769 Marc Heeman Rotterdam Haven

Rotterdam harbors a gleaming modern landscape with fewer tourists and a palpable creative energy.

Meet Rotterdam

​​A 45-minute train ride south of Amsterdam, Rotterdam harbors a gleaming modern landscape with fewer tourists and a palpable creative energy. The city, home to Europe’s largest port, recently announced plans to transform itself over the next decade into a world-class cultural center.

The renaissance is already well underway in the waterfront Katendrecht neighborhood, where the National Museum of Photography will relocate during the second half of the year, and the new 65,000-square-foot Fenix museum, devoted to global stories of migration and rebirth through art, will open in May in a 1923 warehouse. It was at the wharves surrounding the museum where millions of European emigrants, including the physicist Albert Einstein and the artist Willem de Kooning, boarded Holland America Line ships bound for countries like the United States. Take in the panoramic view from the museum’s plant-filled rooftop, accessible via the Tornado, a stunning, metallic double-helix staircase.