Day 13 - Fri., April 18, 2025 - Architecture-New & Old (Rotterdam & Kinderdijk)

Pin of the day

Hi all, Kara again. If you recall at the beginning of the cruise, we learned that rather than docking in Delft, we would be docking in Rotterdam. This was the best plan that could have happened for us.

We had planned to do on our own time in Delft - which quite honestly might not have even happened as we weren’t all that excited about Delft. However, we were thrilled to get the opportunity to explore Rotterdam on our own. 

We decided not to set an alarm, knowing that we would be awakened by the Cruise Manager reminding folks at 8 a.m. that it as time to leave for their tours. Alas, that is exactly what happened. (Side note: I slept really poorly last night so I knew today might be a bit of a struggle.)

We both got up and got ready and then headed out into the city. We made our way across a couple of the canals and found the Cube Houses. This unique architectural style is an experiment that was built in the early 80s. There are three or four different cities in The Netherlands that have Cube Houses. 

We enjoyed taking some cool geometric pictures through the roof lines of the Cube Houses. We decided that it was worth the 3 Euros each to also walk through one of the Cube Houses. It’s not for me - mostly because of all the stairs. However, I can see that for someone really creative, it would be a cool, fun place to live. 

After exploring the Cube Houses and going to a little gift shop to grab a couple of post cards, we headed to Markethaal which is an indoor shopping complex with a giant international food court on the main level. We enjoyed strolling through and looking at all the booths. This reminded me a bit of City Market in Indianapolis as well as the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. 

After making our way through the entire place we decided on paninis at Jo’s World Foods. These were tasty and I got my first Fanta in a can. 

After lunch, we helped ourselves to a hot, fresh stroopwaffel. Gayle went with traditional and I had salted caramel filling. They were good, but the one we had on our food tour in Amsterdam as better. 

There was a grocery store down one level so we headed down there to grab a few more stroopwaffel bags to take home with us and then we headed back to the ship to get ready for our afternoon tour to Kinderdijk.

After a brief break for some rest and reading, we headed to the lounge for our 2 p.m motor coach departure. It was about 20 minutes by motor coach to the windmills. I grabbed a quick snooze.

We arrived at Kinderdijk and you are immediately transported back in time to the 1680s - 1740s when these Windmills were put into use to pump water from the canal into the river so it can flow out to the sea. I’m sure you’ve seen the windmills in pictures. Pictures didn’t do them justice. It was incredible to see this amazingly preserved piece of history. 

We boarded a small canal boat to take us to one of the three museum windmills. Windmills are still rented by the water management board to millers who must get at least 60,000 revolutions per year - which generally is not a difficult feat. There is a 13 - 14 year waiting list to get a windmill. 

The miller demonstrated how he furls the sails on the windmill. You only want to have 0, 2, or 4 sails out depending on how much wind you have. You never want to be 3 sheets to the wind (or 1). There was just a very light wind today, but he was able to get the windmill positioned so that with the sails out, we got to see it spin a bit. 

After the outdoor demonstration, we got to head inside the windmill. It's incredible to think about a miller who, when these were first built, had to keep that windmill running night and day through all the weather this area receives - or risk flood. The amount of effort is astounding if you had to do this full time.

When this part of the tour ended, we were taken back by boat to the gift shop and museum entry area. We browsed through the gift shop a bit and each picked up a small trinket and then it was back to the ship.

They switched up our farewell activity to tonight since we would be docked back in Amsterdam tomorrow and folks might want to go out on the city. We all gathered in the lounger for a PowerPoint presentation with lots of the Adventure Guide photos from the trip. It was a lovely little send off, even though we still have one more day of adventuring to go!

Here is Kara's video from the day, published while we were on the trip.

Next up: Our final tulip time...

On that note… Disclaimer: I (Gayle) am a travel agent with Authorized Disney Travel Planner agency - Off to Neverland Travel. Contact me today for a no-obligation quote!

As to Disney artwork, logos, and properties: ©Disney | Ship Registry: The Bahamas | CST# 2090317-40 / Fla. Seller of Travel Ref. No. ST37203