Rotterdam Reprise

It's 2:00 p.m. on sunny, windy Thursday afternoon.  This post will reprise yesterday.  I don't think there will be much to say about today, given that it's already half gone, other than to say that today (and last night) we realized just how very jet-lagged we are!  Jet-lagged senior citizens.  That's us.

That too shall pass (the jet-lagged part, anyway).  In the meanwhile let me introduce Aad.  Aad is a friend of John and Leonie and came by yesterday morning to show us around Rotterdam.  Here's he's giving Nancy a little preview.

Nice guy!

Off we went.

We did a lot of walking, and the first place we walked to was the river Maas, just south of where we're living.  Rotterdam began where the river Rotter entered the river Maas.  To control flooding, the people built a dam.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Almost immediately we came to water.  In the distance you see the Euromast.  The little blob on the skinny, upper part is the elevator which goes up and down (of course) and revolves slowly.

There were some things I didn't really understand.

Water at various levels and bridges are iconic, for me at least, of the Netherlands.

There is a tunnel under the Maas.  It's just for pedestrians and bicycles.  It's the first time I saw people taking bicycles on an escalator.  It appears to be something of an acquired skill.

One tunnel for bicycles

and one for pedestrians.

Aad used to work in the shipping business and clearly finds boats endlessly fascinating.  I renewed my familiarity with Plimsoll lines.

And we reviewed the various ways boats of this sort (lighters, I believe) open their hatches.

I took this to be the Rotterdam equivalent of Copenhagen's "Little Mermaid" except, of course, that he's a guy and has feet.

He looks out over all the new construction.

We walked along streets that used to be waterways and past buildings that used to be warehouses.

In the photo above you can see the pulleys for winching cargo to upper floors.  In the photo below Nancy is leaning on a cleat to which boats used to tie up.

Here, Aad is pointing out the grooves in the metal from mooring lines.

We walked past beautiful, old sailing ships, now used for homes I suppose.

And we walked past beautiful old homes now used as offices.

This monument commemorates the opening, in 1872, of the "New Waterway" which created an artificial mouth to the Rhine, facilitating shipping into and out of Rotterdam.  

This waterway is a part of the Delta Works project, the last part of which was completed in 1997.  That last part, the Maeslantkering, was completed in 1997.  The Maeslantkering is a moveable storm surge barrier, one of the largest moveable structures on earth, and is expected to be deployed once every ten years.  As sea levels rise due to climate change it's expected to be deployed once every five years.

We kept walking.  Here's the Erasmus bridge over the Maas.  It's nickname is "The Swan".

And here we are at the nautical museum on an old cargo ship.

Bart ("Just like Bart Simpson") proudly showed us around.

We could pretend we were steering the boat.

The piéce de résistance was the engine room.

Aad loved it.

It was very much a guy sort of place.

Bidding a reluctant (on the part of two of us, anyway) goodbye to the ship museum we walked on.  This appeared to be a pile of leaking oil barrels.  I took it to be, perhaps, a monument to pollution.

The center of Rotterdam is virtually all new because at the beginning of World War II it was destroyed by German bombs.  This lovely building is one of the few that survived the bombing.

 If front of it is a map, in marble, showing the extent of the devastation.

We walked on.

At the very center of the city is the Laurenskerk, the great central church of Rotterdam dedicated to its patron saint.  The church was badly damaged by the bombing and has been restored.  It's located on Hoogstraat, the high street running along that original dam across the Rotter river.

There's more on Hoogstraat.  We ate Poffertjes, little pancakes with butter and sugar.  This fellow is a Poffertje aficionado and talked with me about being a merchant seaman and going to Baton Rouge.

There are the cubist houses.  We walked on.

After lunch we took the subway to Delfshaven which is actually very close to where we're living.  The subway is modern and wonderful.  At our subway stop you could actually walk still further down and catch a train.  Wonderful, wonderful public transport.

Here we are in Delfshaven.  It was from here the Pilgrim Fathers (mothers too, I suppose) sailed for England before heading off for you know where.  I'll show you the church (of course they left from a church) in just a bit.  First a few photos of this lovely place.

Aad pointed out that the bridges over canals all have slots into which barriers can be placed in case of high water in the canal.

And here's the Pilgrim Fathers Church.

The building next to it is a micro brewery.  Nice touch, I thought.

Here Aad is pointing out how high the water got in days gone by.  The mark to which he's pointing has the date 1823.  The one below it looked like 1776.

 Of course, there's a windmill.

And this is a shout out to my brother-in-law Ed de Jong, architect.  Below the name "Reinder De Jong" it says "Architecture and Design."

It had been a long day.  We came back to our place to, well just to sit for a few minutes, and then were off again to Aad's home for dinner.  That was a wonderful surprise!

Aad lives with his wife Anja in an area about 20 minutes away by subway.  It couldn't be easier to get to and feels like a different world.

It felt suburban.  This sign had a little poem on it.  Aad said it said something like "We're sure your dog is wonderful, but please have him do his business somewhere else."  Google translate said it said "Your dog has had a solid animal.  But this is not sup here."

Here is Aad and Anja's home.

We had a wonderful meal and a wonderful time.  I only got a photo of  this lovely coffee table setting with flowers and candles and coasters with photos of the grandchildren

and a photo of Nancy with Anja.  They've invited us to their cottage on the Hook of Holland tomorrow so stay tuned.