United States or Fiji ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Out of the chimney-pots of all the ancient houses rise curved or straight tubes, one above the other, crossing and recrossing like open arms, or forks, or immense horns, in such impossible positions that it seems as though they must understand each other and be speaking a mysterious language from house to house, and that at night they must move about with some purpose. I walked down Hoog-Straat.
But my curiosity for the present was not aroused by the people. I crossed Hoog-Straat and found myself in new Rotterdam. One cannot decide whether it is a city or a harbor, whether there is more land than water, or whether the ships are more numerous than the houses. The town is divided by long, wide canals into many islands, which are united by drawbridges, turning bridges, and stone bridges.
After I had seen the port, I went along the Boompjes dyke, on which stands an uninterrupted line of large new houses built in the Parisian and London style houses which the inhabitants greatly admire, but which the stranger regards with disappointment or neglects altogether; I turned back, re-entered the city, and went from canal to canal, from bridge to bridge, until I reached the angle formed by the union of Hoog-Straat with one of the two long canals which enclose the town toward the east.
While in other northern cities at a certain hour of the night all the life is concentered in the houses, at Rotterdam at that hour it expands into the streets. The Hoog-straat is filled until far into the night with a dense throng, the shops are open, because the servants make their purchases in the evening, and the cafés crowded. Dutch cafés are peculiar.
In the morning I dressed in haste, and ran rapidly down stairs. What streets, what houses, what a town, what a mixture of novelties for a foreigner, a scene how different from any to be witnessed elsewhere in Europe! First of all, I saw Hoog-Straat, a long straight roadway running along the inner dyke of the city.
Moreover, the houses are all very narrow, so the shops occupy the whole ground floor, and are generally so close together that they touch each other. Consequently at night, in streets like Hoog-Straat, one sees very little wall below the second floor.
In other northern towns at a certain hour the life is gathered within doors; in Rotterdam at the corresponding hour it overflows into the street. A dense crowd passes through the Hoog-Straat until late at night. The shops are open, for then the servants make their purchases and the coffee-houses are crowded. The Dutch coffee-houses are of a peculiar shape.
Turning back to my hotel, I passed through the square of the great new market. It is placed in the centre of the city, and is not less strange than all that surrounds it. It is an open square suspended over the water, being at the same time a square and a bridge. The bridge is very wide and unites the principal dyke the Hoog-Straat with a section of the town surrounded by canals.
Word Of The Day