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| The open market at Blaak is said to be the largest street market in Rotterdam. |
It's a Tuesday. Market day at Blaak. Let out early from Ruud's quick campus tour, Argel, who's been here before a few years back for the 3-month basic course, smartly informed us about Blaak, that he was going and let the bunch of us join in - yey!
We went via tram - my first here - and it was a pleasant slow ride were I got to see a glimpse of Rotterdam architecture up close for the first time.
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| First tram ride! You tap - your OV-chipkaart - at one of those rectangular scanner thingies ride by the door each time you get on and off the tram. Tapping out is as important as tapping in as you are charged the highest rate checking in and deducted the exact amount of your ride once you tap out. (Of course, it's easy to get a refund, but still...) |
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| Monolithic brickatecture! |
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| Street shop buildings always fascinate me. |
The area around Station Blaak is a particular architectural delight or if one is feeling particularly peachy (natch!) -- an assault to one's architectural sensibilities.
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| Piet Blom's famed Cube House (1977) in Rotterdam (there's another one in Helmond) is easily the most fascinating building in the Blaak lot... |
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| Another eye-catcher is the Rotterdam Library (1983) designed by Jaap Bakema and Hans Boot of Van den Broek and Bakema took on the yellow motif from the Cube House, and the exposed pipes, most certainly, a nod to the Pompidou Centre (1977). |
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| Partially pictured, where the bikes are, is the not quite right (in the head - woops!) Blaak Station canopy. Further is the pointy Pencil Building (apparently the Dutch have a penchant for nicknaming beloved/derided buildings) designed yet again by Piet Blom. |
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| These days, though, the massive horseshoe-shaped Markthal Rotterdam (2014), a mix-use commercial, office and residential building designed by MVRDV, is the queen of the hill. (Hot tip: There's an Asian grocery inside!) |
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| This cold precarious stack is also a silent stunner, methinks. |
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| The oldest of the lot, though, the World War II survivor St. Lawrence Church (1525) still charms - although sadly not very much from this angle. |
But we were really there for the street market, no? So then errm...
Like the architecture around it, the goods offered at the Blaak street market abound, were just as fascinating and best of all -- quite affordable. Aside from the fresh food stuff -- fruits, vegetables, seafood, poultry, cheese, spices -- there are also stalls selling small electronics and electricals (perfect, because silly-me finally found a plug adaptor), smart phone accessories, textiles, clothing, scarves (€1 apiece!), antique stuff, flea market pre-loved clothing, among others.
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| Mint! |
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| That's per box! |
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| Persimmon -- which probably is wrongly labeled as Google showed me a different fruit... |
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| So that's nectarine... |
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| Spices! |
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| Free taste! Hummus et al! Yum! |
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| Yay - bonito! (I dunno exactly what that is - just heard of it somewhere! LOL) |
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| An assortment of mid-eastern bread... |
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| Flowers in pots! |
To my islander eyes, there's just too much to take in and too much of a stinginess in me to splurge - I only ended up buying familiar items like bananas - and besides here, you buy what you can carry. There's always Saturday. (Blaak market only opens Tuesdays and Saturdays).
