The saying here goes, “Amsterdam to party, Den Haag to live, Rotterdam to work”. With the largest port in Europe and one of the busiest in the world, this city of more than 1.3 million inhabitants lives up to the famous adage. The importance of Rotterdam’s port is owed to its central location. Lying in the mouth of the Nieuwe Maas Channel, which is formed by the Noord and Lek rivers in the North Sea, this port offers quick and easy access to the centre of Europe.
We were briefly in Rotterdam about 10 years ago in 2013 but only docked and then onto a flight back home. This time around we are offered an overnight stay in this amazing city. Our day started early at 6am to watch the wonderful sail in and as sun rose behind a freighter in the canal, that was it, I was up. By about 20 after you could find me perched in my old position on the bow on deck 6, just beautiful and warm enough for just a t shirt. Jan joined me a few minutes later as we cruised passed a few old wind mills, the Volendam, which currently houses Ukrainian refuges (also a ship I still refer to as my mom’s ship - 10 years after we sailed with her on this ship, the night she passed away, the Volendam came into Vancouver. My mom passed and the ship then left that afternoon. Going through her wallet, she still carried her room key card everyday - my mom also carries Ukrainian roots. So my mom is still helping out). We then cruised passed the now hotel, restaurant, old Rotterdam and then to our dock just outside the Holland America Line Head Office. So yeah, a great sail in.
Two full days here so day one we headed to The Hague on a HAL sponsored tour, tomorrow we will do a walk about in this central area where the ship in docked. So, our first tour in over 2 1/2 years, my how somethings just don’t change. We arrive at our first stop and someone is already asking about where do we stop for lunch, our Dutch guide, asks, “are you hungry”. I laugh in silence as we had only just left the ship, nice to see some things haven’t changed. Our first stop was at, Madurodam, a mini version of everything Netherlands. From the airport to the train station, to buildings, parks, you name it. This would be a great spot for young and old. Every detail in a perfect mini version, a fun way to spend an hour and a half. The next stop was the highlight of the tour and that was a two visit to the Mauritshuis museum, the museum that is home to the works by Vermeer, “The girl with the Pearl Earring”. This museum also is home to many Rembrandt, Rubens, van Dijick to name a few. Jan and I were able to enjoy a nice cold beer in a beautiful park setting before heading back to our bus. Great tour with only drawback being the traffic, apparently two accidents, so rather than a 20 minute ride this turned into almost 2 hours to return to port.
This morning, just to go back a bit, a crew member we got to know very well on our Grand Antarctica voyage saw me and came over to say hello, well what a wonderful surprise to see, Jearmelyn again, she took such great care of us on the Prinsendam. She told us she was working in the Canaletto, so tonight’s dinner was at the Canaletto, where we were served by our two wonderful servers, Desy and Jearmelyn. I think the Canaletto has turned it up a notch on this ship, just fantastic. That said, I may go on about HAL and some of the missed programs and positions but the food and the service in the different dining rooms has been outstanding. I will not unfairly finger out the room service staff, they are just doing the best they can given how many meals they must serve to all the isolated guests in their cabins.
So, yeah, another great day to be out with the land of the living. Finishing this up out on our deck, 20 degrees as the sun is setting with some techno party music going on across the canal as the night lights come up, life is once again, pretty, pretty good.
A few pics of our day, hope you enjoy…
Quote of the day - “Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road” - Jack Kerouac
Pretty amazing to see this miniature city. Love that Prinsendam name plate. M&S
ReplyDelete