[ronald1987]

Hi all (I'm new here)!
My name is Ronald, I live in the Netherlands.
I'm 18 years old and studying Human Geography and Planning at the University of Utrecht (I'm a 1st year student).
I love all the pics of Toronto that are posted here. I might move there after I graduate, what a great city.

Wednesday afternoon I took a walk through downtown Rotterdam.
I covered most of Downtown in about 40 minutes.
Rotterdam is the second city of the Netherlands, and is currently competing with Singapore for the title 'largest port in the world', after being the largest port in the world for decades.
Because the Germans bombed Rotterdam during WW2, the original downtown was completely destroyed.
It's been rebuild in a modern way, after the economy recovered.
It is the most modern city in the Netherlands, and the only city with a lot of tall office buildings in its downtown.
We'll start with the area around Central Station:

the headquarters of an insurance company, and the tallest building in the Netherlands:

the Westin Hotel:

What a canyon effect!

shopping streets, with City Hall in the distance:

Square around the cinema:

the red cranes are symbolic, meant to show that Rotterdam is a harbour city.

Moving on to the shopping area:

The 'Koopgoot', or 'buying ditch' (literally translated). This is the newest shopping area in downtown, I thought it has been completed about 5 years ago.

There's tramways all over downtown:

the World Trade Center:

St. Laurentius Church:

More Shopping:

 

[ronald1987]

A glimpse of the city's industrial past:

The market square:

FLTR: Public Library, modern residential developments with exceptional architecture, the Willem's Bridge, and more to the right there's a subway/ tramway/ railway station (that dome-ish building):

Inside the Public Library:

Skyline shots from the top floor of the Public Library:

the Erasmus Bridge:

Some of Rotterdam's most (in)famous architecture:

Some last skyline shots:

Hope you enjoyed the pics!

 

[GeekyBoyTO]

Welcome and thanks for the great pics you've posted.

Isn't this the project by West 8 - and that the light armatures could be controlled by users?

GB

 

[Canuck 36]

Welcome to the forum, it's great to see a modern European city and visualize how some of their designs could be incorporated on this side of the pond.

Quick question:

Are those little circles lights in the ground? I would imagine it would look quite warm at night.

 

[Antiloop33rpm]

Hallo en welkom Ronald.

Thank you for posting those pics. I dont think I can ever see too many photos from the Netherlands. Enjoy your time on the forum and hopefully we will get to see more pictures from you as well as get a little insight into interesting Dutch projects.

 

[ganjavih]

Welcome to the forum, Ronald. Thanks for the great tour.

 

[yyzer]

Welcome aboard, Ronald, great pics of a great city, especially like the look of the Koopgoot area!

 

[Observer Walt]

Welcome, and thank you for posting these pictures. It is interesting to see scenes from a city where I have never been. It seems to have a different character than Toronto.

I hope in the future you might have the opportunity to post pictures from other cities (Amsterdam?).

 

[wonderboy905]

It's strange seeing an entire city look so modern, it's almost Asian. Very nice, thanks for the pics.

 

[ronald1987]

Thanks for the reactions everybody.
@ GeekyBoyTO: I thought users can't control those cranes.
@Canuck 36: Those aren't lights, they were ment to help the people walking those stairs see the variation in height between each step, because those stairs are very unusual. Each step is very long. (I'm not 100% sure though, I don't visit the city often at night).
I've got a lot of pictures from different cities in the Netherlands. I'll post some more later. What you'll notice is, that Rotterdam is quite an exceptional city because nearly everything is new there, and in most Dutch cities, there's a lot of history.

 

[GeekyBoyTO]

ronald:

Can't wait to see more pictures!

I thought users can't control those cranes.

Yup, I think they could be!

Connections for electricity and water, as well as facilities to build tents and fencing for temporary events, are built into the floor. The whole square seems to be floating because of the linear lights that are mounted under the edge of the raised deck. The last major features of the square are the four hydraulic lighting elements. Their configuration can be interactively altered by the inhabitants of the city.

72.14.207.104/search?q=ca...rdam&hl=en

GB

 

[Ontarian1976]

Great pics. I went to Amsterdam a few years ago and was thinking of going again in the spring. Is Rotterdam worth going to for a day from Amsterdam to visit? Would train be the fastest/cheapest way from Amsterdam, and what is the cost? From the maps it looks like it would be no more than 1 hour, is that right? If I did go to Rotterdam overnight, can you reccomment a reasonably priced place to stay?

 

[ronald1987]

Great pics. I went to Amsterdam a few years ago and was thinking of going again in the spring. Is Rotterdam worth going to for a day from Amsterdam to visit? Would train be the fastest/cheapest way from Amsterdam, and what is the cost? From the maps it looks like it would be no more than 1 hour, is that right? If I did go to Rotterdam overnight, can you reccomment a reasonably priced place to stay?

Rotterdam is definitely worth a visit, even for a just a day!
If you spend a day here, you get a good chance to see the what the city has to offer.
If you go by train, it would take you about an hour. It's the most efficient way of travelling between the two cities, since there is allways a lot of congestion in the west of the Netherlands. Besides that, it's nearly impossible to get to- and from downtown Amsterdam by car! City traffic is horrible here, so I recommend you take the train. If you leave early in the moring, you have plenty of time to check out the centre of the city.
A one-way ticket costs 12,40 euros (CAN $ 16,88 ), a return ticket costs 22,40 euros (CAN $ 30,54).
I'm not familiar with the hotels around here. Because I live here, I'm not visiting any hotels here very often.
However, I do know that accomodation in the centre of the city isn't cheap. Any good hotel would cost around 80 euro's for one night, there are exceptions though.

 

[MrOttawa]

Was the ditch an old canal?

 

[ronald1987]

Was the ditch an old canal?

Nope, it's been artificially constructed.
It connects two sides of Downtown Rotterdam's busiest road, the Coolsingel.
It runs underneath this street, the Coolsingel:

There's a subway station under that street aswell.