On a relatively sunny Saturday morning, a trip to Rotterdam was born.
While I usually prefer to stay home on the first day of the weekend, I decided to tag along with my partner on his regular weekly visit to his mom in her convalescent home. Wanting to hit two birds with one stone, I packed along my gym bag to go to the local branch of my gym close to the home and maybe make a day in Rotterdam out of it. I remember one of my few fond memories of the town was playing tourist on those rare, sunny days of summer and despite being unemployed thinking how better off I was than when I was in the States. The much-needed trip to the gym did come to pass but the nostalgia tour had to wait for another time – I ended up having a very nice lunch with my Dutch family at the very cozy Zalmhuis along the city’s Maas river. Sitting in an almost private corner, the sun shining warmly through the dining room’s Art Deco windows, I had a bite of healthy and delicious grilled salmon, downed by a chilled glass of white wine while enjoying the atmosphere. I kept thinking of the movie Somewhere In a Time for some reason, which may have been appropriate in a way – not so much as a man of another time but more a man of another life. And life wasn’t so bad.