Modern heart
New indoor markets, quirky restaurants and experimental breweries make Rotterdam a feast for the senses, says HOWARD DORMAN
HANG on tight if you sit out the back on a water taxi in Rotterdam. Time is money in Europe’s biggest port so forget snapping at the skyscrapers, or your smartphone might end up bleeping with the fishes.
R’dam, as the Netherlands’ second city is known by its 630,000 inhabitants, moves at a brisker pace than Amsterdam. It’s also an architects’ and Instagrammers’ playground as much of the historic city was obliterated by the Luftwaffe in 1940, but in the eight decades since, it has reinvented itself as a ‘Rottermandamhattan’.
The city’s skyline is dominated by towering monuments to modernism along the waterfront, with overhanging floors and gravity-defying flourishes.
Besides the water taxis, there is a rapid metro system and an extensive tram network for getting around.
Many of the central shopping areas are pedestrianised and wide pavements abound, making for pleasant strolling, though don’t expect to see many canals – most were filled with rubble and covered over after the blitz of 1940.
Being a port city, Rotterdam is a huge melting pot, and the same can be said for the food scene.
In 2014, the city unveiled another colossal construction. The Markthal, a horseshoe-shaped homage to food, is home to more than 80 fresh produce stands, shops and restaurants. And this summer’s opening of the Rotterdam Foodhallen in Wilhelminakade has made for an even hotter foodie destination.
A former tea and nuts warehouse has been converted into a new hip spot to buy lunch or dinner from a choice of 12 stylish stands specialising in everything from Spanish pintxos to Indonesian to vegan, with diners sitting where they want in a spacious industrial-chic seating area. Three elegant bars, one focusing on gin, mean that drinkers are an essential part of the mix, too, with the Foodhallen staying open until midnight.
I tuck into tapas for lunch – savoury milhojas (layered with aubergine, courgette and tomato in a garlic sauce) and patatas bravas – which costs £8, about par for the course for a light meal at the Foodhallen.
I stay at the Room Mate Bruno, a newly-opened luxury boutique hotel in the same converted warehouse. It stands in the shadow of the city’s most eyecatching landmark, the De Rotterdam tower block, and is a three-minute walk from the Wilhelminaplein metro station.
A 10-minute walk over the new Rijnhaven footbridge takes you to the Fenix Food Factory in Veerlaan, a farmers’ market that has cropped up in another converted warehouse. A butcher, a baker and a cheese maker rub shoulders with other entrepreneurs serving up coffee, cider and beer.
Hats off to the Kaapse Brouwers brewery, too, whose 30 draft offerings include a gluten-free Karel ale, which I caress on a bench on the quayside.