We went back into Rotterdam on Sunday, so that we could have a walk around the centre of town, find some lunch and have a look at some of the interesting buildings that this city is famous for. We parked in the Markthal carpark again and headed to the shopping mall nearby. Fine day, but cold, and this time we’d brought our gloves and hats, so it was quite nice to walk in the 7C weather. It was the final day of the Rotterdam International Film Festival and we wandered into the Imax theatre, but they were just showing non-Imax films for the festival, so we kept on walking … to the beautiful modern Central Station, then to Witte de Withstraat, a street full of restaurants, nightclubs and a ‘coffeeshop’ or two or three. Then back to the Markthal, with a few stops to look at the 2-level bike parking near the metro station, and the Cube House and the outside of the Markthal, and a visit to one of the many bakeries inside for afternoon tea. This article has some great photos of the Markthal.

We drove to the Hook of Holland yesterday to have a look at the Maeslantkering, the storm surge barrier on the imaginary dividing line between the Nieuwe Waterweg waterway located at Hoek van Holland and the river Scheur, and one of the largest moveable objects in the world. Then to the coast to look at the beach and the North Sea. Not many people around on a chilly February day, but if the size of the carpark is anything to go by, it’s a popular place in summer.

And then on to Gouda, which is a bit north-east of where we’re staying. Greg did a very impressive parallel park along one of the canals, and we walked to the town centre to find … cheese! Of course. We tried a lot of different cheeses in one cheese shop and bought some smoked gouda and some farmers cheese with holes.

Central Station Rotterdam

Light-ship Rotterdam Harbour

Two storey bike racks at Rotterdam Metro Train Station

Cube Houses Rotterdam

Outside Rotterdam Markthal

Drying our washing in the AirBnB barn

Boat repair yard on the Canal

Driving to Hook of Holland we saw dozens and dozens of large greenhouses covering many acres

Maeslantkering, the storm surge barrier

Gouda Town Hall

Gouda Square

careful parallel parking in Gouda

Behind the property is a canal, the Delftse Schie, across the canal is the Hoftwijk Crematorium, and in front of the property are more farmhouses and fat, woolly sheep. To get here, we have to drive along a single lane road for a few kms. The road is also used by cyclists, walkers and horseriders, but there are small ‘pullouts’ every half km or so for cars to pass each other, no one is going fast and it all just sort of works. We’re close to Rotterdam Airport and can hear the planes taking off.

Yesterday, Saturday, we visited Delft and Rotterdam. There’s a Saturday flea market in Delft, in the streets around the old town square, so we went to have a wander and a look. First stall we spotted was selling stroopwafel and other sweet Dutch treats, but rather than jump right in and buy some, we walked for a few blocks to build up an appetite. Oh, the cheese shops! and the flower shops! and the smallgoods! Some of our Facebook friends are either Dutch, have Dutch relatives or have visited the Netherlands and liked the food,  and we seem to have crowdsourced lots of recommendations on what to eat while we’re here. We popped into a bakery and tried a couple of sausage rolls – one with minced meat, the other with sausage. We ate half of each one, then swapped.

We didn’t find anywhere else selling stroopwafels, so went back to the stall and got a Super stroopwafel each, hot off the griddle, and a pack of smaller ones to take home. 2 layers of thin waffle with syrup spread between them. Delicious!

Then we headed to Rotterdam. Greg had read about the Fenix Food Factory in an old warehouse on the south bank of the Nieuwe Maas River, so we went to find some lunch. Great variety – Moroccan, Asian, bakery, cider, microbrewery, waffles, cheese. We had pork belly rolls from the Asian stall and they were delicious. This area of Rotterdam looks like it is being trendified, but I imagine in the not-too-distant past it probably went through a long phase of being the dodgy part of town. Just across a footbridge is the New York Hotel which is located in former head office of the Holland America Line. The HAL moved its head office to Seattle in the 1970s, and the hotel was opened in the early 1990s

We drove and parked in the Markt carpark in the Rotterdam CBD, so we could have a look at the Rotterdam Markthal  Market Hall, a new building which opened in 2014. It has amazing artwork on its arched roof, and in addition to the food stalls and other shops on the ground floor, it houses offices, apartments and the city’s largest underground carpark. We found a stall selling hot chips friet in paper cones, so we shared a large one and watched the chips being cut from whole, peeled potatoes while we ate.

There’s a well-stocked kitchen shop in the Markt and we wandered around it for a while and  found an electrical brand we had never heard of before – Expressions of Australia. There was an interesting-looking slow cooker / sous vide machine, some coffee machines and a portable grill all with this Expressions of Australia brand. Some online searching and it seems to be the Sunbeam brand, renamed.

By then, it was around 4pm and raining so we came back ‘home’, stoked the fire and settled in for the night.

I’ve just found a website called Stuff Dutch People Like and I think Greg is going to apply for Honorary Dutchman status – top of the list is Bicycles, and number 3 is Hagleslag chocolate sprinkles!

Rotterdam Markthal

Some of the roof of the Rotterdam Markthal

Ordering pork belly buns at Fenix Food Factory

Canal in Delft

Another canal in Delft

Sprinkles or Hagleslag choices at the supermarket to put on your bread

Ordering a Stroopwafel

The delft flea market

The Barn we are staying in and the canal

The other side of the Barn we are staying in

Bikes are are parked everywhere

prepackaged ingredients at the supermarket