Rotterdam

About Rotterdam

Rotterdam is Europe's largest port and a modern architectural showcase, used by Holland America Line as a homeport for transatlantic and Norwegian-fjord sailings. Ships dock at Cruise Terminal Rotterdam steps from the Erasmus Bridge and the restored Hotel New York. The Markthal food market, the Cube Houses, and the Maritime Museum are walkable. Day trips to Kinderdijk's windmills and Delft's blue-pottery studios are easy.

• The Port of Rotterdam is the largest seaport in Europe and the largest seaport in the world outside of Asia, stretching 40 kilometers and covering 105 square kilometers.
• From 1962 to 2004, Rotterdam was the world's busiest port by annual cargo tonnage — it was eventually overtaken by Singapore, then Shanghai and other Chinese megaports.
• The port sits in the middle of the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta, giving it natural access to three of Europe's most important river systems and their industrial hinterlands.
• Rotterdam's Maasvlakte — one of the port's main areas — is a massive land reclamation project jutting into the North Sea, with Maasvlakte 2 opening in 2013 to accommodate ever-larger container ships.
• The city's iconic Erasmus Bridge (nicknamed 'The Swan') has become a symbol of Rotterdam's bold modernist rebirth after the city center was almost entirely destroyed by German bombing in May 1940.