Day 12 (July 17, 2018):
One of the cool things about The Dutch hotel, is that you hang a paper bag outside your door before midnight, indicating what time you’d like breakfast. The bag is delivered, filled with an excellent continental breakfast. And that’s how we started our day at 8AM.
The healthy breakfast in a bag at The Dutch.
The 19 century pastor’s house, where our good friend grew up.
The church next-door to his house...
...sadly, now a pub. So many beautiful old churches is in the Netherlands have been re-purposed in recent decades.
Back in Maastricht, we found it humourous to see that a company is offering city tours based on the pure novelty of doing the tour “in an American school bus”!
Looking towards “the other side of the river” in Maastricht.
The view of Centrum (downtown) and the Servatius Bridge, with a river cruise boat moored.
A conglomeration photo of Maastricht’s most famous churches.
The largest surviving section of the old city wall.
This is Helpoort, the oldest city gate in the Netherlands.
Helpoort literally means “Hell’s gate”. It was built in 1229.
Queen of the castle!
How is that for a quaint house?
About to start our journey to Rotterdam.
Rotterdam Central Station. What strikes you as you exit the station, is that unlike most places in Europe we have visited, Rotterdam is an ultra modern city. Theee days after the Dutch government surrendered to the Nazi’s in 1940, hitler’s war machine deliberately bombed and flattened Rotterdam.
The main Avenue leading south from the train station is filled with modern architecture and high-rise buildings.
The city is a showcase of modern architecture through the last seven decades.
This is Markthall, an “inverted U” building, with condos on the sides, and a huge open interior space featuring a variety of food vendors.
Markthall’s interior.
Another sea of perked bicycles. This is an all-too-common scene across the Netherlands.
Among the food vendors in Markthall, this one sells everything pork, including pigs’ feet.
Every variety of cherry tomato you can imagine.
And tonight, we went Greek!
After breakfast, we set out by train for a nearby village called Bunde. Bunde is where a good friend and one of the groomsmen from our wedding comes from. Ever since I met him in 1990, I have wanted to see this little place near Maastricht where he is from. Thanks to Google Maps, we wandered the town and found the 19th century home where he grew up. (It has been sold, and no one from the family still lives in the village.) The house had been built as the pastor’s home, and at the time was the largest house in the village. Ironically, the pastor lived alone. The old church next-door, has sadly been turned into a bar. Still, it was nice to have finally visited the village.
We took the train back to Maastricht and did one final swing through the historic town, taking in a few more sites before starting our journey to Rotterdam at 1:30PM.
The Dutch Rail network, equipment and precision, is simply outstanding. Our journey involved two transfers, but we arrived at Rotterdam’s Central Station on time at 4:15PM, walked to our hotel (which will serve as our base for the remainder of our week here), then took the modern metro to an amazing food hall for a Greek dinner.
With seven cities to see in the next five days, we’re heading to bed a little earlier tonight for an early start tomorrow.
The healthy breakfast in a bag at The Dutch.
Arriving in Bunde, a village I have wanted to visit since 1990.
The 19 century pastor’s house, where our good friend grew up.
The church next-door to his house...
...sadly, now a pub. So many beautiful old churches is in the Netherlands have been re-purposed in recent decades.
Back in Maastricht, we found it humourous to see that a company is offering city tours based on the pure novelty of doing the tour “in an American school bus”!
Looking towards “the other side of the river” in Maastricht.
The view of Centrum (downtown) and the Servatius Bridge, with a river cruise boat moored.
A conglomeration photo of Maastricht’s most famous churches.
The largest surviving section of the old city wall.
This is Helpoort, the oldest city gate in the Netherlands.
Helpoort literally means “Hell’s gate”. It was built in 1229.
Queen of the castle!
How is that for a quaint house?
About to start our journey to Rotterdam.
Rotterdam Central Station. What strikes you as you exit the station, is that unlike most places in Europe we have visited, Rotterdam is an ultra modern city. Theee days after the Dutch government surrendered to the Nazi’s in 1940, hitler’s war machine deliberately bombed and flattened Rotterdam.
The main Avenue leading south from the train station is filled with modern architecture and high-rise buildings.
The city is a showcase of modern architecture through the last seven decades.
This is Markthall, an “inverted U” building, with condos on the sides, and a huge open interior space featuring a variety of food vendors.
Markthall’s interior.
Another sea of perked bicycles. This is an all-too-common scene across the Netherlands.
Among the food vendors in Markthall, this one sells everything pork, including pigs’ feet.
Every variety of cherry tomato you can imagine.
And tonight, we went Greek!
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