Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel - Breskens, The Netherlands

Sunday 7th November 1999

It was time to continue south but first Ed offered to show us around Rotterdam, his old home town. Since we wanted to visit the museum anyway we cheerfully accepted and were soon following him down the road, passing some homes that looked more like castles with their canal-moats. We left the van at a park-and-ride on the edge of the city and hopped into Ed's car for the guided tour.

Almost destroyed at the start of the second world war, Rotterdam has rebuilt itself as a modern city, with tall buildings the likes of which you don't often see in Europe. It is still the busiest port in the world and the city seems to revolve around the harbour, now extending all the way to the North Sea. A few glimpses of the old city remained and we enjoyed seeing the city through the eyes of a local. Ed dropped us off at the museum and we waved goodbye, having had a wonderful couple of days with his family.

The museum boasted a wide selection of art, counting Dali, Magritte, Monet, van Gogh, Picasso, Gauguin, Cézanne, and Munch amongst its modern collection, with Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and Rembrandt representing the older school. With such a collection we were looking forward to our visit, despite the steep entry price.

One wing was devoted to a special exhibition on Dutch classicism so we started with that. Nothing very special but nice enough all the same. We then came to the permanent collection and the old masters. This turned out to be a little disappointing with only one or two pictures from each and not particularly good ones at that. That's okay. There's still the large modern collection to see. We went downstairs and were confronted by a couple of closed doors. We found our way to another wing and discovered a room with a couple of temporary partitions densely lined with 19th century landscapes. Somewhat bizarrely one half of them were hung upside down. A couple of empty rooms later we found some uninteresting large modern photographs interspersed with 16th century paintings. Getting more and more confused we continued around the museum only to be confronted by more closed sections. We eventually gave up and returned to the information desk at the front. They had a museum book showing a selection of paintings. There were the Dalis and Picassos and van Goghs. I asked the lady at the information desk where we might see them. Oh, that section is closed, she said. The whole section? I asked. Yes, for renovations. Didn't they think they should have a sign before you buy your ticket indicating that over half the museum is closed. No, I don't see why, she said, why didn't you ask when you bought your ticket? I didn't think I would need to ask if half the gallery is closed before I buy a ticket, I replied, starting to get a little agitated. I always ask, she says. I reply that I've been in virtually every museum in Europe and never before have I encountered one that has closed a complete section without telling anyone, unable to believe that I'd have to say such a thing. Did you come to see something in particular, she asks. Yes! I reply. More than half of the museum! Would you like your money back? she asks. Normally I wouldn't bother but this was ridiculous. I decided to accept the offer. She went down to the cashier and managed to refund our entrance fee. Anita helpfully showed her the spot she could put the sign saying that half the gallery is closed. Somehow I don't think it's there.

A little stunned by the whole incident we left the gallery and headed for the train station, catching the train back to the park-and-ride. It was still early afternoon as we headed off to Kinderdijk to see the large number of windmills standing close together. It turned out to be tricky to get a good photo without some industrial building in the shot but we eventually found one then headed south-west towards Zeeland.

Zeeland is another area that has been reclaimed from the sea and again we had the disconcerting sight of driving along visibly below sea level. We crossed a few more dikes then finally reached the end of the road. To travel further south we'd need to take the car ferry across to a pocket of the Netherlands that is connected by land only to Belgium.

The sun had set before the ferry arrived but half-an-hour later we were on the other side and looking for a place to stop. We soon found a very quiet place near the dunes and settled in for out last night in Holland.