My mum passed away yesterday afternoon.
I won't be posting this week and hope you to see all back on a brighter day.

Coolsingel. Today is the last day of the North Sea Jazz festival in Rotterdam. I doubt whether you can still get tickets, unless on the black market, but if you can, go see Herbie Hancock tonight or Wynton Marsalis, David Sanborn or Jamie Cullum!

The summer holiday officially started in our region today. The Netherlands is divided into 3 regions during the vacations in order to spread traffic and avoid too much hectic. If you have 2 kids in different schools and locations you may have a problem yourself with this settlement :)
To put your bag next to the flag on the pole, means you passed your exams, so there's a happy kid living here.

Herbs at the marketplace. Big bags for 5 euro, say 7 dollars.

Baden Powellaan; Het Heerenhuys (the Masters House). This majestic house dating back till 1800 can now be used as a meeting place or weddding location.

Erasmusbridge. After last weeks abundance of sunshine we've had our share of rain these days. Makes for pretty clouds though.

Westersingel. This art piece "Elevazione"by Guiseppe Penone, is a bronze 'tree' connected with 5 real trees that grow over it to show the force of nature.

View on the Montevideo tower and a tiny Hotel New York next to it, seen from the Veerhaven.

Nenijto. We've had some beautiful weather the last week and these girls are enjoying their "raket" (rocket) ice cone. This icecream has been the best selling 'water' ice cream since the 60 -ies!

Grote Kerkplein. Right across from the humanist Erasmus is the statue for Marjolein Kriek who is the first woman to have her DNA sequence determined.
Her statue is placed there because of Reboot, a project about thinking and acting in an artificial world.

Beukelsdijk. The pharmacy also has a shopping area and in the window shop you can see that children all over the world like to play dokter and nurse. What makes it Dutch again is the blue tiled wrapping paper behind it.

Race track Nenijto. The annual sports day of my children's school couldn't have happened on a sunnier day! We've had some terrific weather the past days, with averages of 27/28 degrees Celsius (80/82 Fahrenheit). Fingers crossed it will still be nice during the weekend!

First of the month and todays theme gave me a headache; Empty.
I know for many people, a fire or the sea or clouds like these ones, empties their heads.

Want to see what the other cities came up with?
Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

Hoogstraat. For those whose pay check came in recently; thanks to "the crisis" we are having a huge SALE everywhere.

Sunsetting besides the Van Nelle building.; the former factory of coffee, tea and tobacco.

For those of you who were here early this morning; I changed todays photo for this one coz the City Daily Photo community is having a special Theme day to raise awareness of the missing of "A." who was blogging from Teheran and now has gone missing as of June 17.
If you want to check out his great blog with images of the turmoil in Teheran Click here .

Special thanks to JM from Oeiras Daily Photo for letting me borrow his image!

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Linker Rottekade. Another work of the Waterworld exhibition from Gallery "Op de Rotte" .

Veerhaven. Wouldn't it be nice to just go sailing today?

Hoogstraat, view on the WTC downtown.

Museumplein. Not that the weather is getting better, all flowers bloom :)

Linker Rottekade. This work belongs to Galery At de Rotte and is one of the works of the exhibition Waterworld. Nothing is what is seems. Made by and for young people due to Rotterdam being Youth Capital 2009.

A classic one. View on one of Rotterdam icons; the Euromast.

Natural swimming pool 't Zwarte Plasje (the black pool). Although the summer officially starts today, we haven't really had a proper sunny day. Yesterday and today however my kids play a waterpolo tournament in this natural pool in the north of Rotterdam. You might even see us on the webcam.

De Parade. This weekend is the last weekend the mobile theatre event is visiting Rotterdam. Go check it out! Madame Baba is waiting for you.

Btw; this afternoon there are stunt cliffdivers diving of the Erasmusbridge. Unfortunately I am totally UNable to witness it, but if you are around, i would sure go there!

Nieuwe Binneweg, Koekela. Seriously; go there! I choose the chocolate truffel, the lemon meringue, carrot nut, cheesecake cherry pie and i would have gone on if it weren't for the fact that even I have to stop some where.

De Parade. I thought this was a pretty cool bar plastered with beer bottle caps.

The new herring arrived last week and tastes wonderful again. This is said to be the proper Dutch way to eat one, and together with broccoli and tomatoes belongs to one of the healthiest foods. I am turning 43 today, so here's to at least another 50 years!

Museumpark. 4 Rotterdam museums are highlighting Brazilian art, architecture, design and visual culture (yeah, it made me think too) at the moment. This add at the Netherlands Architecture Institue caught my eye.

De Parade is back in town and one of their all time hits is still alive; baking your own poffertjes. With butter and powded sugar they were delicious. Well done Caroline!

Nature and the city. For the 2nd largest city of our country, I honestly think Rotterdam hosts a lot of parks and green areas. Sometimes in the most unexpected places.

Heemraadsplein. This is the steelband that gave their all to welcome and honour all the schoolkids that ended their walks thursday.