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Having been extensively damaged during World War II by German bombings, Rotterdam lacks the rustic charm of Amsterdam and has many of the characteristics of post-war reconstruction and modern architecture that many Americans find abhorrent: broad avenues, large buildings, suburbanization (that's only ok if everyone has a lawn), cars, mass transit, metal, cement, and glass, which have replaced stones, castles, narrow alleys, market squares, and ornate façades. At this point I am beginning to realize how often the subject of WWII comes up, but, while there have been many historical events and changes, the war physically shaped the face of much of Europe--or its absence in the buildings of cities such as Amsterdam--in a way that few other events have and therefore insinuates itself into the present for even the ephemeral passage of the Viking Sun and the shallow observations of passengers like myself.
In the early morning sun I roused my slowly dying camera to take a few panoramic shots of the city
As a port city built around water, two of Rotterdam's most characteristic monuments are its bridges like the swan one pictured below.
Though I would have preferred to explore on bike, I enjoyed the city and its long blocks and wide avenues. I quickly found the public library (and its free internet) only to be disappointed that my early arrival at 8:00 did me little good as the library did not open until 10:00 and I could not access the wireless network without dealing with their straight-forward though complicated bureaucracy inside the building. After walking around and having coffee I returned to the library/space station (at least that's how it looked) and pushed a button on a machine which printed a receipt giving me a temporary guest log in to their network. Fortunately their artificial gravity was working.
I walked back to the boat just as the rain was starting. The storm was so severe that we had to alter our course and went straight to Antwerp.
Rotterdam
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Before Rotterdam, we went to a farm that makes fresh gouda cheese and then spent the afternoon in the town of that same name.
Here is one of the farm buildings where we saw a video and presentation on the cheese-making process. The roof is thatched, a common feature of Dutch (and other European) houses. It's a bit strange for me to see such an antiquated and artisan type of roofing, but I would love to live in an old house with a (new) thatched roof. Apparently it's also a bit of a luxury item and status symbol because the roof has to be replaced so often and brings with it much larger insurance costs as well as having to pay for the skilled labor of the craftsmen who can build such roofs.
After the lively cheese tasting and presentation we continued on the city of Gouda. During our journey our tour guide, at least I think it was this tour guide, told us the story of the how one time when she was taking a group of Viking guests to the dairy farm/cheese cultivators and one woman was so caught up with taking a picture that she fell into a body of water and when her husband tried to help her he also fell in. The rest of the tourist looked on and took pictures. Maybe this sheds some light on the character of our companions.
The town (small city?) of Gouda has a beautiful gothic city hall which is so ornate and beautiful that many people in our group were calling it a church. A picture can be found in the wikipedia article below. We spent a few hours, at most, and then made our way back to the boat or met in in Rotterdam, I forget.
Gouda
