Robert

PREVIOUS POST HAD INCOMPLETE ADDRESS - SORRY<BR><BR>We are two couples who will be visiting <BR>Rotterdam this coming Monday, but only for the day. <BR>How should we get the most from our brief visit ?

Wayne

Robert--<BR>We made a day trip to Rotterdam a couple of years ago and just wandered around the older part of town, enjoying the architecture, the waterfront areas, and the shops. In addition, and this was a real bonus, we went to the Von Boymans art museum; the art there matches anything in the Louvre, but there isn't so much of it. If you enjoy art at all, it's a wonderful way to spend 2 or 3 hours.

Larry

I too am planning a day trip to Rotterdam at the end of the month, but please be aware that that art museum is under construction and the old masters are not available for viewing for a couple of more monthes

xxx

I am in Amsterdam now and would like to go to Rotterdam for a day. Is the Von Boymans art museum open yet? Is it a worthwhile excursion.

Mara

Parts of museum are open - see website for details<BR>http://boijmans.kennisnet.nl/agenda/nwagenda/index.html

xxx

We took a day trip to Rotterdam which was demolished during WWII and was rebuilt slowly since then and archectiture was unique and to some others very ugly. The canilever bridge covering the Maas river has one not two supports, a very thin and high peak at one end leaning backwards as if it were pulling the five or six lines support the busy roadway. It is an awesome sight this skinny little boy keeping the bridge from falling in the Maas river. <BR><BR>Behind the thin peak is a brown square office build and in the center of his is a huge square opening through which you see some of the older surviving building. On the other side a building which looked as if someone had pulled out a large slinpter and shoved it back into the building, that splinter leaning out opposite the bridge peak leaning backwards, and to call attention to itself there were digital images running up and down the high building.<BR><BR><BR> The image shatters your perception of what a building should be. My perceptions were shattered three or four times, huge yellow pipes crawling up the sides of a building like some Japanese animated cartoon, and the most perception shattering were the Kisk Kubus, a series of brightly colored children's playing blocks which were six or seven block houses jutting out over another busy highway.<BR><BR>It was a relief to our jiggled eyes to see the ancient Holland America building built at the turn of the century and was turned into a Hotel New York !!! It was like taking an antacid after an ennormous pleasant meal. Rotterdam was hardest hit at the river and its docks and the rebuilding , in their words, made it look like Manhattan on the Maas.<BR><BR>We knew about the reconstructiion but we had made no plans as to what to see. We arrived at the Rotterdam Central, a huge station, but there were no information or tourists kiosks there so we went into the plaza in front of the station looking for one. There wasn't any.<BR><BR>Before we decided to do anything, we needed lunch. There are a lot of shopping malls with high scale and budget shops which I think are called Winkels but no restaurants. We found a fast food place called BakerStreet. It looked good but the menu all in dutch (who can blame them) was confusing but we got to a young woman who carried us through the structuring a sandwich which did remind me of the buildings in the city but were delicious. Even that became an adventure. (I had to work that in because when you're in a strange country and can decipher the menu eating is an adventure and a trust since you are in the hands of the waiter)