Three Days in Amsterdam - Day 1 - Rotterdam
It was nearly 9:00 PM when my plane landed in Amsterdam and I still needed to claim my luggage and get through immigration, but when all that was done I walked out into the arrivals hall and there was Bernd, waiting (always, it seems) very patiently for me. He and Mieke had very graciously offered me to stay with them a few days before my ship was to depart from the Amsterdam port. We drove to their home and even Mieke was waiting up for us. By this time it was quite late so we said our goodnights and turned in.
Bernd and I had emailed a bit before I visited about what I might like to see over the next couple of days. He likes museums, as do I, so several of these were on the short list. I was also interested in seeing Rotterdam and The Hague. Bernd also thought a jaunt up north one day would be something to enjoy.
Day 1, after breakfast and catch-up conversation, Bernd and I headed out to spend the day in Rotterdam. We promised Mieke, who stayed home to continue her recovery from some recent surgery by taking it easy, that we’d be home by 6:00 PM. I don’t think we ever quite made it back home when we said we would, but we came close, I think......
Rotterdam is not too far from Blaricum, where Bernd and Mieke live. Maybe about an hour’s drive, or a little less. Rotterdam is the second largest city in the Netherlands, right behind Amsterdam. Over 3 million live in the city and the surrounding metropolitan area. The port of Rotterdam is also the largest in Europe and the 4th largest in the world. Rotterdam is also known as the city of architecture.
We parked down in the new city center area and walked a few blocks to check out the newly built central train station. Beautiful piece of architecture. After that we walked along the Westersingel and enjoyed looking at a bunch of modern sculptures that line the walkway.
We visited the Sonneveld House, owned by a man who was a director of a tea company in the early part of the 20th Century. The house was built in the 1930’s and was renowned at the time for its open and futuristic design. It has been restored to its original condition. For me, it was like walking through this old exhibit at Disneyland from when I was a kid - I want to say it was the Sunbeam exhibit.
After that we went to another museum - Het Nieuwe Instituut. It features contemporary architecture and design exhibits. Ever changing, the day we went there was a huge exhibit by Steve Bannon, of all people, attempting to show how art was used as social propaganda to further Bannon’s isolationist and religious right agenda. It was freaky weird and rather disturbing.
Next, we saw the Rubens exhibit at the Boymans-Van Beuningen. It is the main museum in Rotterdam. I learned a lot about Rubens from Bernd and really developed an appreciation for this artist because of this. This museum is now closed for a number of years for restoration so we were lucky to get in there before it closed. We ate lunch in the garden there and then moved on to the Markthallen, a covered high-end marketplace where you can buy lots of fruits, cheeses, meats and other goods. We passed by a stall selling huge mangos - 3 for a very cheap price - I think one euro each - and since mangos are one of my favorite fruits, we bought three of them. This purchase of large items was repeated the very next day when we visited Alkmaar, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Our final stop of the day was at the former HAL headquarters where we saw some great old posters and other building artifacts, including a peek into their boardroom!
We also crossed the bridge over the river and walked to the old Rotterdam ship, which is now a hotel and museum of sorts. It’s free to visit and it was very cool to see this elegant ship. She even has the day of the week carpets in her elevators! And we tasted bitter Allen because we crashed a cocktail party.....You can immediately see how HAL has continued the design and style of her ships, carrying through to today.
It was a long but great day and once back to Blaricum, we went out for the de cream after dinner.
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