Our second European river cruise. Last year, the Danube; this year, the Rhine. Rather than break this up into a bunch of small posts, here’s one big one.
Day 1: Rotterdam
Day 1 was supposed to be Amsterdam. I’ll start right off with that. But something went wrong with the cruise line’s docking schedule, so we took the bus from Amsterdam’s airport down to the docking location in Rotterdam. It was a thoroughly boring 40-minute bus ride, so when we were offered the chance to take the same bus up and back on the same boring highway, to spend an hour walking around Amsterdam, we decided to stay put and make the best of it.
And it was really worthwhile. The biggest port in Europe, some UNESCO heritage, and a beautiful day along the water.
Yes, the yellow Cube Houses. We orbited around these for a few minutes until we found an open door, and then we found a unit where you could pay a few Euros and take a tour.
With all these angles you bet every piece of furniture is custom-built! At the time we visited, the Great East Coast Earthquake of 2024 was just a few weeks behind us, and we kept having the strange feeling that we were living through another. We even asked the docent if we were on landfill. But the angles and geometry are so disorienting, he told us, that everybody gets the feeling of an earth tremor.
Nevertheless, people love living there. Units go for a pretty high price. Each floor is a little bit small, and the stairs are tight and narrow; but the one we toured was actually a triplex — which was kind of cool.
Free to knock around Rotterdam on our own, we found a boat tour of the port. The Port of Rotterdam is the biggest port in Europe, dwarfing everything else. From here to the North Sea — nearly 50 miles — a continuous network of docks and cargo facilities, the gateway to nearly all the produce that comes out of the EU.
Even here, they’ve got windmills.
We continued past, onward to an historic neighborhood.
As if these waterfront apartment and office buildings weren’t beautiful enough, they were backed by a botanical garden. Despite my aching knee (long story) I pulled myself through the whole thing.
The Historische Tuin Schoonoord has its own tale, which I won’t repeat here. But it was beautiful, elegant, and peaceful.
On the way back we strolled back and found the Kunsthall Rotterdam — sadly closed at that hour, but we got to hit the gift shop at least. And then continued on through the hip “old city” and back to the boat for dinner.
Kinderdijk
We learned all about dikes and polders, Very serious business in a land that’s mostly below sea level. And very ingenious too. The origins of the name are fairly mythic, and even though there’s some dispute over where they came from the really do echo the story of Moses in the bullrushes. There’s even a bronze statue depicting it.
Kinderdijk has something like 19 authentic working windmills. They server to pump water up from the lower levels, and then up through a series of holding ponds called polders, until the water gets up to the level of the river (the Rhine) and sent out to sea. Leaving the below-sea-level ground clear for other uses.
And they were running. You could walk around them, go inside, even go upstairs. The windmill keepers lived in them with their families and were responsible for keeping them running. The middle-ages vintage technology they used to manage these things is really impressive. They’re big, they’re heavy, they move fast, and they’re scary.
Cologne, or Köln
I was hoping this would be a highlight, but it was a little disappointing because it was on a Sunday and most things were closed, plus it was a little rainy and chilly. The famous cathedral was of course having Sunday services, so you couldn’t really explore it fully.
On the other hand, we learned a lot about drinking beer in a beer garden. Small glasses so the beer doesn’t go warm and flat by the time you get to the bottom of the glass; the waitress will keep bringing you more (and keep running up your tab) even if you don’t ask. Just put your coaster on top of your glass when you’re finished.
Some famous landmarks — a bridge that was bombed into oblivion during the war, then rebuilt. A Holocaust memorial that traces a train line. And a beautiful modernist rail terminal.
Enjoyed.
This is all the encouragement I need to post Part II of the journey. Stay tuned.