Day 41 – Sun 20 Jul 14, Rotterdam
Forecast: 18-25 deg C, sunny in the am, cloudy with possible rain in the pm, no riding today
Wendy went to sleep last night in a wet singlet and a wet towel over her legs
to cool down. It worked and she soon had
to kick the towel off and pull the sheet up. After a leisurely breakfast we packed up our
stuff for the hotel staff to move it to a new room with aircon when it was
ready.
Rotterdam
is the largest port in Europe and one of the world’s busiest. It started life as a Dam on the Rotte River
and was settled in the first century. The
metro area has a population of around 1.2 million, and is called The Gateway to
Europe because of its delta of the Rhine/Meuse/Scheldt Rivers giving shipping
extensive access throughout. It was
bombed to oblivion in 1940 when the Dutch refused to surrender to the invading
Nazis. The city was rebuilt between 1950 and 70 so it is quite modern. They retained plenty of parks and gardens to
the extent that it is now the greenest city in the Netherlands.
We
left the hotel about 9am and followed the suggested walking route in one of the
tourist brochures. Over the four hours
we wandered about 9km and saw many things: Rotterdam Central Station (nearing
the end of a major metamorphosis); City Hall (neo-Renaissance style with the
first stone laid by Queen Wilhelmina on 15 Jul 1915); Beurstraverse (a sunken
shopping mall); Beurs/WTC (the 1928 stock exchange and 28 storey World Trade
Centre); Dudok (a restaurant named after the famous Dutch architect Willem
Dudok); St Laurence Church (“Laurenskerk” named after the patron saint of the
city); Erasmus statue (from 1662, the oldest bronze statue in the Netherlands);
Cube Houses (resulted from a commission to architect Piet Blom to build an
unusual bridge over the busy arterial road between Blaak and Oude Haven); Oude
Haven (where historic ships contrast beautifully with the modern backdrop of
the inner harbour of Oude Haven); Witte Huis (the White House, 45m and 11
stories high, a 1898 office building constructed with load-bearing walls made
of brick rather than steel); Red Apple (gets its name from the colour and the
apple market that once stood here); Verwoeste Stad (a bronze artwork made in
1951 is the city’s main war monument, the gaping hole symbolises how Rotterdam
was cut to the heart by the German bombardment); Erasmus Bridge (designed in
1996, an 800m suspension bridge with a 139m high steel pylon secured with 40
cables; the shape of the pylon gave it its nickname “the Swan”); De Rotterdam
(completed at the end of 2013, a multifunctional, sustainable 3-tower building
approximately 150m tall; they are a vertical city of flats, hotels, offices,
shops, restaurants, etc); Euromast (the highest observation tower in the
Netherlands at 185m; abseiling and rope sliding are regular activities); Museum
Boijmans van Beuningen (the most important museum in Rotterdam it has an
extensive collection of classic and modern art and displays a diverse range of
from Rembrandt to Dali); Oude and Nieuwe Binnenweg (a long trail of shops and
entertainment venues); China town (derives its name from the many Chinese
businesses in the area); Huis Sonneveld (one of the best preserved examples of
Dutch modernist architecture); Het Park and Park Schoonoord (the biggest park
in Rotterdam with romantic landscaping, old-growth trees and curving waterways)
and Santa Claus sculpture (a controversial sculpture colloquially known as the
‘Buttplug Gnome”).
The
Santa sculpture was the last sight for the day and we found Wok Daily and had
lunch. We had had mornos in the park about 11:30am but were still a bit peckish
after all that walking. Wendy thought
she held Greg back a bit today but after yesterday's long, hot ride and then a
not so good sleep, she was a bit buggered.
It started to drizzle just as we headed out for dinner (about 6:45pm) but it was not too bad and cooled the place down. Wendy was quite hungry by this time and wanted pizza but Greg was no hungry but wanted fish if he could find some, so we walked the block to check for other potential eateries apart from the Italian place we ate last night. We found a fish and chip place at the last minute and agreed to meet back at the hotel with our chosen meals. Whilst waiting for her pizza, Wendy walked to the Co-Op and bought a couple of beers each and met Greg back in the room and we ate dinner and watched the BBC news.
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