Rotterdam Part 1: Markthal

My first trip since moving to Europe is to Rotterdam!

A little about this city before I go on...

1. Rotterdam is a city of the Netherlands.

2. It has the largest port in Europe.

3. It has one of the best universities in the world: Erasmus University.

4. It is about 75km south of Amsterdam.

 

It is difficult to fit all that I have seen in Rotterdam into one blog entry, so I will split them up.

 

First on: Markthal (Market Hall)

Markthal is located right by Blaak Station. 

(Only a 5-minute walk from where I stayed --> Hotel ibis Rotterdam City Centre) 

 

It has beautiful illustrations as its interior design (like the images below).

The little windows you see are residential apartments!

Some of them get the view of inside the Markthal as well as outside.  That is very cool if you ask me.

A store that sells mushrooms...a very over-grown one...

Apparently this fruit tastes like cucumber.

Do they look like a healthy kind of fruit to you?

I don't think I've seen so many olives all at once *o*

Poffertjes!  These are small dutch pancakes. 

They taste like regular pancakes, but something about them taste that much better.

I had these back in Vancouver at the Christmas Market.  These are SO much better!

The famous "pencil" building of Rotterdam. 

Sets of china for sale! 

It's amazing how diverse Rotterdam is.  The Asian food and grocery market look more authentic than London's.

Tulips!  Unofficially the flower representing the Netherlands.

My view while eating the Poffertjes.

The Markthal has these revolving doors at the entrances and there are two huge decor (below) built into the doors.

The frisbee-shaped building is Blaak Station.  You can see Markthal right behind it.

There are a lot less bikes compared to what I have imagined.

The Asian market inside Markthal.  They have grocery downstairs and a restaurant upstairs. 

They also sell household products upstairs.

I bought two pieces of cakes from one of the sweets store (NOT from this one below) - the apple tart was good enough but the brownie cake was...

What can I say?  They were only €1 each.

A juice bar built as if it's in the jungle!

I had vietnamese the first evening I arrived!

Rotterdam is surrounded by water that it is much colder than London.  I was craving soup noodle.

It was a small menu with about four soup noodle choices and four vietnamese sub choices.

I had the curry sub the next day and it was delicious!  (Too hungry to take any photos.)

On the lower floor, they have some other stores as well as washroom facilities.

The strange part is, you have to pay to go to public washrooms, even at McDonalds!
(At McDonalds, it cost €0.50 to go to the washroom.  The washroom attendant made sure the toilet was clean and handed me a paper tissue for whiping dry my hands.  Reminded me of China!)

On the weekends, the outside of Markthal is packed with vendors, literally another market.

The area is pretty safe as I've walked around at night time too.  A good stay for a solo trip.