Rotterdam is the busiest port in the Netherlands and the largest harbor in all of Europe.
Not only is it a busy commercial area, but the waterfront is one of the most scenic and
popular visitor attractions in the city.
They've created pedestrian walkways and bridges to help you get around in this inner harbor
area, and there are so many things to see, there so many boats going by, you've got high-rise
apartments for the locals, and there is the Maritime Museum that we're heading for now.
Later in the segment we will also take you on a harbor cruise and show you the giant
shipping port of Rotterdam.
That's something you really want to do for any complete visit to this great city.
The harbor is the reason why Rotterdam was founded here 700 years ago.
You'll get a glimpse at the workaday world of harbor life, such as the many dry docks
where ships are repaired and we will see the main activity of this harbor, which is loading
and unloading the containers.
Maybe the best part of the ride is that you'll get some vistas of the amazing modern structures
that have gone up around the harbor.
It's the biggest collection of new skyscrapers in the country, some with a radical design.
We will show you highlights of the 75-minute boat ride later in the program.
The map overview gives you an idea of how extensive the harbor is, stretching out 40
kilometers within the oval outline covering over 100 square kilometers, or 40 square miles,
and the downtown where we shall get the program started as we walk over to the Maritime Museum.
The Museum collection contains nearly a million objects from six centuries of maritime history
and they say that it's geared for three generations.
It's for children, parents and grandparents, it's with a lot of interactive and hands-on
participatory exhibits.
Life in the old Atlantic cruise ships is re-created in one section with models of some of the
famous early ships on display.
You even get to walk inside some of the exhibits to give you that feeling of being there.
You'll find quite a bit of the original furnishings of those stately old ocean liners and many
maps, whether it's on the walls or the floors.
Massive container ships are the main vessels of the modern harbor, and with this model
we can look inside and see the containers are stacked down below deck more than above.
There are many highly-accurate models on display, including the old sailing ships from the Dutch
Golden Age back in the 17th century when little Holland became one of the richest and most
powerful nations in the world because of their excellent ships, military power, and business
skills, becoming the great traders bringing together Asia, and Europe, and the Americas
with their colonies in New Amsterdam (New York), and Brazil and the Guianas.
In Asia they had ports in Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, and
elsewhere, also in Africa, thanks to these ships and their well-trained sailors.
It's quite remarkable the Dutch continue this tradition through the modern day with the
ongoing development of the Rotterdam harbor.
Living on board a houseboat is very popular in the Netherlands and with this case we can
look inside, get a rare peek into the private life of these water dwellers.
Sometimes a barge was converted to comfortable dwelling, in other case like this it was a
coastal vessel, self-propelled delivering goods on the canals and rivers.
A video display brings you right inside, and then later you can physically visit one of
the houseboats out in the harbor, as we will show you soon.
The country's many canals provide an ideal setting for these floating homes, some of
which are more than 100 years old with original features, and others are quite modern.
In Amsterdam, the biggest city, there are 2500 houseboats.
Some of these floating homes are available as vacation rentals, providing an authentic
taste of life on the water.
The modern functional building was opened in 1986, but the museum is nearly 150 years
old.
A major component is the Maritime Museum Harbor located on the water right next to the building,
conveniently accessed by a series of walkways that reach into the harbor with many old ships
tied up at the dock, some of which you can not only step on board, but you can go inside,
as we will show you in a couple of minutes.
And this harbor section of the museum is free, no ticket required, open to the public.
You do need a ticket to see the inside of the museum which you can purchase in the lobby,
or better yet, if you had purchased the Museum Card it will get you into nearly all the museums
in the country for the one-time fee of currently €60, and it's good for a whole month, well
worth it if you're spending at least a week in the country.
It's a busy dock area with other activities happening such as the water taxi pulling right
up.
You can get on, take a little boat ride in the harbor with the water taxi.
You can also take a longer harbor cruise, some of which are conducted by the museum
itself using old historic ships, and others by their associates, such as the Spido boat
tour in the harbor that we will be showing you towards the end of the segment.
And they have a variety of other tours that you can hook into through the museum information
office with a combined ticket, such as to an indoor miniature world, or the tall observation
tower, or lunch on board a cruise ship in the harbor.
These old boats are in very good condition thanks to the ongoing maintenance work by
the staff of the museum, who you might see out doing some woodwork.
They keep all of these historic vessels in working order.
It's quite safe to walk around here, and some people even jump in the water, especially
if you're a local kid just out having some fun.
That gives you some idea of how clean the water is here, quite remarkable for a harbor,
which they've turned into the old swimming hole.
As you see with the apartment buildings all around, this is a residential community for
live, work and play.
Next we had a chance to walk inside one of these old working vessels and have a chat
with the caretaker who explained about life on board the ship.
"It's basically a vessel that was sort of a coastal vessel which catered from, say for
instance Rotterdam to Brussels with general cargo.
There is a family living on board this vessel with the parents and the six children, (Laughs)
six.
"And how many rooms, living rooms do they have here?"
"They've got one living room, uhm, downstairs, and there's two-bedrooms basically, one for
the parents, which is quite large for a vessel, and downstairs there is an area for the children.
"Well this is the living room where the family lived.
This was actually who quite luxurious
for the time, because there's a lot of brass and copper in the vessel which is unique in
that respect.
It was built in 1905 and in 1920 was equipped with an engine.
"Well basically from inland waterways."
"Canals?"
“Canals, yes."
"Primarily canals."
"Canals."
“So it would go on the Rhine, yeah, and the rivers."
"The rivers yeah, basically towards Brussels."
"Towards Brussels, back and forth, Rotterdam, Brussels."
"Yeah."
"Marine Highway."
(Laughs) "Yeah" Usually at least one of the ships is open
like this to the public on any given day, and all of the ships are available to look
at from the dock.
When done with the Maritime Museum an ideal follow-up is to take a boat ride in the great
harbor of Rotterdam, which is easy to reach on a scenic stroll along the harbor shore
for about 800 meters that'll bring you to the boat company.
The route brings you under the spectacular Erasmus Bridge opened in 1996.
The harbor tour company is called Spido with a fleet of modern comfortable touring ships
they operate year-round, and during the season from March through September they have departures
every 45 minutes.
You don't need reservations, just show up and buy your ticket right next to the Erasmus
Bridge.
The first building seen is the largest structure in the country, called De Rotterdam.
It was designed by Rem Koolhaas, one of the world's greatest architects, a local man with
offices based right here.
It's got 240 apartments, a hotel with 285 rooms and just as many offices, along with
cafés, and restaurants and a fitness facility.
Our boat route makes a little round-trip going back and forth under that Erasmus Bridge so
you get several views to take in this largest building in the country.
This ship is quite comfortable with seating on the upper deck.
That's the best place to see everything of course, even though it was kind of windy and
cool today.
Or you can go downstairs into their cafeteria area and relax of the table with some food
and drinks.
The De Maas glass tower is government headquarters for the Department of Public Works and Water
Management.
We'll see lots of other boats buzzing by on your journey, such as the water taxi speeding
along and this typical river cargo ship with living accommodations on board, similar to
what we've just seen.
Another Spido ship passing behind us as we get a look at the Euromast observation tower.
It's 185 meters high, the tallest observation tower in the country.
Greenpeace is still active, protecting the oceans from overfishing and pollution while
working to promote clean energy.
Floating Chinese restaurant called Seafood Market featuring all-you-can-eat.
The boat has a couple of open-air decks so you're free to walk around and look at the
view on both sides.
It's wonderful the city is taking advantage of the long coastline they have with this
harbor, to build some condominiums with the view of the water.
They’re designed with a nice variety of size, some of them very high, others low-rise
and a lot of midrise.
Unfortunately, most of the new housing is quite expensive, especially with such a great
location.
We're coming up on a most unusual-shaped building with a strange top that sticks out.
This is the Shipping and Transport College, 65 meters high, and that cantilever portion
is a conference room.
We have reached the best angle, the best location for seeing all of the major skyscraper buildings
of the city clustered together.
We will see them again on a return after we pass one of the great landmarks of the harbor.
The SS Rotterdam began service in 1958 as a transatlantic passenger ship.
This was slightly before the modern era of cruise ships, of mega cruise ships.
In its day this was one of the most glamorous and deluxe ships afloat.
It was in service for 40 years and now it's permanently docked in the harbor functioning
as a hotel, there is restaurants on board and you can pay for a tour to go and walk
through the different state rooms and the engine room and up on the decks and the bridge.
The ship's main route was Rotterdam to New York, and now nearby is the former headquarters
of the shipping line, the Holland America line, nestled amongst the new skyscrapers,
and the old building is now the deluxe Hotel's New York with a lovely café out front.
The tall building behind it with the M on top was briefly the highest building in the
country when it opened in 2005 with 152 meters.
These skyscrapers are all clustered on a small peninsula called Wilhelminapier.
This modern naval ship is quite a contrast with the old-fashioned three-masted schooner,
the Opsterschelde.
It's one hundred years old.
Thoroughly renovated in 1988, it sailed around the world two times since then.
it offers occasional day trips in the Rotterdam harbor and much longer voyages to the North
Sea and elsewhere.
Now we have arrived at the working harbor.
We've left those fancy skyscrapers and residential areas behind, cruising now through the port
where they take care of business.
This was the world's biggest port from 1962 until 2004 but now the biggest ports are in
Asia, especially Singapore and Shanghai.
Rotterdam is still the world's sixth largest port in terms of annual cargo tonnage and
the biggest in Europe.
This is also major shipyard where all sorts of repairs are done using these dry docks
including some medium ships as well as some larger ships, lifted from the water so the
repair people can gain full access.
Every year 30,000 seagoing vessels come here, along with 110,000 inland vessels arriving
by canal or river.
They are serviced by 180,000 people who work in and around the port.
With the 12 million containers that are handled here every year you could circle the world
twice.
One big ship can carry 20,000 containers, and there is 470 million tons of goods trend
shipped here annually.
The amount of steel passing through the harbor each day is enough to make about 11,000 cars.
Every day 200 trucks are loaded up with fresh fruit and vegetables which are driven to all
corners of Europe.
This information is provided by the Port of Rotterdam Authority, which is responsible
for ensuring the safe, smooth and secure operation of the port.
It is jointly owned by the city and the country.
They guide the shipping traffic by a high-tech radar system that can be compared to air traffic
control at an airport.
During the 75-minute cruise you'll most likely get a chance to see some container action
being loaded or offloaded from a ship.
Most of this work is done by robots, autonomous cranes acting with minimal human supervision.
It's the most efficient way they can deal with such huge volume.
In addition to the shipping, a variety of other economic activities take place, such
as refining oil, manufacturing plastics, stripping the containers, recombining cargo loads, packaging
goods for wholesale distribution, and so a wide variety of types of jobs are at work
here.
All of them highly skilled.
That completes our look at the harbor.
On the way back to the dock we pass more residential buildings.
There is a much longer 2 1/2 hour tour offered by Spido during the months of July and August,
but I think you'll find the 75-minute trip is just about right.
And it is quite relaxing to be able to sit down, and then walk around, move about the
ship and sit down somewhere else.
You're not going to get bored in that brief time.
And there's always the snack bar.
Then you'll be rested up for continuing your walking tours in the city when you get back
to the dock.
We have more movies about Rotterdam and many other videos about the Netherlands.
Look for them in our collection