Rotterdam, despite being one of the largest cities in the Netherlands, is actually quite bikable. It takes longer to bike than drive in a car but it doesn't seem like youve biking forever like some cities in the U.S. All in all it took about 3 hours to go from our apartment on the eastside of Rotterdam to the edge of the harbor on the westside and back again.
The tour consists of items located near the Nieuwe Maas, the river that forms the heart of the harbor.
These are the world-famous Cube Houses. As of this year you can actually pay to live in one of them. They are designed in the shape of a cube on one of its points. These are located right next to the Blaak train station.
This is a ship docked in the area known as the Oudehaven, or Old Harbor. The Oudehaven is now a cosmopolitan eating, drinking and shopping area.
These are ships located in the Oudehaven but they are part of the Maritime Museum where you can learn about all things Dutch and Nautical.
This statue is named Stad zonder hart (City without a heart) done by Ossip Zadkine. When Germany attempted to take over the Netherlands in WWII they met more resistance than they thought from the Dutch. In order to take control back the Germans bombed the city center of Rotterdam. They destroyed most of the historic heart of the city and left a gaping whole that caused high winds until the city councils in the 1980s began actively modernizing and building up in the center. This is one of my favorite statues in town because of the deep meaing it has. I tried to capture an image of it with the sun beaming through the heart.
These pictures are of the Erasmusbrug, or Erasmus Bridge. This bridge is named after Desiderius Erasmus. He was a famous Dutch Renaissance humanist and theologian. He aslo just so happens to be the name sake of the university where I will be doing my masters. This bridge is referred to as "the swan" because of its long slender shape and white color.
You may recognize the name on this one. This is as far west as I went on my tour and the very eastern edge of the modern harbor. It is located in what used to be the town of Delfshaven before it was absorbed by the city of Rotterdam. Delfshaven used to be home to the Pilgrims while they were fleeing persecution in England. They didn't want to lose too much of their cultural identity so they left Delfshaven, worked out a deal with some English investors and headed to America. That is how Plymouth Rock came to be.
This concludes our tour for the day. There is much, much more to be seen in Rotterdam and, if I had taken the good camera or at least deleted some pictures off the old one, will be much more posted.
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