Rotterdam Centraal Station is served by direct Eurostar trains from London St Pancras. We spent a night in the city on Wednesday 10 September. Five days later, after visiting Gelderland, Utrecht and Zeist, we stayed two more nights there before our return to the UK.
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| View towards Rotterdam Centraal station from Hotel Teleport |
There are some pleasant streets with older houses in the Provenierswijk neighbourhood immediately north of the station. A stretch of
Provenierssingel canal runs from near the station to Schiekade, where we stayed at
Hotel Teleport. This is surrounded by greenery and makes a pleasant walking route.
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| Flat white coffee and cinnamon bun at Booon |
We found a good neighbourhood place for coffee and pastries at
Booon, Proveniersstraat 31, which we visited on all three mornings while in Rotterdam.
Arriving from London after 9pm, nearly two hours late due to a technical fault with the original train, it had been too late for a meal at
The Harvest, Proveniersstraat 36a, on our first night in Rotterdam. However, we did enjoy 'bowl' meals there with beers from Kaapse on our return to the city.
The drinks list includes
Budels Pilsener (€4.50) and four 33cl cans from Rotterdam-based
Kaapse Brouwers (€6.75) including
Jerom, an 8.2% ABV Gluten Free 'classic Belgian Tripel ... brewed with our own Gerse Barley'.
Cafe Walenburg
We visited
Cafe Walenburg on the Tuesday and the Wednesday after returning to Rotterdam. Tuesday's approach on foot was from Centraal Station and the banks of Spoorsingel, passing the
Hoevebrug footbridge and a willow tree before reaching the beer cafe's corner location on Walenburgerweg, beside
Brouwerij Hoevebrugsch.
There's an A-board outside with draught beer details chalked up. Inside there are two blackboards above the bar with draught beers on the left and bottled beers on the right. There are stools at the bar and some high tables near the entrance with more comfortable seating and lower tables further inside. On this visit most customers arriving sat outside but it was busier inside on our Wednesday visit, later in the day.
Between the Ladies and Gents toilet doors is a framed poster for Cafe Walenburg and the brewery sign for Hoevebrugsch, which describes itself as 'the smallest fully operational brewery in the Netherlands'. A blackboard on a shelf lists beers from Rotterdam and snack options. The three local breweries stocked are Hoevebrugsch (of course),
Noordt and Cockroach Brew.
Cafe Walenburg is only 500 metres and a pleasant walk from Rotterdam Centraal (North side) so head there if you have time to visit at least one bar!
Station Bergweg
Station Bergweg is a closed railway station on the
Hofplein Line. It is located on the Hofplein viaduct above the intersection with Bergweg in the Noord district.
The rebuilt station, opened in 1960, has since been repurposed as a
food hall with a bar. Inside, there are station clocks and indicators, underneath the former eastern platform, as reminders of it's former purpose.
We enjoyed local beers, including Spelt Saison (6.8% ABV, 20cl, €5.10), from the
EuroBrouwers bar (NB moving to a new location) and Japanese meals in a bowl from
Ramen Nikkou here.
Brewpub Reijngoud
On each occasion we were lucky to be welcomed by Dylan who was happy to give us tasters of the beers brewed there and arrange a late meal for us on our first visit. A Corkman, he complimented other local brewers including
Cockroach Brew which he explained was named after an insult that Ajax (Amsterdam) football fans use for Feyenoord (Rotterdam) fans.
Tim's first beer in the Netherlands was
Je Bennie Weiss! a 'not so traditional' wheat beer dry hopped with Mandarina Bavaria. If you like a wheat beer on the sweet side then this 6% ABV draught beer for €4.80 can be recommended.
Tim's second beer on our first visit was a Reijngoud Zuurbier - Bosfruit Berliner Weisse (above left). Dylan had let us sample two draught sour beers and this was the cherry version with a red tinge which wasn't too sour. The other one is the passion fruit version and this was ordered on a subsequent visit.
From our table to the left of the bar we could see through a gap made in the concrete upright past the main bar and the smaller Reijngoud bar through to the brewery beyond.
Looking towards our table from the bar area you can see the kitchen area on the right, a blackboard with beers listed on the concrete upright and further back is another table near the toilet entrances with plenty of green plants to contrast with the mainly industrial style.
Zoho, Regentuin, Luchtpark & Luchtsingel
When passing Brewpub Reijngoud on Tuesday afternoon it was interesting to discover nearby interesting spaces and structures. Opposite is a distinctively decorated building with a
ZOHO sign above that takes its name from this Zomerhofkwartier (Summer Court) neighbourhood which is destined to become Rotterdam's Maker Quarter.
The Brewpub is situated under some wide arches of the viaduct of a disused railway line (known as the
Hofpleinlijn) that ran north from nearby
Station Hofplein to Station Bergweg and beyond. This viaduct was known as the
Hofbogen. A little south from the Brewpub is a green area with new planting beside the viaduct and a large sign that gives information about
Regentuin (Rain garden), a Life Urban Adapt project to reduce the amount of rainwater flowing into sewers and reduce the effects of climate change.
Further south, the viaduct ends at the former Station Hofplein. A Hofbogen project was to transform the former station and viaduct into a 2 kilometre
Luchtpark, an elevated green park, however access has been closed since November 2021 due to 'widespread vandalism and violence'.
However, the steps at the southern end of the viaduct do still give access to
Luchtsingel, an award winning wooden bridge which crosses the main railway line into Rotterdam Centraal.
Central Rotterdam
The central part of the city has been redeveloped since WWII.
******* WORK IN PROGRESS - PLEASE VISIT AGAIN IN A WEEK!
South of the river
The river
Nieuwe Maas is a distributary of the river Rhine and a former distributary of the river Maas (Meuse).
Looking towards our table from the bar area you can see the kitchen area on the right, a blackboard with beers listed on the concrete upright and further back is another table near the toilet entrances with plenty of green plants to contrast with the mainly industrial style.
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