Susan's NGTAW Blog: Biking in Rotterdam

De Markthal - the market hall - constructed in 2014

Sunday, April 17, 2022

Our group of eight took our first bike ride this afternoon. We all wanted to test out our bikes to be sure we will be good to go for the rest of the week. My rental is an electric bike, Michael is using a traditional road bike. It's about a 20 KM round trip from where our boat is docked to central Rotterdam. So we all put on our helmets, adjusted our seats and set off following our leader, Willum.

The pedal-assist electric bike is a dream - really not much needed on the flat terrain. It's similar to my Trek electric bike, so I felt very comfortable. What was less comfortable was cycling through downtown Rotterdam, the second largest city in the Netherlands. The bike paths are great, and well marked, but it was a very crowded Easter Sunday, with lots of bicycles and motor scooters, and we stopped many, many times for the lights as we traversed the more densely populated part of the city.

Euromast - a 600 foot observation tower constructed in 1960 for the Floriade (flower festival)

Rotterdam is charming, and I'd love to spend more time there. It has specifically chosen to be a city of modern architecture - and there are some beautiful examples that we were able to see on our brief sojourn. Its story starts sadly - it had been a beautiful canaled city, similar to Amsterdam with an historic center. During WW II, Hitler tried to capture the port of Rotterdam for the use of the Nazi's, with hopes of a short campaign. However, the Nazi troops met much stiffer resistance from the Dutch militia, and he decided to bomb the city of Rotterdam to get them to surrender. On May 14, 1940, the Luftwaffe bombed the central city, destroying it, including killing 900 civilians and demolishing the homes of 80,000 Rotterdam residents.

During the rebuilding in the 50s and 60s, the city made a conscious decision to replan the city center with a focus on modern styled architecture. We cycled by a number of the highlights of Rotterdam's modern treasures, and I was captivated.

Ossip Zadkine's statue De Verwoeste Stad (The Destroyed City) is a commemoration of the May 14 bombing

De Markthal is a central market surrounded by about 200 apartments

This is how one of the tourist guides describes the Markthal:

"A place for anyone who loves good food, Markthal is home to almost a hundred fresh food stalls, shop units, and restaurants, as well as over 200 apartments.

Opened in 2014, it’s built near the very place where Rotterdam was first founded in 1270. Visiting Markthal is therefore not just a culinary delight, but also a journey through time — literally. As you go down the escalators and into the car park, you can see various medieval objects that were discovered during construction.

Its walls and ceiling are covered with images of giant flying fruits, flowers, and insects. This gigantic artwork — titled Horn of Plenty and created by the artists Arno Coenen and Iris Roskam — is one of the biggest in the world and covers an area of about 11,000 square meters. "

The Horn of Plenty on the interior of the Markthal - windows belong to the co-located apartments

This apartment tower is known as The Pencil and is next to the rows of Cube Houses

The apartments have horizontal floors, so may not be so difficult to live in.

The modern esthetic built around the location of the original Rotterdam dam (1200's)

We next road to the Delfshaven area of Rotterdam to see the Oude of Pelgrimvaderskert - the Old Pilgrim Father's Church. Below is the story from Wikipedia:

"In 1608, a group of English Dissenters fled to the Netherlands, having left the Church of England a few years before and founded their own religious community.

After living in Leiden for eleven years, they decided to become Pilgrims and cross to America, where they might worship God in their own way and still be Englishmen. Their boat, the Speedwell, left Delfshaven, on July 21 1620, bound for America."