Rotterdam, The Netherlands, August 20-21, 2017

Rotterdam, The Netherlands, August 20-21, 2017

We arrived in Rotterdam at day break. Once again I missed the two hour trip up the channel to our pier. And once again, it's one way in, same way out so I would see it when we left the next afternoon.

Rotterdam was completely destroyed during WWII so it's relatively new re-built. It was the busiest port in the world but now is number three after Shanghai and Singapore. It is HUGE! We're docked next to the Erasmus Bridge (aka the Swan Bridge) right in front of a modern cruise terminal and the more vintage former headquarters of Holland America. There is a non-stop parade of vessels going to and fro---water taxis and buses, tour boats, the distinctive low profile (have to fit under the low bridges) canal freighters and barges being pushed along by tugs.

A few years ago we took a Baltic Cruise that ended in Amsterdam, an Amsterdam that was in the midst of a heat wave and football fever. The Dutch soccer team was playing in the World Cup championship game while we were in town along with tens of thousands of beer-soaked football fans. We managed to do a lot of sightseeing but were disappointed that we did not see windmills or the Rijks Museum, closed for a multi-year renovation

This time we were determined to visit a working windmill and the Rijks.

Kinderdiik

An hour or so from Rotterdam is Kinderdiik, the site of 19 windmills built in the 1700s. One of the windmills is both functioning and serves as a museum (the miller and his family lived on the first two floors of the mill). Rather than grinding grain, nuts or chocolate, these windmills ran water pumps that moved the water through canals to the river and kept the village and fields dry. They were first replaced by steam pumps and then electric, still working to keep the water out.

What a beautiful site. The windmills are along both sides of the canal that's lined with reeds and water lilies. The reeds are cut, dried and then used to thatch the roofs of the windmills. A two lane "highway" runs along the top of the dike--one for walkers the other for cyclists. It's very still and quiet, other than the babbling of the multitude of visitors. Nowadays the "miller" is a volunteer who demonstrates how the vanes are moved to catch the wind. Our miller was in Carhartts and wooden shoes and performed his duty wordlessly. He turned this massive wheel to move the vanes then held them in place with chains looped around cleats set in the ground around the mill. We saw a movie explaining how the windmills worked way back when. The millers used the position of the vanes to communicate with each other.18th century Instagram.

We took a bus to Kinderdiik but a couple of days later learned that we could've gone by the  waterbus that landed just across the channel from our ship. Next time...

Amsterdam

One could take the train from Rotterdam to Amsterdam but then one would have to get oneself from ship to train station and reverse so these ones opted to take the bus. It was more expensive but the bus picked us up at the ship and dropped us off at Museum Square, exactly where we wanted to be. Five hours later it picked us up and took us back to the Rotterdam in Rotterdam.

One of my few plan aheads was to buy tickets online for the Rijks. We hit the door just as it opened at 9 am. Gorgeous! The renovation seamlessly meshed the old with the new. The building itself is so striking. The facade looks like the Smithsonian in DC, all red brick and towers. Interestingly enough, a bicycle road runs right through the middle of the street level.

Side note here for bicycles in Amsterdam. Holy Moley. I remember from our first visit that it was expensive to learn how to drive, buy a car, insure a car and park a car so by far the preferred method of transportation is the bicycle. Bicycles for one, or two or kid in front, kid in back, you name it. And they whip through the streets in special lanes. The street layout going across is this: pedestrian sidewalk, bike lane, car lane, bike lane, pedestrian sidewalk. The bicyclists do not stop except for red lights so as a pedestrian you must, must, must look both ways before you step into that bike lane to get to the other side of the road. And these are rather narrow city streets. The first time we crossed the road we got right behind a man pushing a baby stroller figuring he must know what he was doing. Success! Oh, and no bike helmets.

Back to the Rijks. Its most famous painting is Rembrandt's immense Night Watch, which occupies an entire wall at the end of the Gallery of Honor on the second floor. At 9 am the museum was almost empty so Jim and I raced (well, hobbled) up the never ending stairs to the Great Hall and then into the GoH. It's a long, long gallery leading to the Night Watch. Walking through that gallery is like walking through the pages of an art history textbook. Vermeer, Hals, Steen and on and on. And why is it that so often a painting you've seen a thousand times in books is either much bigger or much smaller in reality. Vermeer's Milk Maid is actually a very small painting while that Night Watch. Lordy, Lordy, it is just huge. And at one time long ago a meter or so was lopped off both sides to make it fit between two doors! It is guarded with a capital G. Throughout the museum a low rope, maybe a foot or so off the ground, keeps you close enough to really look at the works close up but far enough away to keep wandering hands off the goods. The guards throughout are young, dressed in dark grey suits, and tall. They grow 'em tall in The Netherlands! All the female guards were in the six foot tall range, blonde and very fit. I'm pretty sure they could snap you like a twig. Two of them are inside the rope on either side of the Night Watch. And just outside the rope? A large fire extinguisher with a very long wand. Backpacks, large bags aren't allowed in the museum, same for those awful selfie sticks, which I'm sure cuts down the possibility of some nut job going after the artwork.

We spent a solid three hours enjoying the 17th and 18th century paintings, sculpture and treasures but by then the place was absolutely packed with individuals and tour groups following their guides so we took refuge in the cafe. You could hear a dozen different languages being spoken in the crowds yet the signage and menus are in Dutch and English. Tables in European cafes are just inches apart so we struck up a conversation with a couple of lovely ladies who had just finished a river cruise from Budapest. We told them we had seen a Viking river boat in Kinderdiik the day before and they said, "That was us!"

Back to the ship in the afternoon, arriving exactly at the 3:30 all aboard which meant no hanging about the terminal using the wifi. It's a solid two hours to move from the pier to the harbor entrance. Our departure was timed to slip through the constant traffic. Lots of horn tooting by us, the water taxis, barges and anything else floating in the vicinity. And then we passed the SS Rotterdam, now permanently berthed in Rotterdam and transformed into a hotel. Much tooting and waving from one Rotterdam to another. By the time we'd reached the open sea Jim and I were up on nine watching from the Crow's Nest. There were dozens of freighters of all sizes waiting there to enter the harbor.

One sea day and then Dublin.