Delfshaven, Euromast, Cube House..

Delfshaven came to existence when the city of Delft wanted its own harbour. Traffic by water happened then, as it does now, on the river Schie. In 1389 Duke Aelbrecht Of Bavaria gave his permission to the city of Delft to dig a waterway from the village of Overschie to the river Maas. This way Delft had the use of a harbor of its own to accommodate sea-going ships.At the mouth of this new 'Delfshavense Schie' grew a small settlement and in 1398 it was called Delfshaven. The population made a living from fishing, shipbuilding and the distillery of 'jenever', the Dutch equivalent of gin. On behalf of the last, several malt-mills were built. Until the year 1811 Delfshaven belonged to Delft. At the times of the French occupation Delfshaven was independent for a short period. First from 1795 until 1803 and once again in 1811. In 1886 Delfshaven was joined to Rotterdam. In that short period of independence it achieved the status of 'city' in 1825, and the city-privileges that came with it.

From that moment on the city could by right use its own coat of arms. This was derived from the civic heraldry of Delft, which they had used until then, but now it was decorated with a herring and three cornstalks, as symbols of the fishing- and alcohol-industry. During its history Delfshaven knew many times of hardship such as the Spanish occupation, long lasting strife, fires, floods and poverty. Although Delfshaven was kept on a short leash by the city council of Delft, in fear of economical competition, there were times of wealth and prosperity as well.

Houses in Delfshaven
















Euromast..
After the walk in Delfshaven, we saw the Euromast in the distance n decided to walk towards it.. bad mistake.. its not a very short walk.. took us like 15 min.. shld have taken a bus or tram instead.. by the time we reached there, we r tired n sianz... we decided to save on the 8Euro entrance fee to go up the Euromast on smt else.. nevertheless, we took soem pics with it to justify our long walk here..



Posed with some statue near the Cube House..

A closer shot of wat it is..

Posing with the other side.. there's a HIPPO.. haha

Note that in most photos, JL is carrying a blue bag.. thats becos she thot food is gonna be expensive in Holland.. so she brought a big bag of apples n breads.. so troublesome have to lug the bag around everywhere she go.. smt we have to carry for her even.. haha
Cube House..
We decided to go to the next place on our list of "Places to Go" ... the cube house.. heard that its rather famous..
In Rotterdam, which had to be rebuilt after its destruction in the Second World War, a lot of innovative buildings were built during the last decades. One of the most unconventional are the cube houses near the city centre. These houses were designed by architect Blom in the 1980s. He just tilted the conventional house 45 degrees. The houses all rest on pilons, have windows, and are all attached one to the other. And perhaps the most amazing thing: people actually live in them! Since they were disturbed so often by curious passers-by, one owner decided to open a "show cube", which is furnished as a normal house. Once inside, you get an idea how it is possible that one can live in such a strangely shaped house.


The entrance fee to the show room is 1.80 Euro.. we felt cheated becos its just a small aprtment with windows of diff angles .. n we cant go to other apartments to take a look...

View from the windows..





Looking unhappy.. felt cheated..


There r small shops such as hairdressers, food outlets under these cube houses..

As mentioned earlier, these houses r occupied by ppl.. note the Bernie doll on the left cube house window in this pic below..