Another late start the next day. No surprise. Our friends packed up and we walked with them to the tram station. We also went to the central station. They went on to Zandfoort and we went to Mini World to finally see the model railway layout.
Mini World is – without doubt – the best model railway I have ever seen. The attention to detail defies belief. They recreate areas of Holland from sections of Rotterdam’s Europort, to polders, to farms, to pre-war and post-war architecture. And they recreate modern day scenes such as a music festival, an archaeological dig with dinosaur bones and a beach with a nudie section. They even have emegency scenes such as a building on fire and a plane crashed into a roof. The lights dim about every 20
River Maas Rotterdam
minutes and you get night-time activities. It’s well worth seeing just for spotting the fun bits.
Back at our boat we got cracking with laundry. Fortunately Veerhaven had a launderette. We had four full loads. A wash costs €2.50 and a dry costs €2.50. Much cheaper than most other laundrettes. While that was going on we caught up on comms, our diaries and logs, sizing and saving photos and all the stuff we probably don’t actually need, but like to record.
Picasso statue Rotterdam
We opted to stay yet another day in Rotterdam. There is a helluva lot to see and do and on checking the tourist map we realised we wanted more time. So after a late and lazy start to the day, we went walk-about. Why does it always rain when we want to explore a place on foot? This time we walked along the waterfront and veered toward Binnenrotte area where there are lots of eateries. We stocked up at Marqt, one of our favourite eco friendly food stores. Then we walked the other way along the waterfront to Het Park and the Euromast. We passed on going up the Euromast which was €9.50. But there is lots going on there. Have a meal, stay the night, go abseiling or just admire the view.
Rotterdam is so completely different to Amsterdam. It was hit
Euromast from Het Park Rotterdam
hard during the war and has lots of newer and taller buildings. It’s the most culturally mixed city in The Netherlands. The current mayor is a practicing Muslim. I really liked Rotterdam and could have stayed another day but we had to keep going. Rotterdam was the most expensive marina to date. We paid €24.00 per night. The cheapest we’ve paid was €10.00.
Our favourite store – everything is organic
The next trip was to Delft. What a beautiful place. But my goodness the marina is awful. They are busy spending a small fortune upgrading the train station, yet there is space for only 7 boats in the marina. All 7 spaces were full by the time we got there, not surprisingly. We went back and found 4 more parking places on a
Delft
busy road outside the marina. There were 2 spare so we took one. No facilities. No services. Half the problem with Delft is big passenger ships hog what little space there is for pleasure boats. And then for some reason they don’t allow mooring on about 70% of the actual space within the marina.
Delft is a gorgeous place. A student town, so it has a fun feel. They have preserved their old buildings and kept as much of the history as possible. It has lots of green trees and waterways with lilies in
Belgian beers in Delft
bloom. There is also an IKEA about 2 kilometres from the city centre on a bus route. Very handy since we needed a few more things for our boat and so made sure we stopped by IKEA. We also had a bargain lunch at IKEA and stocked up on our favourite Swedish foods.
Our road side stop outside Delft wasn’t great. For some reason our boat water was cold. Icy showers for both of us. We had big barges belting past on the one side of our boat and cars and lorries on the other. The following day we decided to give up on Delft and head for Leiden. As we were going through Delft we saw an open space. We instantly changed our minds and grabbed the parking place. The marina rules say you can only berth for 24 hours but we weren’t sure people
Delftware in Delft
would adhere to them. We tied up and went exploring again. We had a lunch at Bagels and Beans – one of our favourite fast food chains in The Netherlands.
I had invited a friend for supper, so we shopped up at Eko Plaza – our other favourite organic food store – and went back to the boat to make a meal. I got horribly carried away and ended up making a 4 course dinner. We had veggie rice paper wraps
Stadhuis Delft
with peanut soy dipping sauce. Next was a curried carrot and butternut soup. Main course was mushroom and tomato wholewheat pasta with a celery, pea and potato salad and crispy fried tempeh. For desert I made ginger honeyed apricots with soy yogurt and caramelised sugar crumble.
What to do and see in Gouda? Head straight to the VVV (Tourism Info) and get a copy of their map.
Cheese market in Gouda
They have a historical walk you can do yourself. Well preserved old buildings such as the City Hall, Market Square, Sint-Janskerk (St Johns Church) are located along with other key buildings. A bit further out you can visit a hofje (communal garden) or three, a lock on the canal and a couple of museums.
There was a vintage market happening the day we were there. Our boat is 21 years old. It has a CD player. I found a stall selling second hand CDs – 4 for €10. I bought eight CDs. Bon Jovi, Eagles, Level 42, Tears for Fears, Simple Minds, Elvis, Fleetwood Mac and Bruce Springsteen. We also topped up on provisions. When we collected our clean laundry my other half was well and truly laden down on the bicycle. He rode home and I walked after him. We had a shower and I got cracking making us a salad supper. Next thing a flotilla of Danish boats came into the marina. Twenty five boats left Denmark but only
Stadshuis Gouda
five were able to tie up in our marina. One boat double banked with us. Very civilised mariners – so my partner said. They dropped their ensign at sunset. And ONLY walked over the front deck. Stuff I didn’t even know was important.
Thursdays they re-enact the cheese trading process at the square in Gouda and we were keen to see it happen. Locals dress up in traditional clothing and pretend to make, weigh, sell, do
Street market Gouda
what-ever, with Gouda cheese. We watched for a bit and then went with our friends to a cafe where we did a bit of planning. We collected their luggage, did a mini shop up, and went back to the boat. Supper was veggie and falafel wraps on the back deck. And Belgian beer. And wine.
We got going in the morning and made our way to Rotterdam. The inland waterways and canals are always perfect and calm. No rolling about. But the River Maas is tidal. And very busy. Big working barges create a wash and our little boat was rocking about good and proper. We ducked into Veerhaven and found one of the last spaces to
Skyline in Rotterdam
moor. That said, there is ALWAYS more space if boats start double banking. We finished our on-board lunch and went exploring with our friends.
We found the VVV (tourist info), got maps and info. Then we found a cafe and had not one but TWO rounds of beers. Round One we each had a different beer but Round Two we all had Texels Beers. Texel is the most populated of the Frisian Islands. It’s like one of the the Hebridian Islands would be to the United Kingdom. We try to have a different local beer but we also can’t help but be drawn to our favourites. It’s really annoying when we find a fabulous beer and then can’t find it ever again. Kasteel springs to mind and I fear Texels too. Grrrr.
On our way back home we stopped in at Albert Heijn
Lunch on the back deck
supermarket and bought provisions for a braai (bbq) supper. I made an aubergine parcel to bake on the fire and a big fat green salad. The others had salmon seasoned with lemon, olive oil and black pepper. Not going to lie, sitting chatting on the back deck, under the stars, eating good food and drinking wine is not a bad way to spend an evening.
Cube buildings Rotterdam
Day Two in Rotterdam we had a late start. Brekka was toast and cheese or Marmite or peanut butter. And tea and coffee. My other half and I set off leaving our friends behind to do their own thing. We started at the Maritime Museum. Spent at least 4 hours wandering around there. Then we went to find the Vegan Organic Bistro – Gare du Nord – to book for later the evening. After that we went to Mini World, a model train exhibition. We got there too late and decided to rather come back the next day. Our walk back to the boat was via China Town where we found an Asian supermarket. We spent €10 and came out with 1 kg fresh tofu, 400g tempeh, a large handful of fresh ginger plus large packs of seaweed cake, dried mushrooms (or so we thought) and desiccated coconut. We must have walked for almost 6 hours before we got back to the boat.
Back at the boat, we showered, got ready, and walked another 3/4 hour back to Gare du Nord. How did
Tram Rotterdam
we live before happycow.net? We find the most amazing places all over the world on their website. Gare du Nord is an old train brought back to life as a restaurant. They grow their own food. And teach kids from local schools how to make veggie food. They charge €19.50 per head for a 3 course meal. Our starter was a Spicy Sweet Potato Soup. Main was Bulgar Wheat with Wilted Kale, “No Meat” Lentil Balls with Tomato Sauce and a
Trying to read e-mails with one bar strength
Veggie stack with Pea Puree. Desert was a Citrus and Blueberry Tart.
We had an organic wine from the south of France which cost €17.50.
After our meal we took the tram back to our boat and sat talking until, I can’t actually remember, but I think it was 1.00am.
