August 8, 2023 Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Zuiderdam was moored by the Holland America Rotterdam Cruise Terminal by 5 a.m. and restocking the ship started as a continual line of 53 foot trailer trucks took turns unloading one by one. At 9 a.m. the bunker barge positioned itself on the starboard side to begin refueling the ship which was not yet completed by 2 p.m. when we returned to the ship. Talking to crew members there were closer to 200 people departing and about the same number arriving for the 18 day journey back to Boston.

The sky had some clouds but there were sunny breaks. The morning temperature was 15° C with a 11 km/hr west wind, just right for a cycling tour. On the way to Lido Market, on deck 9, we stopped on deck 3 to look out at Rotterdam. This area had been bombed by the Nazi air force in May 1940 and badly damaged most of the city and then fires followed for four days after, leaving a few brick walls standing. Some buildings managed to escape the damage.

The new captain, Bart Vaartjes, boarded today for his three month command. A new hotel manager, Henk Mensink, also boarded. The other senior officers remained the same.

Our bicycle tour met at 9:30 a.m. in the World Stage and the six cyclists then were escorted to meet our guide, Robert, on the dock. There were three couples, all of which were on the Acadia National Park bike ride when we were in Bar Harbor. A group of 10 cyclists had left at 9 a.m. doing the same route. Our tour had been added less than a month ago. The bikes were six speed with brake levers on the handle bars. We wore our wind proof jackets and were glad to have them when we turned a corner and the wind blew suddenly. The route started over the Erasmus Bridge (Erasmusbrug) travelling from the south side to the north side of the wide Maas River. We stopped at a memorial for the burnt area from the 1940 Nazi bombing of Rotterdam. Robert gave us an explanation of the Dutch trading history. He mentioned that the Dutch traders were allowed to have a trading post in Fukuoka, Japan, (which we visited in April) beginning in the late 1500s after convincing the shogun that they only wanted to trade. They also convinced the Japanese shogun (lord) that the Portuguese traders only wanted to introduce their religion, so they were banned from trading in Japan. The Dutch enjoyed almost a 300 year monopoly with Japanese trade until the shogun era ended in the mid 1800s when American Captain Matthew Perry arrived in Japan.

We continued to a small harbour which had been built in the 1800s, by merchants whose mansions, which were not bombed, decided to build summer homes across the river. The beautiful well-kept buildings now are owned by companies. We rode to Museum Park where there are several museums. The striking feature of the park is the round glass Depot building that stores the artifacts not on display at the surrounding museums. Included currently are paintings from the Art Gallery, which is being renovated. There are public tours of the building with archival procedures in place. We proceeded along Nieuwe Binnenweg street on its bicycle paths to our first stop at a chocolate store, next to a curious shoe store. It was called Mascolori and featured unusual men’s shoes of various patterns and colours. The salesman encouraged us to come in and handed a business card to everyone as we left. At the Chocolate store, we could each sample one of the three dozen chocolates on display. Just a few shops away was a unique barber shop, “The Holy Ashtray”, with a 19^th century vibe, where only men are allowed. Continuing along Nieuwe Binnenweg street, attached to the street lights, were 1.5meter high Santas holding a black torch like object. At the next intersection we saw a four meter high statue of the Santa and were told ‘to use your imagination” as to what the Santa was holding – remember this is the Netherlands.

Next we saw a church that had not been completely destroyed in the bombing and fires. It had been restored. In its courtyard was a statue of Desiderio Erasmo. He was the illegitimate son of a Catholic priest and his housemaid. Desiderio was an intelligent man who became a priest and visited many European countries. He met Martin Luther and embraced religious change. A wooden statue of him was erected and later made from bronze in 1586. The Erasmus brug (bridge) by the cruise terminal is named after him.

Next Robert led the way to the indoor Market Hall which was built in 2014. It is a gigantic 20 storey arch, it’s hollow interior encloses the market. The sides are apartments which have windows on the inside peering to the market floor below and their other side has windows to the outside. The ceiling of the hall is a very large mural, which had the massive painting pixelated on to tiles and mounted one by one on the ceiling. Outside is a large outdoor market selling fresh fish, produce, flowers and many other things. Just a block away is an odd looking building of yellow cubes. They make up 38 three storey units with a square footage of just 250 square feet each. Robert told us that that size of unit is usual for a Rotterdam apartment.

We locked the bikes and entered the Market Hall, it has over 200 stalls selling a multitude of products. Our group of seven sat down at the Royal Fish café to eat small pieces of raw herring with sweet pickles and deep fried battered cod. The American couples ordered Cokes and we had orangeade. We took a route back to the south side of the Maas River on the Willemsbrug (Willems Bridge) to a memorial to the Jewish people of Europe who died and those which Dutch men assisted in fleeing Europe. One Dutch diplomat and his Japanese counterpart helped over 100,000 Jews escape to Japan, then the plan was for them to go to the Dutch colony of Curaçao in the Caribbean. However, from Japan they dispersed to Australia, North and South America. It was not until the Dutch diplomat’s death in 1961 that the extent of the Dutch/Japanese team rescue efforts was known. Rescued families could finally know how they were aided in their escape from the Nazis. Of the 11,000 Rotterdam Jewish people living in there in 1940, only 800 survived the Nazi death camps. We were close to the ship and returned the bicycles to the start point. Then Robert led us 600 meters across the pedestrian and bike Rijn Haven Brug to Fenix Food Factory. Here four of the group had two different 150 ml beers and the other two had lemonade accompanied with two kinds of locally made Dutch cheese. One was a mild Szechwan berry cheese and the other was an Oude cheese that needs to be cured at least 18 months. That was the end of the 9 km bicycle tour. It was just after 1 p.m.

We stayed to use the Wi-Fi then found a café called Coffee Company for cappuccinos right across the street from the cruise terminal. We were back on the ship by 2:30 p.m. When we passed through the terminal there were no officials wanting to see our passports.

We did surrender our passports to Guest Services after we were onboard per yesterday’s letter regarding Ireland immigration. Then we caught up on today’s newspaper that we had downloaded.

The 4 p.m. captain’s announcement notified passengers that fuelling still needed to be completed and supplies were almost finished being loaded. Rather than the planned 5 p.m. departure, Zuiderdam would be leaving after 6 p.m. It was after 7 p.m. before the ship left the dock for the two hour transit out the Maas river turning south west into the North Sea heading for the English Channel.

We met Cee Kaye and Brad for dinner. They had taken a Hop-on Hop-off bus tour and explored the outdoor market and Market Hall around the same time that we were there. We went to comedian Stevie Jo’s show in the theatre.

After the show we got our jackets and went up to Deck 3 to watch the final 30 minutes of the ship journey to the sea. The lifeboats sheltered us from a drizzle. On the port side there were industrial properties and oil terminals for most of the time we were out. There was one yard that had colourful large buoys.There were lots of wind turbines slowly turning in the moderate wind. When we past the breakwater, the swell in the North Sea was about one meter.

The clocks will be turned back one hour this evening.

Steps 13,836