Arriving in Rotterdam and Nederlands Fotomuseum

Greetings from Rotterdam.  We flew from Toronto to Rotterdam on Monday May 18, arriving May 19 at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam.  Schiphol is one of the largest airports in the world and it took a while to have our biometrics registered, and get in the long customs line.  Then miles and miles of walking to get our baggage.  We bought a train ticket to Rotterdam Central Station, just under an hour away.  We had just missed a super fast train but caught the next train a few minutes later.  It was a slower train, but we passed through some lovely countryside on the way to Rotterdam.  We arrived at Rotterdam Central Station at about 2:00 p.m.  We stropped at the tourist office and then took a tram to a stop not far from our Airbnb.

We are in a good location- in the middle of a number of attractions.  Our  host, Lance, greeted us and showed us around the well-equipped apartment.  It was raining and about 16C.   We got settled in and then both had short naps (I rarely nap, but this was an exception as it had been a very long day).   

Part of living room and dining area

Also a small workstation at one end of the room- lots of light

Bedroom

Kitchen--- the washing machine is on the small balcony

We are on the first floor (2nd in Canada) of the building with the man in orange standing outside

We learned that Rotterdam has the most public street artwork than any other city in the Netherlands.  The city collection started in 1622 with a statue of Erasmus.  Two city programs are responsible for finding locations for and maintaining the artworks in the city.  We picked up a 3.5 km Art Route map with the details of 30 pieces of public art.  We will take photos of the ones we pass in our travels.

We headed out for dinner at about 8:15.  Allan had forgotten his phone in the apartment so we went back to retrieve it.  Unfortunately, we could not get the door open and of course, as we didn't have his phone (which has our data plan) we couldn't get in contact with our host.  We went outside and stopped a very nice young woman who let us use her phone and also came back to try and open our door, which she could not do.  While there was only a voice mail for our host, the young woman texted him and he replied and said that he would meet us back at the apartment at 9:00 p.m.  In the meantime, we stopped for some provisions at the supermarket, just a few minutes from our apartment.  

There was a piece of public art outside.

Coop Himmelb(l)au- The Long This Yellow Legs of Architecture (1988)

We also checked out a few restaurants nearby.   At 9:00 p.m., Lance came and helped us open the door--- it was a bit tricky (involving not turning the handle on the door) but there was no way anyone would have figured it out.  In some ways it was good that we got it sorted before we had dinner.  We then headed out again but unfortunately a few of the interesting places near us were closing their kitchens at 9:30 p.m. 

Frans en Marja de Boer-Lichtveld- Zonder Titel (1985)

We eventually walked to a restaurant street called Witte de Withstraat--where a few other recommended places were closed.  We ended up at a buzzy Chinese place where we shared a bowl of duck soup with noodles (recommended by a server at another restaurant that was just closing) and some fried rice with chicken and prawns.  It hit the spot.  We were too hungry to remember to take food pics.

Large maple tree in the middle of a small canal

Lights on Witte de Withstraat

As we were leaving the restaurant we heard a number of loud bangs---- fireworks.  Not sure why, but it was a great way to end our first day in Rotterdam.

Fireworks on Witte de Withstraat

Wednesday May 20 was a mix of sun and cloud and much warmer than the day we arrived.  High of 18C. Allan went to a nearby bakery recommended by our host, to get some bread for breakfast.  De Bakkerswinkel had some delicious breads and Allan also bought a piece of vegan apple cake.

Inside of De Bakkerswinkel

After a late breakfast, we headed out to the Nederlands Fotomuseum which just reopened in February 2026 in a new location.  To get there we had to cross the Erasmus bridge.

Henk Visch- Marathonbeeld (2001)- there are six of his sculptures in Rotterdam.  This marathon sculpture represents a bouquet of flowers for the winner of the marathon.

Allan on the Erasmus bridge

Mandela pic 

The Nederlands Fotomuseum is located in the Pakhuis Santos warehouse which was built in 1901-02 as a warehouse for coffee shipped from the Brazilian port city of Santos.  The warehouse was renovated by a Rotterdam and a Hamburg architecture firm and topped with a two-story glass-and-lacy- aluminium crown.  

The museum presents work by leading Dutch photographers as well as emerging photographers, spanning from the invention of photography around 1839 to the present day.  There are over 6.5 million images in its collection.

Outside of the Photo Museum

Photograph from the collection showing the building with the distinctive roof

Library area

Check in counter

Looking down the stairs to the coffee shop on the main floor

Interesting stairway to the top floor.  The restaurant is only open on the weekends.

There are five floors of exhibits, archives and studios.  It is a fantastic space and the permanent displays are excellent.  There are a number of temporary exhibits.  We started at the 5th floor and made our way back to the main floor.  The 5th floor had a wonderful temporary exhibit entitled Awakening in Blue: An Ode to Cyanotype.

Cyanotype, developed in 1842 by John Herschel and made famous by Anna Atkins, requires only four elements: iron salts, water, light and paper or a textile.  It is a process without a lens.  The analogue technique is finding a new resonance today.   

Description of the exhibit

Glithero (Dutch and British artists): Blueware tiles, 2012- weeds from London pavements

Reproductions of cyanotypes from Photographs of British Algae, by Anna Atkins (1843-53)

Pai Dekkers (b. 1989) Cyanotypes of Dutch Algae- inspired by Anna Atkins' work

There were three beautiful vases with plant designs on display and a 2010 video explaining the Making of Blueware.

The vases

Starts with white vase and plants

Plants are put in place on a white vase -then put under light. 

The plants are pulled away leaving the images.  The vase is then dipped in a blue dye.

Dipping the vase-- from the video

There was a small room of beautiful textiles using the cyanotype technique.

The textiles were entitled: Using the Body as an Archive

Works by Yasmin Karhof (b. 1974), Reality, Cyanotype on hospital sheets, 2019

These works were done after Yasmin Karhof had spent three months in a psychiatric ward
of a New York hospital.

We entered a dark room where our images were cast on a screen

We had a chat with someone just outside this room.  He was a young Dutch teacher visiting the museum for the first time.  He gave us a few restaurant recommendations. We have found that most people we have met ask us why we have chosen to visit Rotterdam.  They are proud of the city but know that it is still not a main tourist destination.  He wanted our opinion on the Photo Museum - both the architecture and exhibits.  We told him we had visited the former location in 2018 and that the new museum was beautifully designed and that we were enjoying the cyanotype exhibit very much.

There were some wonderful pieces by Ričards Briška, who was born in Latvia and later moved to Rotterdam in 2017.  His works focused on overlooked remnants in urban environments.  "Using cyanotype on clothes positions his work at the boundary between visual art and fashion".

Ričards Briška (b. 1995), Ephemeral by Negative Feed (2013-2025). Cyanotype on canvas and textile.

There was another small room with some works by Rabin Huissen, a Rotterdam artists, entitled From Potency into Being: Blue Memories, White Boxes (2022-2025).

He uses his body and adds pigments to his pieces.

Adding colour pigments to the blue

After leaving the fantastic 5th floor exhibit, we went down and explored each floor.  There was one floor with a display of contacts on all the walls.   There was another floor with a temporary exhibit called Rotterdam in Focus, which showed the city in diverse ways by many photographers.

Allan like the cat and the rabbit in the contacts display.

One of the floors contained the Gallery of Honour of Dutch Photography which holds 99 distinguished photographs. They are of artistic and social importance and significant to the development of photography in the Netherlands.  They were selected by a group of experts from the invention of photography around 1839 to the present.  The public is going to get to choose a succession of photos to be the 100th photo in the exhibit.

I am only posting a few of the pictures.

Peter Hunter, John F. Kennedy at his Sister Eunice's Birthday Party, London, 1939

Henk van der Horst, Swimming Pool/The Hague, circa 1938

Passport Photos of Anne Frank, 1939

Chas Gerretsen, Portrait of General Augusto Pinochet with Officers before Holy Mass in Honour of Chile's Independence Day, Santiago, Chile, 1973.

My feet- photo in reflective mirror stairs leaving the Photo Museum

More graffiti

We took the Metro to a stop near The Markthal (Market Hall), where we were going to get a bite to eat.  On our five minute walk, we saw a few more public art pieces.

Atelier Van Lieshout- Cascade 2010

Ossip Zadkine- The Destroyed City (1953) commemorating the May 14, 1940 bombing
of Rotterdam by the Luftwaffe.

The Markthal (Market Hall) is the iconic horseshoe- shaped architectural marvel, combining an indoor food market, apartments, and a ceiling mural known as the "Horn of Plenty", created by artists Arno  Coenen and Iris Roskam.  It opened in 2014.  We had stayed nearby at the Citizen M hotel in 2018- our first short visit to Rotterdam.

Outside of The Markthal- apartments on the side of the market

Inside the Markthal with the fabulous ceiling mural

There are many restaurants and some food stores in the market hall.

We had herring sandwiches for a very late lunch

Ode to Marten Toonder is a tribute to the Dutch cartoonist Marten Toonder, who was born in Rotterdam.  There are four charcters from his comics on each corner at the bottom of the obelisk.

Ben Zegers- Everyone is Dead Except Us-2020

We walked to a neighbourhood near The Markthal and stopped for a coffee at Giraffe Coffee Bar and Academy.  They have excellent coffee and do barista training courses.

At Giraffe Coffee Bar & Academy

We stopped at a wonderful butcher's shop to get some chicken.  

Glimpse of the famous Kijk-Kubus -architect Piet Blom's cube homes which was completed in 1984.  We had toured the "show home" in 2018.  It is the only cube home open to the public. 

Another view

We had a 20 minute walk back to the apartment.  Time to rest and then Chef Allan prepared dinner.

Chef Allan with fish, potatoes and veg dinner

We are really enjoying our time in Rotterdam.  A fascinating city with a fantastic cultural scene.  Highly, highly recommend.  The people are extremely friendly and helpful.