Why Rotterdam is the port I am most excited about

Part of it is the time. We have two nights there — which is almost unheard of on a cruise itinerary. Most ports you get eight or ten hours. Rotterdam we get the better part of two full days. That changes what is possible.

Part of it is that I have never been. I have been to Amsterdam twice. I have never been to Rotterdam, and everything I have read suggests they are completely different cities. Amsterdam is beautiful in a preserved, historic way. Rotterdam was bombed flat in 1940 and rebuilt from scratch — which means it looks like nowhere else in the Netherlands, or really anywhere in Europe.

The architecture is the thing. The Cube Houses. The Markthal. The Erasmus Bridge. The Blaak metro station that looks like a flying saucer. Rotterdam basically decided that if it had to rebuild, it was going to build something interesting. I want to walk around a city that made that decision.

I also want to eat a Dutch herring at the Markthal. I have been told it tastes better than it sounds. I have also been told the correct technique is to hold it by the tail. Both of these things are going to be tested.

And then there is the sail-out. We leave Rotterdam at 14:00 on Day 3 and head west down the Maas with the whole skyline behind us. I have watched videos of this. It is genuinely impressive. Two nights in a city and then watching it disappear as you head for open water — that is the kind of moment that makes a cruise feel like something more than just a holiday.

Under 30 days. Rotterdam is coming.