Day 12 – Don’t Forget To Look Behind You

Date: 7th of July 2015

Route: Brussels – Rotterdam

Vehicles hitchhiked: 3

In the morning I ate breakfast that was stolen for me (by Maia) from the hotel restaurant – a big plate full of delicious fruits and butter croissants. When we were packing, Maia noticed that her favourite water bottle, which she had left on a bedside table, had disappeared – the hotel staff had thrown it out while cleaning the room. In that case we needed to buy another one on the way.

My yummy breakfast

We didn’t have coins to pay for tram tickets, so Maia walked into a nearby shop, and asked to break 50€. However, she was told that breaking money was not possible, and she had to buy at least one item in the shop in order to get coins; so she chose a small bottle of water. It turned out later that a shop assistant made a mistake while giving her a change (the assistant probably remembered subconsciously her request to break money) – banknotes and coins that she was handed added up to exactly 50€ ;-)

We took a few trams, and walked several hundred meters in order to get to a motorway where we wanted to start hitchhiking. Our spot turned out to be quite a dangerous place for the cars to stop. After we saw a few police cars driving next to us, we got a little bit nervous, and agreed to hitchhike somewhere else.

Crushing the Atomium - the only very-touristic photo that I have

Our search for a better place lasted for a long time; we walked around 2 kilometres along the motorway, crossing through high grass and bushes, and passing roadworks. We couldn’t find any reasonable place to stand and stop cars on the way. A spot that we chose in the end wasn’t very good either – it was a motorway shoulder again – but we agreed to try catching a lift there anyway, since cars were driving there more slowly than in the previous place, at least.

After several minutes, one of the drivers who passed next to us showed to me that I should look back... When I followed his advice, I did a double take – there was a car standing behind us, which we hadn't noticed before. The driver was patient enough, fortunately, and he waited for us to get inside the car. Moreover, he was so kind that he drove through the whole Antwerp – although he worked on the other side of the city – in order to make it easier for us to stop a car going to Rotterdam.

It took us only a minute to catch the next lift. When a driver saw us standing next to the motorway, he backed his car several dozens of metres (along the motorway!) in order to take us. He said that the last time when he had seen hitchhikers on that road was 2 years before. He enjoyed listening to our stories a lot, and said that he would tell his children about them.

He left us on a petrol station near Breda. We met a Belgian couple there who let us go to Rotterdam in their car.

Taken while watching boats floating through the Nieuwe Maas River;
the famous Euromast in the background (on the left)

We said goodbyes somewhere in the centre of the city, and then Maia and I started wandering around. We came across a river on the way, sat on its bank, and spent some time watching boats. Then, according to our custom, we went to a park. It was pretty windy (the Netherlands, of course), so after some time of sitting there we started to feel cold, so we huddled inside the sleeping bag. Then we walked to our hosts’ house, sightseeing Rotterdam on the way.

Checking out a park in Rotterdam

A Polish family that hosted us in Rotterdam – Ela, Marcin, and their 2.5-year-old son Jerzy –  was really friendly and hospitable. We talked a lot about our travelling experiences, in the meantime eating dinner that Ela had prepared for us. They told us that they had used to move to a different country every year, and we fancied this idea a lot. Moreover, it turned out that they were planning to visit Japan in September, so they arranged to meet with Maia there.

The Netherlands is a cool country

Our general impression of the Netherlands was positive – it seemed like a very friendly and tolerant country. We noticed that there were thousands of bikes everywhere, and at least three hair salons on each street.

All in all, we regretted a lot that we couldn't stay in this country for a longer time.