We decide to catch the fast train to Rotterdam it’s only 45mins away so it’s bit of a no brainer. I’m quite keen to see it for the contemporary architecture, which Rotterdam is known for. This is due to the centre of Rotterdam being totally destroyed by the Luftwaffe during the war.
We got out of Rotterdam Central Station, not by the main entrance & ended up in a nice quiet street. It feels less confined & a canal nearby felt a little bit like the Avon river in Christchurch. We find a really good cafe.
Stadhuis. Rotterdam’s Town Hall survived the war. Rotterdam gets name like Amsterdam by originally being a Dam in the Rotte River. Grote of Saint-Laurenskerk. The church is one of the few heritage buildings in central Rotterdam to survive the bombing. Market Hall by the Dutch practice OMA. It was completed in 2014. It also has apartments, a hotel and retail. It also has an amazing a mosaic of fruit & vegetables on its ceiling. The bike park outside was pretty hectic. We headed to the nearby Cube Houses. They were built in 1977 and designed by the architect Piet Blom.They’re quite bonkers. We went inside, the stairs were very very steep. De Rotterdam building by OMA on the left, and the Erasmus Bridge centre.I had thought the bridge was designed by Calatrava a Spanish Architect/Engineer. But turns out to be by the Dutch architect Ben van Berkel.
From there we walked through the Witte to Museum Park.
Depot Museum Boijmans van Beuningen is an art gallery by the Dutch architects MVDRV. It was amazing and we didn’t even go in. That’s us in the middle. Marnie walking past the front door. Across the road is the Nieuwe Instituut it’s a gallery for Architecture & Design. It has a great bookshop & we had a good lunch there.It’s new. Nearby are 1930s era modern houses that are part of the museum. Space Invader in Rotterdam?Better. Art in the canal. The words are formed by air bubbles.Rotterdam Central Station. We went through the front door this time.Shiny.
The scale of Rotterdam is quite different from the other cities we’ve visited, much more like a new world city.
The Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas from OMA describes it as “…If you put the last 50 years of architecture in a blender, and spat it out in building-sized chunks across the skyline, you would probably end up with something that looked a bit like Rotterdam.” thanks Wikipedia.
Classic Dutch windmill seen on the journey back to Amsterdam.
Utrecht
We get back to Amsterdam about 3pm & on a whim we decide to go to Utrecht. it’s only 30mins away. The first thing you need to know about Utrecht is, that it is ridiculously good looking. Secondly, Utrecht is also one of the top Universities in the Netherlands, so it has a university town feel. Thirdly, it’s ridiculously good looking.
Ridiculous. Ridiculous. Ridiculous. Even the chips are ridiculous. Ridiculously cute.
As you might have guessed we really really liked Utrecht. We’d definitely like to go back.
MM4.Travel 
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