Together with its Maritime Heritage and colourful atmosphere everything helps make it ideal to Tour with a friendly local Private Guide who has all the Stories behind the Best Sights.

In Rotterdam we walk and talk our way out of the fantastic New Centraal Station to tram travel to Hotel New York and its emotive dock-side sculpture on the Wilhelmina Pier, then over the Erasmus Bridge, Zadkine statue to the WWII bombed city of Rotterdam, De Boeg memorial to those lost at Sea, then we walk across the pontoons between the ships and boats of the Maritime Museum to get to old Blaak harbor, Cube houses, New Market Hall, old Sint-Laurenskerk Church, Erasmus memorial, City Hall and Garden, among many other great sights along the way and the more we walk the more we see…

Historically, the name of Rotterdam comes from the fact that a dam was constructed in 1270 on the Rotte River, and together with the influence of old Delft, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre.

With a population of about ¾ of a million it is the second largest City in The Netherlands. Rotterdam has become one of Europe’s most celebrated and vibrant multicultural cities; it is known for its award winning architecture and it’s striking riverside setting near the mouth of the New Maas River, where it meets the Rhine and the English Channel/North Sea.

Culture abounds at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, to be found at the Museumpark 18-20 (Metro: Eendrachtsplein), and it was founded in 1849. It houses a rich collection including masterpieces like Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s The “little” Tower of Babel (1563) as well as a Modern Art wing with an important collection of surrealism, prominently featuring Salvador Dalí and René Magritte. On Wednesdays they have offered free entry although they accept the Museum Card on all days too.

Rotterdam City Hall on the Coolsingel 40 (Metro: Stadhuis) is open during the week and appears quite historic compared to the modern outlook of the rest of the city, but it was actually only built in 1915 in a lavish style echoing historic city halls in other Dutch cities.

Remarkably, the offices survived the bombing almost entirely and is one of the few truly historic buildings in the city. It is nice to walk into the Monumental main hall and see the statues. The courtyard garden is also certainly worth a tour too, with statues, fountain, and formal setting with seats it is beautifully quaint. The City Hall is still in use and so we are free to enter this public buiding. The City Hall has a bell tower and the roof of the middle tower is even made of gold – something that not all those from Rotterdam at that time thought appropriate so soon after the start of the great war that wasn’t helping the poor in Holland. They were actually neutral but the White Hotel was thought to possibly harbour spies and all…

The Second World War was much worse however. Rotterdam was infamously bombed on May 14, 1940 by Nazi Germany that forced the Dutch army to surrender. The old centre of Rotterdam was just about completely destroyed, with 900 civilians killed and 80,000 homeless. Rotterdam has been slowly rebuilt from the 1950s through the 1990s. Innovation for new styles of apartments, office buildings made Rotterdam become a city of modern architecture and the only Dutch City with an impressive modern skyline.

Rotterdam is Europe’s busiest port by cargo tonnage. In 2004 it was surpassed by Shanghai as the worlds busiest. Rotterdam’s commercial and strategic importance is because of the rivers that lead directly into the centre of Europe, like the industrial Ruhr region, which is why Rotterdam is called the “Gateway to Europe”.

In Rotterdam about 50% of the inhabitants are not native to the Netherlands and it has the greatest percentage of foreigners from non-industrialised nations too.

This helps to make the atmosphere of Rotterdam really distinct from all other Dutch cities. The diverse and dynamic optimism that Rotterdam’s inhabitants have is always moving forwards with things and their town is palpable.

Rotterdam was just about completely destroyed during World War II. The German army invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. They had planned to conquer the country in one day, but unexpected fierce resistance meant the Dutch army capitulated only on 14 May 1940, after the German Airforce bombed Rotterdam into the ground and then threatened to bomb other cities too. The main heart of the old city of Rotterdam was almost completely destroyed and 800 people were killed, while about 80,000 others were made homeless. Recently Rotterdam held a half-marathon around the edge of extent of the devastation so as to show how much had been lost to those that only know the new buildings of Rotterdam.

The bustle of the Port of Rotterdam and its building spree in the City Center of Rotterdam gives distinct modern looks to the city of Rotterdam and the Rotterdam Port area, all add to the positive atsmosphere.

Starting in the 1950s through to the 1970s, the city was rebuilt around and by the Rotterdam City Hall which had survived the bombing. The Rotterdam City Council did not aim at rebuilding what was lost, but aimed to create a ‘new’ and better city. Very daring and totally new styles of residential flats and apartment’s, office buildings and recreation facilities resulted in a radical city center with a fantastic new skyline. In the 1990s, the Kop van Zuid was built on the south bank of the river as a new business center.

Amazingly one church survived all the bombing around it and still stands proud to day in Rotterdam. The Sint Laurens Church, Grotekerkplein 15 (Metro: Stadhuis or Blaak). Tue: 10:00-14:00 Wed-Sat: 14:00-16:00. The “Great or Saint Lawrence church” (The patron saint of Rotterdam is Saint Lawrence) This late-gothic inner city landmark dates from 1449. Of special interest are the elaborate graves of Dutch sea heroes Kortenaer, Witte de With and Van Brakel and the large organ; but it remains an icon of former times in most senior people of Rotterdam.

One of the newest buildings in Rotterdam that we can Tour is the new Market Hall which is full of colour, sounds, smells and tastes to be enjoyed every day of the week!