enjoying the exhibition > chasing the landmarks

My second day in Rotterdam started during the morning hours after check-out in the hostel. Must say that King Kong hostel was pretty nice, staff was very friendly and share a few tips with me where to go when I was checking- in. If you' re preferring to be on the budget price about the accomodation then this place is really worth to stay. Thank you guys.

My plan for the day was so simple. To reach some fine Rotterdam' s landmarks and visit the Kunsthal. My flight to Ediburgh was scheduled to departure  past 9 pm so I had enough time to see as much as I can.

First I' ve just entered the Kunsthal around 11 am in the morning. The building looks decent from the outside but inside you could find the pretty nice space for exhibitions.


First section was about the display of digital art. The exhibition "Human / Digital: a symbiotic love affair" started at the day of my visit (lucky me). It was interesting collection/mix of installations, sculptures, different examples of paintings or other variations of modern art. And I enjoyed some of them.


The second section was about Peter Lindberg' s retrospective. And you could see one part of that like my today' s blip. All what I admire about Lindberg' s work was pretty nice black and white' s portraits which he made for some of the prestigious fashion magazines. His work was about showing much more than the standard poses of models and by my personal opinion it was beyond the sense of usual fashion' s photography. Simply I could say that he was able to do an amazing job in terms of contrast between the professional models and the background behind them in the context of the photoshoots. When you see his photos you know the reasons why he is so celebrating by some biggest names amongst the photomodels (e.g. Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Eva Herzigova and many more) of the 90' s when he started to be a very famous photographer. Well worth to visit and I'm seriously thinking about buying his brand new book from Taschen series. Here you should read an interesting interview with him.


After that I was going through the corridor with temporary addition to gallery space made by Rotterdam artist Pim Palsgraaf named "In the absence of life". Trust me if you are walking around that piece of art it looks pretty impressive but I hope that you could imagine that even from my mobile perspective right now.


After more than two and a half hours I' ve just quickly passed another sections in the Kunsthal which were displaying another two exhibitions with the names "Our Tunnel" - a part of tribute to the oldest tunnel in the Netherlands. Second one was "Drawn from life" (a drawings by Chris Roodbeen). As usual when you are limited by your time it's very important that you make a choice what you would like to see. Again and again I'm finding the truth that "free time" is most important unit for me.


At the end of my time at Kunsthal I was enjoying a lot three dimensional objects made by J.A. Deelder. Whole section with his collection was named as "Beelder" .Really worth to see. I admire his imagination how he was able to collect simple things of everyday use like pencils, tubes, drinking straws and more. Finally turned them into the beautiful objects. Well done Mr. Deelder.


My walk around the Kusthal ended while I was catching into the nostalgia when I  saw some old industrial designs and objects in section "Bakelite, everyone knows it".


It was great time but I started to be in a hurry, so promptly I followed the signs and I reached the entrance for Euromast Tower. Probably highest commercial observation point in Rotterdam. Weather was not so exciting in terms of visibility but I didn' t care about the visibility. I paid 9 euros for the entry and used two lifts to reach the observation deck (104m) where you are usually boarding the panoramic ring which is taking you on the top of the tower (see extra one). I could imagine how it looks during the clear and beautiful day. Especially when you are looking over the city and for the first time you could understand how big the city port is and how it looks from that bird' s perspective. I mean the city structure with all his neighborhoods, buildings, docks, roads or parks (see last extra -  theme variation on parks).Trust me when you are in Rotterdam you couldn' t beat this observation point.
Must see ;-)


Down to earth please. It' s time for last part of my journey. Right moment to see some famous landmarks and buildings inside the Rotterdam.


First I' ve just passed around the Netherlands Architecture Institute. It' s worth to visit but I didn' t. It' s one of those buildings which should be nice to shoot  by camera during the low-light conditions (night-time). Next time? That' s right question for me. And maybe for you, dear reader, as well ;-)


I continued in my walk and was passing the city centre because next buildings on my "to see list" was not so faraway. I was not sure about the way so I asked one local guy where to go. And that was another example of great experience of being in Rotterdam. The guy understand English very well and offered me to join him for part of the track because he was heading to Blaak Station as well. We did a small talk during those 5 minutes when we walked together and he told me that he is originally from Bosnia and living here more than 7 years. "Do you like the Rotterdam?" was one of his questions. Oh well another proof of evidence about modern cosmopolitan city of Rotterdam. When we reached the area of Blaak he wished good day for me and we said bye to each other. If I'm talking about the Blaak Metro station area, I' m talking exactly about two of major landmarks of the city which are situated right near the metro station entrance. First one is the Cube House designed by architect Piet Blom (see extra) . It' s unbelievable. Imagine that kind of house like the living space. But looks pretty interesting. Whole design looks little bit crazy but I believe that this space works and suits to people inside very well. See link.

My last stop was Markthal (see the extra). Which is truly well designed space. The building  is hosting residential flats, offices and market hall underneath. Once again it reminds me the fact why the buildings inside the Rotterdam' s site are very well suited for low-light photography during the night time. There is an illumination of the facade inside the Markthal and it must be an impressive to see this artificial lightning during the blue hour when night is coming. Sadly said I left the place before the dusk so I didn' t enjoy the full experience and I' ve passed the market ad taste some pastries from one shop inside. Must be back one more time :-D


It was the right time to come back to Rotterdam Cetraal Station to catch my train to Shiphol Airport. For the last time I passed a living modern city centre and got on the train around half past six.


My flight was delayed little bit so I spent around 3 hours at the airport before departure.

All what I could say at the end of this write- up is that I enjoyed my stay inside the Rotterdam and I' m putting that city on my list again because I didn' t do any night time picture (shame on me) and I would like to do that somewhere in future during the spring or summer despite the fact that city will be busier in this time.

Finally I would like to share one interesting article about the Rotterdam which name is  17 of the architecture projects helping to transform Rotterdam .It shows couple of interesting examples of modern architecture too.

Hope that you were enjoying my two write-ups about the visit of Rotterdam. I will use the motto about the city at the end of today' s write - up. I found it on Wikipedia as well. The motto is:

Sterker door strijd (Stronger through struggle)

Zie je volgende keer. Dank u Rotterdam ;-)