HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO STEPHANIE!
Today we stopped in the port of Rotterdam, The Netherlands, which is about 30 kilometers inland from the coast, on the Nieuwe Maas River. It takes the ship over two hours to transit the river into Rotterdam, and the Captain had informed us that they were picking up our Harbor Pilot at 3:30 AM this morning.
We had set a wake up call for 6:00 AM, but I was awake at 5:30 AM and went ahead and showered while Stephanie slept a little longer. Today is Stephanie’s Birthday!!!!.
I worked on some of our planning for the day and packing up our gear until the wake up call came through and Stephanie got up. I put up the birthday decorations we had kept from my birthday while Stephanie was in the shower, and then headed down to get us breakfast from the International Cafe. We especially like the breakfast sandwiches on port days, it is easier and quicker to get them and eat in the room than going to the buffet and fighting the crowds for food, and a place to sit.
Rainy Morning In Rotterdam
It was quite cloudy this morning, and all of the streets were wet, so we knew there had been some rain earlier while we were sleeping.
We docked on time and they actually started letting off passengers earlier than the 7:00 AM scheduled time for disembarkation. We headed out about 7:15 AM, and were a little surprised at how few passengers were up and about. We are in port until 10:00 PM tonight, so most of the ship’s tours must have been starting later in the morning. We did not see many other people getting off the ship with us.
We headed to the nearby Wilhelminaplein Metro Station, about four blocks from the Cruise Terminal. We went down into the station and headed over to the ticket machine to purchase our Metro tickets to the Rotterdam Central Station. We were a little anxious, this is where we had issues on the last trip to Rotterdam in 2016, we could not get the machine to take our credit card, which we had assumed was due to the fact it was not a PIN priority card. We now had our new PIN Priority card, which had worked flawlessly so far.
There must be something about these Rotterdam ticket machines, we could not get the credit card to work this time either. The instructions were in English, but still did not make sense on the terminal where we inserted our card. There was a credit card payment option and also a PIN card payment option as well as coins, but no Euro Bills were accepted. We tried all combinations of the PIN Card and Credit Card, but nothing worked. We ended up only getting a one way ticket because that was all the money we had in coins. I was not a happy camper, we had gotten the PIN priority card just for these instances.
We headed down to the platform and got onto the metro to the Rotterdam Station, Line D. There was also a Line E that went through while we there, that had arrived before the D Line, but we decided to wait the 12 additional minutes for the line we knew stopped where we were heading, we were already frustrated from the ticket machine experience, and did not need another worry.
Once at the Rotterdam Central Train station, we headed to the ticket machines to buy our train ticket. They are a different type of machine than the metro ticket machines, but we had the same result, it would not accept our credit card. Having been through this before, we knew that it was time to go to the service desk and purchase our tickets there. At the ticket desk, we put our credit card in the reader, entered our PIN, and everything worked like it was supposed to. We knew it was working correctly because last time we had to sign a receipt, and show a Passport for identification because we did not have a PIN priority card. There is obviously something different about the automated machines and credit cards.
The next train was leaving at 8:12 AM, and so we headed to the platform. The train arrived on time and we were on our way to Amsterdam, stopping only once at the Amsterdam Airport, about two-thirds of the way there. The trip was only 41 minutes in duration, and we arrived at the Amsterdam central station on time.
We got off the train and headed outside the station to try and find the tram stop. Our plan was to head directly to the Van Gogh Museum to try and get tickets. We boarded the tram and purchased a 24 hour transportation pass which we have to scan in and out each time we use the tram. It was interesting because we tried to buy the pass from the driver, but the tram was so full of people, and took so long to load, she sent us to the rear of the multi car tram to purchase our tickets from a person seated inside a ticket booth. We had quite a long way to ride, and it was really crowded inside. Stephanie began talking to a man and his wife who lived there and he was really funny, and showed us sights along the route.
We got off at the tram stop for the museums, and then realized we had not stopped at an information booth for a map when we were at the train station. We headed toward one building but it was not the Van Gogh Museum, it was the Rijksmuseum. We headed back the other way and found a small city map in a tour brochure, which we then used to find the Van Gogh museum.
Park Near The Museums
On the way to the museum, we saw a museum shop and a ticket counter for the two museums. They had a sign stating that their tickets were sold out for today and tomorrow for the Van Gogh museum, which was disappointing. We headed over to the museum, where we saw a very long line of people who were trying to purchase tickets. Stephanie asked one of the uniformed museum workers about the line and he told her that only online tickets were sold out for today and tomorrow, but that the line to get tickets today in person from the museum was about a three hour wait. Stephanie was disappointed, but knew we could not spend that much time waiting for tickets.
Tulips In The Park
We walked to a nearby park to see some tulips that had been planted there. We then wandered around a little, just looking at buildings, and trying to familiarize ourselves with the area. The map we had was very small, and did not contain much detail, but it was better than no map at all. By this time, the sun had come out some, and that was enjoyable, especially for photos. After the park, we decided to go back to the museum shop to see what they had inside. Stephanie bought a nice small ceramic tile copy of “The Sunflowers”, painted by Van Gogh.
Floating Flower Market Shop
We decided to head back towards the city center to see the older parts of Amsterdam. We got back on the tram and got off at the stop for the floating flower market. There were a lot of vendors there, selling many types of flowers and bulbs for various types of tulips. It was a colorful display, but the crowds were almost unbearable, you could hardly walk down the narrow street in front of their booths. It was a little bit like a flea market for flowers and bulbs. We did see a magnetic wooden tulip bulb to make a Christmas ornament out of so we purchased that. Just down the road was a real Christmas shop, and we saw another ornament we liked there, which we also purchased.
Back Side of Floating Flower Market On Left
After the flower market, we found an authentic Delft ceramic shop and Stephanie found a small delft cat she liked. We did not realize until we went to pay that these were sold in a set of two for the price, one cat had open eyes, and the other had closed eyes, so we ended up with both.
We were getting hungry and so we found a bakery/sandwich shop and ordered two freshly made sandwiches. We found a bench outside by a canal and started eating our lunch. The weather had turned cloudy again, and it looked like rain was eminent. Sure enough, after we had a couple of bites of our sandwiches, it started to drizzle, and the wind picked up.
Some Sleet That Was Not Yet Melted
We headed over to some nearby stores and stood under a large awning along with quite a few other people. It went from a drizzle to a heavy rain, followed by sleet or small hail, which almost covered the sidewalk in about two minutes. I attempted to get my camera out for a picture, but by the time I handed my sandwich to Stephanie, and opened my backpack, the sleet/hail mixture was almost melted from the continuing rain. It only rained for about ten minutes, and then the sun started to peek through once again. We had finished our lunch and were glad we had found the awning to keep us dry.
Canals In Amsterdam
Next, we walked toward the “red light” district of Amsterdam. There is Church there called Olde Kirk, or Old Church in English. It was built when this area was full of sailors, and that is also where the red light district was located in the early days of Amsterdam. Stephanie got her first glimpse of the girls in the windows in their provocative outfits, no nudity, which is illegal.
Old Amsterdam Draw Bridge
We did not go into the church, passing on the steep entry fee. As we were heading to another area, but still near the church, a tour group was standing on the sidewalk and one of the ladies tried to take a picture of one of the other “ladies”, the ones for hire. This caused quite a ruckus, the lady of the evening, well afternoon, in the window banged on her glass and pulled her curtain shut. The guide was speaking another language, but you could tell he was letting his tour group know that photos of the prostitutes was not allowed.
Leaning Buildings
We started back in the direction of the Central Station pausing to take pictures of many of the crooked and leaning buildings along the way. When we got near the station, we saw the visitors information building, and we headed inside to get a map. We knew there was a Euro 2.50 charge, and we found the machines selling the maps inside the building. We saw that it required exact change, and we did not have the exact 0.50 coin, but thought we could pay more, 3.00, and the machine would just keep the additional 0.50. We were incorrect, it would not give change and it would not work correctly without exact change. A worker saw us having difficulty, and came over and took our money and brought us back the change and a map from behind the counter. We had just assumed the machine would work with putting in more money, but once we really read the fine print, it made more sense that it did not.
Inside Begijnhof
We sat inside the warm building and plotted some directions to the Begijnhof, a small area in Amsterdam that more represented the quiet early times in Amsterdam. We headed back over to the tram and rode several stops to the one closest to Begijnhof.
Initially, we walked in the opposite direction that we needed, but soon discovered our error and turned around. It is hard to navigate in Amsterdam, there are many angled streets, and many canals and bridges that prohibit you from directly heading to your intended destination. There were only two doors that allow access to Begijnhof, and they are located at specific addresses. The entire area is sort of an inside neighborhood, built around a small square and Protestant church.
Inside Begijnhof
Some areas are blocked off, and most of the houses are private residences. There was one old wooden house that was built 500 years ago.
There was also one building that looked like the others, but was really a secret hidden Catholic Church, located directly across from a church building that was a reformation church. Begijnhof was a nice area, and the church was open, and is still used as a Catholic Church today.
We got back on the tram and headed back to the Central Train Station. It had gotten both windier and colder after the brief rain, and also started getting cloudy once again. We were tired of the cold, windy weather, and crowds, so we headed into the Train Station to catch the train back to Rotterdam. We only had to wait a few minutes on the platform for the 2:04 PM train to Rotterdam. It was much more crowded than in the morning, but we had no trouble finding two seats.
The Rotterdam Train Station
The train ride was relaxing, and we were back in Rotterdam by 2:45 PM. We headed out of the station to find a grocery store so we could buy some stroop waffles, thin baked cookies with caramel filling. We found them at a grocery store about three blocks away. We contemplated walking a few blocks to some of the sights in Rotterdam, but our legs were tired, and it was cold, so we headed back to the train station to catch the metro back to the ship. Once again, we tried our credit card to buy the tickets from the machine, and while it seemed closer to working this time, it did not let us purchase the tickets.
We had enough change, so we used coins once again, but the tickets never came out of the machine into the drop slot. Stephanie saw a train company worker standing nearby and told him about our missing tickets. He just banged on the machine and out they fell, a good lesson to know. We asked him about the credit card issues we were having and he confirmed which selections we should make and the proper orientation of the credit card in the slot, all of which we had done correctly, but he did not know why it failed to work.
We got on the D-Line metro once again and, rode the three stops to our stop, Wilhelminaplein, and walked back to the ship. Our plan was to drop off our gear and have a snack, then head back off the ship into the cruise terminal and use their free w-ifi. There were a lot of folks doing the same thing. The w-fi signal was good at first, but slowed down as more people returned from their excursions, and came out specifically to use the free wi-fi.
I worked on the blog and uploaded some photos while Stephanie used her phone to text and look at Facebook to catch up with all of her birthday wishes. We did run into Sam and Glenda while they were returning to the ship. They came by and told us about their day in Amsterdam on the ship’s tour. They had a good time but had to wait ninety minutes in the cold for the bus to show up at the end of their time in Amsterdam, apparently it had been caught in terrible traffic.
Rotterdam Central City Area
I was not quite done with my computer work, but Stephanie wanted to head back onto the ship to go to the Elite/Platinum afternoon reception in the Vista Lounge. They were serving her favorite, goat cheese. In a little while, I wrapped up and met her there near the end of the event. We took the computer equipment back to the room and headed to Vines for some tapas and wine. The tapas and wine were great after a busy day.
Next, we headed to the buffet for some dinner, it was already 7:30 PM, but was still quite light outside. We were planning to be in a little earlier tonight just to keep more regular hours before our trip into Berlin. The ship was not scheduled to leave until 10:00 PM, so we knew we would not see much of a sail away in the dark.
After dinner, we headed down to the Wheelhouse Bar. Eventually, Dagmar and Gerd showed up and we all talked. Simon was playing the guitar and wished Stephanie a Happy Birthday, but did not sing to her, believing that she had not wanted him to because of her shyness. This was based on what she had told him about my Birthday, and he incorrectly though Stephanie was more introverted than me. He came by after playing again and wished her Happy Birthday in person.
Rotterdam At Night
We did not stay much longer at the Wheelhouse Bar. On the way back to the cabin, we ran into Sam and Glenda at The Cafe bar near the Princess Live studio. We visited for a few minutes before we headed back to the cabin for good.
We opened the curtains so we could watch our progress leaving Rotterdam and I packed up my camera gear into my camera bag since we would not need it any more for the cruise, with the exception of the camera itself.
Apparently, there were some late arriving passenger issues because we did not leave the pier until about 10:15 PM, later than scheduled. There was a large fair going on near the river, and the lights were bright and pretty. Almost all of the towns we visited this week had some type of fair or carnival, we surmised they were for the Easter holidays.
Fair In Rotterdam Seen While Heading To Sea
We headed to bed about 11:00 PM, and planned on sleeping in tomorrow morning since it is a sea day.