![\"Fruit](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/w_1093.jpeg\")
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\n Rotterdam opened the Markthal, a covered market hall and apartment complex in October 2014, giving the city a radical landmark to draw visitors.\n <\/p>\n
\n Apartments arch above 96 stalls selling everything from Dutch cheeses to fresh fish, and many other local food and drinks.\n <\/p>\n
\n The ceiling of the Markthal bears the world\u2019s largest artwork.\n <\/p>\n
\n Spanning over 13,000 square yards, the \u201cHorn of Plenty\u201d by Arno Coenen is a colorful art piece depicting fruit tumbling from a summer sky, grazing cows and flowers.\n <\/p>\n
\n The artwork\u2019s panels help lower sound within the market hall.\n <\/p>\n
\n Markthal Rotterdam<\/a>; 298 Ds. Jan Scharpstraat, Rotterdam\n <\/p>\n And the best new cocktail bar in the Netherlands<\/p>\n \n Cocktail-lovers should head straight to Stirr, which was named the Netherlands\u2019 best new cocktail bar in the 2016 Esquire awards.\n <\/p>\n \n Mustachioed mixologists stand ready to create drinks tailored to any tastes.\n <\/p>\n \n They utilize the venue\u2019s own liqueurs, bitters and syrups.\n <\/p>\n \n With exposed brickwork and hip hop music, Stirr offers a new scene in a city where dockworkers and industrial workforce have traditionally favored beer over cocktails.\n <\/p>\n \n Stirr,<\/a> 29b Eendrachtweg, Rotterdam\n <\/p>\n \n Many cities have quarters that are widely regarded as cool but Rotterdam can claim, literally, to have a Cool District.\n <\/p>\n \n Pronounced \u2018coal\u2019 in Dutch, the district was a separate municipality to Rotterdam until 1816, and is now peppered with high street stores and restaurants.\n <\/p>\n \n Plans are afoot to redevelop \u201cCoolsingel\u201d, the broad street that runs in front of Rotterdam\u2019s city hall, by 2020.\n <\/p>\n \n Traffic flow will be reduced, and pedestrians and cyclists will have more space when the project is complete.\n <\/p>\n \n In recent years, Rotterdam has asked its citizens to help change the city.\n <\/p>\n \n Residents have suggested projects to receive funding, then had a vote to choose the most popular.\n <\/p>\n \n One scheme, proposing an area for urban surfing at Steigersgracht, next to the Markthal, hit legal challenges but looks set to open in 2017.\n <\/p>\n \n The Luchtsingel, a 1,280 foot long pedestrian bridge linking the central station with Rotterdam\u2019s northern district, opened in 2015.\n <\/p>\n \n Crowdfunding, sourced by inscribing names on the bridge\u2019s wooden planks in return for a donation, helped raise revenue to construct the yellow Luchtsingel.\n <\/p>\n \n Luchtsingel<\/a>, 189 Schiekade, Rotterdam\n <\/p>\n \n A number of bars, cafes, and restaurants operate on Witte de Withstraat, the buzzing street at the heart of Rotterdam\u2019s nightlife scene.\n <\/p>\n \n A smattering of art boutiques, including Gallerie Ecce and Gallerie van Eijck, give the area cultural credentials.\n <\/p>\n \n If the weather\u2019s nice, seats are set out on the sidewalk in front of bars such as De Witte Aap.\n <\/p>\n \n Ballroom \u2013 named after bitterballen, a traditional, deep fried Dutch snack \u2013 makes unconfirmed claims to having the world\u2019s widest selection of gin and tonics.\n <\/p>\n \n Ballroom<\/a>; 88b Witte de Withstraat, Rotterdam; +3110 341 2029\n <\/p>\n \n Folks in Rotterdam don\u2019t just talk about cutting back on their carbon footprint, they do something about it.\n <\/p>\n \n Sometimes, that something is a little unusual.\n <\/p>\n \n Like the team from RotterZwam, which grows oyster mushrooms using coffee grinds from caf\u00e9s around the city center as fertilizer.\n <\/p>\n \n So far, RotterZwam has salvaged in excess of 35 tons of used coffee and produced more than 4 tons of mushrooms, which are sold and served in restaurants around the city.\n <\/p>\n \n RotterZwam<\/a>, 100 Maasboulevard, Rotterdam\n <\/p>\n \n The Fenix Food Factory occupies a former warehouse in the city\u2019s Katendrecht district.\n <\/p>\n \n Here, young entrepreneurs sell locally sourced food and drinks, while helping to transform what was long a rundown, red light district.\n <\/p>\n \n Visitors can sit in a communal area at the center of the building or on seats overlooking the waterfront.\n <\/p>\n \n The Kaapse Brouwers brewpub hosts live jazz sessions on Fridays and Sundays.\n <\/p>\n \n Fenix Food Factory<\/a>, 19d Verlaan, Rotterdam\n <\/p>\n \n At a time when many urban youth are clueless about where food comes from, Uit Je Eigen Stad gives young people in Rotterdam a chance to try their hand at farming.\n <\/p>\n \n The initiative, whose name means \u201cfrom your own city,\u201d is based on a formerly rundown dockland in the city\u2019s western suburbs.\n <\/p>\n \n Vegetables harvested from the urban farm are served in at the on-site restaurant, and a caf\u00e9\/shop at Rotterdam\u2019s central train station (24ab Proveniersplein).\n <\/p>\n \n City rooftops are also being used to grow fruit and vegetables, in environmentally conscious efforts to reduce food transport.\n <\/p>\n \n Uit Je Eigen Stad,<\/a> Marconistraat 39, Rotterdam; +31 10 820 8909\n <\/p>\n \n Rotterdam-based architects are developing plans for floating houses to help maximize living space in a city with vast areas of water.\n <\/p>\n \n A Floating Pavilion is already used to host events at the Rijnhaven, on the south side of the city\u2019s Nieuwe Maas River.\n <\/p>\n \n Cows will soon be milked on the Floating Farm, which is scheduled to open in Rotterdam during 2017.\n <\/p>\n \n Peter van Wingerden, the architect of the self-sustaining dairy platform, believes floating farms may be a way for the cities of the future to feed their growing populations and reduce pressure on land.\n <\/p>\n \n Floating Pavilion,<\/a> 90 Posthumalaan, Rotterdam\n <\/p>\n \n Some say Rotterdam embraces contemporary architecture because so many of its historic sites were destroyed during a German air raid on May 14, 1940.\n <\/p>\n \n Yet even before World War II, Rotterdam saw the construction of new buildings, such as the Sonneveld House, a Modernist family home from the 1930s.\n <\/p>\n \n The Witte Huis, an Art Nouveau-influenced highrise which now hosts a caf\u00e9, was completed in 1898, and is regarded as a proto-skyscraper.\n <\/p>\n \n The World Port Center, designed by Foster and Partners, and the KPN Telekom Building by Renzo Piano, are two of the city\u2019s celebrated skyscrapers.\n <\/p>\n \n De Rotterdam, designed by Rem Koolhaas, is conceptualized as a vertical city and is the largest building in the Netherlands.\n <\/p>\n \n Rotterdam\u2019s Museum Park has wide open green spaces to take advantage of sunny weather.\n <\/p>\n \n Around it there\u2019s both the Natural History Museum and Kunsthal, which hosts regularly changing art exhibitions.\n <\/p>\n \n The Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen displays world class artworks, by the likes of Piet Mondrian and Vincent van Gogh, plus the applied designs of Gerrit Rietveld.\n <\/p>\n \n Het Nieuwe Instituut is the place to go for design-related exhibitions, and hosts the Dutch state archive on architecture.\n <\/p>\n![\"Rotterdam's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787489319_348_w_1093.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Alfresco](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787489319_580_w_1093.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787489319_800_w_1093.jpeg\")
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<\/p>\n![\"Rotterdam's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787489320_159_w_1093.jpeg\")
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