Rotterdam from 2009 to 2011
Published by 
Joana Rolo
— 13 years ago
2 0
Tags: Erasmus experiences Rotterdam,
Rotterdam,
Netherlands
Architecture and landscapes: Rotterdam is the capital of modern architecture in The Netherlands. It's a very modern city, built after the war with a lot of famous buildings. You cannot pass by Rotterdam without visiting it's most famous building, the Cubic Houses. There's not many parks and green, but there's the Kralingen lake (10 min from the center by bike) which is a beautiful and natural place to go for a walk, running, pic nic...
Weather: it rains a lot, and the winter can be very cold and with a lot of snow. The summer is never very warm. Be prepared for rain at anytime!
Culture and Customs: Like everywhere in Holland the culture offer is very rich. The best theaters are the Rotterdamse Schowburg (a lot of dance performances) and the Doelen (big concert hall with a high quality programation for classical music). The kunsthall is the best museum with a big art collection from medieval ages to contemporary art. The normal time for performances is at 20h15 and the price for students is 5 euros. Although the cinema costs 10 euros during the weekend and there's just 3 cinemas in Rotterdam.
Party: if you want to party go to the New Binnenweg or to Blaak. This street has all types of nice bars. The night life is very diverse, there's jazz bars with jam sessions, a lot of world music concerts and partys and many gay bars. In most of them you don't have to pay, unless in some clubs (12 euros is the normal price).
Entertainment and Spare time: Rotterdam is known in Holland for his rich world music life, so to go to a salsa party, an indian music jam session or a turkish music concert it's always a good option. In a sunny day it's also nice to explore the city and it's surroundings by bike. You can discover many nice and tipical dutch landscapes very close to the city. Being in the centre of the Europe, travelling is very easy from Rotterdam. The trains can bring you to any place: Amsterdam (45 min), Brussels (1h45), Paris (3h), London (3h), Antwerp (1h). In Rotterdam there's an aeroport but it's very small, and in general, expensive so usually it's better to use the Amsterdam aeroport, Schipol. KLM and Transavia (lowcost) are the two dutch airlines. Although if you want to fly with ryanair you can fly from Eindhoven.
Gastronomy: Gastronomy in Holland is not very rich and good. For dutch People the lunch is a sandwich and the most common warm meals are basically potatoes and meet, or crockets. You can find a lot of different fast food restaurants, especially with asian and turkish food. You cannot pass by Rotterdam without tasting a Kapsalon, tipical turkish dish invented in Rotterdam. The best supermarket is Albert Heijn, although the prices are quite high. You can also use bus, but the cheapest one is Aldi. Besides that, the big blaak market on tuesdays and Saturdays (from 9h to 17h) is very popular: good and diverse products, goos prices.
Prices: Rotterdam is one of the cheapest citys of The Netherlands to live. The average prices are: a room for a student costs between 250 and 400 euros (the energy can be inclusive or exclusive and the monthly bill is in general around 50 euros); a beer: 2 euros; a music or dance show: between 5 and 10 euros; a daily metro ticket: 2,50 euros; 10 tulips: 2,50 euros; a macdonald's menu: 6 euros; a dinner at the restaurant: 20 euros.
Transport: the most popular transport in Rotterdam is the bike. Ecological, silent, cheap and you use it in summer as in winter. A second bike can be bought in a bikes shop (here it will cost betwenn 100 and 200 euros), in the market (around 80 euros), on-line in Marktplaats, and on the street (especially close to the Central Station) to a junky (no more than 10 euros). You can have a fine if you don't cicle with lights. Besides that there's metro, bus, and tramways. For these ones you have to have an ov-chipkaart, a card that you charge with monney and can use in all the transports in The Netherlands.
Weather: it rains a lot, and the winter can be very cold and with a lot of snow. The summer is never very warm. Be prepared for rain at anytime!
Culture and Customs: Like everywhere in Holland the culture offer is very rich. The best theaters are the Rotterdamse Schowburg (a lot of dance performances) and the Doelen (big concert hall with a high quality programation for classical music). The kunsthall is the best museum with a big art collection from medieval ages to contemporary art. The normal time for performances is at 20h15 and the price for students is 5 euros. Although the cinema costs 10 euros during the weekend and there's just 3 cinemas in Rotterdam.
Party: if you want to party go to the New Binnenweg or to Blaak. This street has all types of nice bars. The night life is very diverse, there's jazz bars with jam sessions, a lot of world music concerts and partys and many gay bars. In most of them you don't have to pay, unless in some clubs (12 euros is the normal price).
Entertainment and Spare time: Rotterdam is known in Holland for his rich world music life, so to go to a salsa party, an indian music jam session or a turkish music concert it's always a good option. In a sunny day it's also nice to explore the city and it's surroundings by bike. You can discover many nice and tipical dutch landscapes very close to the city. Being in the centre of the Europe, travelling is very easy from Rotterdam. The trains can bring you to any place: Amsterdam (45 min), Brussels (1h45), Paris (3h), London (3h), Antwerp (1h). In Rotterdam there's an aeroport but it's very small, and in general, expensive so usually it's better to use the Amsterdam aeroport, Schipol. KLM and Transavia (lowcost) are the two dutch airlines. Although if you want to fly with ryanair you can fly from Eindhoven.
Gastronomy: Gastronomy in Holland is not very rich and good. For dutch People the lunch is a sandwich and the most common warm meals are basically potatoes and meet, or crockets. You can find a lot of different fast food restaurants, especially with asian and turkish food. You cannot pass by Rotterdam without tasting a Kapsalon, tipical turkish dish invented in Rotterdam. The best supermarket is Albert Heijn, although the prices are quite high. You can also use bus, but the cheapest one is Aldi. Besides that, the big blaak market on tuesdays and Saturdays (from 9h to 17h) is very popular: good and diverse products, goos prices.
Prices: Rotterdam is one of the cheapest citys of The Netherlands to live. The average prices are: a room for a student costs between 250 and 400 euros (the energy can be inclusive or exclusive and the monthly bill is in general around 50 euros); a beer: 2 euros; a music or dance show: between 5 and 10 euros; a daily metro ticket: 2,50 euros; 10 tulips: 2,50 euros; a macdonald's menu: 6 euros; a dinner at the restaurant: 20 euros.
Transport: the most popular transport in Rotterdam is the bike. Ecological, silent, cheap and you use it in summer as in winter. A second bike can be bought in a bikes shop (here it will cost betwenn 100 and 200 euros), in the market (around 80 euros), on-line in Marktplaats, and on the street (especially close to the Central Station) to a junky (no more than 10 euros). You can have a fine if you don't cicle with lights. Besides that there's metro, bus, and tramways. For these ones you have to have an ov-chipkaart, a card that you charge with monney and can use in all the transports in The Netherlands.
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