Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands by population and the largest by area (319.4 km2). The city is known for its university, riverside setting, lively cultural life, maritime heritage and modern architecture.
We were in Amsterdam for two days but the weather wasn’t good, it was overcast and raining, on the second day we took a train not far from our hotel and went to Rotterdam.
Our day trip started at Rotterdam Centraal, the train station was massive with a very unique designed building. On exiting the station we were blessed with sunny skies, which was ideal for exploring.
We walked around the city on the roads layered with coloured bricks, taking the Jan Evertsenplaats path through a park, then passing along the one of the World Trade Center Rotterdam buildings. Infront of which there is a statue of Gijsbert Karel Ban Hogendrop, whoever he was.
Along that path we ended up on a market street I believe the street name was Hoogstraat. There were tables and chairs belong to restaurants on the street and vendors selling item in carts.
We then passed through an actually market where we took a few minutes to look around. Right behind the market was one of Rotterdam’s main attraction the Kijk-Kubus.
Cube houses are a set of innovative houses built in the cities of Helmond and Rotterdam in the Netherlands, designed by architect Piet Blom. They are based on the concept of “living as an urban roof”: high density housing with sufficient space on the ground level; its main purpose being to optimize the space inside.
After checking out the cube houses, we walked around the Old Harbour and went to look at the some of the new bridges, which are the Willemsbrug and Erasmusbrug bridges.
Walking between the bridges we passed a promenade with the flags of all the countries in the world it seems, there was even a Trinidad flag, this area was called Vlaggenparade Rotterdam.
Walking back into the city we even passed a restaurant boat named Vessel 11, if was up to me I was stopping there for some lunch.
Rotterdam was filled with many street art and unique building designs like the Cavallo Sospeso, Cascade statue and the St Paul’s Church.
The visit to the Netherlands was fun and interesting, we didn’t stay long but we got to see a lot.
You can see more photos of Rotterdam here.