Rotterdam

Booked into Easyhotel (as in Easyjet). Teased Norman about not being able to choose who you slept next to. We are plesantly surprised. Great location. During the 2nd world war, Rotterdam was bombed by the Germans until there was very little left. 14th May 1940 in 15 minutes they dropped 40,000 tons onto the port. The Dutch rebuilt it bigger and better. They have thrown away the rule book with building design. The cube houses and Markhal near Blaak station are jaw dropping. The roads are wide with plenty of room for trams, bikes and pedestrians. There are more cars than in Amsterdam but still less than the UK. We went to the Euromast, the view was incredible. (Norman chickened out of going right to the top.) Rotterdam is half the price of Amsterdam. Food choices are fabulous. Bazar is a big busy restaurant selling lovely persian inspired dishes, our favourite. It is altogether a more sophisticated city. We also went to Den Haag for the day. The political centre of The Netherlands, this has older buildings. The palace, where the King and Queen live, is lovely and quite small compared to Buckingham palace. We had a lovely walk around the gardens. Public transport is easy, cheap and on time - eat your heart out Thameslink. 

From the harbour in Rotterdam there are a lot of trips to be had. Best value is the Waterbus. For 3 euros you can get to the Kindersdyke to see the windmills. For a further couple of euros you can cruise the dyke to get a closer look. Good value for money and very picturesque. We also went on a Spido tour of the harbour. This used to be the largest harbour in the world but has since been exceeded in size by Shanghi and Singapore. Great photo opportunities of the city and its fabulous buildings.

Rotterdam is definately on my `come back to` list, as I feel we ran out of time and missed some places of interest. 

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