Rotterdam, Netherlands

Hi there! Last time I posted I told you all about my plans for my weekend adventure so I am back and here to tell you all about it!

Date: Sunday, September 17th, 2023

Good bright and sunshiny morning! Actually, this morning was not super bright and sunshiny... I woke up before the sun and it was a chilly foggy morning. It seems like the Belgian weather has finally arrived.

Today I started my morning super early with my typical 35-minute walk to the Ghent train station! My train left just before 8 AM and headed straight towards Rotterdam. The train took 3 hours and the people-watching started early! While I was waiting for my train I watched I woman get kicked off a train in the most movie-like fashion. The train conductor-guy THREW her suitcase off the train and was screaming at her while the woman stumbled off the train in her pyjamas. I have no idea what was happening but it was quite the sight. That was pretty eventful but once I boarded my train things were significantly less eventful. I drank a coffee and read by book as I watched the Belgian then Dutch countryside pass through the windows.

3 hours later, I arrived at the most futuristic train station. This was a crazy change from the Hogwarts-like train station in Antwerp and all of the other historic train stations that I've been to. I feel like this was very representative of Rotterdam.

Compared to all of the cities I've been to so far, in Rotterdam it seems like everything is red brick. Every single building I walked by in my 5km walk through some parks to the waterfront was made of red brick. It was a very drastic change that I wasn't expecting but of course, there is a reason for this, but I'll get to that in a second.

I made it to the waterfront and saw some of the touristy sights like the miniature CN Tower (actually called the Euromast), the wooden escalators into the tunnel, the Erasmus Bridge and some of the new port. Fun fact! Rotterdam has one of the largest ports in the world, only behind some ports in China and a couple of other Asian cities. They are 1 of 3 ports in the world that can accept the largest class of cargo ships. So remember the cargo ship that was stuck in the Suez Canal in 2021? That ship was going to Rotterdam!!

I continued my walk into the centre of Rotterdam and more into the commercial district. I booked a walking tour to get to know Rotterdam a little bit more and the meeting place was the Markthall which was a super cool building.

Inside the Markthall are over 100 shops, restaurants, cafes and other food stalls as well as the massively decorated ceiling. The ceiling was designed by two Dutch artists and Pixar to create the art piece that is called "The Horn of Plenty". The city of Rotterdam's website refers to it as "the Dutch equivalent of the Sistine Chapel".

After admiring the ceiling and having a Portuguese pastry, I met up with my tour and we walked around to see more of the sites of Rotterdam and learn some of the history. Our tour guide made it very clear to us that there is some sort of unspoken rivalry between Amsterdam and Rotterdam so when I called Rotterdam "Amsterdam's little sister" in my last blog post, I didn't even know how true that statement would be.

There is even a rivalry around the naming of the cities. Rotterdam was settled on a muddy river ("Rotte" = muddy waters) and they built a dam in the river because The Netherlands in partially below sea level and a water management system was needed. So "Rotte" + Dam = Rotterdam. They claim that Amsterdam copied them when naming their city after they built a dam in the Amstel River.

Rotterdam is a "new" European city in terms of its infrastructure and architecture because it was almost completely wiped out in WWII. When Germany invaded The Netherlands in 1940, the Dutch fought back for about 4 days, specifically in Rotterdam as this is where their marines were located. Eventually, The Netherlands surrendered but the Germans wanted to make an example out of Rotterdam and bombed the city. Only 8 buildings survived the bombing and the 2-month-long fire that followed. One of which is this church that's a beautiful old building. Unfortunately, it no longer serves as a church but they hold rave dance parties here and other events.

There is another famous church of Rotterdam and this is one where a drug rehabilitation program was piloted. The reverend gave controlled amounts of heroin to addicts to help them overcome the addiction. This church was built in the 1950s and the program was launched shortly after and now this program is used around the world.

Rotterdam is filled with all kinds of odd stories and random things and this sculpture is no exception. Paul McCarthy (not the Beatles guy) was commissioned for 350 million euros to make a sculpture for Rotterdam and he made this.

It is in fact Santa Clause with a butt plug. It's a piece of protest art to discuss the issues of consumerism, especially around Christmas. I guess the message is "stop buying the shit"?

The final odd and wonderful site of Rotterdam was the cube houses. This was a high-density housing solution built in 1972. There are 188 houses all attached at cool angles. I didn't get to go in and tour one but apparently, nothing is tilted inside but because of the angles of the windows many people were getting dizzy in their homes and many of them are vacant!

Okay so all in all, Rotterdam is an unusual city, I would call it. It is very different from the other European cities and I think it likes to be. It seems to have embraced the necessary rebuilding and redefining after WWII. Between the odd architecture, the obscure artwork, and the sense that it is trying to incorporate little bits of other cities, it is an unusual place. This afternoon I am hopping on a train to Amsterdam (don't tell anyone in Rotterdam) and I'm excited to head back to the more typical European style.