In July 2024, a good friend and I travelled to the Netherlands together to explore Rotterdam and The Hague. We set off from Dresden Central Station on a sunny Thursday to take the train to Rotterdam via Berlin and Amsterdam.
We arrived at our destination station in the late afternoon and were initially confused as to how we could leave the station. We had to pass through a ticket inspection, which is not the case in Germany - at home, anyone can access any platform, but not in the Netherlands. After asking the extremely friendly, but also amused, staff of the Dutch railway how to deal with the ticket gates, we were able to make our way to our hotel.
It was in the immediate neighbourhood of the Erasmus Bridge, which became my first photo spot at sunset. After that, however, we first had to have something to eat.
- First day: The Hague -
We travelled to The Hague on the first day of our stay. The Netherlands does have a capital city, Amsterdam, but the seat of government is in The Hague. Our main aim there was to visit the International Court of Justice in the “Peace Palace”. However, this was not possible that day as the Israel-Palestine conflict, which was reaching an alarming climax at the time, was being heard there.
So we made our way through the neighbourhood of various embassies of different nations and finally reached the beach. Due to the summer temperatures, it was crowded with people, so we opted for a scoop of ice cream and made our way back to the city.
Once there, we visited the Dutch Parliament in the "Binnenhof", a building complex dating back to the 13th century. This is also where the city of The Hague itself originated, slowly expanding around the buildings designed as a palace complex.
- Second day: Rotterdam -
We then spent the second day in Rotterdam itself. I hardly took any photos during the day, it was incredibly hot and the sun was beating down on us mercilessly. Nevertheless, we tried to discover as many corners of the city as possible.
Rotterdam itself was heavily destroyed during the Second World War, so a completely new architectural style was created during the reconstruction. For this reason, I found the city itself to be very impersonal and sometimes lacking in character. The radical reorientation of aesthetics in building culture resulted in completely new building forms, including the cube house, which consists of cubes each standing on a single point. This is certainly not classically beautiful.
Nevertheless, Rotterdam has a high quality of life, at least that's how I experienced it. The cycling infrastructure is first class and the public transport system makes it very easy to get around the city.
I started taking photos after dinner, when we went on a two-hour harbour cruise into the sunset on a beautiful ship and were only able to explore a fraction of this internationally important trading hub.
We didn't see the really big container ships, but we did see one of the largest and most powerful floating cranes in the world, the ‘Saipem 7000’. The impressive size of this ship cannot be captured in any picture (even though I made an attempt), but as a search picture it is very passable, because a worker in an orange jacket was actually cleaning the ship just above the water. You are welcome to try and spot him!
We returned by boat as the sun was almost touching the horizon, creating a wonderful evening atmosphere. The famous golden hour offered countless photo opportunities. After the sunset, we docked again at the starting point of the trip. For me, this was the starting point of a night-time photo tour lasting several hours.
Even though I had only discovered a few photogenic places in the city during the day, the onset of the night gave me countless photo opportunities, all of which had their own impressive perspectives. The cityscape around the Erasmus Bridge is characterised by many gigantic buildings. These made for breathtaking photo spots in the late evening.
I particularly enjoy taking photos at night, as this gives me the option of capturing the play of light in large cities and at the same time exposing the image in such a way that unsightly elements are no longer visible. And so I took about three times as many pictures that evening as I did on the rest of my holiday put together.
It was on this evening and in this setting that I began to love the city of Rotterdam. That night I realised that although I have my problems with modern architecture, I can also appreciate it as a photo subject. Nevertheless, I will always favour cities that not only tell their own character and long history by night, but also by day.
- The SchludgyShot of the trip -
As you might have guessed from the comments on this trip, my favourite picture must be from The Hague. And that's exactly the case. My absolute favourite is a picture of the "Binnenhof" in the afternoon sun.
The shot is a long exposure that turns the lake in front of it into a calm surface. The movement of the clouds was also captured in the picture. It illustrates the dynamic but also the calm and stability that this ancient building radiates as the centre of the Dutch democracy.
It actually contradicts the classical theory of pictorial composition, as the palace on the left edge draws the eye to the left of the picture due to its brightness. The composition disregards the widespread rule of thirds - known as the golden ratio. And yet it is fascinating and that is what makes it so special for me.
