Only Utrecht Centraal is not finished yet, and I cannot wait for the new Utrecht Centraal Station (the largest railway station in the country) to be unveiled very soon. So last June, Dutchman and I were able to find our way to Rotterdam with the train which means we were able to finally check out the new Rotterdam Centraal Station . It looks quite impressive! Definitely state of the art design =). Well done. This newly renovated train station was officially opened 2 years ago by none other than the king of the Netherlands, King Willem Alexander. The station is designed to accommodate a daily commuter capacity of 110.000 (which is the current number of commuters) up to 320.000 as expected in 2025. The renovation project took 9 long years. I managed to take a lot...