The Design City
Our flight from Copenhagen to Amsterdam was really short and simple and upon landing, we then took a train directly from Amsterdam’s airport (AMS) to Rotterdam, Netherlands. It took thirty minutes at most and was really simple to do. When we arrived in Rotterdam we bought a one day transit pass and then took the tram from Rotterdam Central Station to our hotel, STROOM Rotterdam. Rotterdam is known for it’s cool and modern design, and Central Station was our first taste of this - it was such a unique train station with a really cool design!
We were greeted very warmly at STROOM Rotterdam and given a great room for the night! It was one of the most unique rooms I have had so far and was very appropriately such a cool design. It was a two story room with the bathroom and giant bathtub on the bottom floor. The top floor had the bed and the desk, so it was basically a loft layout. The most unique part of the room, though, was definitely the shower. It was on the first floor but had a glass ceiling leading to the second. It was crazy but really cool! Thank you again so much to STROOM Rotterdam for sponsoring this night of my trip.
After checking in we walked almost right next door to visit Euromast, a tower that overlooks all of Rotterdam! We took an elevator up to the top where we had a great 360-degree view out over the whole city. It was freezing on top but so worth it! Euromast also has a really nice restaurant on the top as well as two hotel rooms that you can stay in - it would have quite the view for sure. I want to thank Euromast for sponsoring our visit - we had an incredible time taking in Rotterdam from up in the air.
After our excellent Euromast visit we walked for a bit before taking public transit to the Cube Houses. Once again showcasing design in Rotterdam, the Cube Houses are a must see. I wish we had been in Rotterdam in the daytime so we could have visited the inside, but they were super cool from the outside as well! Our next stop, Markthal, was just across the street. Markthal is a market and restaurant set up in a super unique building. The building is made of glass and has artwork lining the inside. Unfortunately, the market aspect was closed by the time we got there, but we ate at a really great burger spot called Firma Pickles. By the time we left it was now snowing in full force outside (it had only been lightly raining earlier), but we walked over to see Oudehaven anyways. It is the old harbour of the city and has a lot of old boats in the city. It sits right on the other side of the Cube Houses so we were able to see those again as well!
We were now literally freezing but we made our way back to the metro which we took to a tram stop which we then took back to our hotel. I was very impressed with the extensive public transit in Rotterdam! When we arrived back we were pretty exhausted after so much travel. Luckily the bed was so cosy and it was a very easy night’s sleep! We start our travels through Belgium in the morning, and I’m really looking forward to it!
74 countries down, 122 to go.
Read about my second day in the Netherlands here.
To learn more about STROOM Rotterdam click here.
