I know I left it here somewhere!?!

Tuesday 7^th and Wednesday 8^th June

     

I was too tired last night to sit down at the computer so I’ll do two days together.

We are only 5 minutes walk away from the tram so yesterday we headed into the city of Rotterdam to do some exploring. We did our usual thing and joined the hop-on hop-off bus tour. Rotterdam seems to be a very mixed lot in terms of architecture – some interesting buildings and shapes. There are some tall buildings but they don’t seem to be as high or as many as in Melbourne or Sydney. We have used the trams quite a bit over the 2 days and they have never been crowded and if the sign says it will arrive in 1 minute, it does. Quite impressed.

This is the Erasmus bridge - they call it the swan bridge.

We took a tour of the Rotterdam harbour – I think they said it was the biggest harbour in Europe. It seemed to go for miles and around every corner was another canal and more ships. There are a lot of what I’d call barge type container ships that go up and down the canals all day.

The SS Rotterdam - the ship was built in Rotterdam and it was the flagship for the Holland America line and sailed the cross Atlantic route from New York to Rotterdam.

Next stop was the market hall. This is a huge building with sort of up-market food stall inside, but outside is what I’d call the Queen Vic market – all sorts of food and clothing. We found cheap food for lunch here, and cherries 2euro for ½ kilo, and they were good.

Market Hall - the roof inside is painted as below and the windows you can see on the ends are apartments in the hall above the market stalls on the bottom floors.

While at the market I did some sitting and watching. The pushbike parking inspectors were there telling people they couldn’t park here, or there, they had to dismount here, and there. While I was watching up rolled a van with men in green shirts on board, complete with flat bed trollies and an angle grinder, and they proceeded to load up illegally parked pushbikes and motorbikes. Wouldn’t that just make your day?

It is free to park your bike and you are supposed to park it in the provided areas. You'd better take pretty good note of where you left it.

An easy ride through the crowded market.

But I know I left it chained to this tree!

Loaded up with shopping from the market, and no wheels to get it home. - not a great way to end the day.

Last night we ate again at the very comfortable and friendly restaurant just down the road. They really looked after us and when I said to make mine a small meal, that’s what I got. I hate wasting so much food. Dessert was apricots and grapes soaked in brandy, with ice cream. Very nice.

Today we took a waterbus trip up to see the windmills of Kinderdijk. There are 18 of them in the complex and you can wander along the pathways along the canals. Two of them are open as museums though there is not a huge amount to see, but well worth the trip for the day.

Off to the windmills.

This was one of the windmills set up as a museum and was the only one turning today.

After returning from the windmills we went to the art gallery. They advertise as having a large collection of the old masters but it is a very small collection, and not some of the more noted works. It was a quick visit.

 

This flight of stairs represents the rebuilding of Rotterdam - linking the future with the past.

Umm! Yes, this work is titled Santa with a butt plug. Rob thought it was by Paul McCartney but it was an American called Paul McCarthy. Apparently the locals are quite proud of their Santa.