Rotterdam Local Customs

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Photos 1 and 3 show the playground on Martinus Steynstraat. Just across from the primary school Da Costa (photos 2 and 5). Miss Agnes has worked there for 25 years and experienced the 'colouring' of the neighbourhood. In the beginning of her career it was unusual to have a Turkish child in her class. Nowadays, she thinks 'help! I have a Dutch child in my class'.
This is a problem in many downtown areas of Dutch cities. We're even talking about black and white schools and the government is trying to change that by making schools more mixed.
Photo 4 shows a popular pasttime for children of many countries. Hinkelen this is called in Dutch.

Continue the walk here

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At the crossing Putselaan/Putsebocht, our host Farid tells us abou this dangerous crossing. Sometimes a car would stop in the middle of the road and the driver and a pedestrian would start talking. That's not something you can do in The Netherlands. But when I crossed myself, the cars stopped, even though I was still on the pavement. The Morroccan drivers kindly let me cross and we waved. After crossing I discovered a nice leafy spot and a fountain (photo 1) and crossed again to find myself in front of a Turkish haberdashery shop (photo 2). These shops are always very nice to browse because they sell everything you can imagine and it's cheap too! Photo 3 shows there used to be a pharmacist in this building. The fading lettering gives it away. I think these are houses from the 30s, also the Bloemfontein primary school in photo 4. The locals will sit here under the trees and reminiscense about their homeland Turkey. Lots of them are homesick. But if they return, they will be seen as rich Europeans and that is also not an attractive idea.
Finally, a poster in a window (photo 5) protests the renovation of the neighbourhood and the loss of the nice old houses. open Bezopen in fact means something like: demolishing is madness

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From the previous tip, we are on the same square behind the mosque, where we see a blue door (photo 1) where Turkish young people have a club. Next to it is a Turkish grocery shop (photo 2) where I bought some great big juicy dates. Photo 3 and 4 show the Dutch-Turkish Cultural Center Kocatepe.

Back on Martinus Steynstraat, we suddenly spot some nice graffiti with Rotterdam highlights (photo 5).

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This old bath house on the Martinus Steynstraat (photo 1) hides a Turkish mosque. You can just see the top of it on photo 2. It also houses the educative center of the bird hospice that I talked about in an earlier tip.
You really get a close feel of Turkey which you wouldn't imagine from the outside. The gate has a sign in Dutch and Turkish saying Motorlu Tasiktar Girimez or Prohibited for motorised vehicles. Behind the entrance is not only a mosque but also shops, a hairdresser and restaurant.

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Halfway Riebeeckstraat there is a 'Vogelklas' (bird school). Initially set up for school children but they come less and less. It's sort of a bird hospice. If a sick bird is found, it can be left here in one of the boxes (photo 3) and then it is taken care of. The foreign children don't really care much for birds. Sometimes they catapult one out of a tree and then bring it to the hospice!
Photo 4 is a tiny botanical garden. Photo 2 is the entrance. It was closed but we could see it well through the wiring.

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Photo 1 shows that Christiaan de Wetstraat still kept the old houses. I hope they stay. So much of the old neighbourhood is renovated. Which is a good thing. People deserve to live in good houses. But the atmosphere is different. On one of the modern flats (photo 4) I made photo 2. Seven out of ten of the names are foreign. That's quite exemplary of the people that live in the neighbourhood 'Afrikaanderwijk'. Photo 3 shows the entrance sign to a large childrens playground, right in the heart of the neighbourhood, the Afrikaanderplein (plein=square).

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Like many streets in the neighbourhood, one side is old and the other side is modern. On the corner (no photo) is a Morrocan club. The club board consisted of four men, all family. But they belonged to different tribe than the members. So there was trouble when the subsidy money came. How was it going to be spent? They didn't trust each other.

Photo 1 and 2 show the boxing school that is run by a Dutch couple since 1982. The gold medalist Bep van Klaveren (featherweight, Olympics 1928) used to frequent it too. Just to look, I suppose. He must've been an old man by then.

The other side of the street still have old houses (photos 3-5). With those typical curtains and very clean windows. I saw lots of window cleaning during our walk here!

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This was a Morrocan snackbar for years. When it was taken over from the Dutch owners, they kept the name 'Jan & Jan'. Now it is owned by a Turkish guy and he renamed it 'Kent'. The coffee is quite cheap (1,25 euro). Now what is a Kapsalon?! It means Hairdresser's Parlour. But it isn't it's edible. Shoarma and fries with salad and sauce all in one. A famous Rotterdam snack (meal, more like!) that became popular throughout The Netherlands.