{"id":12205,"date":"2017-08-21T17:16:09","date_gmt":"2017-08-21T21:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=12205"},"modified":"2017-11-27T18:54:27","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T23:54:27","slug":"visiting-rotterdam-the-netherlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=12205","title":{"rendered":"Visiting Rotterdam, The Netherlands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday – August 21, 2017<\/p>\n

We were docked in the city of Rotterdam for two days to mark the middle of the cruise and load the ship for our return trip to Boston. \u00a0Some passengers disembarked this morning and a few more boarded to take their place. \u00a0We could have done half the cruise but since the itineraries were different we decided to complete the circle; leave from Boston and return to Boston. \u00a0On the way back to North America we\u2019re going to stop at three more towns in northern Iceland and visit another town in Greenland.<\/p>\n

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Yesterday we took a one-hour bus ride from Rotterdam to Amsterdam because we wanted to visit the Rijks Museum. \u00a0Today we planned to see the city of Rotterdam – our ship\u2019s namesake.<\/p>\n

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First we had to get our passports stamped and go through an abbreviated customs procedure. \u00a0Afterwards, we took the shuttle bus from our side of the harbor across the Erasmus Bridge over the Maas River to the \u201cCentrum\u201d of Rotterdam. \u00a0We stood on the corner and looked around at the buildings and noticed the variety of architectural diversity which surrounded us. \u00a0Contemporary architect must have had great fun designing all the multi-purpose \u201cmodern” buildings in Rotterdam.<\/p>\n

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Down the street were the \u201cCube Houses\u201d which looked like rectangular prisms stacked and mounted on tall columns. When we approached the Cube Houses we realized we could walk through a center courtyard. \u00a0Light streamed in between angles of the rectangles. \u00a0One of the houses was open to the public so we paid 2 Euros and climbed the steep stairs into the cube.<\/p>\n

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There were three levels: living room\/kitchen on the first; bath & bedrooms on the second. \u00a0An attic with slanted walls and skylights was on the top floor. \u00a0The house was small, modern, and compact with circular stairs, but it seemed like it could be a fun place to live for young people. \u00a0Price tag: 250,000 Euros.<\/p>\n

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There was a steel structure in the middle of the plaza which looked like a flying saucer. \u00a0We discovered that it was the roof of the train station.<\/p>\n

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The market was built in the center of the base of an apartment building and painted with huge murals. \u00a0The market was a huge food\/restaurant center with international restaurants and cafes. \u00a0We walked through and around the stalls surprised at the choices: Turkish, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, French, Italian, Greek, Thai, Spanish, and Mexican. \u00a0I\u2019m not sure how to categorize a \u201cspicy sushi burrito.\u201d \u00a0Free Wifi in the market meant that many people (some from our ship) were hanging around staring at their devices.<\/p>\n

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The hours passed quickly and we took the shuttle bus back to the ship in time to have a very late lunch. \u00a0I tried to post my blog in the ship\u2019s terminal with about a hundred other Wifi deprived seniors. \u00a0Unfortunately, it didn\u2019t work so I returned to the ship in plenty of time for our 4:00 sailing.<\/p>\n

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Jeff and I went out to the top rear deck for the Cast Away Party to watch the Rotterdam pull away from the dock. \u00a0She blared her horn and off we went down the Maas River and out to the Atlantic Ocean. \u00a0It took two and a half hours to get beyond the last buoy marking the entrance to the harbor. \u00a0We stood for the duration and watched the huge, seemingly endless commercial Port of Rotterdam go by. \u00a0We learned it is the third largest commercial port in the world after Singapore and Shanghai.<\/p>\n

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I was happy that we explored Rotterdam today. \u00a0Several years ago when we were in Holland, we had decided not to see Rotterdam because it was a commercial city. \u00a0We had no idea that it was such an appealing and interesting city. \u00a0We only scratched the surface of \u2018things to see\u2019 so it would be fun to return someday.<\/p>\n

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Monday – August 21, 2017 We were docked in the city of Rotterdam for two days to mark the middle of the cruise and load the ship for our return trip to Boston. \u00a0Some passengers disembarked this morning and a few more boarded to take their place. \u00a0We could have done half the cruise but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cruising","category-holland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12205"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13374,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12205\/revisions\/13374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}