Downtown Rotterdam

[Ronald]

Wednesday afternoon I took a walk through downtown Rotterdam.

I covered most of Downtown in about 40 minutes.

Rotterdam is the second city of the Netherlands, and is currently competing with Singapore for the title 'largest port in the world', after being the largest port in the world for decades.

Because the Germans bombed Rotterdam during WW2, the original downtown was completely destroyed.

It's been rebuild in a modern way, after the economy recovered.

It is the most modern city in the Netherlands, and the only city with a lot of tall office buildings in its downtown.

We'll start with the area around Central Station:

the headquarters of an insurance company, and the tallest building in the Netherlands:

the Westin Hotel:

What a canyon effect!

shopping streets, with City Hall in the distance:

Square around the cinema:

the red cranes are symbolic, meant to show that Rotterdam is a harbour city.

Moving on to the shopping area:

The 'Koopgoot', or 'buying ditch' (literally translated). This is the newest shopping area in downtown, I thought it has been completed about 5 years ago.

There's tramways all over downtown:

the World Trade Center:

St. Laurentius Church:

More Shopping:

[Ronald]

A glimpse of the city's industrial past:

The market square:

FLTR: Public Library, modern residential developments with exceptional architecture, the Willem's Bridge, and more to the right there's a subway/ tramway/ railway station (that dome-ish building):

Inside the Public Library:

Skyline shots from the top floor of the Public Library:

the Erasmus Bridge:

Some of Rotterdam's most (in)famous architecture:

Some last skyline shots:

Hope you enjoyed the pics!

[Jacob Norlund - KC]

Excellent!!!!

LOL, that shopping area looked like a mall put outdoors.

I didn't see too many cyclists on the street though. Are cyclists forbidden from that shopping area?

Also, can you browse through books at the library? Is it free to check them out?

[Ronald]

[quote name='Jacob Norlund - KC

[RestedTraveler]

Nice photos, Ronald! Rotterdam looks extremely progressive and modern. Thanks for sharing!

I really "dig" that Koopgoot, too!

[ZachariahDaMan]

Great pictures, thanks for posting them!

[DigitalSky]

Great Pics, I've always wanted to visit Rotterdam

[Randy@Tacoma]

Again, Im relpying top a post that has been relied in like a year! O well. I AM Going to Rotterdam this coming summer. If I like it really well, Im going to learn Dutch in college and try to move to the Netherlands. It seems like home just looking through the pictures. I cant wait to go on my European Excursion!

[krazeeboi]

Thanks for sharing. It was a pretty gloomy day, but you could still get a feel for the place. Apparently, shopping options in Rotterdam aren't much different than in the States.

[Ronald]

I haven't been on this site for a while, and I am (pleasantly) surprised to see two of my photo threads on the first page of the City Photo's Forum. I will create some more photo threads, as I've been travelling around a lot this year (5x to Germany, once to Austria/Italy, and I'm going to England in 3 weeks).

Randy, have a great trip! How interresting that you might want to move here, I've been wanting to go to Seattle ever since I visited it last year. Could you PM me your msn adress (if you have one, that is)? I think it's very flattering that you like this city so much and that you would even want to learn the language!

Krazeeboi, Rotterdam is unique in the Netherlands and along with a handfull of other European cities, rare in Europe. The overwhelming majority of European city cores is old, historical, and highrises are rare. Instead, lots of 4-6 story buildings are packed together along narrow streets. Shopping in, for example, Utrecht or Amsterdam is totally unlike anything in the US!