Rain

It seems like any place that doesn't have 300 sunny days a year likes to adopt the much abused platitude of "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes!"

Rotterdam, a good-looking modern city by the way, deserves the right to claim this saying. The rain and sun might as well be controlled by an on/off switch.

I was walking down the sidewalk the other day in the sunshine, when I saw a quickly approaching line of shadow that brought a curtain of rain with it.

It literally seemed like floodgates had opened up in the sky, and a hard line of water was advancing down the street.

Five minutes later the sun was out. I know New Englanders like to say the weather there is testy, but it doesn't compare to the last few days in Rotterdam. Rain in the morning, then sunshine, then gusts that blow food off the table, then rain again, and sun that dries the sidewalks as quickly as they were soaked.

It's just ridiculous.

Seven years ago, my mother met me in Iceland for a bit of traveling, as she has now done in continental Europe. We were going on a tour to a waterfall and some geysers, and asked the clerk at her hotel what was going to happen if it rained. I still remember her blunt response.

"We do everything rain or shine, or else we wouldn't do anything at all."

I think Rotterdam needs to modify Iceland's functional philosophy: "We do everything rain and shine, because that's what every day is."