After a short 15min tram journey to Berlin Hauptbahnhof, everything looked to be going smoothly until we were informed that the journey would take approx 40mins longer than planned due to some works on the line. However this was tempered by bumping into a BBS classmate on the platform. They were traveling to Amsterdam and happened to have booked the seats directly behind us - and a 7 hour playdate ensued! This also took the edge of further delays and staff shortages, both of which are unfortunately more common on Deutsche Bahn at the moment, particularly in peak seasons.
Rotterdam Centraal has an impressive main hall for arriving in, and after a short metro journey we walked for about 15 minutes along the harbour in the Kop van Zuid area of Rotterdam to get to our hotel. From our walk we already got a glimpse of the city skyline, the harbour and the Erasmus bridge.
We stayed at the Hotel New York, itself a tourist attraction. The building was previously home to the office of the Holland America Line (Nederlandsch Amerikaansche Stoomvaart Maatschappij). It was used as temporary accommodation for European emigres in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to America. Reminders of this were scattered around the building and surrounding area, and the main cruise line terminal was next door - unfortunately this was not where our ferry was to depart from!
The hotel was very welcoming and even had a small gift waiting for Marla on arrival in our room. Both tired we had some food in the hotel restaurant and had an early night to save our energy for the next day exploring Rotterdam. Marla was particularly taken by the robots helping the waiting staff with their dishes.
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