Tuesday 12 August 2008

Rotterdam


Rotterdam is the largest harbour city in Europe. Once it could proudly call itself largest harbour in the world. Everything in the city seems to evolve around water. The city developed through the centuries as a harbour -, a manufacturer city, as a trade point. It began in the 14Th century as a small fishing harbour at Rotte riverside and only in the 19Th century did it really grow to a powerful harbour, since a connection was opened to the North Sea, from then till today the port has just been growing and expanding. Rotterdam is a relatively "new" city, thanks to WW2. Most of the city centre was bombed during the war and this is why there are so many new and daring buildings, such as the cubus homes. A few statistics about the harbour. Every year around 300 million tons of goods pass through the harbour. An average of 30.000 ships/per year leave the harbour and 130.000 have it as it's destination. It is also the main spot for oil, chemicals, containers, steel, carbon, food and metal transportation in Europe. When you are along the river "Maas" you can see a great deal of industrial structures, equipment and crates from a distance, but only when you take a tour on the Speedo can you access the otherwise inaccessible and see the enormity of the harbour and it's operations. Once a year, usually around the beginning of September you can visit the world port festival, where there are a lot of events and is completely dedicated to Rotterdam and it's harbour.

1 comment:

  1. Hoi Anneloes,

    Leuk dat je mijn blog leest! In eerste instantie dacht ik dat je een onbekende was die graag mijn blog leest. Dat gebeurt namelijk ook nog wel eens. Maar wie schrijft er nou Nederlands naar mij en haar blog in het engels. Oh Anneloes! Anneloes hoort bij Australie. Misschien moet je in je profiel zetten dat je in Australie woont. Waanzinnige trip hebben jullie gemaakt. Ziet er goed uit.

    Mirjam

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