One Day In Rotterdam

We spent Thursday last week in Rotterdam, a day trip to a city we haven't been to before. We had a North Sea ferry voucher left over from a cancelled trip from my 50th in May 2020 and decided to use it to get out of the country while the jubilee was taking place (or at least for some of it). Travelling overnight on the ferry Wednesday from Hull to Rotterdam, a full day in Rotterdam on Thursday and then the ferry back on Thursday night. Rotterdam is a fantastic city. It was almost completely destroyed during the war and has been rebuilt from scratch since, in modernist and post- modernist style. The market hall above is stunning, full of places to eat and drink. Nearby are the Cube Houses, a residential development designed by architect Piet Blom in the 1970s and completed in 1984, inspired by tree top living and designed to optimise space. 

Almost all of the 38 cube house properties are currently occupied. One is an art gallery and one is available to visit, entry price three euros. The inside of the apartments are fascinating. The houses are all cubes tilted on their sides. Windows are angled and rooms maximising space. The top floor of each one is an inside garden (photo below).

We wandered round the city centre, stopped off for snacks, lunch, beers, popped into record shops (Rotterdam has several, well stocked record shops, selling new and second hand records), walked to the surviving old town, Delftshaven, wandered round  and enjoyed being somewhere else. The architecture is brilliantly diverse, from this building near the waterfront...

...to the Euromast...

... to this piece of Bauhaus in Rotterdam

One of my current favourite albums, only recently bumped off my turntable by the arrival of the new Michael Head and The Elastic Band album, is A Mountain Of One's Stars Planet Dust Me, eight songs that run the gamut from deep, dark Balearica to trippy Yacht Rock with some synth pop and alternative, cosmic dance thrown in. It's a beautifully produced record, sumptuous in places, highly seductive but always with an undercurrent, as if something dangerous or unexpected might be about to happen. It's an album that has  baked in the sun all day and gone straight out on the tiles, stayed out too long and too late, gained some hard won wisdom on the way and is still looking for something. I can't recommend it enough. This is the title track, descending synths and organ with chanted vocals, a psychedelic Balearic stew. 

Stars Planet Dust Me