So, we have returned from our first trip away of the year, that being a long weekend to Rotterdam. As you can already tell from the post’s title, this was aboard the cruise ship Aurora, owned and operated by P&O Cruises.

Rotterdam, we’d visited before – and, indeed, have only just finished publishing content on that city from our first time there back in 2022 (see: Rotterdam) – and, of course, P&O Cruises are familiar to us too with this making our tenth time cruising with the British cruise line, but Aurora was the new element for this escape from the UK.

Let’s start with aspects relating to this cruise, then give an overview of what we got up to in Rotterdam, before some final thoughts.

Cruise Parking

P&O Cruises have two types of fare, and the more expensive one of those comes with a big benefit we like – we can choose our cabin – and, for longer cruises, free parking. This wasn’t a long enough cruise so free parking wasn’t an option and, seriously, the price of parking at the cruise port in Southampton is just now ridiculously expensive. I know that in the grand scheme of how much we’re paying for the cruise it’s just a drop in the ocean (cruise-related idioms free all this month) but those little costs have a way of mounting up. We’re still mobile enough and tight enough to instead park in the multi-storey at Westquay in the city and walk our luggage to the port so we did. It was about half an hour’s walk to the berth and cost us just six pounds a day with fresh air and free exercise thrown in, and even if we’d used a taxi to and from there it still would have worked out far less than paying for port parking.

Aurora Embarkation And Disembarkation

We had a late embarkation slot and turned up just after that anyway. We were in no rush to drink because we hadn’t bought a drinks package so that insane urge to get aboard as quickly as possible – even if it means waiting in long queues at the port, even if it means having to take your carry-on luggage everywhere with you because your room’s not ready, even if it means that ordering a drink comes with a minimum half hour wait to receive it because it’s all so chaotic around the bars – wasn’t there. The terminal was practically empty and it couldn’t have taken us more than five minutes to step into it before we were aboard, checked into our muster station, and had started unpacking in the room. We liked that a lot. It makes for a good start to a holiday.

Disembarkation was similarly super simple. Because it was a short cruise and because we’d decided that we weren’t going to bother with the Dress To Impress night recommendation that would’ve meant lugging a heavy Tuxedo and fancy dress aboard, we took just our small cases so opted to disembark ourselves. There was no queue waiting when we wanted to get off so five minutes to get off the ship and through the port, then that half hour walk back to the car was all it took. All good.

Food And Drinks On Aurora

You can book the only speciality restaurant on Aurora, Sindhu, a couple of weeks ahead of departure so we did, and booked it for the first night aboard. This is Indian cuisine for the most part, which is not something we ever eat but which we did once before when we were on Iona, finding it mostly mediocre. We wanted to give it a second chance. We’re still not fans of the food but it was a better experience with some arguably actual tasty bits and not all of it was the same shade of brown. Furthermore, importantly, we could actually tell what the foodstuff under the sauce was in most cases, which was new. A nice benefit of booking online and possibly for that first night was that there was a twenty percent discount on the food too.

We went to the Glass House for the Dress To Impress night. The food was good but we did have some issues with joining the queue for the venue. The web-based booking system said it was full and the man at the entrance to the Glass House told us we’d have to wait over an hour if we wanted to eat there. We pointed out that yes, we were happy to wait, we understood that this was how queues work in principle, and we’re aware that people eating takes a while, but he still couldn’t add us to the queue and told us to just come back. I pushed back on this because it left us in limbo and got him to eventually add our names and cabin number to a piece of paper in front of him – and he did the same for others standing behind us by now – and we sat down to drink and wait, and chat to the others in the same situation as us. It’s utterly ridiculous that you need to be pushy enough to be added to a queue on a piece of paper to be added to a queue in the electronic queueing system because P&O have a very limited idea about what a queue actually is. A British company not understanding a queue?

On the last night we gave the Main Dining Room a chance, choosing to go late because we tend to eat late normally and it tends to be quieter and therefore easier to get a table.

“Are you happy to share?”

“If it’s a small table, yes.”

“A table for eight?”

“That’s not a small table.”

We were handed a buzzer and dismissed with nothing else said. Pretty poor attitude shown there. When we did get to eat we found the food to be okay but the service inattentive. Our tumblers of water stood empty on our table from after the starters to the end of the meal.

The quality of food in the buffet for breakfast was actually pretty good (although quite what their heat lamps do to toast to make it that impossible to slice is something physicists need to investigate). Butter portions were inadequate (I never thought I’d write that on the internet) and because they were rock hard there was almost nothing you could do with them on whatever you wanted to butter without first destroying the bread or croissant involved. The range of food was good too, but only if it was all out, and it never was so we didn’t manage a single morning’s breakfast with all the things we’d have wanted to eat. Tweaking of the tray-replenishment levels during busy periods is needed here because we stood in an unmoving queue for several minutes while it grew and grew behind us just because there were no sausages and the people at the front wanted sausages. P&O have got to know when it will be likely busy, and they’ve got to keep a better watch on what’s getting low.

We didn’t eat at the pool grill area but the burgers looked good. The pizza, though, looked rank.

Drinks on P&O Cruises ships are, for us, not brilliant. We’ve been spoilt by just the ridiculously huge variety of cocktails in particular on Princess Cruises, so the microscopic range that P&O generously offer doesn’t wow us in the slightest. Factor in the smaller number included in any drinks packages, plus the rules on how much you have to pay for drinks not in that range (it’s not price-based which makes it worse), then the shortness of this cruise and overnight stay in Rotterdam as part of it, and finally the on board spend we had as part of the cruise price, and no, there was no way we were getting a package. We paid our own way, not limiting ourselves by range, and spent well under half what we would have otherwise.

Whether you should buy a drinks package or not on a P&O cruise should always take into account the number of sea days, your drinking habits, and the psychic foreknowledge of what drinks will be included or not in the package you choose by the time you set sail (unless you spend the first day gathering all the menus together and plugging the numbers into a spreadsheet). Do not ask anyone else whether you should get a drinks package. We’re all different people, except for my clone.

But, as we’ve said before, we like the prices of the wine and the general beer range is good too. We just can’t drink enough glasses of each to warrant a drinks package once those cocktails tempt us, and they’re not even good cocktails on P&O. And they’re shockingly small too.

P&O Aurora Cruise Cabin C127

The general layout of cruise ship cabins doesn’t vary much, and even on this slightly older ship it was instantly familiar. Wardrobe space to one side on entering; bathroom opposite it; bed; a small seating area; balcony.

The age meant it was a little dated in places. Black marks around the doors, in the shower unit. Rust on metal on the balcony. It’s a metal ship at sea. Expect rust. The bathroom was a light pink colour, but fine. The bed was too soft for us, but that’s personal taste. The small sofa had a dip in the centre so you’d better like the person you’re sitting next to. It simply faced the vanity mirror and the TV didn’t extend from the wall and rotate (well, it might have, but I didn’t want to rip it from the mounting, and gentle pulling did nothing (no sniggering)). I don’t get the point of a sofa that doesn’t face a TV. Ah, a place to sit in your cabin when you want to just look at your own reflection from the other side of the room. Stupid, and it’s something we still see being put in newer ships now.

Speaking of the TV: no movies or on demand programmes. It’s an older ship so it might not have a media server, but that was a little jarring and disappointing. We quite like taking a bottle and snacks to the room to watch a film on formal nights, and that just wasn’t an option for us. Not major, but something we’d not enjoy on a longer cruise on Aurora.

Other than the excessively noisy balcony door locking mechanism (sorry cruise cabin neighbours), nothing else bothered us about the room we’d picked. We found it amusing just how much storage space there was, though. You can almost find a shelf behind every wood or glass surface in the cabin.

Aurora Cruise Experience

Generally absolutely fine. This was an adults only cruise, and the adults ranged from their early twenties to their eighties and possibly beyond. The atmosphere aboard was good. There were a few hen parties we spotted early on with their matching outfits and sashes and tiaras and the like, which we thought wasn’t allowed, but they didn’t cause any issues.

Entertainment was decent enough, and we won enough trivia quizzes between us to take home a P&O leather-effect notebook to add to the cruise memento stash.

Time Ashore In Rotterdam

We had a full Sunday and until one in the afternoon on a Monday to spend off the cruise ship and ashore in Rotterdam if we wished. We had some possible activities lined up and the best way to get to them all was by public transport so we bought a day’s tourist ticket from the metro station on Sunday, and a two-hour ticket on the Monday, and made use of the tube system and buses across the two days.

The first place we visited was the one furthest away: Rotterdam Zoo. We could see on the map that it was fairly big and that wasn’t wrong at all. In fact, we spent way longer here than we’d expected and hadn’t seen it all before deciding we needed to swoop around the aquarium area (we like a nice aquarium when we travel) then head off while it was still light enough to at least see one other thing.

After the zoo we went to the historic area of Delfshaven. This reminded us of Nyhavn in Copenhagen to some extent. Expect older buildings and historic ships, some of them with plaques outside explaining what they used to do and what they do now. They’re mostly lived in now.

We didn’t think we’d have enough time to do justice to either of the museums we’d been thinking about then so we cut our exploring short and made our way to the more popular destination for visitors to Rotterdam, but ignored the food market hall and Cube Houses in favour of a craft ale bar called Bokaal where we tried a range of drinks and light bites over numerous hours before hopping on the underground again back to the ship for the night.

On the final morning we then headed back into a rather rainy Rotterdam, this time to finally take a look at Markthal from the inside and to pick up some local food to take back home with us. We’d very much liked the building from the outside the night before, all lit up, but we’ve never been as drawn to heading straight for it in the same way that a lot of other travel bloggers seem to have been. It’s nice, don’t get me wrong, but it is just a fancy-shaped, colourfully-decorated hall with places to buy food and drink when it all comes down to it.

Still plenty for us to see and do in Rotterdam on a future trip – those museums we’re keen to visit, for one – and we’ll be sure to make plenty of use of those public transport tickets again if we return to this port in the Netherlands especially as the day tickets also include transport in The Hague if we’ve got time enough and the inclination to visit there. For my wife with her tendency to twist an ankle or knee or hurt her heel (she did, again), using public transport just allowed her to rest a bit between longer periods of walking around and allowed the pair of us to fit more in. Not that we really did, thanks mainly to how slow we wandered.

Final Aurora Cruise Thoughts

Seasoned cruisers will always have a few gripes and we did have a few, but everything was very minor overall, so we enjoyed this short break on Aurora a lot. The ship was a good size for getting around easily, with a lot of character in little areas tucked here and there. While not spectacular, we had a better than usual level of friendliness from the P&O staff aboard so that was good to see too, because P&O’s staff have a reputation of being a bit standoffish. Not everything worked quite like it should have – the elevators announcing the wrong floors or warning about too much weight in them when there’s just you (and that didn’t just happen to us; I know what you’re thinking) – but Aurora is fairly old so it’s perfectly understandable. We’re just the same.

We’d happily cruise on Aurora again; we’d prefer to cruise on her than we would Iona, for instance. We’d really like P&O to adopt some of the things that make a line like Princess that much better and more attractive to us – better hardware, software, drinks range, staff attitude – but they’re fine for what they offer and we will be cruising with P&O again later this year when we spend some more time on Ventura and head for some late summer sunshine (hopefully) in Spain and Portugal’s waters.

“We’re going on an Aurora cruise!”

“Very nice! Remember to wrap up warm!”

“What? We’ll be in the Bahamas.”

“You’ll never see the Northern Lights at that latitude.”

We weren’t going to the Bahamas, but in March 2024 we were going to the quite possibly equally exotic destination of Rotterdam. This was our first (and so far, only) time on P&O’s old lady of the fleet (not an official designation), and a short cruise of effectively a long weekend. The time of year, rather common cruise destination, and short duration made this cruise quite affordable even with a balcony cabin on a small ship like Aurora. Typically, the smaller the ship then the more you’ll probably pay, and while we are keen to get value for money on cruises we also have no love for the newer, bigger ships, particularly in P&O’s fleet, and will often look at the older, less-promoted ships that cruise lines operate even if they cost a little more.

We drove down to Southampton, parked in the West Quay multi-storey car park, then walked our carry-on luggage down to the terminal. We’d decided we weren’t going to partake in the single, planned formal evening on the ship so didn’t need to be weighed down by my tuxedo or my wife’s heavier, more glamorous dress, and the short duration meant we didn’t qualify for free port parking despite paying for the higher fare in order to pick our cabin so we crammed what we needed into the smaller cases and got a little bit of exercise instead.

We had a late embarkation slot and arrived after that because we were in no hurry to board. We had no pressing need to get on with all the crowds and start drinking as early as possible, and much of that was because we no longer get the drinks package when sailing with P&O. I’m sure they suit some people’s drinking style but they certainly don’t work out to be good value for money for us, and you know how much I like value for money because I’ve already mentioned it. Plus, with no free port parking we did have additional on-board spend instead so we knew we could offset some drinking with that, although we had some food plans to take into account first.

The terminal was pretty empty when we arrived so five minutes after arriving we were on the ship, had visited our muster station, and were in our room with the safety video on while we unpacked and checked out the view from our cabin’s outside space. This was cabin C127 and there will be photos from inside it later in this series but for this first day all I did was snap a shot from the enclosed balcony.

A quick wander around the chilly top deck brought us to the Crow’s Nest at the front of Aurora and we grabbed a drink each before returning to our room for the sail away down the Solent.

Prior to the cruise we’d booked speciality dining for the first night aboard, and on Aurora that pretty much just means Sindhu, P&O’s Indian-inspired restaurant. This was located just off the top floor of the atrium with its very stylish design incorporating some lovely Art Deco lines and artwork.

We are not fans of Indian food. We’re not fans of what some people call “spice” but what we call “pain that overwhelms your senses”. Flavours are what we want from food. Flavours and textures. And maybe not all the same shade of brown. And definitely not something that tries to strip off a layer of skin inside your mouth and on the surface of your lips as you’re eating it. For these reasons we’re not fans of Indian food. But despite this, we do keep trying it out on ships. We still haven’t done it ashore as a couple, although I’ve been to a couple of restaurants on dry land for work-related reasons and not been massively impressed.

Below is the menu from our visit to Sindhu on Aurora, and after that all the dishes that ended up filling every space on the table. There were some okay bits, and even a few bits that strayed over the border into fairly nice territory, and certainly when comparing it to an experience on Iona years before it was a great improvement. It’s still not really our thing, though.

If you do like Indian food then absolutely consider booking your visit to Sindhu ahead of your cruise because it can be popular and you can save some money. We’d pre-booked for a discount, then received another discount on board because we’d booked for embarkation day.

The next day was spent at sea, slowly heading along the English Channel then up the coast of mainland Europe towards the Netherlands. A chance then for a bit of an explore around Aurora. After breakfast we stepped out onto the aft of the ship and it’s a very attractive aft indeed with those tiered, wraparound decks.

Staying outside, Aurora’s promenade deck was nice and wide.

In from the promenade deck we descended the attractive, gently spiralling staircase around the Glass House area down to the pub below and took part in morning trivia (which we won) before continuing on, through the art gallery (no Park West collaboration on P&O ships), then up the much-photographed atrium area to Anderson’s.

Anderson’s was a lovely, upmarket, homely-feeling lounge, reminiscent of the sort of thing you find in stately homes now converted to fancy hotels (not that we stay in them any longer as they are far too pricey for us these days). The big problem with Anderson’s was that it wasn’t big but it was popular across this cruise – understandably so – which made finding a seat in there in the evenings troublesome.

We don’t often visit theatres on cruise ships when there’s anything actually going on in them but we’ll often pop in for a look when they’re empty. What we did like about the Curzon Theatre on Aurora were the vintage posters on display in the entrance to the venue.

Finally on this brief wander around the ship on this sea day, back up to the Crow’s Nest to see if there was anywhere to sit down and read our books and to also take a quick look at the library just next to it. A decent-sized library as it turned out.

This sea day was also formal night on P&O Aurora and it’s something that P&O are a bit fussy about, limiting some of the venues you’re allowed to hit if you’re not prepared to dress up, including the main dining room. I’ve already said that we’d decided not to lug our formal clothes with us on such a short cruise so we had the choice of the buffet or the Glass House for our evening meal and picked the latter.

The Glass House isn’t a speciality venue but it is an additional charge restaurant that you can’t book ahead of time. No matter, we thought, and wandered over to get a table. The maître d’ made every effort to dissuade us, first telling us it would be over an hour (“No worries. We’ll have a drink over there and wait!”) then telling us he couldn’t add us to any queue because the software wouldn’t allow him until it had cleared down and we’d simply have to come back later and try again. I don’t think so. We eventually persuaded him to put our names and cabin numbers down on paper, along with those of other people in a similar situation to us, and told him that as spaces turned up he could then add us to the queue in the order in which we’d arrived rather than just continually coming up to check. I mean, quite why I needed to explain to him how to manage a queue is beyond me.

We were eventually called forward – and in well under the hour – and proceeded to enjoy the meal immensely, sharing a selection of small dishes before a larger course each. We had enough room left to go for desserts too.

Carmen’s was where we ended the night, catching some Motown music by a singer called Nick James before the general disco.

In the next post in this cruise travelogue series we’ll wake up in the Netherlands and head off to take a look at Rotterdam Zoo.

We’d looked ahead of time for other things to do that weren’t quite in the same area as those we’d visited before, even though we’d skipped out on several museums and art galleries back then owing to time constraints. We certainly could have retraced our steps and visited all new places on this trip to Rotterdam but decided to do things a little differently and see a little more of Rotterdam as a whole. That would mean a Metro ride because the first thing we decided might be nice to look at was the zoo. Zoos have their critics but each should be taken on its merits because many do good work for conservation.

Now, if you get off your cruise ship in Rotterdam and head straight towards the Erasmus Bridge then you’ll pass the entrance to Wilhelminaplein station and you can board there but there’s a little known law if you’re visiting Rotterdam by cruise and you’ve got a website or social media presence on which you want to brag about your travelling lifestyle, and that’s that you must take a picture of your cruise ship from the bridge. We did this, as you can see below.

We could then have walked back to the station but decided we might as well walk a little further on to the next station instead, Leuvehaven. It wasn’t that much further to walk. There we picked up a couple of Tourist Day Tickets and you can see what that included in the photo below. Basically, buses, trams and Metro trains (not overland trains), plus the water bus, in both Rotterdam and The Hague (and we might head to The Hague next time we visit here just to check that out). The ticket lasts until the last transport of the day of purchase and isn’t a rolling 24-hour ticket so you’ll get the most value from it by buying and using it earlier in the day.

We emerged back into the daylight at Rotterdam Central and from there effectively followed the animal print trail in the direction of the zoo.

I like architecture without being any kind of expert in the field, and I like going on cruises where maybe my knowledge of lines, ships, itineraries, and histories is actually a little better than most. It’s nice when you can combine some loves in your life, like spotting houses in a terrace incorporating balconies spanning bay windows of adjacent buildings on the ground floor, each balcony being separated by a divider very much in the style of cruise ships. It looks like late Art Deco influence here from the Streamline Moderne style.

A sculpture of an athlete then caught our eyes. This was Fanny Blankers-Koen, the most successful athlete at the 1948 Olympics in London with four gold medals. The bronze sculpture was erected in 1954.

Now to the pictures from Rotterdam Zoo. As you can see it was an overcast day so the photos aren’t as bright or colourful as they could be, and as you’ll soon discover there’s not a lot I can really add from this point on. The photos will mostly show animals in the zoo. I’m not about to go into the types of animals or give you information about the species. All I will say to start off with is that this was a very big zoo, spaced out, with large enclosures for the animals within. We didn’t see any signs of stress anywhere and that’s not been true of some other zoos we’ve been to in the past.

We spent a long time watching the primates below and that’s mostly because of the baby present. It was lovely to see it being passed from adult to adult while grooming took place.

In other zoo visits over the years it’s become a running joke that the Red Panda is my nemesis, often remaining perfectly still until I raise my camera in its direction at which point it will either turn around or move behind something, the end result being my wife laughing hysterically. Got it this time, though.

Rotterdam Zoo included an aquarium area and we do like an aquarium so we had to take a look at that too.

Finally, a couple of species that my wife adores for some reason: penguins and tortoises. The penguins were ridiculously large and quite menacing in a way.

We didn’t see everything there was to see at Rotterdam Zoo but suddenly realised we’d spent hours there and far longer than we’d expected or intended so decided to cut our visit short in order to get some other sightseeing done. Rotterdam Zoo is right there with the best of zoos that we’ve been to and we’d be more than happy to make a return trip there one day.

In the next post in this Aurora cruise travelogue series we’ll head down for a walk around the historic area of Delfshaven.

There was a little bit of a walk from the bus to where we wanted to explore in the historic area of Delfshaven but with plenty of wide open spaces in this part of the city, numerous canals cutting through, and loads of interesting architecture to grab our attention this was nice enough.

We made our way to the Aelbrechtskolk (or Aelbrecht Waterway) because there were a couple of things close by we’d had our eye on visiting too while we were here. One of those was the Pinball Museum but with the time left in the day before it closed and how much of the day we’d spent in the zoo earlier we decided that we’d just make do with a scenic walk around the area on this occasion. We’re bound to come back at some point because we do like Rotterdam a lot.

This waterway was built in the late fourteenth century, permission being granted by Aelbrecht van Beieren, Count of Holland to allow the city of Delft to connect itself to the river to the south. Delfshaven means Delft Harbour. The need for its own harbour was due to a reluctance for vessels carrying goods to and from Delft to have to pay fees to neighbouring Rotterdam instead of collecting them itself. In the eighteenth century Delfshaven then declared independence from Delft and in the nineteenth century it was willingly annexed into Rotterdam.

What can you expect to see if you walk along the banks of this waterway in Delfshaven, then? Very attractive buildings, many of them showing signs of previous industry connected with shipping if you turn away from the water, and on the water itself some lovely boats of varying forms.

A lot of the boats come with their own history and there are helpful notices along the canal edge to explain these. Some examples are included below.

Piet Hein was a privateer and also admiral in the Dutch navy whose successes in the Eighty Years’ War almost bankrupted Spain. He was also born in Delfshaven in 1577 and it’s after him that the bridge in one of the photos beneath is named. He’s one of those figures in history that when you read about him you find that one side heralds as opposing slavery while another side claims he benefitted from and assisted in it.

It was certainly worth taking our eyes off the water and back to the buildings around us every now and then, though, because the variety in the architecture was great to see. It’s a sign of different periods of expansion and wide uses of buildings.

We headed down the western side of the canal banks to the second of the bridges, Mouterbrug, and here got a good view of the historic windmill a little further on. There was no indication that it was possible to visit it so we simply crossed over and headed back up the eastern side, but it is in fact possible at certain times.

As we came to the end of our circuit of the canal here in Delfshaven we found a plaque on the wall. It was from this point that one of two ships intending to carry settlers to America, Speedwell, set sail in 1620. Speedwell wouldn’t prove to be seaworthy enough for the pilgrims to put their faith in so most of them ended up on the Mayflower instead. A small connection between this part of the world and Southampton from where we’d started this cruise on Aurora.

Before we hit the bus stop to continue our day’s exploration of Rotterdam we stumbled upon something quite jarring when compared to the historic houses and old boats and windmill we’d been enjoying just prior to that point. This sculpture is called The Palm (you possibly might even have guessed the name) and was designed by Klaar van der Lippe in 2002. It symbolises some of the multicultural parts that go into making up local communities while emphasising the strength and colour such a mix can bring. The overcast conditions likely didn’t do it justice but one of the things we like a lot about Rotterdam in general is all the public art pieces you find.

In the next post in this series we’ll head across to the main square in Rotterdam to get some food and drink into us before we head back to the ship for the night.

As we headed towards the bar we had time to appreciate a few of the architectural and artistic sights in the square, and Rotterdam is certainly not slouching when it comes to interesting architecture and public art.

First up was the somewhat chaotic-looking sculpture called Ode To Marten Toonder. Toonder was a cartoonist, sometimes referred to as the Dutch Disney, and I’ve decided not to investigate and see whether that stretches to some of his political leanings and will just assume that it’s because his work became rather ubiquitous nationally at the time of production.

The sculpture was erected on the occasion of Toonder’s ninetieth birthday and features some of his cartoon character creations. For weary visitors to Binnenrotte Square it also incorporates some benches.

Rotterdam did not come out of World War II unscathed – that’s an understatement – and the explosion (apt word) of new buildings in the post-war years make the city a feast for the eyes if you’re a fan of modern architecture. Like me.

Dutch architect Piet Blom has left his mark on this part of Rotterdam. First up is the Blaaktoren apartment block, colloquially known as The Pencil for obvious reasons. The windows that resemble sunglasses are just gorgeous.

A more famous and popular example of Blom’s architectural design is the set of Cube Houses. Everyone takes photos of the Cube Houses. You can visit one inside and we still haven’t done that yet but I imagine we’ll be back to Rotterdam one day and will get around to it.

Jaap Bakema and Hans Boot are responsible for the design of the Central Library building and it’s impossible not to see influence from the Pompidou Centre in France.

And, of course, there is the more recent addition to Binnenrotte Square and magnet for tourists, the Markthal, or market hall, where all kinds of food and drink can be consumed on site or picked up to return home (although check what you’re allowed to bring back to your country; the UK’s had some dairy-related restrictions recently, for instance, that could lead to you facing hefty fines if you breach them).

We would finally visit the Markthal in the morning – and you can read about that in the next post – but for now here are some photos from our stop in Bokaal, a craft ale bar also serving food, a couple of minutes away from Binnenrotte Square.

First, the good points about Bokaal. We tried a decent array of beers, ciders, and even wine, while also grabbing some snacks as part of Operation Semi-Sensible. The bar was a great size inside and had plenty of seating outside too, and it seemed pretty popular as the sky darkened into the evening.

However, I have to mention the toilets and the Dutch attitude (in this particular location) towards hygiene. The toilets, accessed down a set of stairs, were foul. Graffiti, stains, broken flush panels, no lock on one of the doors. Then there were the taps and trough for hand-washing which I was the only man to use on several visits over the course of the evening. My wife reported a similar story from the women’s toilet, noticing other women simply walking out of the loo without washing their hands. This didn’t leave us with the best lasting impression of the bar or the local inhabitants (or possibly visitors), which is a shame because the food and drinks and location were otherwise great.

Ben Zegers is the artist responsible for the sculptural pieces that comprise Everyone Is Dead But Us, one of them shown in the photo below as we headed back to the ship for the night.

We passed back through Binnenrotte Square and it was nice to see the Marthal in particular lit up at night with the colourful interior of its arched construction very evident.

We could have walked back to the ship over the Erasmus Bridge but our Tourist Day Tickets were still valid and so we took the lazy option and caught the Metro for one stop instead. This then gave us more views of Rotterdam’s buildings at night from the south side of the river and the bridge looked spectacular with the floodlights shining up its support struts and casting an ethereal glow.

Back on board Aurora we treated ourselves to a cocktail in Anderson’s as it was quiet enough to find a seat, then headed to bed, keen to get up early and get out in the morning before our early afternoon sail away from Rotterdam.

In the next and final post in this Aurora cruise travelogue series we’ll make a flying visit to Markthal to finally see what it’s all about, then it’s a daytime sail along the Nieuwe Maas out to sea and some concluding thoughts about the cruise as a whole and Aurora in particular.

It was nice, don’t get me wrong, but it was still just a large space with food stalls in it when you break it all down. A lovely building, too, but again, it’s a place that sells food. Everyone’s different, of course, and the lure of a food market might be the thing that draws some people to cruise to Rotterdam, we guess. We’ve done it now so we can at least say that, and we’d probably visit again for food to take back home if we were close by and it was open but it’s not a location we’re likely to make a major point of visiting.

We picked up some beer cheese (for my wife) and some stroopwafel (for us and for my in-laws), with the latter being something we always bring back from trips to the Netherlands now. You can also see below our train tickets and the cruise prize book with winning stickers in it that we’d be able to exchange for a gift later in the day (a leather effect notebook), and if there’s a reason that I placed them all together for a photo then that reason is now lost in the mists of time.

In the first post in this short cruise series I did mention that there would be some more photos of our cabin later on and that time is now because it was when we got back on Aurora that I thought I’d better snap a few pictures. People like to see photos of food on cruise ships and people like to see photos of cabins on cruise ships.

The cabin on Aurora was a good size with largely standard layout. With Aurora being an older ship she had a little more metal around the balcony area than you tend to find on more modern vessels that utilise more lightweight materials and more gaps to cut down on weight, but we quite like that additional bit of privacy from your cruising neighbours. Balcony depth was reasonable, especially compared to newer ships too. The bathroom was perfectly adequate if a little dated in its colour, but nobody ever had an unsatisfactory wash because the walls were tinted salmon pink.

The afternoon came around – still drizzly – and Aurora headed off along the Nieuwe Maas. For us this was a lovely chance to see this river and all its fabulous architecture during daylight hours as we’d last cruised along this stretch of water between Rotterdam and the North Sea on Island Princess after dark (see: Night Cruise Down The Nieuwe Maas From Rotterdam).

I won’t repeat any of the observations made during that cruise a couple of years earlier – that’ll teach you for not reading everything I write and committing it to memory – but will point out some new things we noticed during this river cruise.

A lot of buildings did not survive the heavy bombing during World War II and provide the reason for why so much of Rotterdam consists of modern architecture, but one that did is the former headquarters of Holland America Line, now a hotel. For a long time it was the departure point for those wanting to seek a new life in America. Interesting to note that so many are now fleeing there to come to the relative sanity of literally anywhere else in the world. Well, not Russia, of course.

The day before in Rotterdam we’d visited Delfshaven and it was nice to see that part of the city from this alternate angle with the windmill clearly visible.

We spotted Tallink’s Silja Europa docked and assumed she was there for some kind of repairs or upgrades but she’s actually been used as a temporary housing location for asylum seekers since 2023.

We were quite interested in the colourful murals and street artwork on some buildings around some land that looked like it was a building site or dumping ground. It turns out to be Stadsstrand Vlaardingen, a sort of beach with bars and food places. We liked seeing the lighthouse there and given the function of the place it looks like it’s similar to Belle du Gabut in La Rochelle, so we’d probably like it.

The waterway entrance to Maassluis looked very nice and it also marked the start of a line of buildings with interesting architectural styles used in their construction.

The white bridge-like structure in the photo below is one of a matching pair of storm surge barriers on either side of the Nieuwe Maas.

The cuboid buildings on the sands at the exit to the North Sea which look a little bit like they might have been used in World War II as defensive fortifications are actually beach villas. Cruising past them in March probably didn’t present them in their best light.

So, that brought our time in the Netherlands aboard Aurora to an end. Some photos of the final evening meal on the cruise because, as I’ve mentioned, there are people who like to see these things. This was our only time in the main dining room on this short cruise. It wasn’t the best of meals. We’d encountered a surly attitude from the staff before getting to our table because we didn’t want to share on a table for eight, then we’d had some pretty dismal service during the meal too with food delivered perfunctorily and no offer to top up our water.

I’ve already summarised the cruise experience in the early thoughts post about our four nights cruising on P&O Aurora so won’t repeat much of that except to say that we generally like this sort of ship – older, smaller, quirkier – as you do have to make some allowances for that sort of cruise – dated, odd layouts, lacking some features – but the reward is that the ship and experience is then more memorable than the modern cloned vessels that many of the cruise fleets are pumping out. We’d happily cruise on Aurora again. And Rotterdam, we love. There’s a lot more still to see so we’d have no problem with repeat visits to the Dutch city. It seems a lot more welcoming than Amsterdam, too.