Rotterdam, NL — August 28-30, 2026

We were determined to do a better job of managing our time and jet lag on this trip, so we had booked a couple shorter tours and decided we’d fill in the gaps as we saw fit once we were in Rotterdam.

I woke up predictably early on Friday, and enjoyed the quiet and coffee in the M Club Lounge. We had made loose plans to go to Delft, but when we learned the Delft train line was down for maintenance we switched gears and spent a couple relaxing hours walking around Gouda (pronounced Howdah). Unfortunately it was so early in the day nothing was open, but it was pleasant walking around and enjoying the cooler weather. Rain was threatening, but held off during our time in Gouda.

We got back to Rotterdam with time to relax a while before our afternoon walking tour to Rotterdam’s most photogenic spots. The tour was at 2:00 for an hour and a half, and as luck would have it it started raining hard at 2:00 and the rain lasted about an hour and a half. I’m not going to share too many pictures because we saw many of the same things on Saturday in brilliant sunshine! The most photogenic spots looked much better in the Saturday sunshine than they did during Friday’s downpour!

We lucked into a fantastic Italian restaurant for dinner. It was just across the street from our hotel and next to the train station. It definitely wasn’t in a location where you’d ordinarily expect to find a great restaurant, but this was everything we love — small, authentic, family-owned, and very popular with the locals. We were lucky to get a table, and we had to share or we wouldn’t have been able to eat there at all.

The weather Saturday started out perfect — It was cool and sunny with brilliant, bright blue skies. We took a food tour through Eat Your Way Around and had a fantastic time eating our way around Rotterdam with our guide Fee (Fay). We started at the Food Hall with Bitterballen, then had Japanese Pancakes, Surinamese soup and plantains, and finally ended with Kibbeling. In between stops we got to see all the sights that had been obscured by rain the day before!

The food tour was great, but unfortunately that was the only part of our day that went according to plan. We cancelled our dinner reservations on the other side of town from the Marriott because of the forecast, and we ended up being glad we did because once the rain and wind moved in it was awful! Dinner at the hotel wouldn’t have been my first choice for the evening, but it was dry and convenient so that was the winner!

We woke up to continuing rain on Sunday morning, so we were leisurely about packing up and getting ready to leave for the ship and our home away from home for the next four weeks.