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Magazine
Time Out
Modernist canvas
NANDINI NAIR
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Rotterdam doesn’t have a historical ‘heart’ like other European cities but give it time and it will grow on you.
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Freedom to start anew: The cube houses of Rotterdam.
This could be Rotterdam or anywhere
Liverpool or Rome
Coz Rotterdam is anywhere
Anywhere alone
Anywhere alone.
After spending nearly two weeks in Rotterdam, the second largest town of The Netherlands, I no longer agree with these lyrics of Beautiful South. It’s not a city of solitary spaces and lone wanderings. Instead, it is a bustling business and cultural hub. I found the Dutch people supremely amiable. With a high English literacy, communication is effortless and even friendships are an easy possibility.
Most people visit The Netherlands in spring to witness the rainbow glory of the tulips. But I went in February for the International Film Festival, Rotterdam (IFFR). The festival is touted as the country’s largest cultural event. It is an exciting time to visit as the entire city is in a stir with over 200 feature movies and double the number of short movies shown in over 24 centres.
For 40 years, Rotterdam was the busiest port in the world. While it has been overtaken by Shanghai, it continues to be a major transit point for oil and grain. It is Europe’s largest industrial and logistic hub. A walk along the harbour doesn’t hint at its immensity. The best way to experience the port is through a 75-minute cruise.
Raw power
The Walk of Fame gently curves along the harbour in the south of the city. While stepping over Carlos Santana and tip-toeing over Cliff Richard, my biggest worry was getting airborne. That was now a legitimate fear and not an idle fantasy. The wind shoots in from the North Sea and threatens to erode facial features. In earlier times the force of the wind powered windmills which ground wheat and even sawed wood.
Rotterdam is often derided as “ugly”, because it doesn’t have an old heart! Most European cities pride themselves on their classical city centres. Much of Rotterdam’s old architecture was destroyed by the German Luftwaffe in the Second World War. The cubist artist Ossip Zadkine captured the event in his statue Stad zonder hart (“City without a heart”). It evokes the tragic helplessness of citizens as the bomber planes flew over them.
Choosing to reinvent itself, the few square kilometres of the city centre is like a laboratory of 20th century modern architecture. Like a canvas of modern paintings — buildings are splashed across in indiscriminate strokes. Some compel laughter. Giraffes scale the façade, exclamation marks are drawn on windows and green-coloured lights even outline a heart on a building on the waterfront!
The innovative and adventurous period after the war is expressed in such structures as the Cube houses, the Kunsthal, the Luxor Theatre and the Erasmus Bridge. Also called The Swan, this bridge is majestic in its simplicity and is most often framed in kiosk postcards.
It was during the Saturday market that I discovered the cube houses designed by Piet Blom. His idea was to create a kind of village-oasis within a city. But I realised that the locals look upon these houses with amused curiosity. Peter, a curator at a museum, and my fellow train passenger said, “Artists and such people like to live there. But it’s difficult. The walls slope in different directions. And you can’t even fit a cupboard in!”
The Tuesday and Saturday outdoor markets are more practical. It is also probably the best place for bargains. Buy your mementoes of The Netherlands from here and not from the shiny airport shops. The pretty Delft blue pottery is found abundantly. Cheese can be bought by weight. And chocolates can be purchased by their smell. There are antique shops to rifle through and discount books to be discovered. Burdened with plastic bags and frozen fingers, my friend and I found a café to thaw in. We ordered a coffee and it arrived accompanied by a tiny cup of whipped cream and decoction. Delicious.
If you are looking just for coffee — don’t stray into shops which read “Coffee Shops”. Yes, you do get coffee here. But you also get drugs. A coffee and a marijuana joint — it’s all part of the menu. It’s no surprise that these places are frequented more by teenage boys and tourists than by the Dutch.
Catering to the tourists
It is this libertinism that is most often associated with The Netherlands, at least by the tourists. It is true that the red light areas are easily accessible and even on display, but it’s not what the Dutch will recommend. It seems more a creation for tourism than an intrinsic cultural component.
While Amsterdam is the preferred party place, Rotterdam isn’t exactly the soporific cousin. There are bars for every choice and preference. Cigar bars for the bearded. Gay bars for the different. There are even discos that belt out Bollywood music like “Aaoo twist kare”!
Dutch cuisine is not a winner. Indonesian food is plenty and the closest you’ll get to the edible. After three and a half centuries of colonising Indonesia, the Dutch were at least left with a taste for eastern cuisine!
Rotterdam is not the kind of city that bowls you over. Visit it and be slowly drawn into its embrace.
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