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Rotterdam travel guide and things to do: Why you should visit the Netherlands' second biggest city

By Anthony Dennis

March 7, 2023 — 3.56pm

Rotterdam's McDonald's is considered, even by architects, to be one of the most well-designed in the world. Credit: Alamy

Damn. I forgot to go to McDonald's. I'm at the end of a three day visit in Rotterdam and, en route in the taxi from my hotel to the main railway station, I glide by the city's main branch of the Golden Arches in a reminder to myself that I'd somehow neglected to visit it.

However, believe me, it's not that I'd been craving a McHerring burger or such like during what has been my architecture-focussed visit to this European city you're having when you're not quite having a European city.

My disappointment is that McDonald's is considered, even by architects, to be one of the most well-designed in the world. From my passing taxi I can at least glimpse the building's eye-catching golden facade and its prominent white spiral staircase.

As unexpected as it would seem this building reveals much about the ethos of the Netherlands' second biggest city overshadowed by the more conventional and far more heavily touristed Amsterdam

The former McDonald's on this site, Rotterdam's popular Coolsingel shopping strip was derided as "the ugliest building in Rotterdam".

In a case of "would you like a blueprint with that?", Rotterdam's burghers, no pun intended, decided to commission, with the acquiescence of the fast food giant, the leading Dutch firm Mei Architects to replace the old building with something more attractive.

Must-see modern architectural wonder: Kijk-Kubus, or Cube Houses.Credit: Alamy

Fortunately there's much more to Rotterdam, Europe's biggest port than a showy Maccas.

I've come to Rotterdam from Amsterdam, at the end of a cruise from Reykjavik, Iceland, aboard the new Norwegian Prima liner, with an intention to immerse myself in the bold architecture of the city.

But to understand the unique value Rotterdammers place on contemporary architecture, design and urban planning you need to go as far back as World War Two for the answer.

It was on May 14, 1940 that Nazi air raids levelled the city in a remarkably short time, leaving ostensibly only one historic district. Delfshaven, largely, if not miraculously, intact.

Yet instead of fully recreating the destroyed city in its pre-war picturebook style following the defeat of Germany, Rotterdammers, with so little left standing, decided to pursue a more practical modernist building style.

Today, 83 years later, the city's skyline is dominated, uncharacteristically for Europe, by skyscrapers, the most notable of which is the 45-storey De Rotterdam (The Rotterdam), a trio of interconnected mixed-use "vertical city" towers designed by the renowned and controversial Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas.

A symphony of glass and steel, De Rotterdam, which dominates Wilhelminapier, a revitalised former docklands, houses the design-driven, keenly-priced Nhow (pronounced "now") Rotterdam 274-room hotel, my base for a three day stay.

This lofty hotel's best rooms are the perfect place from which to view the graceful swan-shaped Erasmus Bridge, opened in 1996. It spans the Nieuwe Maas River along which the city's remarkable network of affordable yellow water taxis, rivalled in scope only by Venice, operate day and night.

If it's quaint you're after as a tourist, then Rotterdam is most certainly not the Dutch, or for that matter, European city for you.

But it wasn't an epic skyscraper complex or even a sculptural bridge that fully drew the attention among architecture and design devotees to Rotterdam. That building was De Markthal (The Market Hall) set in the heart of the city on the other side of the river from De Rotterdam.

Shaped like a massive upturned horse-shoe, the open-sided De Markthal hosts 100 stalls, shops and eateries as well as offices and apartments. It opened in 2014 with the vast internal ceiling of its arch decorated in a series of extraordinary, colourful murals depicting fruit, flowers and insects.

Below are a maze of stalls selling everything from vast varieties of spices, a nod to the Netherlands' South-East Asian colonial past, and to all manner of whole waxed cheese rounds with the Dutch cheese capital of Gouda less than half-an-hour by train from Rotterdam.

From De Markthal you can stroll across to another Rotterdam must-see modern architectural wonder, albeit older, namely Kijk-Kubus, or Cube Houses, Rotterdam's iconic, if not eccentric, 1970s-era housing development.

Inside this experimental removalist's nightmare, designed to resemble an urban forest with its crazily irregular geometric shapes, one of the complex's flats is now a dedicated museum.

Elsewhere, another easy enough walk from Kijk-Kubus, is the recently-opened Depot, a boldly reimagined art gallery set in a striking seven-storey, near 40-metre high mirrored cylindrical building.

It serves as the temporary storage facility for artworks from the adjacent Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen which is undergoing an extensive and extended decade-long refurbishment.

The groundbreaking Depot is a characteristically Rotterdam solution to the dilemma of where and how to house nearly two centuries of precious artworks during Boijmans Van Beuningen's restoration.

Rather than erecting a utilitarian temporary building to keep the museum's more than 150,000 works, Rotterdam couldn't resist making yet another design and experiential statement in what the city bills as the "world's first publicly accessible art storage facility."

Devoid of any formal exhibitions, the museum offers visitors an extraordinary guided or unguided behind-the-scenes glimpse of how masterpieces are stored and preserved with a carefully curated selection of the museum's most precious works on full public display.

For me the piece-de-resistance of Depot is the space where a relatively small selection of the institution's most stellar works was on show to visitors for a limited time last year including paintings by artists such Bruegel, Rembrandt, Kandinsky, Munch and Van Gogh.

Displayed in specially-designed two-sided see-through glass frames both the painting itself can be viewed as well as the reverse side of the canvas showing its provenance in the form of dated stamps from traders and buyers over its lifetime.

Back in that taxi that swooped me past the McDonald's, I arrive at Rotterdam Centraal Station with its thrusting off-kilter arrow-like cantilever roof and cool retro lettering displayed across its glass facade for my rail connection to London.

Along with bicycles, exceptional public transport is a fundamental aspect of Dutch life, with the railway station here and in other model Dutch cities such as Utrecht a further opportunity for a daring architectural statement.

Unlike many similar stations, and for that matter airports, around the world, Rotterdam Centraal is a wholly pleasant place to loiter for an hour or so before my evening departure, brought abruptly and rudely forward by a snap Dutch rail strike at midnight.

Gosh, I probably could have popped into that designer McDonald's for a McHerring burger after all.

The writer travelled as a guest of Norwegian Cruise Lines, British Airways and Nhow Rotterdam.

FIVE MORE THINGS TO DO AND SEE IN ROTTERDAM

Savour the Warehouse District

In Wilhelminapier, the revitalised former docklands area mentioned in the main story there are some good and affordable dining venues such as Foodhallen, an upscale yet food court-style centre set inside an restored heritage warehouse. See foodhallen.nl

Visit Hotel New York

A rare historical gem amid Rotterdam's modernity, Hotel New York, also in Wilhelminapier, occupies the erstwhile 1901 headquarters of the Holland-America Line. It once served as a departure point for thousands of Dutch immigrants to the US. See hotelnewyork.com

Catch a water taxi

Unlike a similarly aquatic city Sydney, Rotterdam has an affordable water taxi network with single trips to all parts of the city, along the river and port costing about $11. There's a large water taxi base right opposite Hotel New York. See watertaxirotterdam.nl

Take a detour to Delft

Should you hunger for a more traditional Dutch canal-ringed city you'll find one only 20 minutes away from Rotterdam Centraal. Birthplace of the elusive Dutch master Johannes Vermeer as well as classic blue and white pottery, many consider Delft the Netherlands' most gorgeous city. See holland.com

Delve into Delfshaven

Delfshaven is a charming small inner-city harbour, three kilometres from Rotterdam's city centre, with direct links to the 17th century Pilgrim Fathers. Here you'll find a wall plaque dedicated to the ship Speedwell on which the Pilgrims sailed to England on August 1, 1620 where they changed to the New World-bound Mayflower See holland.com