Monday April 13
We are still in Dordrecht but this morning a bus takes us to Rotterdam. There was an optional tour to Delft but we were happy to stay with the program.
Randy explains that Rotterdam was almost totally destroyed in WW2. This means that there are lots of new and modern (and crazy) buildings. From the bus I took a photo of this building in the far which must have been in a movie where a famous actor slid down that incline.
From the bus: first mention of the cube houses. More later.
We are meeting our local guide Willem. His English is pretty good. I can understand him clearly. He is quite funny.
This is called "The White House" and is pre-war.
The cube houses of course are "different". We take a closer look and go up a ramp because otherwise there would be a lot of steps.
He (or she) landed between the above boats.
One of the owners of a cube house actually lets people few his interior for 3.50 Euros but we didn't find time to do that. A fellow traveler couple did that and reported that there is no space for anything.
This is the Markthal and we visit it later.
I had to take a photo here because I saw the bergenia blooming.
The church from the other side. Willem explains the door. It is closed. While most catholic churches are open and many taking entry fees (especially when they have famous art pieces), reformed churches are only open for services. At the religious revolution in the 1600s a lot of statues and paintings were taken out or distroyed of reformed churches.
Another interesting art piece.
Inside the Markthal. I probably should have taken a video. It is very colorful. There are 4 stories (3 down) but we are staying on the level.
You can't miss seeing our local guide's tattoos. He said that he is known as the "legs of Rotterdam". Some (I don't know how much) is advertisement. I didn't see the one about Fries, but he can have fries for a lifetime know.
Now we have freetime. James and I wander around. Of couse it is so interesting to see the different things like these mountains of herbs/seasoning.
We had not brought our water bottles and were so very thirsty. We found steps to go up and followed it. Yes, I had what's called zero beer.
Since we started the trip there was often mention about the fries. We were supposed to say Belgium fries and not French fries because the Belgiums really had started the cooking like that.
But here they also use different toppings. In the USA it's mainly ketchup and in Germany we like mayonnaise. But we were often asked whether we had tried the peanut sause.
Today we had our chance. And we found out that it is actually Satay (reminding us of Singapore). We got one order with the blobs of Satay sauce and mayo (and also diced onions sprinkled over). Then we found these handy "tables" made for the paper cones. All very nice.
We strolled around a little longer and then it was time to find the meeting point. The fountain can not be missed though.
Opposite was a parkinglot for bycicles. So dutch!
Lunch back at the ship I mainly feasted on salad but could not resist the dessert.
You don't get much rest on your vacation. At 2:30 pm we had opted to join a visit to a "Jenever Distillery". Another nice little walk.
It was very interesting. And of course there was a tasting. Much not that much which was good.
On the way back to the ship I had to try to capture this. It seems to be quite the thing to do here how to trim those trees.
5:45 pm was Mexican cocktail hour in the lounge but James and I went to play cards. Soon Susan and Sandy found us and we finished the game the 4 of us had started playing yesterday. We taught them and they like it. We have already heard that they want to buy the cards when they are back home. Surprise?
Fancy looking dessert? Honey Parfait Baked in Meringue, surrounded with Raspberry Compote. Unfortunately it looked much better than it tasted. But the bee in the middle was marzipan and not as sweet as the rest. It was very good.
After dinner entertainment was "Trivia Night with Dutch prizes". Trivia is not really James and my thing and the questions was not what anybody expected. But all had fun.
Step count for the day: 12,158
Not bad at all. I think we will sleep well. Night, night!
