Paris - Here we come!!

Although since my childhood I knew of the Eiffel Tower, but I first heard the 'live account' of Paris from my father, then heading the Interpol in Pakistan, who had gone to Paris to attend the annual Interpol conference for Paris happens to be the headquarters of the ICPO and the Interpol way back in 1964. He brought back sweet smelling perfumes for our mother and many small gifts and presents for us brothers. He would narrate us the beauty of Paris, its markets and hospitality of its people. There were lot so photographs of him posing in front of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe.

And based on my father told us about Paris, I wrote a post somewhere in 2012, never knowing that one day I will be heading towards Paris and seeing all the places my father mentioned about. And so did I on 6 September 2014 when after a four days' stay in Holland, we finally headed towards France through Belgium to visit Paris - the tourists' lover!!

I have already in detail written about my stay in Holland and the last night was spent visiting The Hague and Rotterdam. We stayed at a friend's flat in Rotterdam who and his Moroccan wife looked after so well that I will cherish the memories for ever. I have already talked about our Rotterdam travel details and the Moroccan dinner in my earlier post.

The flat we stayed for our last night stay in Rotterdam, Holland 

Above and below: View of Rotterdam from the top floor where our host lived

The Van Brienenoord Bridge as seen from the flat which we were to pass when exiting Rotterdam

I along with Shahid Latif - our host in Rotterdam

The two families for a final goodbye shot

The hospitality of Shahid Latif and his wife is simply unforgettable. Although his wife did not know any language other than Arabic and Dutch, my wife still got along with her quite well and it looked as two old friends or should I say sisters conversing in a broken language only they both could understand. After a hearty breakfast, it was time to leave and say goodbye to one of the best couples I have met so far. Before leaving, our host's wife presented earthen pots and a shield (as can be seen above) as a remembrance and a goodbye gift.

And then we were on the road to Paris through Belgium!!

My sons posing in front of our rented BMW which took us from Germany to Paris

Driving over the Van Brienenoord Bridge over the river Nieuwe Maas

A few words about the bridge: The bridge is named after the underlying Eiland van Brienenoord (Island of Brienenoord) in the river, which was bought by and named after a baron Arnoud Willem van Brienen van de Groote Lindt in 1847.

As per Wikipedia, an average of 140.000 ships pass the bridge, every year. Approximately 500 of these ships are high enough to require the bridge to be opened, a process which takes 18 minutes. Suspending road traffic and opening the bridge takes 4 minutes, letting the ship pass takes 10 minutes, and closing the bridge requires an additional 4 minutes.

While we were entering Holland from Germany, we thought that the border will be signified by some border booths or gates as is normal with each border elsewhere. But we did not know that since the evolution of the Schengen protocol, all formal entries have been done away with and one can freely drive through without being stopped. So we missed photographing ourselves with any entry boards while hopping into Holland. But while driving into Belgium, we were extra careful to to spot the border crossing and have a few shots as a remembrance, as can be seen in photos above and below.

We had earlier plans to go to Brussels, but our stretched stay in Holland, mainly due to instance of my friend Tariq Hashmi and his family, we drove past Brussels as we wanted more time in Paris to see some of its major land marks.

Belgium drive through was simply fantastic - the rather cloudy weather with a cool breeze blowing was simply lovable. Passing through many underground tunnels to avoid cities, our travel to Paris continued.

Entering Belgium we bypassed Sint-Niklaas, a 13th century city, which  is the capital and major city of the Waasland region straddling the East Flanders and Antwerp provinces. The city is known for having the largest market square in Belgium - though we could not see it for reasons mentioned above.

We also went by Antwerp, a city which usually figures out in military history, Brussels (in fact we passed under the city through a tunnel, we entered France at Hensies.

A much awaited coffee break en route

As you enter France, you encounter many toll tax collection booths - about 18 Euros till you reach Paris

We entered Paris with Saint Denis being the last major city before it. We had us booked at Grand Hotel at the Voltaire Boulevard - but somehow we could not reach the place directly due to some reading error of the car navigation system. It took us a while to locate the hotel, in which a considerable amount of time was lost which we could have utilized for site seeings around the hotel.

entrance to the Grand Hotel Voltaire

Dumping our luggage in the hotel, we rushed out and seeking guidance from the road map, we dashed towards the Place de la Bastille, which was the nearest Paris landmark. The Place de la Bastille is the place where once the Bastille prison stood until the ‘Storming of the Bastille’ and its subsequent physical destruction between 14 July 1789 and 14 July 1790 during the French Revolution.

The former location of the fort is currently called the Place de la Bastille. It is home to the Opéra Bastille. The large ditch (fossé) behind the fort has been transformed into a marina for pleasure boats, the Bassin de l’Arsenal, to the south, and a covered canal, the Canal Saint Martin, extending north from the marina beneath the vehicular roundabout that borders the location of the fort.

The area around The Place de la Bastille is full of small eateries and other shops, cafes and restaurants. Although tired of the day long driving, we spent a few hours there before falling back to have a good night sleep - for tomorrow morning the Eiffel Tower was waiting for us. Here my account of travel to Paris ends. From here on, a number of my earlier posts begin in which I shared roaming around Paris and seeing its landmarks.

You may read now my first post on Paris: My maiden glimpse of the Eiffel Tower

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To Rotterdam for a Moroccan dinner

The visit to The Hague was a sad dream unfulfilled as we could not see the Panorama Medag as I mentioned in one of my previous posts. So after moving about in the city for a while, we headed to Rotterdam - our last destination in the Netherlands, where we had a splendid four days stay. There in Rotterdam, Shahid Latif with his Moroccan wife were anxiously waiting to receive us. 

As we reached Shahid's flat, he received us on the ground floor and insisted that we had a city tour before it got dark and also allowed his wife to prepare dinner for us. So I handed over the wheels to Shahid Latif who drove us around the city and introduced to us the old and new Rotterdam.

Rotterdam, as the name implies, is a city which was built around a dam built to harness the River Rotter in 1270 AD and is located geographically within the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt river delta at the North Sea. There are many a old building that one can still see when driving through the city - one has been artfully restructured as can be seen in the photo above to allow the road go through it without destroying the old architecture of the city. 

As we started our Rotterdam city tour, the first major land mark of the city we passed by was the the Essalam mosque (pictured below), which is the largest in the Netherlands and one of the largest in Western Europe. The mosque is a beautiful combination of traditional Islamic architecture with its two 50-meter minarets and a dome. The mosque was funded by Maktoum Charity Foundation of Dubai sheikh Hamad bih Rashid al-Maktoum. The mosque caters for the needs of Muslims of Turkish, Moroccon and Indonesian origin.

Talking of the old Rotterdam, the 'White House' (above) stands out, which was opened in 1898 - it may surprise you today, but at that time it was considered to be Europe's first 'skyscraper'. The building was portrays the Jugendstil or Art Nouveau.

While many new bridges now attract tourists, the old bridges are still preserved as part of the history. The photo above shows both the old and new bridges of Rotterdam.

Koninginnebrug ("Queen's Bridge"), is a twin-leaf bascule bridge which today is a key conduit for road, cycle and foot traffic over the Koningshaven ("King's Harbour") over Muse river. Two steel work trusses cradle the roadway, while foot and cycle traffic uses walkways cantilevering from either edge. It was built in 1929, to replace a swing bridge. It lies adjacent to the Koningshavenbrug or the old train bridge as described down below.

The Koningshavenbrug or the De Hef as called by people of Rotterdam is an old train bridge over the Muse river though no longer in use still signifies itself of its past glory. The bridge was originally made as a wing bridge back in 1878, but because of lack of space for passing ship, the middle part of the bridge was converted to a lift bridge.

The elevated platform as can be seen in the photos above/below was used to allow the trains service on the bridge. And when it was time for shipping, the entire section was lifted up using heavy steel wires and pullies on both sides of the elevated steel columns.

The bridge is no longer in use and is permanently open for ships. I was told that the bridge has even been auctioned, but it is being retained for its love by the people of Rotterdam.

Rotterdam is a massive new city unlike Amsterdam. While in Amsterdam, one sees almost all landmarks of the city in Dam Square and for many tourists, the Dam Square is more than enough to see anything else in the city. But here in Rotterdam, it is not the case - the city is spread out in every direction and you really need to have lot of time to move about or someone who knows Rotterdam like the palm of his hand and can take you around - otherwise you would be lost amidst the old and new architecture and diverse culture of the city.

Besides the The Erasmus bridge, the Willemsbrug above is also a 'visible' landmark of Rotterdam. The bridge was built to between 1975 and 1981 to connect the North and South of the the city. Its deck is held aloft by a system of tie rods attached to two V-shaped steel towers painted in red.

To the Eramus Bridge

The Erasmus Bridge or the Erasmusbrug in Dutch (as can be seen in the photos below), is a 802-metre-long (2,631 ft) bridge across the New Meuse combined cable-stayed and bascule bridge in the centre of Rotterdam, connecting the north and south parts of this city, second largest in the Netherlands. 

The Eramus Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge above Nieuwe Maas with a striking modern design. It was designed by Ben van Berkel and was completed in 1996. The pylon is 139m high and 802m long. It has been featured in several movies and Tour de France.

The Erasmus Bridge was officially inaugurated in 1996. It is said that shortly after the bridge opened to traffic in October 1996, it was discovered the bridge would swing under particularly strong wind conditions. To reduce the trembling, stronger shock dampers were installed.

The 'Kop van Zuid', the area on the south-shore of the river Maas, is the leader when it comes to new buildings. In fact Rotterdam is now known as the 'vertical city' as contrary to old wide buildings with a few stories, the city skyline is now filling up with compact buildings going up vertically.

Posing with my son in front of the 'De Rotterdam', the vertical buildings which is the largest multipurpose building in the Netherlands. The three stacked and interconnecting towers of De Rotterdam rise 44 floors to a height of 150 meters and span a width of over 100 meters

The 11-storey Rotterdam Market Hall (as seen above and below) is a spectacular building of modern architecture with a forty meter high arch made of stone including windows. The Market Hall comprises a huge fresh-market, bars, food shops and a supermarket all together under one roof. This is Holland’s first indoor fresh food market.

St. Lawrence church (Above): The church building was the only building that withstood the bombing during the Rotterdam Blitz - the aerial bombardment of Rotterdam by the Luftwaffe (German air force) in 1940, while everything around it was razed to the ground. The church building, located in the city center and almost adjacent to the Rotterdam Market Hall, today is reminiscent of Rotterdam's medieval architecture.

The Willemswharf office building (above) rests on a narrow strip of land above the Hertekade street. The 100 meters wide and 90 meters high building is fully lined with concrete panels with white ceramic tiles. I was told that this building has been used in one of the Jackie Chen movies.

Rotterdam Blaak is a peculiarly shaped railway station and metro station (as can be seen in photos above and below), located on the Breda–Rotterdam railway between Rotterdam and Dordrecht, and the city center near the cube houses.

My sons posing in front of the Rotterdam Blaak

The Cascade (above), located on the Westblaak, is a 8-metre polyester sculpture made up of emptying oil barrels, once icons of Rotterdam’s busy port. The sculpture symbolize the natural resources that are now running low.

My family posing in front of the Rotterdam's new Central Station (Rotterdam Centraal) that was reopened in March 2014, designed to handle up to 320,000 passengers daily.

The Groothandelsgebouw above is an extensive building and monument in the center of Rotterdam, Netherlands next to the Central Station of the city. It is one of the first major buildings built after the bombing of Rotterdam in the Second World War.

The City Hall above is an immense building of the early 20th century. It's foundation was laid on 15 July 1915 byQueen Wilhelmina on Coolsingel, opposite Stadhuisplein. The building has a symmetrical design, constructed around a courtyard, with the main entrance in the middle. The courtyard, laid out as a small park, can be accessed via the street which runs through the middle of City Hall.

The Erasmus Bridge at night

We posing with the Erasmus Bridge in the background at night

The Club Houses of Rotterdam (as seen in photos below) also portray a unique architectural design. On the face of it, these houses look awfully tilted but from inside these are as normal as any other building.

The concept used in the Club Houses is “residing as an urban roof”, where a group of cube shaped houses are swarmed above a vertical, hexagonal pylon tilted at an angle of 45 degrees above the mentioned pylons

It took us quite a while to have a city tour and all the time out host Shahid Latif was getting buzzes one after the other from his wife to head home as she wanted to serve us the dinner straight from the oven. We thus headed home and were greeted by a charming lady with smiles. Although she did not speak any language other than her native Arabic and the Dutch, my wife still got along with her in the broken English out host understood.

The dinner table was all full with number of dishes both oriental and European. However, the main dish was Moroccan as can be seen in the photo above, which our host had specially prepared for us. And let me tell you that it was one of the very best and tastiest dished I have ever tasted.

Peas with minced meat or 'Matar Qeema' our host specially prepared for us in case we felt 'lonely' in the presence of Arabic and European dishes. While we did have it, but her other dishes were so tasty that we did not feel away from our home and devoured each delicacy to our full. After the dinner, we were served with traditional green tea of Morocco. 

After chatting and appreciating the beautiful paintings by Iqbal Mehdi, who happened to have visited Shahid Latif's house sometime back. We then hit the bed as we had a long day ahead for our travel to Paris - the city of love and lovers!!

Photos Credit: All photos are taken by me and are accordingly copy-righted

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