New Rotterdammers, cherish the places that remain

Would I like to write an introduction about the city for students new to Rotterdam, seeing as I was born and have studied there? In all honesty: this might be the worst thing you can ask of a Rotterdammer. Not because we don’t love our city. On the contrary. But what’s so special about a city you’ve lived in all your life, and your parents and your grandparents before you? I’ll tell you now: it’s not the Markthal, the Fenix Food Factory or surfing the Steigersgracht. After all, I am not a city marketer. I would prefer to talk about the Rotterdam familiar to me and the people I grew up with.

First of all: welcome to Rotterdam! You could have chosen a city with a beautiful historic city centre, but you didn’t. Instead, you have chosen a tough, diverse city with headstrong residents, in which every district looks different. This may make it difficult to get used to.

In all fairness, the people don’t make it easy for you either. In student district Kralingen, for example, the ‘Kralingen student nuisance action plan’ applies. That includes many policemen walking around here to fine you for urinating in public and public drunkenness. So it might be best to do the typical student things elsewhere. But otherwise, you really are welcome.

You may know the phrase ‘Manhattan on the Meuse’ as a description for Rotterdam. Let me dispel that dream: Rotterdam is not New York, nor is it on the River Meuse. This is because the New Meuse, on which we are located, is part of the Rhine Delta (hence the region is called Rijnmond). Furthermore, Rotterdam is no New York. Rotterdam is Rotterdam. We could have come up with the skyscraper, but could New York have come up with the kapsalon dish?

Rotterdam is known as an experimental city. Not just in terms of food, but especially in terms of architecture, which some people would describe as ‘ugly’.

Contrary to what you may have once been taught, this is not just the Germans’ fault (nevertheless, we will never forgive them). Even before the bombing, many modern buildings were being built in Rotterdam, with the Van Nelle factory as the most famous example. The city was innovative: the White House on Wijnhaven was Europe’s first ‘skyscraper’ in 1897 (don’t be disappointed when you see it). And the Hef, which Jeff Bezos wanted to take apart in 2022 so his cruise ship could pass through, was the first bridge of its kind in Western Europe in 1927.

After the bombing, the city government could have chosen to restore the old city. Instead, it continued the modern trend that had already begun. Lijnbaan became the world’s first car-free shopping street and we got the Netherlands’ first metro line. And in all those years, many beautiful and ugly things have been added and built and demolished, and built and demolished again. More was actually demolished after the war than during the bombing. And to this day, demolitions continue eagerly, driving poor people away.

In terms of becoming a Rotterdammer, it is important to say ‘op Zuid’ when talking about the South district. After all, we consider the South as an island; the district wasn’t really part of the city in the beginning. At the time, the port attracted farmers from Zeeland and North Brabant, so for a long time the talk was (and still is sometimes) about ‘the farmers of the South’. Today, South, which is now larger than city-side ‘Noord’, is mainly known as the poorer part of Rotterdam where many migrant workers live.

If you are not going to live op Zuid, there is still plenty of reason to cross the bridge from time to time. For example, for Ahoy, one of the largest event halls in the Netherlands, which also hosts the opening of Eureka Week. It may not be as popular as it used to be (make Ahoy great again) but there is still plenty to do now. These include Cirque du Soleil, Lord of the Rings in concert, and Frans Bauer on the agenda until 2025. If that’s not your thing, you can also always hang out in the Zuiderpark or Zuidplein shopping centre. Chips at Bram Ladage under the metro station while waiting for the bus is a classic.

There are only a few things that are truly important in the life of a Rotterdammer, and one of them is Feyenoord. That’s no exaggeration, I’m afraid.

Feyenoord is Rotterdam’s biggest football club, with perhaps the most fanatical supporters in the Netherlands. Feyenoord fans travel from all over the country to Rotterdam-Zuid when their club plays at De Kuip, which is also the most beautiful football stadium in the Netherlands (everyone thinks so). Concerts are no longer held at the Feyenoord stadium, so if you want to know why De Kuip is so beautiful, you can’t get around the football. Don’t forget to bring fireworks in your intimate parts.

Should you not like clubs with supporters throwing chairs, Rotterdam has two other professional football clubs: Sparta and Excelsior. Sparta is the club of Rotterdam(-West) and is the oldest professional football club in the Netherlands (1888). Sparta is seen as a ‘neat’ club. There is some friction between Sparta and Feyenoord over which is the real Rotterdam club: Feyenoord is the biggest, but Sparta was the first.

The safest choice is therefore Excelsior, the Kralingen football club. Excelsior is no less special: in fact, it was one of the first clubs in the Netherlands that you could join as an ‘ordinary citizen’; before that, football was a sport for the elite. Excelsior also plays in a lower division now, so tickets are a bit cheaper and the stadium is right next to the university.

I found the big advantage of studying in Rotterdam was that everything is conveniently located in one place. You don’t have to cross half a city centre because you happen to have lectures in another building. No shortage of facilities either. A supermarket, a gym, a hairdresser: it is all within easy reach, both on campus Woudestein and at Erasmus MC.  So you don’t even have to see that ugly inner city of ours if you don’t want to.

Unfortunately, like the rest of the city, the university likes to remodel quite a bit, so count on there being days when you won’t be able to visit the campus to study.

Then drop by one of the Rotterdam Library locations. And don’t go to the Central Library, which is by far the most famous and popular place to study, but visit the other locations of the Rotterdam Library. In fact, most of them also have study areas and since no one reads anymore, you can bet it will be nice and quiet. The library could really use your support, so become a member. If you do want to study in the Central Library on the Binnenrotte, apply for a Rotterdam Pass so you can enjoy all the other tourist attractions.

Then here are some tips, from my childhood and from the Rotterdammers around me: Head to Hoek van Holland for a real beach with real sea. Go skating on the Westblaak.  Buy your books at the Donner. Don’t go to the Market Hall but to the market on Blaak or Noordplein or Afrikaanderplein. Go clubbing at the Après Ski hut. After clubbing, head to Jaffa or De Kokosnoot on the Witte de With for a kapsalon. Go round the Kralingse Plas. Have a barbecue at Vroesenpark. Take one of the 5 exits at metro stop Eendrachtsplein, which is somehow always the wrong one. And go to Kino or Cinerama for a good film.

And a very last lesson: a Rotterdammer is half made up of homesickness and nostalgia. Indeed, with all this zest for demolition, the city is changing faster than we really want it to. You never know if your favourite spot will still be there in 10 or 20 years’ time. That is why Rotterdammers do not cherish the places that are added, but those that remain. The best example is Tropicana, a large white dome on Maas Boulevard. This used to be a subtropical swimming paradise, which was not properly maintained and had to close. Today, it houses sustainable businesses committed to a cyclical economy. Ungrateful work, because despite everything, everyone just wants to go to the pool.