The city by bike

 

Going for a walk is obviously a healthy and fun way to explore the city. The internet and the tourist office of Rotterdam will be able to supply you with all the needed walking routes possible…. But, what’s more Dutch than to go for a bicycle ride?

Rotterdam has a lot of attractions spread out on a large surface, that’s why it’s almost impossible to see them all by foot. Cycling makes it much easier. There are multiple options to spend your day by bike.

1.       Internet/VVV

You can go to the tourist information office, or just look up a route on the internet. You can pick just a route through the center of the city that takes you by all the top attractions, or when you’re less in the mood for the urban ride, you can also go for one of the nature routes.

With the help of Fietsen in Regio Rotterdam you can even build your own route! All you have to do is choose what you want to see during your trip, and the websitedoes the rest!

2.       Cycling route with guide

Naturally, there are also bycicle tours which include a guide! These arrangements are available from 2 hours to a whole day program. Again, you can choose exactly what you want: Do you want to see the inner city? The Old and new buildings of the city? Or are you more interested in the harbors of Rotterdam? The day arrangements are provided with lunch, coffee and a drink at multiple popular places of the city.

Naturally, you can also rent a bike! Look for more information on Rotterdambycycle.

3.       Dinnertour by bike

We wouldn’t be Dutch if we didn’t use the bicycle for everything! We cycle to that one dinner, or to the other bar we are supposed to meet with friends. Now you can also enjoy a 3-course meal at 3 different locations! All you have to do is cycle to the other location in between. You can do this with a guide, who in the meantime tells you some nice facts about the city.

Or you can divide your company in teams and race each other to the next restaurant.

There are so many fun things you can do by bike to explore Rotterdam even further! Did you already think of a pub-crawl by bike? Or maybe even a treasure hunt? The possibilities are endless!

Would you love to live in Rotterdam? Check Domica Rotterdam for more information! 

Shopping in Rotterdam and the Koopgoot

The perfect place to go shopping in Rotterdam is definitely the Beurtraverse, or as called by the Dutch: de Koopgoot, which translates into the not so flattering name: “The Shopping Gutter”. The traverse, built in 1991 till 1996, underpasses Rotterdam’s most expensive street the Coolsingel.

The Beginning

The traverse used to be a subway station (the Beurs) and a walking passage, to reduce the amount of people crossing the Coolsingel and improve the traffic. Unfortunately not many people choose this way, so they made plans to expand the Rotterdam gutter into a shopping mall.

And now?

The ‘underground’ shopping mall connects two of the busiest shopping streets of the city: the Hoogstraat and the Lijnbaan. You can enter ‘the gutter’ by either side via the stairs. Midway there is an escalator, but you can also enter one of the large shopping malls such as H&M or the Bijenkorf and exit on the bottom floor. Usually the smaller stores only have a shopping area on the ground floor, this way you can continue shopping without the hassle of the busy traffic at the Coolsingel.

In the summer, childrend can have fun refreshment due to the ‘running’ water fountains that emerge from the ground at the Koopgoot. As far as public transport goes, the subway station is still located in the middle of the gutter, but there are also tramstops at the Lijnbaan side.

The Perfect Shopping Route?

From the Lijnbaan you can enter the Koopgoot, walk the Hoogstraat and end for a drink at the new Markthal! Would you like to have some more exclusive shops? You can better start at the Markthal and make your way to the Van Oldenbarneveltstraat. This street is also near the Koopgoot, but offers a wide selection of luxurious and exclusive shops and restaurants. This is doesn’t mean you can’t go there with a smaller budget; the Oldenbarneveltstraat is very divers in its shops.

Would you like to live near the Koopgoot? Check out Domica Rotterdam for more information! 

The Spido Rotterdam

As third on the list of most popular attractions of Rotterdam is the Spido. The standard  harbor tour takes 75 minutes, but there is much more to it if you want to! The Spido celebrates its 95^th birthday this year, and with that it’s one of the oldest attractions of the city!

From 1931 on the Spido was connected with the touristic Rotterdam. Back in the day there was an airport located in the Waalhaven, this attracted a lot of tourist. The Spido would take on the transport over water. In the war the airport got bombarded, but the Spido stayed. In those days the so called ‘volkvaren’ started up. The Spido took care of bringing employees to their work and would bring them back after.

From 1936 the harbor mail service started. This mail service took care of delivering mail to sailors who were on journey and had a stopover in Rotterdam. That was not the only thing they did for the sailors! They also functioned as a taxi company between the ships and the main land, but they also took care that the sailors were brought back to the ship in time.

As with everything, time changes, and in 2012 the Spido undertook an enormous reorganization that lead to the current Spido Rotterdam. Today this harbor touring doesn’t only include the regular tour, but they have multiple themed tours that are also customizable to the wishes of the customer. This gives way to the perfect business event, but also for the perfect family party or just a day out.

Next to the regular tours there are also day tours to the Tweede Maasvlakte and various fishing tours for saltwater fishing or freshwater fishing. These arrangements are a combination of the boat tour multiple stops at the main land.

If this doesn’t fit your idea of a nice day arrangement, you can also combine the tour with other attractions in Rotterdam, such as the SS Rotterdam. Or you can choose for a high tea arrangement, where the tour is combined with a luxurious high tea.

The Spido shows Rotterdam from a whole different point of view and makes it a memorable day every time again.

Would you like to live in Rotterdam? Check Domica Rotterdam for more information! 

The Blijdorp Zoo, part 2

Last Tuesday I wrote about the history of the park, but with about 1.6 million visitors a year the park is still thriving. Today we’ll see what you can do in the park!

From 1988 onwards the park has a ‘master plan’ in which they decided to reconstruct the park, and divide it into continents. By doing this they can place all the animals per continent where they originate from and make the residences as realistic as possible. Until today they’re building an adding to the park.

Oceanium

The Oceanium opened in 2001 and added 11 hectares to the whole park. The enormous aquarium offers a wide selection of different sea creatures. You can walk through a tunnel surrounded by water and sea life. No need of beautiful weather to visit the zoo anymore! With this large range of sea life you can stay indoors all day!

Extra fun for the kids!

The park put in extra effort in the playground (the Oewanja Kidsjungle). The parents can sit next to the playground enjoying a drink, while still keeping an eye on their little ones. This is not the only thing that the park has to offer to kids! They can play in the public lab, climb through the belly  of a whale, jump over floes, climb into a giant egg and much much more!

Birds, birds, birds!

The park has a huge amount of different birds. There are multiple aviaries. There is one for meadow and migration birds, of which is one part dedicated to the birds that also live in the Netherlands, and the other part is dedicated to the south-European birds. Next to that there is also a aviary with different types of vultures.

To make it even better, there is a daily show called the “free flight performance”, they trained more than 20 different species for this.

Amazonica

The last development of the park is the gigantic butterfly house, the Amazonica, which opened in 2013 (back then the largest butterfly house of Europe). As visitor you can walk freely between the beautiful plants while the most beautiful butterflies fly around you. In the middle of the butterfly house they built a basin where they house different types of reptiles and fish that also originate from the amazon.

So who’s visiting the zoo this weekend?

Would you like to live in Blijdorp Rotterdam? Take a look at our website, DomicaRotterdam, for more information.