Image by Trendbeheer RawBridge

Over the last couple of months I have checked so many times if I could make a short cut on my bike. On Wednesday Feb 8th, 2012 the new Rijnhaven bridge for cyclists and pedestrians will connect Wilhelminapier with Katendrecht. 

This gives you the opportunity to make a new walk starting at the Erasmus bridge. Explore the Wilhelminapier with the Photomuseum, the Rotterdam by Rem Koolhaas and other sky scrapers like Montevideo by Mecannoo and the world famous Hotel New York, great for a drink. Next to Hotel New York on the south side of the pier you find the little harbor with the water taxi and the new bridge.

When you cross this bridge you get to Deliplein with nice places like the shop Iszomooi, restaurant Kwizien and theatre Walhalla. If you pass Deliplein and continue on Sumatraweg. At one corner you’ll find Warmoes Market, a small supermarket and canteen. A nice local meeting point where you can have a good coffee, sandwich, soup and more.

Turn right and keep heading straight towards the end of the pennisula where you’ll find SS Rotterdam, the big steamship with hotel rooms, restaurants, bars and a shop. You continue your route towards Rijnhaven, follow the Hillelaan along the Player and RAAF back towards Erasmusbridge. Cross or turn right on Stieltjestraat. Explore the architecture on the Kop van Zuid and head back into town via the Willemsbrug.   

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Rijnhaven Round | Art & culture, Coffee & tea, Shopping, Snacks, Restaurants
Rijnhaven | Zuid
24 hours daily

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Image by Anne-Marie Ros

For a few days from February 8th – 12th, 2012 Rotterdam turns into the centre of the Dutch Art World .

Every year I write about Art Rotterdam as I love this contemporary art fair bringing 70 national and international galleries. With a new section on the ground floor, showing 15 young galleries with solo shows. E-volved Cultures is an artificial landscape that will be created in real time by featuring artists Driessens & Verstappen. And not to be missed the illy Prize 2012. If you go to Art Rotterdam go check out Gallery Rotwand, they will bring one of my favourite artists Swiss born Tatjana Gerhardt.

If you buy your tickets on-line, use this code: PR2012 It will give you €4,00 discount on the entry fee for Art Rotterdam.

Opposite Art Rotterdam, in LasPalmas II, you will find Objects. An fair for design with limited editions and one-offs by upcoming designers. If you are interested in design but not a collector, why not join the workshop My First Design Collection The Do It Yourself Instructable Restaurant is also back in town now furnished by Thonet.

If you are on the South bank do go visit PAVILJOEN ROTTERDAM (free entry) Laan op Zuid 65 – 207, RAAF takes off! Hillelaan 19, The Player at Hillelaan 49D and RAW art fair at Veerlaan 9 -13.

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Art Rotterdam 2012 | Art & culture, Festivals & events, Snacks
Cruise terminal Wilhelminakade 699 | Zuid
Thu 12:00 – 18:00, Fri 12:00 – 21:00, Sat – Sun 11:00 – 19:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Rotterdam

Image by Marieke Koets

What do you do when you come to a country where they don’t even have good cupcakes? That’s right, you make them yourself and share it with the others. That’s what Rebecca did at least. She came all the way from Southern Virginia, via London and Bangkok, to Rotterdam and opened her store; Alice in Cakeland.

This fantastic cupcakes shop on the Van Oldenbarneveldstraat has two floors. Downstairs is the workshop area. About one or twice a month Rebecca organizes a workshop with a different theme. Themes go from SATC and designer handbags to Sinterklaas, Christmas and Easter. Anything you can imagine and that’s suitable for that time of year. The new workshop calender is online, plus there are more workshop theme’s coming.

Then there’s the shop on the upper floor. Here you can buy the most delicious cupcakes. Now you can buy cupcakes basically everywhere, but these cupcakes are the real American ones.

Rebecca has worked hard and long to find the right ingredients and sizes to make the cupcakes perfect. Plus, she’s come up with special flavors. For new year’s for example she made champagne flavour cupcakes, and there’s ’mad berry’, ‘Lemon Vuitton’ and ‘The Cure’. The best thing is; she keeps on trying new things every time! Just too much and they all taste great. My favorite right now is the Oreo with chocolate, but I still need to try the tiramisu one…

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Alice in Cakeland | Shopping, Snacks | Cupcake € 2.50
Van Oldenbarneveldstraat 117 | Center | +31629290597
Wed – Sat 11:00 – 18:00 (closed when sold out)

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Rotterdam

Image by Marieke Koets

I can write a lot about this cute little bakery, but only one thing is important…

Koekela has got the best cakes and cookies in town and I dare say, maybe even the country!

And now they’ve moved a couple of shops up the road to a bigger place where you can also sit and enjoy their goodness.

For muffins or cupcakes I’d suggest going a bit further to Alice in Cakeland (check the article), but stay in for the cookies and brownies! Don’t want to go out? They have a webshop!

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Koekela | Shopping, Snacks | Muffin € 1.10
Nieuwe binnenweg 79a | Center | +31104364774
Mon – Fri 08:00 – 18:00, Sat 08:30 – 17:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Rotterdam

Image by ALexander

The single most cozy Turkish coffee place I know. In general, coffee houses don’t seem to consider fluorescent tubes and plastic chairs as non-attractive features. In fact, these seem to replace the need for exterior signs or decoration (like the one that recently occupied what still looks like coffeeshop “High Score: no sales to those double parked” – come on, this is asking for confusion, no?)

Nika on the other hand has more to offer than a nice ambiance inside. Its mixture of a cafe, traditional shop, apple pie, wifi and art gallery attracts a nice cultural variety of people. During lunchtime it can even get crowded. Their own brand of coffee is prepared according to their recipe, from the burning process on, and makes a fairly good espresso. And apparently I’m not the only one who thinks so. Modesty not being one of their crucial virtues, they’ve got their four “coffee trophies” clearly in sight and written on a sign outside. Hey, why not. Update: now they do toasted sandwiches & wine too.

The only downside might be the three-legged tables. I’m just really not able to keep myself from leaning on the wrong side.

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Nika | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks | Espresso € 2.10
Benthuizerstraat 94a | Noord | +31102457940
Mon – Fri 10:00 – 19:00, Sat 10:00 – 20:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Rotterdam

Image by Alexander

This is actually a simple neighbourhood bakery shop. It started out as a half-bankrupt baked goods shop when the new owner decided to throw things around a bit. After some more and less successful experiments he’s now also selling some meats, cheeses and fresh juices + sandwiches.

Maybe it’s not too special, but I love to go there and buy whole unsliced breads in crispy bags. Reasons being; it’s close to my house, reasonably priced and the owner is downright fanatic about his goods. I have no clue on his general customers or how he’s doing, but he has a heart for selling good quality food to whoever passes by. And a two chair terrace. That works for me.

Small anecdote. He started baking a few breads himself last year, just for the fun of it. This was ok until the National Hygiene Police came to visit. After a quick glance, they gave him two generous choices: quit baking or rebuild the entire back office into something proper…He’s still allowed to finish pre-baked breads in the oven, so that’s what he does. I think it’s worth supporting guys like this a bit.

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Het Broodwinkeltje | Shopping, Snacks | “Best” Bread € 3
Rodenrijselaan 40a | Noord | +31102652567
Mon – Sat 07:00 – 16:00

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Image by Anne-Marie Ros

Close to my old neighbours, duo MishMash – for interior, colour advise and murals at Lombardkade 53A and the largest weekly market on Tuesdays and Saturdays you’ll find a gem named Little Italy.

A typical small Italian supermarket-caterer. Officially located at the Lombardkade 51A, but they use the back entrance at the Binnenrotte.

Little Italy is a pleasure to shop for delicious, affordable and authentic delicatessen or for a quick bite, get a pizza slice or a sandwich. They’re specialised in Italian Food and if it’s not too busy the staff is very helpful in giving tips. I like to joke that in Little Italy size does matter when looking for the right size spaghetti.

Little Italy is a good place to snoop around and anything you can think of, you will find here for your Italian cooking. Cheeses, cold cuts, wide range of red, white, sweet, bubbling wines and if you look closely you will find some biological ones too, pasta´s, different kinds of olives, olive oils, truffles, herbs, mouth watering antipasti like the dried tomatoes, sea fruits, grilled eggplant and tapenades.

No time to cook? Get their fresh Lasagna and heat it up at home. Do try their Tiramisu, available in small and large portions!

Finally after only being able to pay cash, you can pay your purchased eadible goodies with your bank/creditcard now.

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Little Italy | Shopping, Snacks
Lombardkade 51/A (entree Binnenrotte) | Center | +31104139609
Mon – Thu 09:00 – 18:15, Fri 09:00 – 21:00, Sat 09:00 – 17:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Rotterdam

Image by Anne-Marie Ros

Around the corner of one of my favourite Italian restaurants Gusto, at the end of the Witte de With straat with galleries and cool shops, close to Maritime Museum is The Bagel Bakery.

They started years ago with the corner shop designed by AAdam architects. Then they mirrored the same design next door what makes it a twin connected through the open kitchen in the back. 

Go to Bagel Bakery for breakfast in the morning, lunch & high tea at noon, dinner in the evening and take away all day long. They have an excellent kosher Jewish/Mediterranean food fusion, all reasonable priced.

You can choose different types of bagels with delicious original toppings like hummus, Tarragon chicken salad or old cheese with truffle oil for example.

But they serve more than only bagels

Try the Bagel Burger or a large mezze if you are not too hungry with a nice wine. Why not share it with friends like a wonderful tasting of 9 different small dishes with home baked bread. Or what to think of Arook thayin: chicken rolls with relish, fresh soup and delicious salads.

Just check the daily specials on the chalkboard. For sweet toothed people; try their home made cakes like the kosher Dutch apple crumble. Personally I love their fig cake with whipped cream

Bagel Bakery has excellent coffee, organic champagne, good wines, modern interior, nice atmosphere, hip people and when the weather is good you can sit outside.

A place not to be missed when visiting Rotterdam.

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Bagel Bakery | Coffee & tea, Snacks, Restaurants (Bagel)
Schilderstraat 57A – 59A | Center | +31104121560
Sun – Mon 10:00 – 17:30, Tue – Sat 09:00 – 21:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Rotterdam

Image by Anne-marie Ros

Lof der Zoetheid is an AMAZING and UNIQUE place for breakfast, lunch and sweet things from Thu – Sun. It’s usually very busy so be patient and wait to be seated as the food will make up for the waiting;) Located at Noordplein 1, next to Kookpunt  - the shop where you can buy everything for the kitchen.

The ladies of Lof der Zoetheid makes the travel worth to the North:) If you doubt what to choose from the menu and you’re with a friend, they offer you a tasting with soup of the day, different bread, cheeses, cold cuts and side kicks like pumpkin marmelade, onion-cherry – and tomato chili jam and more for under €10,00 a person. Pie with salad, Soup of the day with bread, Beef stew with Leffe and bread from Jordy’s Bakery. They serve my favourite beer Vedett and some nice wines.

For those who love sweets, try their home made chocolate or their famous cheese cake. Every detail is special at Lof der Zoetheid, the record player, the crockery with Anastasia’s designs, the afternoon tea in a box is a great gift, the old school furniture, the open kitchen, the special teas.

If you go once and let them spoil you with DELICIOUS food and GREAT coffee, tea, freshly made hot chocolate or home made lemonade and ice tea, you’ll end up finding excuses to go there over and over again:) Keep an eye on their facebook-wall!

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Lof der Zoetheid | Art & culture, Coffee & tea, Snacks, Restaurants (Ecological)
Noordplein 1 | Noord | +31102650070
Thu – Sat 10:00 – 17:30, Sun 10:00 – 17:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Rotterdam

Image by Anne-Marie Ros

I do parts of my daily shopping at Gimsel, mariniersweg 9, the largest biological supermarket in Rotterdam with a wide range of fresh EKO products. Vegetables can be found here, you can’t buy anywhere else. On sale is also delicious sour dough bread by famous Menno ‘t Hoen! I always like the wall full of containers with products that come in bulk: dried mushrooms, nuts, cereals. Anything from your choice which can be weighed and packed by yourself.

In the middle of the shop you will find beauty products like Aveda. Ask the ladies for advice, they’re amazing!

Upstairs is the Wereldwinkel which sells Fair Trade global gifts and presents. The Oost West Centre is for workshops.

Downstairs is bar-lunchroom/restaurant Spirit. I go there for a coffee or self-service salads. It’s not really a cozy place but good enough for when you have an appetite or as a meeting point. They serve good inexpensive biological foods and drinks.

Himalaya, a spiritual bookshop, is next to it. Vanbinnen, Natuurlijk Wonen at number 1. They sell natural quality products for the interior. Have a look or get advise how to make your home greener. It’s expensive but I do enjoy every minute sleeping between my organic Damai sheets.

De Groene Weg is at number 33, in my opinion the best biological butcher in town.

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De Groene Passage | Coffee & tea, Shopping, Snacks, Restaurants (Biological)
Mariniersweg 1-33 | Center | +31102331933
Mon – Fri 08:00 – 20:00, Sat 08:00 – 18:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Rotterdam