In the years we lived in the Netherlands, Rotterdam was one of our favourite places to visit. Completely flattened by more than 1,300 bombing raids during the Second World War, its medieval centre was virtually obliterated, the rest of the town fared little better. Rather than try to recreate the past, the country’s second city embraced the future. It has a deserved reputation for innovation, no more so than its often startling architecture.
We’d come to visit the most recent addition to Rotterdam’s already crowded roster of breathtaking buildings, the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen. After a break of almost six years though, first we had some catching up to do with this exhilarating city. Rotterdam is, if nothing else, a water city. It straddles the River Maas and is home to one of the world’s great ports.
It’s as easy to get around Rotterdam by river taxi as it is by tram. Life revolves around waterways, even if it lacks the picturesque canals of Amsterdam. Exploring its waterfront, harbours, wharves and maritime history is one of the joys of being here. We were staying in the Wijnhaven close the river and Oudehaven, once the centre of medieval trade and where you can still find traditional Dutch boats.
The Oudehaven features one of those daring architectural experiments, the bright yellow cube houses. Nearby is the absurd and delightful Markthal, with a thriving market, food stalls and apartments that look down on the spectacle below. We stopped at a Spanish tapas place to have a snack and drink it all in. Here we were accosted by a very drunk, sizeable but ‘friendly’ man. One of Feyenoord FCs most famed hooligans the barman told us.
Rotterdam is that sort of town as well. For all its modernist glamour, it remains a rough and ready working town with a well developed criminal underworld fuelled by massive drug flows coming through the port. After that encounter we went to the Maritime Museum, which is both a traditional museum with a building and exhibits, and dozens of floating exhibits in the harbour as well as dockside machines. It’s fabulous.
We were headed to the old warehouse district of Wilhelminapier. At the end of the district is the Hotel New York, the former headquarters of the Holland-America Line from where tens of thousands of Europeans left to a hoped for better life in the Americas. We crossed over one of those other statement structures, the Erasmusbrug, made a detour into Foodhallen Rotterdam in an old warehouse and then to the Dutch Photography Museum.
There was a great exhibition of black and white images documenting the Dutch craze for Snelfotografie, or fast photography, between 1912 to 1925. For as little as 25 cents you could get twelve portraits of yourself, bringing the ability to own photos to the masses. It was revolutionary and immensely popular. The photos are wonderful. The big exhibition though was of the hyper-coloured and surreal photos of Sanja Marušić.
I’d never seen an exhibition of the extraordinary work of the Dutch-Croatian artist before, the images were eye-popping. Part Frida Kahlo, part Life on Mars, it was a sensory overload. Afterwards we strolled around the area, which has definitely been developed since we were last here, and then took a water taxi back across the river. It’s a short walk from the Maritime Museum to Witte de Withstraat.
One of the great regeneration stories of the city, this once notorious area of gambling, prostitution and drinking dens is now a lively and trendy cultural and nightlife district. There are art galleries for sure, but it is the bars and restaurants that attract most people … and not all the seediness has been banished to other parts of the city. It is here where you’ll find the smiling but exhausted looking face of Melly Shum.
According to the artwork hanging on a wall, Melly Shum Hates Her Job. This is the iconic piece of street art by artist Ken Lum depicting the soul destroying effect of modern office life. It has been adopted by Rotterdammers as their own.
I’ve never thought of visiting Rotterdam but it looks great and definitely has a charm about it.
One of the best European ‘not a capital city’ there is, imo. Well worth a visit.