We took our bike tour of Rotterdam today, specifically of the port of Rotterdam. I have not ridden a bike in years, so it took some getting used to. The port was beautiful and there was a lot to see, boats, examples of their rising automation, the area that has changed around the ports over time, statues, the water itself and the wildlife that surrounds it. My personal favorite part was the tunnel that took us from one side of the port to the other. On bikes, we were really moving.
After that, we went to the Hague. A name like that creates an expectation for a city, and it didn’t disappoint. “Hague”, as I heard it, means “gate”. It was definitely the most sophisticated of the Dutch cities we’ve visited, we saw an art museum with beautiful works, we saw the “work” palace of the King of the Netherlands (apparently he’s a commercial pilot and still flies an airliner once a week), government buildings, and the Hague’s UN court. It’s primarily for settling grievances between countries, and I find myself wondering how their legal proceedings work, and by who’s law they operate. The Dutch are considered “neutral” a lot of the time, so it falls to them to settle these matters.
