Prinses Beatrixlaan. Finishing a Dutch bacon pancake with syrrup is hard work and nothing compared to the French crepe or the American pancake.I lived up to the challenge though!

's Gravendijkwal. The shared cucina of restaurant LUX and Dizzy.

Schaardijk, view on water company Evides. According to their website: Drinking water is prepared from water sourced 80% from the river Maas, 16% from groundwater, and 4% from dune water.
Evides is the second-largest water company in The Netherlands based on supply connections, supply volumes and revenue.. Water for industrial clients is extracted 42% from the river Maas, 33% from the lake Brielse Meer, 14% from the rivers Rhine and Elbe, and 14% from smaller, local sources. The industrial water is often locally treated to the desired level, using custom-built plants. Evides is one of the strongest players in northwestern Europe in the market for for water-on-demand solutions for industrial applications.

Beukelsdijk, this former boys school run by Franciscans is now called City College St. Franciscus and houses about 800 pupils and 100 teachers every day.

Beukeldijk. The poster you see here for the Socialist Party seems to be very on the news. As you probably know, the Dutch government collapsed a couple of days ago largely over keeping Dutch troops in Afghanistan.
Elections are to be held June 9th but the poster above is for the city council election of March 3!

Spaanse polder, looking at the church of Overschie.

View from the Brienenoordbrug onto the river Meuse.

Veerkade. The last 5-10 years or so you see more and more flowers, teddy bears, hearts etc. attached to trees or lamp poles where people have had a fatal accident. It was the first time I saw something like this along side the river De Maas/The Meuse. I hope he rests in peace.

Kromme Elleboog (?) I was driving through the Witte de Withstraat when I saw this: "All of a sudden, just when I was about to kiss my nipple, I see hundreds of men looking at me". Never realised we had a Rotterdam nipple gate too.

Mathenesserplein. Supermarket chain Albert Heijn made a deal with the clubs playing in the premiership. With every 10 euro the clients get 5 free pictures of players or logo's of the club etc. The same action last year meant a huge turnover success which means that nowadays if you come out of the Albert Heijn, you have to wrestle through hurds of children begging for your pictures.
More and more clients have complained (seriously) so Albert Heijn has organised its own trade and switch places for kids to get rid of their doubles.

My children got a cap today at school that promotes de Tour de France. Weird as it may sound, the Tour de France starts in Rotterdam, the Netherlands this year! It's all about city marketing of course. With my company I have booked an area along the route too where I will be giving some sort of a party for clients, so if you want to see it all from near by, let me know ;)

On Saturday July 3rd the Rotterdam stage of the Tour de France will be launched. Who will start in the yellow jersey? The winner of the prologue will wear this world-famous piece of fabric. The prologue is an individual time-trial that will start from Zuidplein, on the south bank of Rotterdam. This part of Rotterdam has a long and eventful sporting tradition. Not only is it the home of football club Feyenoord, it also houses Sporting Arena Ahoy where many international known sporting events take place annually such as the Rabobank Six-Day Cycling Race and the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament

Last week I had a business meeting in this tall building and I seized the opportunity to make a photo from the 37th floor. What do you recognize?

Hoogstraat, central library. City poet Jana Beranová wrote 15 poems stuck to lights that form the route to the poem department in the library. The one you see here she wrote for Amnesty International and it says: when nobody listens to nobody, people fall dead instead of words.

Mathenesserbrug in the afternoon winter sun.

Mevlanamoskee. Want to see what the mosque looks like within? Click here. Happy Valentines day everyone!

Burg. Meineszplein. This billboard is showing Sven Kramer aka Sven the Man who is performing tonight (local time) at the ice skating competion for men 5 km in Vancouver/Svencouver.
Sven Kramer (24 yrs) is a Dutch long track speed skater and the current Dutch , European and World allround champion. He is is also the reigning world champion and world record holder in the 5,000 m, 10,000 m and the team pursuit.
Sven has been all over the media the last months, promising the Dutch to bring 3 golden medals home, so you bet I'll be behind the telly today!

View on the Prinsekerk in Blijdorp. The 2 hens sitting in the right bottom corner, are actually sitting on a big frozen lake.

Schepenstraat. And again, there was snow. Contrary to Vancouver where the games start today and apparently is having one of its warmest winters, we are experiencing one of the coldest and the forecast of the coming 10 days is more snow and more cold!

Overschie is one of the 40 so called "Krachtwijken" ("powerful area's" that originally were called problem zones just before an urban marketing campaign thought otherwise) that qualified for extra government support during this prime minister's administration. No matter what you call it, these areas have a higher unemployment rate, they have to deal with more violence, more criminal behaviour, more addiction related problems and more medical problems such as obesitas and a higher death rate.

Right after Rotterdam hosted the international Film Festival, it now hostst the World Tennis Tournament in Ahoy. Nadal nor Federer will be there but all the other big names are present. Tickets cost slightly under 50 euro.

Schouwburgplein. I have been to the last day of the International Film Festival yesterday. There were 70 routes, and you just buy a ticket for a route. In other words you get to see 5 movies but dont know upfront which ones.

Weena. It's been misty and dull for the past days so i admit this is an older one of downtown Rotterdam. I will be biking here in about half an hour while going to the International Filmfestival today. I am going to see 5 randomly chosen movies (don't know which ones yet) and am HUGELY looking forward to it.

Stieltjesstraat. The Poortgebouw is a national monument located by the River Maas in the 'Kop van Zuid' area of Rotterdam. It was built in 1879 and experienced a range of uses until it was squatted in the eighties. A couple of years ago a realtor bought it in order to adapt it for office purposes, but to be honest I don't know if that's the present state.
The original safe in the building that still belonged to its first owner (1879) Lodewijk Pincoffs, was cracked in 2006. Disappointedly the contents were a french pipe and a thermometer from 1873.

Schepenstraat. The highlights of nowadays Dutch cuisine ;) in the window of a snack bar.
Kapsalon (or Hairdressers Saloon) is a dish consisting of shoarma meat, fries, cheese, garlic sauce, salad and maybe some sambal (spiced pepper spread).
Some customers from a hair saloon next to Snack bar El Aviva in Rotterdam ate out there a lot. One day they started mixing the ingredients and out came the Kapsalon. I wonder if there is any snackbar other than in Rotterdam who sells this.

Corner S'Gravendijkwal/1e Middellandstraat. Just a street view and what struck me what that the girl was so obedient with her bike. Normally every biker just takes whatever opportunity he/she sees to get somewhere and doesn't mind red lights or anything.

Veerhaven. one of the many harbors in Rotterdam but now only hosts leisure boats and ships.

Blijdorp Zoo. And yes those are giraffes covered in snow. Fake giraffes. The zoo is opened 365 days a year and attracts about 1,5 million people per year. They have their own webcam channel through which you can follow the (hopefully pregnant) polar bear in her den for instance.

Veerkade. Its the first of the month and not only my sisters birthday today (feliciteerd T) but also Theme day. Today's theme is wood. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.