We’d been to the Netherlands a few times before our 2022 Island Princess European cruise, but it was on this cruise that we first made a port stop at Rotterdam. Cruise ships will often pick Amsterdam or Rotterdam when stopping in the country and the decision often depends on just how shitty the Dutch authorities and vocal minority NIMBYs are being about wanting to keep tourists away from the capital city at the time. Rotterdam, being a city with a tradition of seafaring and trading (it’s actually Europe’s largest seaport), is far more welcoming to visitors by ship, and we were very keen to explore it.
Princess offered excursions to Amsterdam for those who wanted to see what they were missing there but we had no intention of taking advantage of that. And, of course, Princess laid on entertainment of varying degrees for those intent on staying on board Island Princess. If you were thinking of cruising to Rotterdam aboard a Princess Cruises ship but staying aboard when there, then here’s the sort of activities you could enjoy instead of the city.
We had overcast weather conditions for our visit to Rotterdam. From our balcony on the ship docked at the cruise terminal we could see across the Nieuwe Maas shipping canal to the southern part of the central area of the city.
To the left, just peeking out from behind a tower block, was the Euromast which is a popular destination for some tourists. We wouldn’t be visiting it on this day in Rotterdam but we would be heading in that general direction during the day.
To the right we could see the Erasmus Bridge (Erasmusbrug) which we’d need to cross in order to reach central Rotterdam. The bridge took ten years to complete, opening to the public in 1996, and it’s known locally as “The Swan” (although in Dutch, obviously). The initial design needed tweaking to include additional back stay strengthening on its single pylon support as engineering tests concluded it would not adequately support the weight when trucks rolled over it. After it opened additional changes were made to add stronger shock absorbers as the bridge swayed too much when the wind hit it side-on.
I’ve said before that we can be contrarians when we travel and Rotterdam is a good example of how this can manifest itself. Take a look at anyone else – particularly cruise bloggers – who visits Rotterdam and posts some content on social media or their own site and you will see Cube Houses and the Markthal. Maybe the Euromast occasionally. Perhaps the SS Rotterdam to break the things up. But always the Cube Houses. Always the Markthal. Take a look at where people who make repeat trips to Rotterdam go and you’ll see them hit the Markthal again. And again.
We decided that we would go elsewhere mainly to be different, and in the first part of this series of accounts of our day visiting Rotterdam I’ll cover a few of the sights as we headed to the first of those places. Don’t get me wrong, though: the Cube Houses do appeal to us and a later visit to this city will no doubt include them, but we felt that we wanted to experience a sense of finding something new and not simply walking in the footsteps of everyone who’d come before us.
Out of the cruise terminal we went, and headed across the Erasmus Bridge, braving the quite cold wind whistling down the canal and across us. We had some early chances to admire some of the architecture of Rotterdam as we walked. What I really liked was that architects and designers seem to have been given more-or-less free rein to throw up whatever they like. It means imaginations can run wild and there’s less of that conformity that can sometimes sterilise a place.
Reaching the far side of the Nieuwe Maas canal we took a left towards a large park we could see on the map. This brought us first, though, to a small area called Veerhaven with a nice view of boats and barges docked alongside the water as well as five busts of men.
The men sculpted in bronze were significant figures in Rotterdam’s shipping quarter history.
- Antony van Hoboken (1756-1852) – Worked himself up from warehouse operator to owning the largest sailing fleet in the Netherlands.
- D.G. Van Beuningen (1877-1955) – Competed with British exporters of coal by importing from Germany using the canal system, leading to many changes in mechanical handling of transported goods.
- Elie van Rijckevorsel (1845-1928) – Coming from a wealthy family he decided not to follow in the family’s business endeavours and embraced many scientific fields, collecting specimens of glassware, porcelain, and rock from Indonesia and Brazil.
- Marten Mees (1828-1917) – A steady investment banker who was involved in setting up public housing among other deeds considered beneficial to the people of Rotterdam.
- Louis Jamin (1881-1953) – A son of Cornelis Jamin who’d founded sweet stores in the Netherlands that still bear his name, Louis oversaw the expansion from fifty outlets to well over five hundred by his death.
After a short check of the map to make absolutely sure we were heading in the right direction we carried on.
In the next post in this cruise travelogue series we’ll wander through Het Park in Rotterdam.