Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the "New Meuse" inland shipping channel, dug to connect to the Meuse at first and now to the Rhine.
Utrecht is the fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the province of Utrecht. The municipality of Utrecht is located in the eastern part of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Netherlands, and includes Haarzuilens, Vleuten and De Meern. It has a population of 361,699 as of December 2021.
Schiedam is a large town and municipality in the west of the Netherlands. It is located in the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area, west of the city Rotterdam, east of the town Vlaardingen and south of the city Delft. In the south, Schiedam is also connected to the village of Pernis via the Benelux tunnel.
A caryatid is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term karyatides literally means "maidens of Karyai", an ancient town on the Peloponnese. Karyai had a temple dedicated to the goddess Artemis in her aspect of Artemis Karyatis: "As Karyatis she rejoiced in the dances of the nut-tree village of Karyai, those Karyatides, who in their ecstatic round-dance carried on their heads baskets of live reeds, as if they were dancing plants".
The Harmelen train disaster, on 8 January 1962, was the worst railway accident in the history of the Netherlands. Harmelen, in the central Netherlands, is the location of a railway junction where a branch to Amsterdam leaves the Rotterdam to Utrecht line. It is common at high-speed junctions to avoid the use of diamond crossings wherever possible—instead, a ladder crossing is employed where trains destined for the branch line cross over to the track normally employed for trains travelling in the opposite direction for a short distance before taking the branch line.
De Bijenkorf is a chain of high-end department stores in the Netherlands, with its flagship store on Dam Square in Amsterdam. The chain is owned by Selfridges Group, owner also of Britain's Selfridges and Ireland's Brown Thomas and Arnotts.
Vroom & Dreesmann (V&D) was a Dutch chain of department stores founded in 1887. It was declared bankrupt on 31 December 2015, although its branches were still in operation until 15 February 2016. On 16 February 2016, it was announced that takeover negotiations had not led to an agreement, ultimately resulting in the company's demise.
The Oudegracht, or "old canal", runs through the center of Utrecht, the Netherlands. It starts in the southeast of the city. Here the Kromme Rijn and the Vaartse Rijn arrive to meet the original moat of the fortified town, and the Oudegracht goes from there into the center of town. Parts of the Oudegracht follow the original flow of the river Rhine, but there is some disagreement on what parts. The northern part is most likely an early canal connecting the Rhine section to the river Vecht. The southern part was started in 1122, after the water level of the Rhine in Utrecht dropped because of the new dam at Wijk bij Duurstede. The ground excavated was used to raise the sides of the canal, to reduce the chance of flooding. When the city's system of locks was finished in 1275 the water level was constant, enabling the creation of permanently dry cellars and new quays at water level, hence the typical wharfs below street level. Warehouses used to line the canal. Today many of these warehouses have been converted into restaurants and cafés.
Rotterdam Centraal station is the main railway station of the city Rotterdam in South Holland, Netherlands. The station received an average of 112,000 passengers daily in 2019. The current station building, located at Station Square, was officially opened in March 2014.
Schiedam Centrum is a railway station and metro station in Schiedam, just to the west of Rotterdam, Netherlands, on the railway line between The Hague and Rotterdam Centraal. Train services are operated by Nederlandse Spoorwegen, and metro, tram and bus services are operated by Rotterdamse Elektrische Tram.
Peek & Cloppenburg is a German fast fashion retail chain based in Düsseldorf and Hamburg. The chain is operated by two separate and independent companies, Peek & Cloppenburg KG Düsseldorf and Peek & Cloppenburg KG Hamburg.
Window prostitution is a form of prostitution that is fairly common in the Netherlands and surrounding countries. The prostitute rents a window plus workspace off a window operator for a certain period of time, often per day or part of a day. The prostitute is also independent and recruits her own customers and also negotiates the price and the services to be provided.
Carla Maria Fong Leng Tsang is a Chinese-Dutch fashion designer. Fong Leng started a fashion boutique in 1969 in the Drugstore at the Nieuwendijk in Amsterdam. In 1971 she moved to larger premises at the P.C. Hooftstraat and called it Studio Fong Leng. She is mostly known for her extravagant cloak dresses. Fong Leng’s most notable client was Mathilde Willink, the divorced wife of the Dutch magic realist painter Carel Willink.
The Nieuwendijk is a major shopping street in central Amsterdam. There are some 200 shops along the street. The street, which dates to the early medieval history of Amsterdam, counts 98 buildings with rijksmonument status.
The Ubica buildings are two adjacent buildings standing at 24 and 26 Ganzenmarkt, in central Utrecht, the Netherlands. Number 24 is a rijksmonument. The first recorded mention of the buildings is from 1319. After centuries of residential use, the buildings were bought by the Ubica mattress company in 1913 and used until a devastating fire in 1989. The buildings were then squatted for 21 years, before being redeveloped into a hotel and café-restaurant in 2014.
Gusto Shipyard, previously A.F. Smulders, was a shipbuilding company in Schiedam, Netherlands. It was famous for dredging and offshore vessels. In 1978 it was closed down under suspicious circumstances. Its engineering office still exists as GustoMSC, a subsidiary of American oil rig and equipment manufacturer NOV Inc.
Fahid Bashir Minhas is a Dutch politician of the conservative liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). He worked as a real estate developer and became a member of the Schiedam municipal council in 2014. He then served as alderman in the same city between 2018 and 2021. Minhas was elected to the House of Representatives in the 2021 general election.
Galeries Modernes was a department store chain in the Netherlands in the 20th century, with roots in the earlier company Grand Bazar Français. The last branches were closed in 1984.
The former Utrecht Main Post Office building completed in 1924, is situated on Neude square, Utrecht, the Netherlands. Since 2020 it has served as the headquarters of the Utrecht Public Library.
