Rotterdam, The Netherlands

On our European trip, we spent about half of our trip in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. It is the second-biggest city in The Netherlands and is the largest port city for the country. It has a unique history that I thought would bore me when I arrived. But I was pleasantly surprised.

Rotterdam was essentially destroyed in WWII. Because it served as a major port to Northern Europe, the Nazis destroyed it to control the import, export and transportation. So the city was rebuilt almost from scratch in the 20th Century. Almost all of the buildings you see in this picture were build after the war. This photo was taken from the Euromast, the tallest building in Rotterdam.


You get to sit in the "crow's nest" and spin around to see a panoramic view of the city. We took a little video so you could hear some Dutch:






Some nice German tourists took our picture and we took their picture for them:

In the giftshop of the Euromast, we found my FAVORITE souvenir of the entire trip. I didn't get these but they cracked us up so much that we had to leave we were being so obnoxious. Giant slippers that resemble classic Dutch wooden shoes.

The one on display was GINORMOUS and I could not stop myself from trying it on.