Shiny

Rotterdam Day 3 - Wandering around on our own as J was working.  A bit of a Museums Day though we only went in one of them, admired the outside of others and ate in one of the cafés.  The big shiny bowl is the museum storage space but also has some display space.

The one museum we went into was the wartime museum.  Small, but very well presented.  Predictably, I'd no knowledge of the German invasion of the Netherlands, but the central area of Rotterdam was flattened by one massive bombing raid resulting in the swift surrender of the Dutch forces.  The museum presented all this through the stories of a small number of artefacts and it was very effective.  

In a similar way, the handout detailed the history of one or two items in each display case. The one I found most chilling was the child's dagger - given to members of the Dutch equivalent of the Hitler Youth.  

Other items included the first copies of Mein Kampf that I'd seen 'in the flesh', and a 'Survival training' boardgame (yes, I know, but it caught my eye, predictably.)

Extras: Museum boardgame, Erasmus bridge, and a swanky hotel originally for transatlantic passengers, now rather swamped by modern buildings.