Rotterdam Cityguide

7:14 PM Imke 36 Comments

Only one hour drive away from where I live is Rotterdam, which before I only knew as the city with Europe's biggest harbour and the famous Erasmus bridge. I had never been to this city before, and didn't expect it to be so modern and trendy, so when my love and I had a daytrip to R'dam, we really liked this city, its amazing architecture and immediately decided to go back again.

By writing this post, I wanted to show you guys that there's more to the Netherlands than capital Amsterdam, and how cool this city is by showing you a selection of the pictures we took when there. I think my outfit suited the style of Rotterdam quite well, and felt like blending in with the mix of old and very modern pictures and the laid-back attitude found in most parts of Holland.

Transport

Rotterdam is very easily accessable by car, and I recommend you to park your car at Budget Par-King, which is right in the city centre, and we paid only €10 for the whole day, which is nothing compared to regular prices in the centre of R'dam, as parking is very pricy there.

Another way to get there is by train, and the Central Station is a piece of art on its own, very modern and big. I guess trains run there quite often, as it's a major Dutch city. Transport in the city itself seems easy as well - I haven't tried myself but in my opinion the Netherlands have a good system of public transport so no worries there.

Shopping

I wasn't very impressed by the shopping options Rotterdam offers - there's the regular high street shops such as H&M, River Island, Bershka and Zara, and outside the city centre there's Primark, but my guy and I didn't find cool shops like you can find in Amsterdam (Negen Straatjes and similar). The main shopping street is Lijnbaan and isn't hard to miss.

Architecture

One of the mayor things that attracted me in R'dam: its beautiful buildings. Very modern and trendy, with a mix of those typical Dutch houses, but overall quite futuresque. Make sure to have a walk over the Erasmus bridge, and see the building designed by famous architect Rem Koolhaas called 'De Rotterdam'. As you can see in my pictures, there's many buildings in this particular modern style, and I love how clouds are reflected in them.

Food

An important of Dutch culture: 'borrelen', which means having a drink and usually a snack too after work or somewhere in between. As I love having wine and a little snack, we went for a drink at Prachtig, a nice restaurant that has a terrace near the water, with view on the Erasmus bridge, and some typical Dutch snacks with them (bitterballen, anyone?).

For dinner we went to Bird, a nice place with quite a small menu, which makes it even better (I love small menus, because this usually means the food is amazing as everything's fresh). I had a pizza margherita, and it was honestly one of the best I ever had in all its simplicity.

Also, lunch at the gorgeous Markthallen was amazing, a great variety of food, a lot of fresh ingredients, and a beautiful ceiling. My guy and I had wok and were very happy about it, and a little sad that we had no more space in our tummies for dessert.

Overall, I recommend a visit to Rotterdam, and am determined to go there more often! What do you think of this city? Have you been here before, and if so, what places did you like or do you recommend to me for my next visit? Let me know in the comments!