Rotterdam

We had an early start to leave with Chloe and Graham to get the tube to St Pancras for our 3.5 hour Eurostar journey to Rotterdam, stopping in Lille and Brussels. They are so lucky to live in the south and have such easy access to Europe by public transport.

We had a 15 minute walk from the remarkable station to our hotel called the James. It was really reasonable with spacious rooms, tea and coffee making machines and even a complimentary bottle of Prosecco. (I abhor the insipid stuff so Mr C had it).

We set out almost immediately to explore. We were pleased we’d found this hotel so close to lots of interest. We walked 5 miles, first heading to the market, on Chloe’s list we all loved it. It’s is enormous and full of interesting food stalls which we’ll revisit another time. We went to see the cube houses, close by, which were on my list. We were able to walk freely amongst them. There was a lovely view down to a bridge and barges. There’s heaps of pedestrian areas thankfully as looking out for the bike lanes, cars and trams means we are on high alert!

Graham was hungry and had read of a place he thought would be good to eat at called Aji. We got settled with a menu for small bites and drinks and the one for a full meal. The cocktails were €15 so we had the cheapest (tiny) glasses of wine at €8. We had 2 gamba tempura, plantain and peanut butter and bread and tomato to share. (The actual real food was what we’d pay for Michelin star at home so we decided on the small plates). The plantain was dry and undercooked. When we got the bill we found the wine was cheaper than the water. We’d asked for tap which they said they didn’t do but they had filter. They kept topping it up and it cost us €16. On the way back to the hotel, still hungry, we stopped at a Pizza place and had a glass of wine for €4 and pizza for €6.

The city is a feast of modern architecture, made necessary after WW2 when the city was obliterated by Nazi bombings.

It’s going to rain tomorrow so we’ll probably get a tram to the modern art galleries. It’s all we expected here and more.