The Dam on The River Rotte-Rotterdam

Is the second largest city in the Netherlands after Amsterdam.In May 1940 the city was heavily bombarded by the Luftwaffe and during the four days of the Rotterdam blitz the entire historic centre, much of it dating to the 13th century,was destroyed.This is one of the reasons Rotterdam has co many skyscrapers, as do many other European cities,that suffered the same fate in the war.

But Rotterdam is not a concrete jungle, all towers are well designed and well looked after. The city grows on you.

There are the cube houses, 38 regular size and 2 super-cubes, designed by Piet Blom and built in 1982-1984.They are yellow and tilted by a 45 degrees angle.Someone has described them as "mind - boggling optical illusion" and they are indeed quite extraordinary.

But some other buildings are tilted, too, Pisa has nothing on Rotterdam!

The Maritime Museum is rather special,you can watch engineers at work.

And the cruise port is  right in the centre of the city. How wonderful is that.