Harbour cities. Sea of attractions

In our travels through the most attractive port cities from St. Petersburg, where we visited in the last edition of M Magazine, we move to the west of Europe. We couldn't leave out the city that lies at the gateway to Europe's largest port - Rotterdam.

Rotterdam is a city located in the Rhine-Meuse delta, on the New Meuse. The city is connected with the North Sea through about thirty kilometers of navigable channel Nieuwe Waterweg. Its history dates back to the thirteenth century. The first mentions of a developing fishing settlement come from this period. In 1299 Rotterdam was granted city rights. The city lived from fishing, trade and shipping. Since the sixteenth century, the expansion of the port began on a large scale for those times. The city gradually grew in strength and became more and more important port on the map of Europe. The world expansion and development was brutally interrupted by the Second World War. In 1940 Rotterdam was practically razed to the ground by the Nazis.

The rebuilt city took on a whole new modernist style, becoming one of the most interesting places in the Netherlands. The port has also regained its glory, becoming the largest transit port in the world, stretching 40 km in length and 105 km2 in area. The rivers Meuse and Rhine provide excellent access inland and allow you to reach as far as Basel and France. The Port of Rotterdam is a versatile commercial port that handles all types of goods. In 2008, the total transshipment of the port was over 421 million tons. The largest share was the unloading of crude oil (23.76%), as well as the handling of 9.66 million containers with a total capacity of 16.07 million TEU (twenty feet equivalent unit).

The city is a true cradle of cultures, inhabited by many nationalities from around the world. The diversity of the population gives the city a unique atmosphere. Although the architecture of the city suffered greatly from bombing raids during World War II and there are not many ancient monuments, Rotterdam is a fantastic place where you certainly can not get bored.

Enjoy an overview of the most interesting Rotterdam attractions you can see in one or two days.

This is an observation tower in Rotterdam, from which we can admire the panorama of the city. The tower with a height of 186 meters is distinguished from other buildings of this type by a part called Euroscoop, which is a platform going up and rotating at the same time.

Markthal

The Markthal Shopping Center is a residential and office building with a retail section. The architecture of the building resembles a horseshoe, inside of which there is a market hall. From the outside you can see windows belonging to office spaces or private apartments. The relatively new shopping center, because it was opened only in 2014, attracts primarily by stalls with various delicacies of Dutch cuisine and many other cuisines of the world.

▶ Diergaarde Blijdorp

This is the Zoo in Rotterdam – it is a place worth visiting not only because of the numerous animal species collected there. One of the best attractions of this garden is the Oceanarium which is a glass tunnel. You can walk under such a tunnel and admire the animals that live there swimming above you. Walking through the Rotterdam Zoo gives you the opportunity to traverse many environments. From the savannah, gorilla island, crocodile river, bat cave, tropical park with elephants to the ice cave where you can see polar bears swimming in the icy water.

De Kuip Stadium is well known to every soccer fan. This legendary arena of Feyenoord Rotterdam and the Dutch national team is open to the public - and it's definitely worth finding an hour and a half to go there. During the tour you will see, among others, the visitors' locker room, the conference room and you will stand on the pitch, which you will enter through the tunnel designed for football players. The stadium itself is quite old - it was commissioned in 1937 - but you can feel the magic there that the new facilities often lack.

Erasmusbrug Bridge

Rotterdam is a city with very interesting architecture. One of the most famous objects here is the Erasmusbrug bridge, which is worth a walk. Its name comes from the greatest of Rotterdammers - Erasmus, one of the leading humanists of the Renaissance. His most famous philosophy was that man by nature is good, evil comes from ignorance. In addition to the bridge, we recommend walking along the quays on both sides of the bridge. From each place we can see completely different and interesting objects. These include: Willemsbrug in Witte Huis. Willemsbrug is a cable-stayed road bridge located over the New Meuse. It looks quite distinctive because of the color it is painted. Its red color makes it distinctive and visible from a distance. Witte Huis, or the so-called White House, is a building that was one of the few to survive the bombing of World War II. It was built in the Art Nouveau style, similar to American office buildings. At the time of its completion, it was the tallest building in Europe with a height of only 43 meters.

▶ Rotterdam City Hall

Rotterdam City Hall was built between 1914 and 1920 and is one of the few buildings in the city center to survive the 1940 bombing. It was declared a national monument in 1997. The town hall has a bell tower which is 71 meters high. At the top of the town hall tower is a statue of the golden angel of peace by sculptor Johan Keller. The building itself was designed around a large courtyard. You can easily enter the town hall and see the main hall, then head to the courtyard, which is equally beautiful.

We hope we have been able to encourage you to take some time out to explore this beautiful city. Rotterdam hosts the biennial Europort maritime fair, the largest industry event in this part of Europe.