April 29, 2024 Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Last night was the second night in Rotterdam. This morning the sun was shining, the south wind was just 10 km/hr and the temperature was 7°C. No chance of rain today in the forecast.

Today’s breakfast slot at our hotel was 8 to 9 a.m., it was busier than yesterday but has the capacity for least 100 people. Seat selection was the same as yesterday.

Just before ten we headed back along the same route that we came from the ship on Monday until we finished crossing the Erasmus Bridge (completed in 1996). We had more time to check the buildings on such a sunny day. On Saturday we were in a hurry to avoid the next rain shower. We noticed a lovely 12 meter high mural on Holbein House (built in 1953 for a Swiss insurance company) which shows Erasmus as a knight crossing a river between Rotterdam and Basil on horseback.

Every day we see cyclists from at least four different food delivery services riding around. They are the only cyclists who wear helmets.

We continued toward the Erasmus Bridge. As we approached we noticed the the AIDA cruise ship nova was in port and many of her passengers were going in the opposite direction over the bridge. We stopped to watch a powered barge filled with containers. Once on the other side we did not turn at the first street but followed the road as it curved. We missed our right turn to the ss Rotterdam, which added one kilometre to the walk. It was a great day for walking. We walked for over one kilometre along Maashaven where barges were moored. Some looked like the captain and his family lived on the barge. On the other side of the pathway were nice townhouses one looked lovely with its draped purple wisteria. When we arrived at the ship we had walked over 6.5 km and almost 9,000 steps. The ss Rotterdam is now a floating hotel, which Eric and Lois from our dining table on the cruise had planned to stay at for a few nights.

The ss (steam ship) Rotterdam went to sea in 1959 sailing until 1997. She became a hotel in Rotterdam in 2010. She was the fifth Holland America Lines ship to be named Rotterdam. She is the only former Premier Cruise Line vessel still afloat. The ss Rotterdam is owned by the same company, WestCord Hotels, as the Hotel New York, which was the former Holland America Lines headquarters and is across from the current Holland America Lines cruise terminal. We looked around Decks 1 and 3 and took interior pictures and some from the aft of the Deck 3 Promenade deck. You can see the white Erasmus bridge on the right and further in the background is the Williams Bridge, a red suspension bridge, that we crossed on our way to the Trompenburg Gardens and Arboretum. The Promenade deck was enclosed which was a new feature for a cruise ship, not the windowless open deck, like on the current seventh Rotterdam ship.

The capacity of the ship was 647 first class and a minimum of 809 tourist class passengers. She was constructed for cruising. She was converted to a one class ship in 1969. Later she came the ss Rotterdam hotel and museum in 2010. She sailed longer than her contemporary Cunard Lines ships Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.

The history of the Rotterdam ships follows:

Steam Ship - ss Rotterdam I from 1872 to 1883 Capacity was 8 first class, 28 third class or steerage passengers. An iron ship, it could be rigged as a brig with 10 sails. With a combination of steam and sail she sailed from the Netherlands to New York in 14 days 6 hours.

ss Rotterdam II from 1886 to 1895 Capacity was 87 first class, 70 second class and 650 third class or steerage passengers. first non-German ship through the then new Kiel Canal in 1895

ss Rotterdam III from 1897 to 1906 built at Harland & Wolf in Belfast, Ireland, later known for building the Titanic. Capacity was 20 first class, 150 second class and 2,000 third class passengers. Later sailing as Dwinsk, she was hit by a torpedo in June 1918 and sunk near Bermuda

ss Rotterdam IV from 1908 to 1940. Capacity was 552 first class, 555 second class and 2,232 third class passengers. It was the first two funnel ship.

Motor Ship - ms Rotterdam VI from 1997 to 2020. Capacity was 1,404 passengers. We sailed on it in 2009.

MS Rotterdam VII from 2021 to now Capacity was 2,668 passengers. We just got off it two days ago after crossing the Atlantic

Once finished looking around we asked google maps to give us a route to Trompenburg Gardens and Arboretum. The route was over five kilometres. We walked through a neighbourhood of townhouses and parks over to Fenix where we did a beer tasting last August at the end of our bike tour, after the bikes were returned. We could see the Hotel New Year with its two towers, the former head quarters of Holland America Lines. As we crossed the pedestrian bridge we noticed the Water Taxi station and several yellow and black water taxis. We continued on our way to Williams Bridge (Williemsburg in Dutch), a red suspension bridge completed in 1981. We also crossed the Williams Bridge on our bicycle tour last August. Crossing it we noticed that there were three river cruise ships moored on the other side of the Maas River. They were Amacerto, rafted (roped) to Rhein Melodie and separately moored the brown excellence baroness registered in Hamburg. From the top of the Williams Bridge above the trees you could see the Cube House roofs and the top of the Markthal. We turned right and walked along the walkway near the river cruisers when we heard loud screeching sirens that alerted folks a lift bridge was being raised. All we saw was a tiny pleasure boat with an awning roof. We decided that it was a test. It made the same sound going down five minutes later. The route took away from water, but before we left we saw a glass top of a building perched over older brick buildings. This was De Brug, an old building four story, former Unilever headquarters. Their new building is located now near Central Station. The transparent glass section is 133 meters long and “floats” 25 meters above the old Blue Band factory complex. To construct it, it was assembled complete on site and rolled into position taking from 2000 to 2005 to complete. We noticed an electric car parking beside what looked like a parking meter which could charge two cars at once. You paid by credit card.

At last after walking over six kilometres we arrived at Rotterdam's Tromenburg Gardens and Arboretum and once the €11 each entry fee was paid we walked to Flora Garden Restaurant. It was after 1 p.m. Our lunch was different. We each had an open face sandwich. Larry had avocado spread and parmesan cheese flakes with a 300ml with Gulper Pilsner beer and I had the best hummus with goat cheese and pistachio nuts and hot chocolate. Clouds started to form during lunch, but the sun shone on and off for the rest of the afternoon.

Trompenburg was established in the early 1800's and covers an area of 20 square acres. It is located in the Kralingen district near the Erasmus University campus. There is an English garden, forest garden and over 700 varieties of rhododendron which were just starting to bloom. We saw a pair of ducks feeding on a lawn with nine fluffy duckling around them. It was a stroll that took almost an hour weaving up and down the paths.

In less than an hour we walked almost four kilometres going almost due west back to the hotel. Along the way we passed Avenue Concordia which had many traditional Dutch style houses. We relaxed and looked at the day’s photos before going over to Dino’s Kitchen and Bar on Karel Doormanstraat, just a seven minute walk away, for dinner. We both had salads. Larry tried another Dutch beer, Amstel Radler 2.0 and I had a great Chai Latte.

Today we walked over 20 kilometres giving us 30,587 steps. Tomorrow we take the train to Brussels, Belgium which will take about two hours. We can give our feet a rest.

Steps today were 30,613