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Hooked on Holland – for a true taste of Rotterdam, reporter Steve Hughes takes a foodie walking tour and fills up on the city’s finest sights, before heading up the Euromast Tower
The lights flashed on the screen in front of us, and techno music began playing. Our seats, already 320ft in the air, then began slowly climbing to the top.
Once at the top of the 606ft Euromast Tower, the circular lift began to rotate, offering spectacular panoramic views of the city below. This couldn’t be anywhere. It was very much Rotterdam! From the top of the glass-floored Euromast – one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions – you can take in all of Europe’s largest seaport.
Gazing at the mixture of modern architecture, green space and an intricate and busy body of water was the perfect way to start our urban adventure. Rotterdam gets far less press than more popular Amsterdam.
In Britain it’s known mainly for the unkind portrayal in The Beautiful South song, with the residents described as “dull” and “gargoyles”.
So we didn’t know what to expect after signing up for the Food and Route experience – a self-guided walking tour of the city, which stops off at restaurants and bars while taking you past areas of particular interest.
Walking is a great way to see Rotterdam, but we had already experienced its brilliant public transport links too. The previous day we caught the Stena ferry from Harwich in Essex to Hook of Holland. The seven-hour-ish crossing is less about just getting from A to B and more like the start of the holiday itself. With our own cabin, onboard restaurants and access to the Stena Plus Lounge, the journey across the North Sea was very relaxing.
There are quicker ways to Holland, but no others that let you stretch your legs and take in the air like the ferry. The Metro station at Hook of Holland is just outside the ferry terminal, and takes you to the centre of Rotterdam within 40 minutes. Our Food and Route tour took us past plenty of interesting buildings and sights across the city.
Rotterdam can trace its history back 800 years, but it was almost completely destroyed by German bombs in the Second World War. This means most of its infrastructure is very modern, and the city has become famous for its ground-breaking architecture. The Erasmus Bridge is a stunning structure connecting the north and south of the city.
The Markthal – or Market Hall – is even more breathtaking, with a giant space selling different foods from across the world inside, and apartments and offices built into the outside of the structure. The Depot Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen has mirrored glass all around the outside, meaning if you look carefully you can see yourself approaching it from a great distance.
Inside is a huge collection of masterpieces, including Van Goghs and Picassos, but the building itself, with its glass floors and impressive central lift shaft, is the real attraction. But as the title suggests, the Food and Route tour is not just about buildings. On our first food stop we were introduced to the most famous dish in Rotterdam – kapsalon.
Invented by a hairdresser who asked a local restaurant to throw all his favourite foods into one dish, it’s a combo of chips, kebab meat, melted Gouda cheese, salad and a hot sauce. It might well be a work of modern culinary genius.
It’s the sort of thing you’d eat on the way back from the pub rather than with the first drink of the day, but we weren’t complaining. Our tour also included a visit to a chocolatier, a Greek bakery in the Markthal and a brewery.
Beer tasting is a big thing in Rotterdam and after getting a taste for it on the tour, we settled into a brewery called Kaapse Maria to investigate further.
Like neighbouring country Belgium, the beers of the Netherlands are not for the faint hearted. Rather than downing pints, you sensibly sample each bevvy in a 100ml glass – and try not to worry that it’s 7-8 per cent ABV.
The brewers at Kaapse Maria are proud of their creations. They explain how each one is made and recommend new ones to try based on what you like. We didn’t have enough time to sample everything on the menu, and if we had, it may have made our pre-dinner walk back to the hotel less straightforward.
We stayed at the Hotel Motto by Hilton in the centre of Rotterdam, a short walk from Blaak station. Its combination of comfort and convenience is exactly what we needed for a short city break. After dusting ourselves down following our day of pounding the streets, it was time for some fine dining at one of the city’s best restaurants.
The Hotel New York is an iconic building at the end of one of the city’s many peninsulas, which used to be the base of the Holland America Line when passenger ships regularly sailed from Rotterdam to The Big Apple. Its NY Basement is a classy cocktail bar and restaurant underneath the hotel with what it calls a “pre-war Manhattan” feel.
We were greeted with champagne and tucked into the six-course tasting menu. If I have had a nicer piece of sole or sukade steak then I really can’t remember when. Maybe it’s partly because most of our meals out these days include three kids and a lot of stress, but the whole experience was wonderful.
If you ever get the chance to go to NY Basement, then go. We didn’t have too much trouble sleeping that night after our foodie adventures. And by lunchtime the next day we were back travelling across the North Sea, watching the waves through our cabin porthole.- Sadly there was no kapsalon on board. It’s worth a trip back to Rotterdam just for that.
Book the holiday
Stena Line ferry tickets from Harwich to Hook of Holland start from £69 one-way. stenaline.co.uk
Rooms at the Hotel Motto by Hilton in Rotterdam start at around £67 a night. hilton.com
More info at rotterdam.info