Our last few days in the Netherlands were spent in Rotterdam. People we spoke to outside of Rotterdam seem to have divided opinions on it – some love it (it is said you can take any square kilometre in Rotterdam and find architecture from every decade of the last century, and it seems to have a lot happening) and some hate it (a lot of the city was destroyed during WW2, so despite the aforementioned architecture rumour, most of the city’s architecture is post-WW2 which is not always the most inspiring).
We spent our first day getting laundry done and just exploring the city a little, seeing its Town Hall, the old Delfshaven suburb, the church where the Pilgrim Fathers prayed before departing the Netherlands and Picasso’s Sylvette statue.
The Pilgrim Fathers church
Picasso’s Sylvette statue
But our main reason for visiting Rotterdam was to visit our friends Mark and Deborah (and meet their 2 year old boy), who on our second day showed us around Dordrecht (just outside Rotterdam) and took us to Kinderdijk (my other reason for visiting Rotterdam) for the day.
We had a lovely picnic lunch generously packed by Deborah, in the amazing sunny weather overlooking the canals and windmills.
… and spent the evening at their place, catching up for the first time since they left Australia 3 years ago. We had a great time guys, thanks for having us!
Loved Kinderdijk! Rotterdam not so much… Did Delft too.
Delfshaven was interesting, but our primary reason for visiting Rotterdam was certainly to see our friends and Kinderdijk. Didn’t get to see Delft though!