Pre-tour warm-up … a Gin for me and a beer for Mark.
During WWII The Netherlands declared themselves a neutral country as they’d been in WWI but were attacked by Germany anyway. The blitzkreig demolished 90% of the south side’s buildings from bombing and a resultant fire lasted 2 months. Only 10 original structures remained when the fire was extinguished.
Rotterdam, the largest port in Europe has a unique blend of old and new buildings. This is Holland America’s business headquarters, both old and new.
The Yellow Canary brewery … very good Hoppy Blonde beer & snacks. Nice afternoon.
Beautiful old church but apparently not in use anymore. (Our guide said nobody goes to church anymore!) I don’t know if that was his translation from Dutch to English or if it’s really true in that part of the world.
Nicest old building belongs to the head of the Waterworks. It’s empty now but once entertained Napoleon. The minister who runs the waterworks is regarded as a king. 😂
There was a lot of (fast) walking in keeping up with Braum, our tour guide. He had interesting stories and was proud of his Dutch heritage. We were happy to get back to the water taxi and then a 1/4 mile walk back to the ship. We did Nancy’s 10,000 steps today! 🤩
On board, we had a casual dinner on Deck 15 then went to the Tina Turner show in the Princess Theatre. It was a good day.
Saturday now and we’ve had breakfast delivered (just because we can.) 😜 Had a walk around the Promenade Deck 7 to work it off. We’re in Belgium 🇧🇪 now and going on a bus tour of the Flemish countryside then visit Loppem Castle. Tomorrow’s an ‘at sea’ day which we’re looking forward to. (At home, our kids are doing well with Nancy and even had some happy hour company with Pat & Rose! 🐾❤️) We’re missing them of course but are totally enjoying this trip!
BELGIUM 🇧🇪 (Day 3)
View of the harbor from Deck 17 near Sky Walker’s lounge
Sky walk to the lounge
Taken from our Stateroom .. notice gazillions of windmills out to sea!
Brugge … bought 3 tins and closed the shop by overwhelming the owner. WTH??? If this was the United States, there would be souvenir shops all over. There are none in this area of the world. What I did find was in a little (2 table) restaurant. Mark was outside while I went in and browsed around a little cubicle not much bigger than our refrigerator and found three little tins to buy. When I took them up to the counter, the clerk was flustered. As she was tossing them in a bag (not wrapping them up) she stopped other people from going into that area by saying “It’s closed!” I guess they are not used to having a tourist bus come in and 65 people get off. It was rather comical.
Cool door! Tiny store/restaurant. “Get out!” 😂
Gargoyle in “dog town.” There’s an entire story that goes about Dogtown but it has a rather nasty ending as they saw the dog as the devil. Now, of course it’s on every church and every building as a protector. 😳 Religion 🙄
Next on our drive was to Loppem Castle and the Countesses’ private home.
Loppem Castle … it’s open to the public certain days to help pay for the upkeep. It’s quite a beautiful place.
Mark took this informative pic
Reflecting pond loaded with large fish
Family Crest over the front double door
Lovely carved wooden finial post
Looking upstairs … when I heard the staircase creaking - nope, not going upstairs. 😜
Fireplaces have ceramic tiles! This is the women’s room to retire to after dinner
Private “wooing cove” with privacy curtain
