Rotterdam to Amsterdam

Today we arrived in Rotterdam and met our tour guide at 9:00 a.m.  We drove through Rotterdam and I was very suprised how everything we saw was so modern, and we learned that the Germans basically destroyed Rotterdam when they refused to surrender so everything has been rebuilt since the war.  One of my favorite sites in Rotterdam was called the Cube Houses, and as the name implies they were houses built in the shape of cubes, but they were suspended in the air and were connected, so in a way, they were cube condos.  I took a picture but the bus was moving so I'm not sure how it will turn out.  After leaving Rotterdam we made our way to Delft, as in Delft pottery, and we were given a private tour.  The pottery is so delicate but I learned how you can tell the real thing from fake and how you can tell the high quality Delft from seconds. So no one can ever give me a cheap second and get away with it.  After this stop we drove to Amstelveen where we were involved in a car wreck.  Not serious, but quite upsetting to the bus driver.  We ate at a pub, I had liverwurst sandwich with fries that was delicious.  After lunch we drove through The Hague and saw the Peace Palace and the working palace where Queen Beatrix greets the dignitaries.  We then drove onto Amersterdam, and for a Sunday afternoon the traffic was just awful.  I would hate to drive during rush hour.  Most people in the Netherlands ride bikes.  We were told that the bike population outnumbers the people population.  I even saw a bike lot where people pay to park their bikes like we pay to park our cars.  After Amersterdam we drove to a cheese farm and I tasted the nicest Gouda, and I learned the difference between baby Gouda and old Gouda, bascically the age.  We then drove onto one of the few working windmills in the area.  By this time it was after 4:00 p.m. and we had to return to the ship.  When we returned to Rotterdam the traffic was so heavy that the tour guide called the ship to let them know we were on our way.  We arrived back at the ship at 6:00 p.m. and the ship departed at 6:30.  That's what I call cutting it close.  When we left Rotterdam, the ship was given quite a send off by the local people.  A group of men, in native dress, wooden shoes and all, sang familiar songs and there were hundreds of people on both sides of the river waving and yelling.   It was like the pictures you see of departing ships.   It was a magnificent day!!