Over the Easter holidays,Portland and 3 mini-Portlands took a trip from Hull over to Rotterdam for a short break in the Netherlands.Not for us the beauties of the tulip fields,the stunning architecture of Amsterdam or the world-class art museums.No sir,clearly our priority was to explore Rotterdam's Europoort! To travel the 40km from the mouth of the Rhine(Nieuwe Mass)to the centre of Rotterdam is akin to visiting some kind of industrial wonderland and really has to be seen to be believed-no written description can ever do justice to the sheer scale of economic activity.Here is Europe's largest container port,cheek by jowl with oil processing,steel works,power stations and every possible mode of transport going.As you drive inland,sometimes it feels that there are more barges travelling down the Rhine than there are vehicles on the road.Add to that the freight trains that pass every 5 minutes,every type of truck you could dream of,more wind turbines than you can shake a stick at,and you have one of the most exciting,vibrant industrial areas anywhere on the world.At the absolute core of all this industrious activity is Rotterdam's oil and petrochemical industry.The city on its own has more refineries than the whole of the UK and as you drive along the main drag into the city,you are accosted left and right by these cathedrals of oil processing.In addition to the refineries,there are almost 40 chemical plants(manufacturing over 20% of Europe's total chemical production)and with the development of alternative fuels,there are now several new biofuels and biomass processing plants complementing the old school oil industries.
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