Being there

After two gloriously sunny days, Rotterdam this morning is shrouded in a thick drizzle. I’d prefer it to be warm and sunny – who wouldn’t? – but then again this is the Rotterdam I remember. The baking hot summers rarely visit northern Europe. My memories are not viewed through rose-coloured glasses of a glorious sunny past that never existed. But it’s not grim in this glorious city, a heady combination of the past and startling modern architecture.

Given that my entire Dutch family came from Rotterdam, I definitely feel part of it. I own part of it. In terms of close family, I’m the end of the line. A sister, my mother, and her brother had one child between them. All the older family are dead now.

So, how are the emotions? Overwhelmingly positive, actually. My partner and my two grown up (in some ways) sons are here, so there is nothing to down or mawkish about things. One of the first places we went to was the area where I spent every summer until my early teens. My memories are only happy ones, no need to be sad.

As ever in Rotterdam, everything has changed, even since the last time we were here. It still feels the same, but everything from the skyline to the way you pay on public transport has changed. And the new building just goes on forever.

We didn’t come here for the sun – no one in their right mind would! – because we’d go to Greece or Spain for that.But it does feel great to be going somewhere to do something else apart from further ageing my already ageing skin, accelerating the lines of age. And anyway, the most important people in the world are family and these days are precious. It is entirely possible, probable even, that we will never again visit the Netherlands as a family. So the memories we are creating must be forever, the memories I have now passed down to my sons who will carry the torch, handing down those Dutch genes to the next generation.

It’s time to head off for the day, to the enormous market in Blaak. The smells are what reminds me of my childhood as much as the scenery. Rain or shine, I’m a lucky boy.