Two Trips: IJ Muiden & Europoort of Rotterdam.

 How to spend a day?

I woke up in the morning and decided to go to Eurooport. The most far fetched corner of Holland widespread, consisting of thousands docks and shipyards. I saw only a tip of an iceberg, by no means , fascinating, worth to see. The ships were incredibly beautiful. Modern, old, super-yachts, all kinds of.

Why was it so important for me to go and see this spot?

Holland’s culture and history are both rooted into the seas’ waves. The seas shaped Holland, built its prosperity, opened it to overseas entrepreneurship. I read a lot about history of the country I live in, I self-study Dutch. All aspects are important.

A bit of History

Holland was not that goody-goody as it might have seemed in XVII century, the wars, the constant wars with England over East Indies forced Dutch to use much more of its ingenuity to built a fleet, the naval forces much stronger and powerful to crush Britons. They finally succeeded, placing Prince William III of Orange on the English throne who ended overseas misunderstandings. The Dutch merchant elite began to use London as a new operational base. Dutch economic growth slowed. William ordered that any Anglo-Dutch fleet be under English command, with the Dutch navy having 60% of the strength of the English. From about 1720 Dutch wealth ceased to grow. Around 1780 the per capita gross national product of the Kingdom of Great Britain surpassed that of the Dutch Republic. Whereas in the 17th century the commercial success of the Dutch had fuelled English resentment, in the late 18th century the growth of British power led to Dutch resentment. When the Dutch began to support the American rebels, this led to the fourth war, and the loss of the alliance made the Dutch Republic fatally vulnerable to the French. Soon it would be subject to regime change itself. The Dutch navy was by now only a shadow of its former self, having only about twenty ships of the line, so there were no large fleet battles. The British tried to reduce the Republic to the status of a British protectorate, using Prussian military pressure and gaining factual control over the Dutch colonies, those conquered during the war given back at war's end. The Dutch then still held some key positions in the European trade with Asia, such as the Cape Colony, Ceylon  and Malacca. The war sparked a new round of Dutch ship building (95 warships in the last quarter of the 18th century), but the British kept their absolute numerical superiority by doubling their fleet in the same time. So – ship industry throughout  all centuries was a core, a heart of the country.

Eurooport

Without a cloud of doubt it consists of shipping routes that combines three countries together; The Netherlands, Belgium and France, partially. I have yet to see such a busy port, probably the busiest in Europe! It will always remains the mayor entry to Europe, as well. Its success lays in amount of cargo shipping in and out through the Meuse and Rhine rivers. Simply, fantastic.