Once upon a time there was this river flowing into the Maas, called the Rotte. They made a dam where a little settlement was founded, Rotterdam. And so it all began. Now the Rotte stops before really entering the center of Rotterdam and the Maas is best know in Rotterdam. So where is this Rotte? Well, it’s still there. It still runs through Rotterdam North. It has some floating art and house boats which are nice to watch.

But things get really interesting once you get at the Linker an rechter Rottekade. It’s a relaxing biking and walking route and it leads you to the Rottermeren, a real paradise of water recreation. It’s quite a long route to go walking all the way, since the Rotte runs all the way to Moerkerke, But the surroundings are very nice.

My grandparents had a boat when I was young and in the summertime I spent a couple of weeks aboard going through the Netherlands. I have been in and on the Rottemeren since I was very young. I went there some months ago with a friend and our kids for a bike tour. My son was very proud to have biked more then 40km that day. We could have made it longer, but we enjoyed taking the ferryboat to the other side and bike back from there. It was very crowded with bikers and pedestrians. There were also some bike racers, but I do not recommend that here, it is simply too crowded.