Rotterdam - The Little New York

The greater the distance grows from the trip through the Netherlands, the more distant the memories seem - everything feels as if in a dream, dreamed rather than lived. Forgotten is the fatigue in one's legs from walking long stretches through the city so that the curious eyes could take in neighbourhood after neighbourhood and somehow record all impressions, saving them to the hard drive.

One morning we got up quite early, made do with Starbucks coffee at the railway station instead of breakfast (seemingly the only place where a decent large size is available - everywhere else in Amsterdam and beyond, they served truly tiny cups), and boarded a train from Haarlem to Rotterdam, which by all accounts is radically different from Amsterdam and Haarlem itself. And so it proved.

The first thing that struck us was the spacious and modern Rotterdam railway station, where a huge screen is set into the vaulted ceiling, displaying views of the city's port. At the station's information centre we asked how to reach the two objects that interested us - the embankment where an excursion boat takes tourists around and shows them the city panorama and port, and also the zoo where our beloved birds - penguins - are housed. It turned out to be remarkably simple, as their logistics are of a high standard. Moreover, one could buy zoo tickets there and even save both time (by not having to queue) and a couple of euros. One ticket with discount to Rotterdam's BLIJDORP Zoo costs 21 euros.

Already on leaving the railway station, one's gaze was met by the first skyscrapers with sun-glinting glazed façades. Yes, this did not look like a city for pleasure-seekers, but for business people. By tram we reached Erasmusbrug - the Erasmus cable-stayed bridge - where every 45 minutes the boat Spido docks, unloads, and loads the next hordes of tourists. Tickets can be purchased at the kiosk right there under the bridge.

The water tour lasts 75 minutes and costs 13.25 euros per adult. What do you think the city is most proud of - its beautiful cityscape, its architecture, its bridges? No - it is proud of its port terminals, its many cranes, its enormous juice warehouses and transfer docks. Already since the middle of the last century, Rotterdam's port has surpassed New York's in cargo turnover and become the largest in the world. There is cause for pride.

What is more, all of this comes with the already-mentioned excellent logistics that has been worked out across the country. Everything thought through, without pomposity, simple and orderly. Travelling on the boat we could appreciate the work of the enormous cranes, which lifted heavy containers as if they were matchboxes. In the unloading zone stood ships from various corners of the world - most visibly from Asia.

We sailed past a coal unloading ship and to our surprise found that despite the enormous cargo volume and the adjacent bucket crane pouring coal into a large container, we felt neither any unpleasant smell nor saw the black dust so customary from the window of our Sarkandaugava flat, looking out at the Rīga terminals. One can see that this too can be done properly if the will is there.

For me, naturally, greater excitement was stirred by the mirror-glass skyscrapers that rose like giants on the river bank. What is more, their shapes recalled great ships turned to face the world's oceans, afraid of nothing - neither strong winds, nor high waves, nor financial markets, nor economic fluctuations.

The weather was truly good, the sun was warm and the wind was tousling hair and clothes. Among the travellers mainly tourists from Western Europe, especially Germany. What particularly caught the eye was that among the travellers there were quite a few people with mobility impairments, who have both the means and a healthy enough self-confidence not to decline a trip even if one is in a wheelchair. Ah, one can only hope that everything turns out so that in old age we too will be able to do nothing but go out and see the world, as all the great work will already be behind us, the home furnished, the business set on the right tracks.

The next attraction - Rotterdam Zoo. Even just looking at the map, one could conclude that the territory is quite large and a visit would take at least three to four hours. A peculiarity of the zoo is that a railway bridge passes through it, dividing the garden into two notional parts. You enter through one gate and exit through the other end of the zoo. Next to the zoo a huge car park, where cars can be parked in sectors, each marked with an animal silhouette.

An extremely wide range of animal species, including king penguins, which were unfortunately rather difficult to see as they were huddled behind steamed-up glass - the temperature difference between inside and outside made itself felt. Rotterdam Zoo also contains the fantastic aquarium whose floor you can walk beneath, watching shoals of fish swimming all around you. You have certainly seen pictures of the arched walkway enclosed by the aquarium's glass wall - well, there we walked through it, and the feeling was fantastic.

When we returned to our airbnb.com-rented home in Haarlem, the host was surprised that we had liked Rotterdam so much - in her view it is too "cold" a city. We did not regret, however, having devoted a day not to lounging in the sun but to getting to know yet another pearl of the Netherlands. Ah yes - about the lounging in the sun, that will be the next iinuu story. ;)