When traveling in the Netherlands – with its canals, windmills, and tulip fields – it all seems so cute and sweet; you may find yourself exclaiming, “Everything’s just so…Dutch!” But for another side of the Netherlands, visit the no-nonsense “second city” of Rotterdam.
Mighty Rotterdam has a gleaming skyline and Europe’s largest port. Locals say that while the money is spent in Amsterdam, it’s made in Rotterdam. They boast that shirts in Rotterdam are sold with the sleeves already rolled up.
Once, Rotterdam was quaint and cozy like Amsterdam – but then it was leveled by the Nazis in World War II. Hitler ordered a systematic bombing of the city, and its center was, quite literally, flattened. Following the bombing, a fire raged for three days, consuming what was left. When Hitler threatened to do the same thing to Utrecht, the Dutch government surrendered immediately.
Photos of WWII Rotterdam are startling: A scant few historic buildings are still standing – barely – and the outlines of the streets around them are hardly visible. But after the war, rather than rebuild quaint (as most Dutch towns did), Rotterdammers embraced the chance to go in another direction: boldly modern. Ever since, the city has been a stimulating urban showcase of architectural experimentation, with buildings big and small designed by a Who’s Who of contemporary architects. You’ll see wildly creative and futuristic train stations, libraries, market halls, office towers, bridges, subway stations, and apartment complexes that push the envelope toward science fiction.
In the late 1970s, architect Piet Blom turned urban housing on its ear with a striking design: 39 identical yellow cubes, all tilted up on their corners, each meant to house a single family. Taken together, the Cube Houses look like dozens of dice in mid-toss. If Rotterdam has a single icon representing its bold approach to postwar architecture, this is it. To get a look inside one of the cubes, visit the Kijk-Kubus Museum House.
More arresting architecture is south of the city center, near the Erasmus Bridge, which was built in the 1990s to link the north and south banks of the Maas River. The southern bank, then underdeveloped, exploded into a new “downtown” zone of commerce. At the far end stands a lineup of creations – nicknamed “Manhattan on the Maas” – by some of the world’s top architects, including Renzo Piano, Rem Koolhaas, and Norman Foster.
Their works tower over Rotterdam’s port, which is the ninth largest in the world. It handles about 30,000 oceangoing vessels each year – that’s about 80 ships a day – hauling a total of 450 million tons of cargo. You can appreciate the immensity of it all with a harbor tour, where you’ll see sprawling het Park (meaning “the Park,” marked by the Euromast tower); several innovative waterfront housing blocks; and a section of the bustling port with stacks upon stacks of containers and a forest of busy cranes.
But not everything in this city is postwar mod. One of the few well-preserved bits wasn’t even originally part of Rotterdam – it was the port for Delft. Historic Delfshaven is just a short subway ride away from Rotterdam’s city center, but it’s a world away from the 21st century. There’s an idyllic canal pulled straight out of a Vermeer painting, with old boats, a cantilevered drawbridge, and even a classic old windmill still churning away in the distance.
In the heart of the city is Rotterdam’s oldest structure, St. Lawrence Church – completed in 1525 and a rare survivor of the 1940 Nazi bombing campaign. The church’s nondescript exterior belies its vast, pristine interior, which sports a huge organ. If you enter, be sure to look up to appreciate its roof, one that was clearly made by a city of shipbuilders – it feels like you’re huddled beneath an overturned boat.
Grotekerkplein, the “Great Church Square” in front of St. Lawrence Church, honors Rotterdam native Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) with a 17th-century statue, which also, somehow, survived the bombing. A great humanist, Erasmus forged the notion of identifying as European – seeing oneself as a citizen of the world and not tied to a single nationality. In many ways he’s the intellectual forebearer of the European Union, which named its highly successful foreign-study program after him. On the pedestal, in Dutch, is an excerpt from one of his most famous remarks: “The entire world is your fatherland.”
Rising out of the ashes of war, Rotterdam is a success story – and offers a chance to experience another slice of the Netherlands. Between its modern art and workaday mentality, a visit here makes it clear: For Dutch urbanites, the days of milkmaids and wooden shoes are long gone.
(Rick Steves (www.ricksteves.com) writes European guidebooks, hosts travel shows on public TV and radio, and organizes European tours. This column revisits some of Rick’s favorite places over the past two decades. You can email Rick at rick@ricksteves.com and follow his blog on Facebook.)
