Attractions

Rotterdam's modern urban planning has resulted in an unusually effective use of city-center space. Particularly attractive are the shingle paths and lazy lawns in the landscaped Museumpark, which serves as a central focus for two of the museums mentioned below. Between visits stretch your legs or sit down and have a picnic.

Modern Architecture

Rotterdam has some spectacular modern architecture. Just outside Centraal station you encounter the office of the Nationale Nederlanden insurance corporation, the city's highest skyscraper at 152m (499 ft.). Down Coolsingel is the bottle-green World Trade Center. A city landmark near the Old Harbor is a geometric chaos of quirky, cube-shaped apartments balancing atop tall concrete stalks; the elevated, tree house-like yellow Cube Houses were designed by Dutch architect Piet Blom in the early 1970s. One of these quirky, lopsided little abodes, the Kijk-Kubus (Look-Cube), Overblaak 70 (tel. 010/414-2285; www.kubuswoning.nl; Metro: Blaak), is open for visits daily from 11am to 5pm. Admission is 2€ ($3.20) for adults, 1.50€ ($2.40) for seniors and children ages 4 to 12, and free for children 3 and under.

Two prominent bridges span the Nieuwe Maas River, the dark-red Nieuwe Willemsbrug, and a single-span suspension bridge called the Erasmusbrug and nicknamed "the Swan" (or, if you're not quite as charmed by its looks, "the Dishwashing Brush").

Housed in a striking building dating from 1993 at the edge of Museumpark, the Nederlands Architectuurinstituut (Netherlands Architecture Institute), Museumpark 25 (tel. 010/440-1200; www.nai.nl; Metro: Eendrachtsplein), explores all aspects of modern architecture. It houses a large archive of architectural drawings, sketches, models, photographs, books, and journals. The institute is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm, and Sunday and holidays from 11am to 5pm (closed Jan 1, Apr 30, and Dec 25). Admission is 8€ ($13) for adults, 5€ ($8) for children ages 12 to 18, 1€ ($1.60) for children ages 4 to 12, and free for children 3 and under.

Delfshaven

Not all of Rotterdam is spanking new. Take the Metro to the tiny harbor area known as Delfshaven (Delft Harbor), a neighborhood the German bombers missed, and from where the Puritans known as Pilgrims embarked on the first leg of their trip to Massachusetts. This is a pleasant place to spend an afternoon. Wander into the church in which the Pilgrims prayed before departure, and where they are remembered in special services every Thanksgiving Day. Peek into antiques shops and galleries, and check on the progress of this historic area's housing renovations.

Grand Harbor

The Port of Rotterdam handles more ships and more cargo every year than any other port in Europe -- 37,000 ships and 400 million metric tons of cargo. A dredged channel, the Nieuwe Waterweg (New Waterway) connects Rotterdam with the North Sea and forms a 32km-long (20-mile) deepwater harbor known as Europoort. Holland owes a fair piece of its prosperity to the port, which employs directly 60,000 people. But the port has a dark side, too: Rotterdam is a center for big-time international drug-dealers and gunrunners.

You may think visiting a harbor is boring business on a vacation, but Rotterdam's is one of the most memorable sights in Holland. Container ships, bulk carriers, tankers, sleek greyhounds of the sea, and careworn tramps are waited on by a vast retinue of machines and people. Trucks, trains, and barges, each carrying its little piece of the action, hurry into and out of the hub. You feel dwarfed by the hulking oil tankers and container ships that glide like giant whales into their berths along the miles of docks.

Windmills of Kinderdijk

The sight of windmill sails spinning in the breeze stirs the soul of a true Hollander. Kinderdijk (www.kinderdijk.nl), a tiny community between Rotterdam and Dordrecht, on the south bank of the Lek River, has 19 water-pumping windmills; that means 76 mill sails, each with a 14-yard span, all revolving on a summer day. It's a spectacular sight, and one important enough for Kinderdijk to have been placed on UNESCO's World Heritage list.

By regulating the level of water, Kinderdijk's windmills guarded the fertile polders (reclaimed land) of the Alblasserwaard, which were constantly at risk of returning to the water. The Windmill Exposition Center at Kinderdijk treats its subjects as more than just pretty faces and gives a detailed explanation of windmills' technical characteristics and the part they played in the intricate system of water control. It also looks at the people and the culture that developed on the polders.

The mills operate on Saturday afternoons in July and August from 2:30 to 5:30pm; the visitors' mill is open April to October Monday to Saturday from 9:30am to 5:30pm. To get to Kinderdijk from Rotterdam, take bus no. 154 from outside Zuidplein Metro station. If you're driving, take N210 east to Krimpen aan de Lek, from where a ferry crosses over to Kinderdijk. Or, go by Fast Ferry (tel. 0900/899-8998; www.fastferry.nl) jetfoil from a dock at Erasmusbrug to Ridderkerk, for the local ferry across to Kinderdijk.