Rotterdam, first day in 2016

First new day in 2016, we visited new place that can be reached from Den Haag at 30 minutes. Rotterdam. The largest port in Netherlands and also the second largest port in the world.

We arrived at Rotterdam Central Station. Very modern building. With its unique design, the building of Centraal Station can become one of the icons in Rotterdam. And it becomes our starting point to explore the city.




We walked to Lijnbaan Kwartier. The oldest shopping pedestrian area in Netherlands. Many shops wiht international brand, we can find them here. But, since it was public holiday, most of the shops were closed. Luckily, the Mc D in this area was still open, so we can had our lunch there.





As we walked, we can see that unlike other cities in Netherlands, Rotterdam has modern design buildings, due the fact that it was completely destroyed during the World War II. One of the famous building is Markthal (meaning : Market Hall). Its shape is like an upside down letter U. Besides the market hall, there are apartments, shops, resto in this complex. Unfortunately, it was closed because of public holiday, so we can not get inside to see the famous art works that one said Sistine Chapel of Rotterdam.

Near the Markthall, we can see the famous cube houses. One of the icons of Rotterdam. Painted in yellow, the houses were tilted 45 degrees. It was designed by Piet Blom, and its represents trees and wood.

From hear we just continued walking until we reached the river, where we can see the Erasmusbrug (Erasmus Bridge), another icons of Rotterdam. It connects the northern and southern parts of Rotterdam. Walking by the river area we can see all the skycrapers, made a nice skyline from the river. River is important for Rotterdam, in fact the name Rotterdam is derived from a dam built on the river Rotte.

From here, we took tram to go back to the Centraal Station.Getting around in Rotterdam is easy, just simply take the Metro, the most efficient public transportation. It was also the first metro system in Netherlands.