Today we had the honour to do the presentation of our climate project at the “Koninklijke Roei- en Zeil-Vereeniging “De Maas”, the royal rowing and sailing association of Rotterdam, which was founded in 1851 and is one of the oldest water sport clubs. It wasn’t affected by the bombing of the German Nazi regime, but in 1942 the president and four more members were imprisoned and murdered, when the building was turned into a “Wehrmachtsheim”.
So I was aware of this location being charged with history, and therefore I was respectfully following the invitation to this place where the Rotary Club Rotterdam holds their meetings. This year the Rotary Club Rotterdam celebrated its 100th anniversary, and I was welcomed by the President Jennifer Willemsen. Robert as my husband with his roots in the Netherland was maybe also a door opener in this case, because due to him I learned some Dutch. Fun fact was that I explained that I would prefer doing the presentation in English as my Dutch wasn’t that fluent, but nevertheless I kept on talking in Dutch.
As the harbour of Rotterdam is a gate to the world, many Rotarians here are internationally connected in the shipping industry, and very interesting talks developed. We were even discussing how we could travel with our bikes on container ships to reach the Rotary International Convention in Taiwan in 2026. It appeared that it was not as easy as I had imagined, because the rules got very strict and the only way to get on a container ship is by hiring as a crew member. I could tell from Robert’s reaction that this way of lowering our travel carbon footprint in order to arrive in the summer heat of Taipei next June was not his choice.
But maybe getting close to the end of our “Less-is-more-Tour” my mindset was longing for more adventures and testing the boundaries of what might be possible. Somehow reaching the unimaginable gave us wings, and got us addicted to moving on every day.
I used the afternoon to catch up on our blog before the opening of Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam (AFFR). For this event they chose this time another location as the one of the last years, and used the Schouwburg for the opening ceremony. Also the organising team had changed. The opening film by Stéphane Demoustier was about the Danish architect Johann Otto von Spreckelsen, who was completely unknown when he won the competition for the “Grand Arche de la Défense” in Paris. It was one of the most prestigious projects of president Mitterand, who wanted to have this project finished for the 200th anniversary of the French revolution. During the realisation of the project not only the political context changed, but the original idea was altered by decisions the architect could not influence as well. One could see not only how an architect’s design got crushed, but also how the soul and the person behind it got demoralised.
After the film there was an Q&A with the director of the film and the actor Claes Bang, who reminded me a bit of Pierce Brosnan. Trying to leaving the auditorium ended in total chaos, because the lines for getting something to eat and drink completely blocked any possibility to move on the stairs. It would have been impossible to escape from this crowd as it paralyzed itself. Further downstairs in the entrance hall it was easier to move and to get to talk with people. There we met the photographer again who took photos of the Rotary President and me during lunch. He introduced us to the architect Wilfried van Winden, who designed the Intel Hotel in Zaandam with its accumulation of typical Zaandam facades.
Back on our bikes we pedalled to our Social Hub for a good night’s sleep.
