I had already learned from my few days in Amsterdam that the Dutch were some of the greatest mariners in the history of the world and had continued to advance in that industry even till today. Rotterdam is a terrific example of how they have held onto that strength. The city is the largest sea port in Europe and among the top three in the world in the amount of cargo tonnage that comes through. During our short two day stay in the bustling sea city we made sure to sign up to have a harbor tour on the city's biggest industry.
Rotterdam has dramatically changed in the last fifty years after being completely demolished by the German's during World War II. All that was left standing in the city were a few of the lucky churches. That said coming from Amsterdam to Rotterdam was coming into a whole new environment and level of modernization. Our taxi driver who had taken us to the train station in Amsterdam told us a very interesting quote that I found to be quite true. "Rotterdam is where the money's made, Amsterdam's where the money's spent." Stepping out of the train station in Rotterdam and into the city you could see a drastic difference. Skyscraper's scaled the sky, modernized buildings stood everywhere, and major bridges connect over rivers. Along with the ship filled harbor it was easy to see how Rotterdam could now be the country's financial center. It was a totally new atmosphere and it was only an hour's train ride away.
Once checked in we decided to call it a night and to prepare for the next day. We had to jam in as much as possible during our short tenure in the bustling city.
After eating breakfast the next morning we started trekking towards the harbor area to find out the tour's location. On our way over however, we were told about the great Rotterdam World Museum; The Wereldmuseum . So we decided to make a tweak in the plans and headed over to see what kind of surprises the museum had waiting. Right at the entrance they had a special exhibit on Manga, which oddly enough we both had an interest in visiting. It was definitively worth the visit.
It was actually a very informational tour about manga and the history of how the whole art style evolved. No it wasn't all about games and cartoons as your probably thinking. A lot of the concepts and original ideas were based of war designs and consequences of wars. Artists therefore transformed their thoughts into the manga form we see today. Many of the designs also have their connections to past Asian cultures, which was very evident after you saw were shown some of the museum artifacts on display.
The rest of the museum showcased other historical artifacts from different countries across the world on five different levels. It's a great museum if your into historical artifacts. After our slight detour, we went to the harbor to board our cruise tour.
The tour lasted around an hour and half. It was very interesting to see the harbor and how much goes through them everyday. After the tour we had some great Mediterranean food and headed back to the hotel to rest up for the next journey to the EU Headquarters- Brussels.
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