A walk in Rotterdam: the Essenburgsingel

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!