Back from Europe!

We returned early Monday morning from our 16 day cruise to Europe and two
day stay in Copenhagen. What a terrific time! Favorites we

Cobh, Ireland, Falmouth, England, Paris, France and Rotterdam, Netherlands.

We also found Oslo, Dover and Copenhagen to be interesting, scenic and
pleasant. The weather was in our favor; we had a storm at sea one night on
the cruise and a thunderstorm on our last evening in Copenhagen, prohibiting
us from going to Tivoli.

Thanks to all on this newsgroup who gave me advice while I was planning the
trip. It came in very handy! Our hotel, Radisson Blu Royal was very
nice... very convenient to everything and we had a lovely view. Very
expensive, though! ;-) We found the people wherever we went pleasant,
willing to engage in conversation, especially Ireland, England and the
Netherlands.

A big thank you to all who helped with their suggestions and knowledge!

--Jean

"Jack Campin" wrote in message
...
Jean O'Boyle wrote:
We returned early Monday morning from our 16 day cruise to Europe and
two day stay in Copenhagen. What a terrific time! Favorites we
Cobh, Ireland, Falmouth, England, Paris, France and Rotterdam,
Netherlands.

You are the only person I have ever heard of who liked Rotterdam.

Care to explain?

Hi Jack,
I was intrigued by the architecture of the city. Rotterdam is by far the
most architecturally interesting city I’ve ever seen. They seem to take
pride in taking risks by creating buildings that are unique and add
character to the skyline. Since so much of it was destroyed in World War
II, it is like a city that rose from the ashes of a horrible war and has
grown into a mixture of beautiful, ornate and old among the modern. The cube
houses for instance and the buildings near them with the odd sized windows,
the pencil point shape building, as well as the oval ones suspended up
high...daring architecture! Ultra modern mixed with old, like the
Holland-Amerika Lun and the historic White House with that modern and
beautiful bridge which reminded me of our Golden Gate Bridge, not far away.
The beautiful old town hall, built in neo-renaissance style with its
memorial in front to those who perished. It was all decorated with many
floral arrangements while we were there.

It is a nice walking city with inhabitants who (at least the ones that we
encountered) were very friendly. Several times they stopped when we were
studying the city map and asked if they could help. For instance, there was
a gentleman on bicycle who stopped to talk to us while we were trying to
figure out where the cube houses were located, whom we saw a little later
because he had bicycled there to see if we had found it. This type of
kindness was unexpected and left us with a very good impression of
Rotterdam. We then had a long pleasant conversation with him and answered
all his questions about where we lived in the USA and those we had about the
Netherlands. So, I suppose that my appreciation of different styles of
architecture plus the friendly people contributed to my
enjoyment of Rotterdam.

Of course, stopping and having a local beer and some egg rolls (different
than those we have had before, but delicious) helped make our day even more
enjoyable and memorable!

--Jean

On 19/05/11 09:11, Martin wrote:
On Thu, 19 May 2011 00:09:40 +0100, Jack Campin
wrote:

Jean O'Boyle wrote:
We returned early Monday morning from our 16 day cruise to Europe and
two day stay in Copenhagen. What a terrific time! Favorites we
Cobh, Ireland, Falmouth, England, Paris, France and Rotterdam, Netherlands.

You are the only person I have ever heard of who liked Rotterdam.

Care to explain?

There must be some attraction. P&O runs a day in Rotterdam
mini-cruises from Hull.

An awful lot of people do those cruises just to party on the ship and do
a bit of shopping on their 'run ashore'.

What's the shopping like in Rotterdam?

--
William Black

Free men have open minds
If you want loyalty, buy a dog...

On May 19, 12:01*pm, William Black wrote:
On 19/05/11 09:11, Martin wrote:

On Thu, 19 May 2011 00:09:40 +0100, Jack Campin
*wrote:

Jean O'Boyle wrote:
We returned early Monday morning from our 16 day cruise to Europe and
two day stay in Copenhagen. What a terrific time! Favorites we
Cobh, Ireland, Falmouth, England, Paris, France and Rotterdam, Netherlands.

You are the only person I have ever heard of who liked Rotterdam.

Care to explain?

There must be some attraction. P&O runs a day in Rotterdam
mini-cruises from Hull.

An awful lot of people do those cruises just to party on the ship and do
a bit of shopping on their 'run ashore'.

What's the shopping like in Rotterdam?

--
William Black

Free men have open minds
If you want loyalty, *buy a dog...

What you seem to have enjoyed was the innate friendliness and
helpfulness of most Dutch people.
If you were after Rotterdam's modern architecture, fair enough.
I far prefer enjoying the Dutch (& Dutch/Indonesian food) in rather
more 'Dutch' surroundings!

"William Black" wrote in message
...
On 19/05/11 09:11, Martin wrote:
On Thu, 19 May 2011 00:09:40 +0100, Jack Campin
wrote:

Jean O'Boyle wrote:
We returned early Monday morning from our 16 day cruise to Europe and
two day stay in Copenhagen. What a terrific time! Favorites we
Cobh, Ireland, Falmouth, England, Paris, France and Rotterdam,
Netherlands.

You are the only person I have ever heard of who liked Rotterdam.

Care to explain?

There must be some attraction. P&O runs a day in Rotterdam
mini-cruises from Hull.

An awful lot of people do those cruises just to party on the ship and do a
bit of shopping on their 'run ashore'.

What's the shopping like in Rotterdam?

--
William Black

We did not go to shop in Rotterdam, except for a few small souvenirs for our
grandchildren. We are at the stage of our lives where we no longer buy
expensive things for ourselves...we are giving away what we have accumulated
to our children and grandchildren! ;-) But there shops of all kinds were
readily available in the city from what we could see in our walks.

--Jean

"Surreyman" wrote in message
...
On May 19, 12:01 pm, William Black wrote:
On 19/05/11 09:11, Martin wrote:

On Thu, 19 May 2011 00:09:40 +0100, Jack Campin
wrote:

Jean O'Boyle wrote:
We returned early Monday morning from our 16 day cruise to Europe and
two day stay in Copenhagen. What a terrific time! Favorites we
Cobh, Ireland, Falmouth, England, Paris, France and Rotterdam,
Netherlands.

You are the only person I have ever heard of who liked Rotterdam.

Care to explain?

There must be some attraction. P&O runs a day in Rotterdam
mini-cruises from Hull.

An awful lot of people do those cruises just to party on the ship and do
a bit of shopping on their 'run ashore'.

What's the shopping like in Rotterdam?

--
William Black

Free men have open minds
If you want loyalty, buy a dog...

What you seem to have enjoyed was the innate friendliness and
helpfulness of most Dutch people.
If you were after Rotterdam's modern architecture, fair enough.
I far prefer enjoying the Dutch (& Dutch/Indonesian food) in rather
more 'Dutch' surroundings!


That is true, we have experienced that kindness and friendliness in
Amsterdam as well, where we stayed for four days several years ago. They
made us feel very much at home and welcome.

Since we were on a cruise ship this time, we did not eat our main meal in
the city...We did however, have a chance to eat some of the food (mainly
snacks) that piqued our interest when reading the menus whenever we stopped
for a bite to eat during the day. My husband especially enjoyed tasting the
local brew of each city/country that we visited. In Amsterdam, it was
Jupiter Pilsner, which was recommended to him by the waiter. I even had a
small glass and found it very good; even though I am not a "beer" person.

I wasn't "after" Amsterdam's modern architecture, I was intrigued by the
mixture of the old and new. I have always enjoyed looking at different
styles as I did in Barcelona, which had its very own unique style.

--Jean

On 19/05/11 22:24, Martin wrote:
On Thu, 19 May 2011 12:01:31 +0100, William Black
wrote:

On 19/05/11 09:11, Martin wrote:
On Thu, 19 May 2011 00:09:40 +0100, Jack Campin
wrote:

Jean O'Boyle wrote:
We returned early Monday morning from our 16 day cruise to Europe and
two day stay in Copenhagen. What a terrific time! Favorites we
Cobh, Ireland, Falmouth, England, Paris, France and Rotterdam, Netherlands.

You are the only person I have ever heard of who liked Rotterdam.

Care to explain?

There must be some attraction. P&O runs a day in Rotterdam
mini-cruises from Hull.

An awful lot of people do those cruises just to party on the ship and do
a bit of shopping on their 'run ashore'.

What's the shopping like in Rotterdam?

No better than anywhere else in the Netherlands. Meadow Hall is a
better place for shopping.

Not for booze or tobacco.


--
William Black

Free men have open minds
If you want loyalty, buy a dog...

On 19/05/11 22:55, Martin wrote:
On Thu, 19 May 2011 22:30:40 +0100, William Black
wrote:

On 19/05/11 22:24, Martin wrote:
On Thu, 19 May 2011 12:01:31 +0100, William Black
wrote:

On 19/05/11 09:11, Martin wrote:
On Thu, 19 May 2011 00:09:40 +0100, Jack Campin
wrote:

Jean O'Boyle wrote:
We returned early Monday morning from our 16 day cruise to Europe and
two day stay in Copenhagen. What a terrific time! Favorites we
Cobh, Ireland, Falmouth, England, Paris, France and Rotterdam, Netherlands.

You are the only person I have ever heard of who liked Rotterdam.

Care to explain?

There must be some attraction. P&O runs a day in Rotterdam
mini-cruises from Hull.

An awful lot of people do those cruises just to party on the ship and do
a bit of shopping on their 'run ashore'.

What's the shopping like in Rotterdam?

No better than anywhere else in the Netherlands. Meadow Hall is a
better place for shopping.

Not for booze or tobacco.

You can get a lot of both in UK for the price of a P&O ferry return to
R'dam.

Not sure about that.

I know people who buy their smokes in Rotterdam because it's cheaper to
go as a foot passenger there in the off season and buy the stuff than it
is to pay UK prices.

Alcohol prices are cheaper ashore in both countries than
onboard

Agreed.

--
William Black

Free men have open minds
If you want loyalty, buy a dog...

On 19/05/11 23:36, Martin wrote:
On Thu, 19 May 2011 23:14:19 +0100, William Black
wrote:

On 19/05/11 22:55, Martin wrote:
On Thu, 19 May 2011 22:30:40 +0100, William Black
wrote:

On 19/05/11 22:24, Martin wrote:
On Thu, 19 May 2011 12:01:31 +0100, William Black
wrote:

On 19/05/11 09:11, Martin wrote:
On Thu, 19 May 2011 00:09:40 +0100, Jack Campin
wrote:

Jean O'Boyle wrote:
We returned early Monday morning from our 16 day cruise to Europe and
two day stay in Copenhagen. What a terrific time! Favorites we
Cobh, Ireland, Falmouth, England, Paris, France and Rotterdam, Netherlands.

You are the only person I have ever heard of who liked Rotterdam.

Care to explain?

There must be some attraction. P&O runs a day in Rotterdam
mini-cruises from Hull.

An awful lot of people do those cruises just to party on the ship and do
a bit of shopping on their 'run ashore'.

What's the shopping like in Rotterdam?

No better than anywhere else in the Netherlands. Meadow Hall is a
better place for shopping.

Not for booze or tobacco.

You can get a lot of both in UK for the price of a P&O ferry return to
R'dam.

Not sure about that.

I know people who buy their smokes in Rotterdam because it's cheaper to
go as a foot passenger there in the off season and buy the stuff than it
is to pay UK prices.

Better still is to stop smoking like I did 40 years ago. :-)


I did as well, but not quite as long ago...

But that's not actually the point...


--
William Black

Free men have open minds
If you want loyalty, buy a dog...

On 19/05/2011 22:27, Martin wrote:

There are very few Indonesian restaurants left. There is only one in
Leiden. Most converted to Chinese long ago.

What - even Sama Sebo?