Rotterdam Architecture,1

So we took trusty bus #36 to Schiedam and then, with the help of a kind university student who had just spent a year in the US, bought metro/bus/tram cards, and metro'd on into the old city. Apart from visiting the market, the grote kerk, and the maritime museum, we mostly walked around, looking at the buildings and monuments. It's a very young and lively sort of place.

We emerged from the underground onto a giant square,
surrounded by the Pencil, the Cube Houses, the city library.
the grand market, the cathedral, etc.; above is my attempt to
capture half of this in a panorama shot

The Pencil and some of the Cube houses

More of the Cubes

The Market...a bit reminiscent of the Grand Arch in Paris, less
the right angles

Pompidou-esque public library

Grote Kerk, restored

Metro station

Better view of The Pencil

More of the Cubes; people actually live in these
things

Beginning to look around at some of the bigger
buildings

Walking past the the Willemsbrug, the Williams Bridge, over
the Maas (Meuse)

Interesting, large, bridge and river sculpture

The buildings are almost always eye-catching

Looking downstream toward the Erasmus bridge