Blogs from Rotterdam, South Holland, Netherlands, Europe

According to Traveler's Elixir: ... read more

Today I took the train to Rotterdam for a day visit. The city was largely destroyed in World War II and one of the few remaining buildings is the town hall which now has a statue out front entitled “strength from adversity”. Rotterdam has become an architectural laboratory where many of the world’s leading architects try out new designs. The library is a case in point with its multilevel white and glass exterior, neon lights, and yellow external tubing. The Cube Houses are something of a Rotterdam landmark. These are actual homes that are highly sought after by certain free-thinking individuals. I returned to Delft in the afternoon and followed Rick Steves’s walking tour. I visited the Old Church (1050) and the New Church (1381). Like most churches in the Netherlands, they have very plain, whitewashed ... read more

First, let me fix a photo, the one of a work by Hockney that was so inspired by Van Gogh. It showed up funny on the blog. Also, Fran pointed out that the group of dancers in the pub on the boat were probably in their 40s, not 60s. More on them later. Yesterday, I wrote about the tulips and the visit to Keukenhof, and now, back at the ship, having finished our outstanding dinner at Jansz, we had our first evening and overnight traveling. We were moving along through a canal at a moderate speed, guessing 15 knots. We felt nothing; heard nothing; no engine or generator noise, even when another ship or barge passed by making a wake. If you didn’t know you were on a boat you wouldn’t know you were on a ... read more

Fast forward to after we had queued up, checked in, dodged the customary welcome photo in front of a tacky back drop (these pictures never show the good side of the subjects features and are far from the perfect holiday photo souvenir as most people usually have their coats on, carrying bags, hair dishevelled and looking harangued after their often long and frustrating journey!!) Normally, once you arrive at the departure lounge your luggage is collected by a porter and then not seen again until it is delivered to your stateroom (it was not so long ago that these used to be referred to as cabins!!). However, as this was only a three-day cruise, Roisin and I were traveling lighter than usual so we walked our baggage on and straight to cabin 7555. Our cabin was ... read more

“Exit Applause!” as Barry from Boston is fond of saying; or, as another of our favorite piano bar stars (Jeremey from our Mediterranean Cruise in 2015) would say, “We Have NEW People!” But for us, this marks the half-way point of our cruise. Nineteen days are in the books (and blogs) and now we start the bittersweet journey towards home. In nineteen more days we will be back in Boston (and Las Vegas). ** Sigh ** I must commend the cabin steward though. He has left us dark chocolate every evening on this past first leg except for two. And you know what that means: More chocolate for me! I’m surprised that Sharon didn’t say something last night. She was in the room when they came to make it up. They left that evenings chocolate, and ... read more