Last week Marco and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary at the nhow hotel in Rotterdam (Dutch | English). The hotel was designed by Rem Koolhaas and currently holds the title of the largest building in the Netherlands (at 160,000 square meters).
Our room ended up being in the lower left building, in the upper left corner on the 23rd floor.
Where we were going and where we were staying was a surprise on my part – Marco only knew that it was a city in the Netherlands and we would be spending one night in a hotel.
Rotterdam Centraal, the train station. We ended up taking the new metro line E from Den Haag Centraal to Rotterdam Centraal, but that is for another blog post. 🙂
After arriving at Rotterdam Centraal, we stopped and had coffee at Lebkov. We always go to Lebkov in the The Hague, so I thought it might be fun to visit the Rotterdam version. It was much larger, with a 2nd floor above the cash registers.
Not really related to anything we wanted to see, but I just loved how the sun played off these two buildings next to the train station. The one on the left is Delftse poort.
After Lebkov we went to Blaak, and take some more touristy pictures. Marco hadn’t been there in years, so it was fun to see his reaction to how everything had changed.
First, the world famous cube houses designed by Piet Blom link
After that, a photo of the main Rotterdam library (modeled like a ship, to reflect Rotterdam’s heritage). link
And then on to the Markthal, with apartments along the outer edge, offices along the inner edge, and inside a large food market (and a clothing market outside). link
A look at the artwork on the walls. Definitely a place to visit at least once, but be warned – it is very, very busy and crowded.
After visiting a few more shops and eating at Roffa street food – a smokehouse with tasty burgers and more – we made our way to the hotel. To the 23rd floor. Check out the view!
Erasmus bridge in Rotterdam, with a view of the central part of Rotterdam on the other side. Dutch link English link
One of the main attractions of this hotel is the view and the sunset / sunrise rooms. We had a lovely view of the sunset (and on the left, you can see the Euromast). We sat there and watched the sunset for about 45 minutes and took photos. Very romantic! Dutch Euromast link English Euromast link
And a look at the bridge and the city at night (before complete darkness falls)
Included for fun – most of the signs at this hotel were pretty witty and not just your standard hotel signage. This was a sign you could hang on your door handle for housekeeping.
And finally, an awesome bowl in our hotel room with the shape of various famous Rotterdam buildings. For instance, you can see our hotel on the front, slightly to the left, and Markthal on the back, then a church and central station to the right of Markthal. We also saw copies on sale at the tourist office by the Beurs metro stop; search for “Rotterdam vvv”).
I might post some additional photos regarding the breakfast at the hotel at a later time. That was also a sight to behold! But all in all it was a lot of fun. At this time last Sunday, we were just arriving at the Markthal! I can’t believe it’s been a week already.
Life in the Hague 