Come on Willie sing us another verse, and we’ll move on down the road.
Rotterdam May 18, 2019
E
We're in Rotterdam and ready to board Holland America's - "Rotterdam"
Robin and Renee made all the arrangements on this trip, and WOW that was nice. We just sat back and left the driving to them. The apartment on the left, where our luggage is, was our home for our stay in Amsterdam. The Girls arranged this apartment for several days through AirBnB, and we'll have a similar arrangement in Reykjavik. This was a very pleasant apartment with very modern furnishings There was one bedroom on the ground floor and thee more upstairs. Guess who got the ground floor bedroom? :) :)
The neighborhood was very pleasant with a supermarket and a couple of deli's a few blocks away. There were very nice walking paths around the neighborhood canals. Many of our photos of rural Amsterdam were taken from our morning walks. We loaded into two automobiles early this Saturday, morning and headed to Rotterdam,about a 50 mile drive. We had most of the day to tour Rotterdam before boarding our cruise ship the Rotterdam.
Rotterdam is the second largest city in the Netherlands and has the largest seaport in Europe. It is a very modern city architecturally. In WWII when Germany invaded Holland on May the 10th, 1940 Hitler became furious at the Dutch resistance. On May 14th he ordered a bombing blitz on Rotterdam reducing it to rubble. These photo are courtesy of Google.
But, now look at Rotterdam all bright and shiny new.
There is an old Dutch saying:
Money is made in Rotterdam
Distributed in The Hague
And Spent in Amsterdam.
Markthal (English- Market Hall) Residential and Office complex with open air shopping in the hollow. The structure is completely unique and very captivating. It has 244 apartments and 17,000 sq. ft. of Office space. Plus a 4 story underground parking structure which hold 1,200 automobiles. Besides being an architectural marvel, look at the the artwork decorating the inside.
A through window view of the neighborhood behind the structure.
Hey, this is more than just an arch, and note the flowered art appearing on the lower right.
To me this was really neat, but the grandkids said "Cool". The next several photographs are of the ached walls and celling of this amazing structure.
Anybody for a game of chess? These chess pieces are about 24" in height. I wanted to play, but my chess game would have embarrassed the Kids.
Any one ready for a donut?
Or an olive or even a few dates
Now we come to the colorful vegetable market.
Looking Outside at a different corner.
The Cheese Mart
Oh! and there is more below, just ride the escalator.
The Markthal isn't by itself, as there is also an outdoor street market. How about this structure for art work!
We are there on a Saturday morning, so it appears that we have a Dutch Farmers Market. Just like we do at home.
We were quite taken by the modern Architecture of Rotterdam. Totally unique, this building displays its personality in an exquisite manner.
Not quite so spectacular, but completely different, and gives one a feel of the modern Rotterdam .
If one is going to build a tall structure, why not leave space for the breezes to flow through.
The "Needle" or observation tower was interesting itself, but then we noted the climbers about to rappel the Needle.
Th first photo catches them on top of the observation deck; the second as they have descended to near the bottom of the deck, and the last photo catches them halfway down the elevator shaft. I assumed the elevator must have been "out of service;" and being they had an important date, down they came.
Enlarge #1; Enlarge #2; Enlarge #3
Centered in this photo was Harry, who arranged our tour of Rotterdam and drove from Amsterdam to Rotterdam. He was a wonderful guide and fascinating to listen too. I had been curious about the Diamond industry; and especially how it related to the German occupancy in WWII, and the Jewish control of the diamond industry.
I asked Harry what he might share with us on these facts, knowing that the Dutch settled South Africa; and that De Beers controlled the diamond mining market, and that most of the worlds diamonds were cut and polished in the Netherlands. Harry could not answer these questions in a manner that we could relate, however he did offer an interesting observation. He is married to a Jewish Lady, and he related to us that the Jewish attraction to precious stones originating from their 2,000 years of persecution. Their reasoning being if their wealth is held in diamonds; then when social pressure requires them to move or leave, their savings or wealth is mobile.
Rotterdam's Landmark Erasmus Bridge 2650 feet clear spans, 456 feet in height.
The Erasmus, spanning the Maas River, is the worlds longest clear span bridge; and the Netherlands highest bridge.
The Harders
The Halls
~~~ Errol Chandler, a distant cousin of mine, who lives in Cheddar England and is a native of South Africa mailed me these comments on the influence of the Dutch and their contributions in the history of our modern world. His comments are quite interesting and very pertinent to this dialog, so I'm sharing Errol comments with you.
***
Norman
As you say, the Dutch have been at the forefront of many things. My homeland of South Africa and, indeed, my maternal ancestry owes everything to the Dutch.
In 1652 the Dutch East India Company founded what is now Cape Town as a halfway station between the East Indies and Europe, so that their ships could resupply on the outward and return legs of the sea passage. It was the spice trade of course. A year later, in 1653, a Company ship sailing back from the East Indies stopped at Cape Town (then called Kaap Stad) to rest and resupply. On board were a family (mother, father and three children,) that had been taken into slavery in the East and were being transported back to Holland to be sold. They were instead sold to a buyer in Kaap Stad, actually to the governor of the new Colony. He wanted house servants for his official residence. One of the children, a girl, was my 8th generation ago grandmother. So you could say my South African roots go back to the founding fathers of South Africa. That daughter was freed from slavery a decade later and went on to marry very well, ending up as the wealthiest woman in the Colony, owner of lots of prime real estate, including the Groote Schuur estate, world famous for wine and now an iconic tourist attraction in South Africa.
The Dutch East India Company cornered the spice market, pushing out the Spanish and Portuguese traders.
Until then the trade was conducted by individual merchants sailing as lone ships.
The Dutch merchants banded together and formed the Council of 17, which became the Dutch East India Company. As a consolidated force of ships they squeezed the other nations out.
They dominated the trade routes between Europe and the East Indies for exactly 199 years.
The British tried to rival them by forming the British East India Company but did not succeed until the British eventually used naval superiority to capture the route (basically sanctioned piracy to attack the Dutch ships)…and seized Kaap Stad for the British crown. They then decided that Kaap Stad was not needed so abandoned it. The Dutch came back and ruled for a while, until the Brits changed their minds and took it back! South Africa remained a British colony until 1910.
Errol.
***
Let me introduce you to my Cousin Errol Chandler, his wife Susan and their two lovely daughters and son-in law.
Gracias Errol, and thank you for the addition of your insights to our take on the Netherlands.
Did you notice the Holland America Cruise ship in the harbor? Well, about now we are leaving the new and modern city of Rotterdam and boarding the Ship Rotterdam, to cruise the southern coast of Norway. Out next stop will be Flam, so stay on board and travel along with us.
