So last weekend we went on a little design/culture/culinary tour in Holland with our friends from Berlin. Amsterdam they had seen, so on the program were Rotterdam, Eindhoven and Den Bosch (finished with a relax day in Utrecht to digest all new impressions). Day 1: Rotterdam. I worked in this city for three years and like it a lot. While Amsterdam finds itself cool, Rotterdam is cool without thinking so. Of course I’m generalizing and it’s just the impression I get when beging there (I don’t know the city that well), but it definitely seems not for nothing that Rotterdam is called ‘the city with the rolled up sleeves’ – it’s a working city, with Europe’s largest port. But at the same time there is so much more to see and do (think cool shops, festivals, musea, architecture, etc.). For those who do not know this, Rotterdam was bombed in WWII, destructing virtually the whole city centre. Its rebuilding resulted in a lot of concrete, glass and steel. Some people say it’s an ugly city, but I think it’s fresh, cool and has that cosmopolitan atmosphere that cannot be found anywhere else in Holland. This you feel best when walking along the Maas river that crosses town. Below photos were taken at the famous Erasmus bridge. Meet our own ‘Manhattan at the Maas’!