Sailing from Rotterdam on the Nieuw Statendam
This is blog post #8 from our tour of Europe. On Sunday, June 29th, we boarded the Holland America cruise ship Nieuw Statendam and headed north on a 28-day voyage that would take us to Norway, Iceland, and Greenland.
Our day began with watching our ship approach, first on MarineTrafic.com and then in real life. The ship was turned in a channel about a mile and a half away and then backed up the river Maas to the dock – I’d not see that done anywhere else. At 06:05 she was getting close.
We had a wonderful breakfast in the Hotel New York restaurant with a Dutch friend who lived in the Yukon for a while some 20 years ago, and her husband. Once again I wished that we had more time in Rotterdam. Next time!
We could board the ship whenever we wanted, so had a nice calm morning watching the world go by. That included a constant parade of boats old and new. The 3-masted schooner Amazone appears to be a newer boat than I had expected, but neither of the boats I found with a quick look on Google look exactly like this.
The 91.2-meter river boat Normandie carries up to 100 passengers with a crew of 19.
“Yoga aan de Maas” brought a whole lot of people out onto the lawn right below us.
Just before noon, we walked a couple of blocks to the cruise port and got in line.
Each of the steps involved in getting on board was accomplished quickly and efficiently, and just 25 minutes from arriving, I stopped to get a photo of the of some of the trucks loading the ship as we were about to step aboard.
As part of the boarding process, you get a card that controls your world while on the cruise – it’s your identification for getting off and back on the ship at ports, it’s your credit card for onboard expenses, and it may let you access special upgrades – in our case, Club Orange and the spa.
The desk in our cabin on Deck 7 had lots of information laid out to get us oriented. Or to get new people oriented, mostly – we pretty much have things figured out now 🙂
Our Dutch friends sent me some screenshots from two webcams as we were departing. That’s a fun addition to the album 🙂
Goodbye, Hotel New York.
I found sailing down the Maas to the sea to be fascinating, and shot almost 130 photos. I don’t quite know what to make of this 🙂
We passed countless examples of unique architecture, both commercial and residential.
The Rotterdam harbour is huge and complex – at the end of this arm, two river boats were docked.
One of two windmills I saw.
Silja Europa, built in 1993 and now operated by Tallink Silja, is the tenth-largest cruiseferry in the world. She can carry 3,123 passengers and 450 vehicles, but for the past 2 years has been moored in Merwehaven as an accommodation ship having about 2000 residents on board.
The 184-meter Shen Da Hao is a very impressive Offshore Supply Ship just launched a few weeks ago. Her primary role will be pipe laying, but she can be configured for many other duties.
One of at least two major highways that pass under the river.
I think most businesses or industries you can imagine are located along this river. Some I could figure out, some not.
The Star Bonaire, an Edible Oil Tanker built in 1997, was just leaving her dock.
Kitty Friend makes cat litter.
As we sailed down the river, swans got more and more common. I stayed on our verandah, so only saw the north side of the Maas – I see on Google Maps that the south side of the river is even more industrial.
An attractive park called Sterrenbos stretches for 1.5 km along the river, and many people were out walking and biking.
Stena Line, a Swedish company, is one of the world’s largest ferry operators – both these ships were loading semi-trailer trucks as we passed.
The impressive pilot boat Lacerta was just leaving a cozy little harbour.
The Netherlands Coast Guard’s patrol vessel Zeearend. In Dutch, a zeearend is a sea eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla).
This community is called Hook of Holland.
Hook of Holland Beach was a busy place. It has a large area designated for nudists.
The “lighthouse” at Hook of Holland is of a type I had never seen, with the light hanging below an arm.
As we headed out to see, we sailed along a vast field of 174 wind turbines, then they were joined by drill rigs.
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