London and 14-Day Arctic Circle Crossing: Edinburgh Evening Stay Holland America Cruise: Day 7 Rotterdam, The Netherlands - Rotterdam City Tour May 18, 2025

The ship's clocks were moved ahead overnight for the change of time zones between the UK and the Netherlands. I knew that the phones weren't going to pick up the time change, because they were in airplane mode. We're on the ship's Wi-Fi and we didn't want the phones to get charged for any roaming. Yes, cellular data was off, but you never know. Anyway, I woke at 4:40, which is not unusual, and turned off airplane mode to pick up the new time. Once it did, I put it back on airplane and then trusted the alarm.

It was a short night, since we got up at the new 6:45 time. My husband K took a shower and I pulled myself together. By 7, the cruise director was making announcements about people disembarking. It was grey and 53°, but felt like 51°. We were docked next to the terminal and had a good view of the goings on there as well as their fancy upper lounge. In the picture of the buses just beyond them you can see the New York Hotel. That was the original headquarters of the Holland America Line, when its main carriage was folks emigrating to the US. A friend said it is a very nice hotel now.

 

Our daughter J came down at 7:30 for the three of us to go to breakfast on Lido deck. It was crowded. I guess a lot of the folks disembarking were trying to get breakfast before they got off. I got my traditional European breakfast of cold cuts, cheese, rolls, and chocolate pastry, along with OJ. I decided to add calcium via yogurt with chia seed and mixed berries. That was interesting and tasty.

At 8:30, we were seated at the World Stage waiting for the Rotterdam City Tour to be called. This was not the excursion we had planned, but the other one was canceled. It turned out for the best.

At 8:35, sporting yellow 7 stickers, we were sent to the bus, mixing with the departing passengers in the process. On the way out through the terminal, I saw this great quote on the wall:

We were on the bus by 8:58, after having our tickets on our phones scanned. They now come up in the HAL app. At 9:11, with Barbara driving and Mark as our guide, we were on our way.

Up to the 1970's, a million folks had emigrated with HAL from this terminal. Fun fact! We could see the new emigration museum in the distance, but it was too far to get to for the three of us.

The town's name means "The Dam on the River Rotte", as a dam was constructed in 1270. In 1340, city rights were given. The city center was nearly completely destroyed in World War II, which is unsurprising giving the amount of shipping that goes through here. After all, the oldest docks date to the 1400's. 

The Rotte is actually a smaller tributary that flows into the main river the Nieuwe Maas, which splits the city into a northern and southern part. Old Rotterdam folks live in the north and the south has the farmers.

We soon came upon the former flagship of HAL, the SS Rotterdam, which was the last great Dutch "ship of state". It was the biggest cruise ship built in the Netherlands. She was launched by Queen Juliana in 1958 and was retired in 2000, having been renamed Rembrandt. From 2004-2008, she underwent restoration work in other countries, before returning home. In 2010, she reopened as a museum, hotel, and training school. It was sold in 2013, and is now a hotel and conference center. Donn C, from the Luther tour K and I took, has stayed there.

The population is about 670,000. It is the second city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam.  The city is 6-9 feet below sea level and is still the biggest port in Europe.

We were now driving around Katendrecht, which was once known as Chinatown, with the highest population of Chinese people in Europe. It was also the old red light district, as well as where sailors lived.Much of the old docklands in the area we toured have been turned into housing, offices, and cultural sites.

 

We passed this neat old bridge.

 

At 9:55, we had a photo stop. We gathered around the "Homage to Marten Toonder", a Dutch comic strip creator. It was a very elaborate piece with figures from his strips.

 

We were also near the bike storage for the train station. As we'd heard in Amsterdam on a previous trip, people have a bike for in town and one at home. In town, they store them at the train station, usually. You may be able to tell they are double decker. There is an automatic function that raises and lowers the upper ones.

This stop was really good for seeing some of Rotterdam's iconic architecture, which K and I had watched a video about in the weeks leading up to the trip. The first thing pointed out to us was the "pencil" or, more properly the Blaaktoren. Just look at the cool windows!

Then, Mark pointed across the square to the Centrale Bibliotheek (so close to German!) or Central Library, with its air ducts on the outside and painted a bright yellow.

We were now in the center of the square and he pointed out the imposing building at the head of the square- the Markthal or Market Hall. Here there are 90 market stalls and 230 apartments, half of which have windows only to the interior. In the video we saw, they pointed out the ones a the top actually look down into the market. K took the photo of the interior by getting close to the building, while J and I were off looking elsewhere. Note the outline of a heart on the window. It is no doubt lit up at night. The picture on the wall inside is of a horn of plenty. There is a parking garage underground.

Across the square, we could see a large metallic foot. Evidently, there is another in the area, but it was not visible from where we were.

  

 

To the right of the market hall and probably a couple of streets over was the last medieval item in the city that is left. It is the Grote Kerk or Grote of Sint-Laurens.

Even a couple of streets over on the other side of the train station, there were cool buildings.

We were given a few minutes and J and I hurried off to the structures I really wanted to see- the Cube Houses (Kijk-Kubus Museum-house), designed by Piet Blom in 1984. They really appeal to the geometry teacher in me. There is one you can go in to tour, but we did not have time. I did try to catch the open star they make over a courtyard and got close. It was only when looking at the photos that I realized that the white line that crosses each of them continues to the next. These are awesome! I took a screen shot of how they look on Google maps from the photo app, because that is cool, too. 

  

 

As we hurried back to the bus, I noticed this cool building that had several cantilevered sections.

By 10:18, we were back on the road again, and soon we passed this interesting sculpture called "Cascade" by Atelier Van Lieshout.

At 10:27, we stopped at Museum Park. Their main art museum, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen has been closed since mid-2019. In 2024, the council of Rotterdam approved €359 million for a huge renovation. It actually won't open before 2030! However, the collection, which was built by private collectors, is available to view at the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen. This building is an amazing mirrored bowl that reflects the park around it. They've nicknamed it the "Salad Bowl". J and I had fun photographing it and ourselves reflected in it. I'm in the middle just above the reflected group. Oh, and thanks to my knowledge of German, I correctly guessed the Dutch in the first photo says "More Green Less Traffic".

 

On the way back to the bus, we passed this museum that used to be a house. Its architecture was inspired by the German Bauhaus movement. But, I just kept seeing Miami Beach and Art Deco. It houses the works of the Dutch painter and sculptor Hendrik Chabot.

We were riding again at 10:40. We passed this 2001 sculpture, "Santa Claus" by Paul McCarthy. Evidently, it has been quite controversial because what he is holding seems to resemble something other than a Christmas tree. I had to look it up and since I've never seen the thing in question, it means nothing to me. But, the sculpture has come to be beloved and even appears on some brochures for the city. An article I read (https://www.bkor.nl/en/beeld/santa-claus/) says that it combines high and low culture and is a criticism of consumer society. It was in the courtyard of the art museum for a few years before moving to this square.

A couple of minutes later, we drove past this unusual structure. It is the Pauluskerk and is a church and shelter in one.

Like Amsterdam, Rotterdam has canals, but maybe even more so. I'm including this picture, just because I think the name is neat- Coolhaven (as seen from Pieter de Hoochweg). I will note that the far end of the long building seems to be the Muziekschool (Music School) of Rotterdam.

At about 11:03, the driver turned down a small street next to this waterway and got stuck because vehicles were parked too far out for her to get through. We were stuck, because backing out was very tricky. It took a lot of discussion and the guide getting out to direct her backing up before we were freed by 11:12.

We were then driving around the Delfshaven area. This view must be popular, because I saw it a lot on line. Maybe it is the windmill off in the distance.

More unusual architecture. This is the Schiecentrale, the first electricity plant in the city that has been transformed into a multi-functional building and complex with this building wrapping around the old plant. It is also a national monument.
 

This is another significant windmill. It is the De Distilleerketel, where grain. was ground for distillers. It was built in 1727. It also appears a lot in photos.

 

The Hoogheemradschap van Delfta (waterboard of Delfshaven) must run this lock, since their name is on the building.

At 11:35, we were on the Erasmus Bridge and we could see our ship. We also saw some unusual buildings, the leftmost being the Nhouw Hotel. We hadn't even noticed the buildings from the ship.

   

 

As we neared the port, I saw this example of "from the sublime to the ridiculous" out of my window. The huge, beautiful mural on the wall is by Judith de Leeuw and is called "Brightness through the Clouds of Cancer". The glass lower building is Happy Italy with "No man is lonely while eating spaghetti". I found the Instagram post from 3 years ago from the mural's artist and it had the full wall.

   

 

At about 11:30, we arrived back at the dock and tipped the guide about €4.

As we headed for the terminal, I got this view of the building with its old photo of emigrants and then the Nhouw Hotel behind. Turning, I saw the old New York Hotel with its sailing ship weathervane.

   

When we went in the terminal, we had to go through security. I tripped a sensor and they accepted my statement that I had new knees and sent me on. When we got upstairs, we saw the area where they processed new passengers. We saw this cute balloon sculpture, but K and J didn't want to do a photo with it.

I could see the New York Hotel and when I looked behind it, I could see the spiral ramp of the new migration museum.

We were onboard at 11:55. There were hordes of people arriving, far more than Dover. From our veranda, I got a good shot of the New York clock tower and was surprised to see the initials for north, south, east and west on it.

 

 At 12:30, we went to lunch on the Lido Deck. I had my usual salad, plum, and Coke Zero. J, K and I split the following desserts: peanut butter pie, banana bread pudding, and Bossche. I took a screenshot of the meaning of the last one.

 

At 1:25, J and I went to Deck 12 for the Art Open House and to do the crossword puzzle. K went to the cabin to read.

By 3, we were sailing down the Nieuwe Maas. J was in her room resting, but I kept going out onto the increasingly windy and chilly veranda to take photos. In just over ten minutes, we got our last view of the old HAL Rotterdam, now a hotel.

So much of what we passed was port/industrial. There was no housing.

In the midst of all of this, along comes an old school masted ship full of people.

Thanks to the height of our deck, I could see canals on the other side of the land along the channel and could see when they emptied into the river.

At 3:25, we passed a barge and a tug that was sailing backwards, while towing an oceangoing ship. The ship is a UK oil tanker.

 

Just after 4:30, we passed the first modern windmill. 

At 4:44. just past Hoek van Holland (Hook of Holland) to our right, we passed the last of the land directly to our east. The second photo is when we were clear of the river and I was looking backwards. The water was rougher, as you can see. you can also see windmills along the shore.

  

Looking west, as the land bent away, you could see more windmills. England was over that way.

 

At 5:16, I saw this tiny boat speeding from behind our ship towards the boat mark Pilots. That was evidently the pilot who had steered us through the river to the open water heading back to be picked up. He must have boarded on the other side of the Pilots boat, because I didn't see him again.

 

By 5:45, I knew we were well into the North Sea, when I saw an oil platform.

We didn't have an assigned dinner time. That let us do things that were during the dinner hour. At 6, K went to the classical trio concert, while J and I went to the Art Intro. It wasn't about the art around the ship, but rather the art they were now selling and auctioning on the ship. They'd brought in Park West, which we'd encountered on a Carnival cruise. The intro gave away prizes that weren't prizes, but rather tickets for a later art sale.

At 6:15, they hosted an art scavenger hunt, but it also wasn't about any art but that in their area near photography.  You had to find pictures in their group to match each clue. Again, the prizes weren't prizes, but a print that could be turned in at the big sale for more tickets. We are to get personalized invitations to that sale. We won't be buying anything or trying to win anything. The last time, the frame was very costly.

After the hunt, we met at the Dining Room and by 6:50 were waiting on a pager. It went off at 7:05 and we went back to the podium and were led to a table. We did not like this situation. We like assigned times with a definite table.

I turned in my key card for a Coke Zero, while J turned hers in for Sprite. K decided to take full advantage of our drink package, that gave us alcoholic drinks below $15 and ten a day. He ordered a glass of Chateau San Michelle Chardonnay. We started eating the bread  and rolls on the table.

I ordered Crab Seafood Cocktail to start and J ordered Sweet Tomato Buffalo Mozzarella and we'd split them. K ordered Salmon Chowder, which we would ignore.

By the way, you order all three courses at once on HAL. Anyway, I got Chicken Kiev for dinner to split with J's Pork Medallions with Huckleberry Jam. K ate his Citrus Grilled Rainbow Trout alone and I tried not to look at it.

  

We all shared the desserts- Mango Blueberry Crisp, Princess Cake, and Sticky Toffee Pudding.

 

After this satisfying meal finished at 8:23, we hurried to the Effy Jewelry Show to get the free charm. We won't buy any of their expensive stuff, but they give away champagne, which I'll drink, even if J doesn't.

At 8:50, J and I went to our cabins. I found mine to be quite cold and had to adjust the temperature drastically. K went to the World Stage for their show.

I started taking sunset photos here in the North Sea at 8:58, 9:22, and 10:17. It was a very slow process.

My phone registered 7,619 steps for 2.9 miles, plus 1 floor.