Categories for Rotterdam

A week ago i walked around the Old North part of Rotterdam, to the Wilgenplantsoen and the Blokland Garden. I also went past the Gandhi Garden, but it was closed at the time. This week i went to the Gandhi Garden again, at a time i knew it was open.

Still no map available, so i will write you through the walk.

I walked over the Noordsingel and the Bergsingel straight to the Gandhi Garden. I spoke with John for a bit, one of the coordinators there. I told him about my walks and writing about them, informally on this website. After this i walked to the center coffee and tea drinking place. A woman was sitting there with her two dogs, Binti and India. We chatted a bit, i drank a coffee. After that i went into the Gandhi Garden and made some photos and talked with some people working there. Some of them i did recognize from my time working there a few years ago. I told them about my walking project and about the Peace Garden, where i work twice a week.

I walked to the end of the garden, where a lovely hexagonal greenhouse was standing. Inside on one side tomatoes were growing. On the other side, and in the middle there were seedlings growing in small pots.

I walked on a small path further to the back, against the wall of the old train rails. In the deep shade woods and other material was sheltered. I smelled some marihuana, but couldn’t find any plants which were looking like it. A small path went all around the gardens. In the middle the beehives were busy standing there.

I walked back to the center place where someone had made more coffee. It was time for a short break. Ronald came too, i know him from the Peace Garden. He told me there was another area with gardens up the Gordelweg. A good next stop! After i finished my coffee i went with him to the big potato hills, wrapped in chicken wire. Time for the harvest!

After that i said my goodbyes to everyone and walked over the Gordelweg on a path besides the canal. Boat houses were lining up there. Really nice to live there. Passing some chickens i saw vegetable gardens on the other side of the fence. Hoping for an entrance further along, i kept on walking past it up until i could turn the corner and i saw an open gate, lucky for me! These Gordelweg gardens were all single user gardens, some neat, some a bit more messy. Areas for compost in between, and a small sheltered area with a bench and a bit of water separated one area from the next. I didn’t see anyone around, but still, it was good to walk there and let the area slowly sink in.

After that i went back home, walking through Blijdorp. I walked through the Central Station and the city centre. At the Schouwburgplein i bought a bara curry chicken which i ate up walking to the market. The vegetable girls were not there though, i asked someone standing besides them, he said their dog had died. So sorry 🙁

So i walked back home. I started to feel a bit tired. Two thirty i was home, four hours after i had left. Time to lay my feet up for a short bit!

A good walk!

Today i made a walk through the old north part of Rotterdam. And i did want to make a map of my walk, but the plugin i’m using isn’t working. Grrr. Hopefully with another update the error will be fixed. I did check an old map, which is still working properly. But i do get a fatal error when i go to the make a new map page.

Well, i simply need to talk you through it then.

I started walking past the Rotte to the start of the Zaagmolenstreet. At the Zwaanshals, a good looking square, i made a couple of photos. I turned into the Zwaanshals and walked to the Wilgenplantsoen. This is a small communal garden. The garden where Daniel, who also works at the Peace Garden, works on Tuesdays. I was a bit early. Luckily the garden was open and i walked around and took some photos of the plants and flowers. Quite soon Marion came in, we talked a bit. It turned out she helped setting up the Peace Garden last year. She didn’t have that much free time now though, so she helped at the Wilgenplantsoen now, closest to home.

When Daniel arrived, the children ran up to him and jumped in his arms. That made me smile, lovely to see. I walked with Daniel to the Kinderparadijs, the children’s paradise close by, to get coffee for all of us.

After drinking the coffee, helping some children to get water from the pump in front of the garden and eating some yellow raspberries fresh from the garden, i walked on.

The Bloklandstreet is next. This garden is closed, but it was easy to take a few photos through the fence. I followed the Bloklandstreet to the Bergweg, took a detour through a pet supermarket i had never seen before and walked further past the Willebrordusplein into the Listreet. I crossed the Bergselaan and walked over the Delfgaauwstreet to the Gandhi Garden. I had intended to make some photos there, but it was closed i’m sad to say. Next time i’ll go there on a proper working moment.

I headed to the Bergsingel and walked along it to the Noordsingel. At one point i walked past the street going to the Gare Du Nord, a vegan restaurant. I went up there and made photos of the beds of herbs and vegetables.

After this i headed straight back home and was relieved to lay on the couch for a short while.

Another good walk!

This Tuesday morning i woke up early. I was lying there crying for a bit, then i decided to get out of bed. Half past seven.Even though i thought of doing a bit of work today, i decided to go out and go for a walk. I was in the metro half past eight. It was busy. All people going to work. All silent. Within themselves.

I went to the Marconiplein, the place my walk a week ago had ended. I knew about the gardens i wanted to visit. The Voedseltuin and the Tuin op de Pier were my main targets. But while i was walking there, i was thinking of the milieupark which was close to the Voedselpark. The place where you can go and throw away stuff which can be recycled or re-used. I took a look at all the different kinds of material you can bring there: tires, plastic stuff, chemical stuff, metals, building material. I loved the little gallery of little garden gnomes and dragons and fat chinese man standing together just when you entered the park.

I wasn’t allowed to take any photos of the place. I only took one photo of the view. Looking across the New Waterway towards the place north of Heijplaat. Looking right at the place i took the photo at, the one with the text ‘Across the water the three flats of Marconiplein. I used to live close to them from 1985 – 1995.‘ beneath it.

I turned back on towards the Voedseltuin, the Food Garden (Facebook page). There were quite a few people there, around ten i guessed. I walked all around the circles in which all the vegetables were growing. They were still working on building the last ones. They were using old pedestrian footpath tiles, breaking them into two or four pieces. A lot of work!

I talked a bit with Max, the garden coordinator. I told him about this small project, getting to know the collective gardens in Rotterdam and a bit more about their organization and the volunteers involved. The Voedseltuin is quite a bit bigger than the Peace Garden. They have four working times in a week, from Monday till Thursday. It is a bit better organized than the Peace Garden, i have to say. On their website voedseltuin.com i read more about their goals, re-integration and permaculture.

A lovely garden. I might go and do some days of work there, to get to know the place a bit better. Not sure it would be for the long term though.

After the Voedseltuin i walked to the Dakpark Rotterdam. There used to be train rails here. Now there are big shops on one side, and on their roofs this park is build. It is eerily orderly. The grass is properly mowed. It is also very quiet. When i asked someone near the fountain, she said it was because schools had just begun this week. True!

Halfway this park there were some small allotments. Above them a couple of sheep were supposed to graze the grass short. I didn’t really see them out and about. They were also fenced of with electrical wires, not easy to go and see them.

I walked through these allotments and walked out of the park towards the end of the Oude Delfshaven with the mill standing there proudly. I followed the Westzeedijk to the Lloyd Quarter. Old harbour area, repurposed with housing and companies buildings. The Garden on the Pier, Tuin op de Pier is there in between the houses near the water.

I was lucky, there were people there as well. They used circles to plant their crops and flowers in as well. This garden was set up by the people living around it. The area isn’t used yet for housing and it looked derelict in between the high rising new buildings. They set up this garden as a space to relax, grow vegetables and herbs and flowers and a place to meet.

Reading their 2015 annual report, this garden is quite active and financially supported by a group of friends consisting mainly of the people living around it. Yoga, Easter Egg hunting with children, many cooking and eating together evening. The kale and rabbit meal in November stands out for me. Once a year they have a moles catcher with his ferret in the garden to try and catch as many rabbit as possible. Subsequently they bake and eat the rabbit with kale grown in the garden itself. I’m sure i’ll be back in this garden soon!

I did walk to another, smaller garden at the other end. By that time my iPhone was dead, the battery empty. I was also getting a bit tired. It was past one already, i had walked for more than four hours. Time to get something to eat and go home. Where i rested my tired feet for a while on the couch before i wrote this piece.

Great walk!

This morning i went for a walk past some allotments, municipal gardens and other such initiatives in Rotterdam. I will make more walks like this over the next weeks. I won’t always find people to talk to, but it is good to see the gardens and its crops anyway.

De Spoortuin
I was lucky. There were people in the Spoortuin. I got an walk through the most amazing woody foresty garden, next to the railway and the Essenburgsingel, so close to the center of Rotterdam. The start of this garden is a municipal garden, with some areas for schools close by. Next a small building for the tools, with grapes growing outside of it. And then a narrow woody path besides the water, mint growing beside it. Some trees form bridges over narrow water inlets, good for fish, birds and frogs. A magnificent tree fallen down, with new trees growing straight up into the sky from its trunk. An extremely wide tree with thick ivy stalks grwoing up into its crown of leaves.

Rinus told me a few years back there was the intention to build houses in this place. The people living around it joined up together to fight this plan. They won! The garden is wonderful. I’ll go back there to make a couple more photos.

Links and photos
Wilde natuur in hartje Rotterdam, bestaat dat?

The rest of the walk
I was less lucky for the next part of the Essenburgsingel. Both gardens there were closed, the Educatieve Tuin Essenburgsingel and the Pluktuin. I did make photos of the entrances. All three of these gardens are part of the bigger Essenburg Park. I’m not sure how this area will develop, i will do more searches and hope to talk to people over there soon about this lovely area.

I walked further on, over the Mathenesserbridge and along the Mathenesserweg to the tube station Marconiplein. My old neighborhood. Some new housing, like my old house, demolished years ago. But other than that basically still the same. I took the tube back home. A good walk!