On this most beautiful October Saturday, a day that could easily be any usual day in August, we decided to look for a mattress, hopefully a very good one. And since we hadn’t been there in years, a drive to the Alexandrium Woonmall in second city Rotterdam seemed like a good idea. Luckily it didn’t take long to find what we wanted and since it was still lunchtime a trip in downtown Rotterdam through to the old Holland America headquarters for a meal seemed like another bright idea well-suited for the day we were having. As my lower back would surely agree, finding a mattress deserved a mini-celebration.

Hotel New York was expectedly busy – both inside and out – but still manageable enough to be fun. The place hasn’t lost its luster after all these years and if the construction around it is an indication, it’s only going to get livelier. On this unlikely summer day in October, a road trip to Rotterdam was just the bright thing to do.