Madurodam

On Monday Frans, Lotte, Margreet, Elmo and I went to Madurodam. It is "the smallest town in the Netherlands". This is because it is actually a birds eye view of the Netherlands, everything is precisely 25 times smaller than in reality. Everything has been exactly replicated, with 35 people employed full time to build and maintain the models. Madurodam is a war memorial opened in 1952 to commemorate war hero and resistance fighter George Maduro who died on February 9, 1945 in the Dachau concentration camp.  His parents financed the miniature town intending to donate the profits to good causes, and to this day supports charities related to young people.

Each year since 1980 there is a new mayor chosen for the town of Madurodam since Princess Beatrix who was the first mayor of Madurodam since its opening until her coronation in 1980.  Since then the new mayors are chosen by a concil of Madurodam that consists of 22 seconday school students from The Hague.  The mayor is responsible for opening new models and exhibitions. There are 198 different places to visit inside.

This truly was one of the coolest places I have been since being here. I took almost 300 pictures!! There was so much detail to every little thing that the pictures don't really do it all justice. Every little detail was thought of, from the smaller waterways, to train tracks, to the people in the towns all the way to the billboards on the roads. It was so cool to see the places that I have already visited and see how it is in comparison to the whole city. Everything is entirely realistic and you can also put pennies into machines at each place that makes things go in motion in the town. One of my favorite places was seeing the airport. It was fun to see how it was all laid out and how big it was, since when I arrived there I was half asleep and stressed out. The airplanes were all there and they even moved on the runway with sounds of the plane. I tried uploading the videos I took but it wouldnt work!

speaking of detail, this is a picture I took of the Red Light District. They actually had a little prostitute in the window. Frans and I thought it was hilarious.

Anyway, here are just a few pictures. I cant even begin to post them all and it was very hard picking which ones to show because there is a story for all of them! Hope you enjoy.

this is the hotel where I went with Frans and Niels on my second day here in Rotterdam.

this building is the ING bank office which took them four years to build to put in here. It is in Rotterdam and I have passed it many times but it is even huge when reduced to 25 times smaller.

<---the euromast