Rotterdam, The Netherlands

I was going a bit crazy with so many days in Brussels - it's a rather homogenous city, and there's only so much Grand Place and 16th century churches and artwork that I can handle. So one day I decided to venture out north to Rotterdam, which was a 2hr train ride from Brussels. Unfortunately there also happened to be a strike going on, which meant that my train ride got delayed by about 2 hours, which didn't leave me very much time in Rotterdam.


The first buildings visible after getting out of the train station. Instantly we're not in Kansas anymore.

I knew I only had about 2 hours and a bit more in Rotterdam because I had to be back in Brussels by 7, and headed straight to the waterfront. I loved how the city was regenerating itself, with really interesting new built forms just next to the water on former industrial sites.

It's very interesting how they profile the different waterfront spaces - this was further inland, and slightly lower key in nature.

This space, in front of heritage residences, was like a local park. There were many retirees sitting on the benches enjoying the sunny afternoon.

Looking back at the city from the Erasmus Bridge. I was very fascinated by the building in the foreground (it's a hotel) with a large overhanging top floor. And I was really hungry by then, and so decided to grab a bite at the cafe in the foreground.
Had a lovely roast beef sandwich for 8 Euros.
After about another hour, I had to rush back to the train station to catch the once-hourly train back to Brussels. It was rush hour even in the Belgian/Dutch airspace.