Rotterdam: a Hip and Dynamic City in the Netherlands

Rotterdam is located in South Holland and is the second largest city in the Netherlands.

The city has a fun, hip sort of vibe that is characterized by its lively culture, cool architecture, fun neighborhoods and sprawling parks and green spaces.

With its many museums and its own dedicated orchestra, it also has a bustling culture scene. It even received the Europeans Capital of Culture award alongside Porto in 2001. Similarly, the city has a sort of playfulness about which in my opinion is best represented by its Buttplug Gnome statue.

You can follow the signs on the lampposts if you're interested in spotting the buttplug - I mean statue, in all its glory.

Rotterdam is located along the banks of the Nieuwe Maas channel which eventually turns into the Rhine River. Its considered a major economic center within the Netherlands.

There is a saying in the country that goes:

"Amsterdam to party, Den Haag to live, Rotterdam to work".

A different saying that is supposedly more popular among those living in the city goes:

"Money is earned in Rotterdam, distributed in The Hague and spent in Amsterdam"

Both sayings are pretty good, at least from an outsiders perspective.

Rotterdam also has the largest seaport in Europe as well as several important distribution systems. Features such as these have lead to it being given the nickname, "the Gateway to Europe."

An interesting historic fact about the city is that during WWI the Netherlands remained a neutral country and at the time Rotterdam was largest spy center in the world.

During WWII the city was completely destroyed during a bombing campaigne, an event which ultimately lead to Netherlands surrender during the war.

Only a few buildings and neighborhoods in the city survived the event.

One of buildings was Europes first skyscraper the old Witte Huis. It's a 10 story office building (now a hotel) that was built in 1898.

At the time it was the tallest office building in all of Europe.

Its located next to the Old Harbor in the Maritime District of the city.

The Maritime District is home to several terraced bars and restaurants that are situated next to some pretty old and interesting looking ships.

On the opposite side of the city is a neighborhood called Delfshaven, which also survived the bombing.

Its a charming neighborhood that gives you a glimpse of what the traditional city looked like before the war.

We walked over there in the early afternoon to check it out but the walk from the old harbor to Delfshaven was very long and the route we took was somewhat boring and passed through at least one really dumpy neighborhood located adjacent to it.

It took us a while to locate the neighborhood itself and we were tired by the time we got there, so we barely even bothered to explore it.

We saw a small portion of it but it was mostly a waste of time for us, especially since we had already seen so many traditional towns previously.

After the city was destroyed in the 1940's it was rebuilt in the 1950's through to the 70's.

At the time, a major focus for Rotterdam was producing highrise buildings of modern and groundbreaking architecture.

A few interesting ones that are located right close to each other are the horseshoe shaped Market Hall shoping and office center...

the famous Rotterdam Cube Homes...

...and a 15 story hexegonal shaped residential building that was designed to look like a pencil.

There was a lot going on in the space around these buildings when we were there so I would say that it's a must go area within the city if you decide to have a visit. It's also right next to the old harbor and the Witte Huis building.

Another famous attraction in the city is the Euromast observation tower. It was built in 1958-60 and has a 360° observation deck that is 96 meters above ground level. There is also a restaurant up there that I'm sure has some amazing views of the city.

We didn't go up the tower ourselves but we viewed it from a really nice park thats located at its base.

Heading back to the city center we spotted this statue. We were there on Easter Monday and my wife noticed that someone had hidden some chocolate eggs in the statues hands. I actually thought that it was a real person, like one of those street artists who pretend to be statues. But nope, it was cast in bronze, or whatever they make statues out of these days. We headed back to our car shortly after that to make the journey back to our home.

Well thats it for this tour of Rotterdam. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Have you been to the city? What did you think of it? Or even just feel free to talk about whatever is on your mind at the moment, even if it's to tell me your favorite type of sandwich.

If you are interested in seeing more of our trip to the Netherlands than stay tuned, theres more to come. Until next time, thanks for stopping by.

Zaanse Schans