I always wanted to have my own little store. Preferably a little version of my favorite store ever: Merci, Paris. Where you can have your coffee and breakfast (have their soft boiled eggs in the used book café!) but also buy everything you want to have: clothes, jewelry, accessories, kitchen supplies, books, furniture, bikes and much more.
Normally at train stations the only place you can get a decent coffee is at Starbucks. Not that Starbucks is not good, but I prefer different, more exclusive coffee places. And that’s why you should get your coffee in Rotterdam central station (or most other central stations in Holland; Leiden, Den Haag, Amsterdam) at Lebkov & Sons!
One of the things I love about living in the coolest street in Rotterdam, Witte de Withstraat, is that I never have to leave my street. I can get my morning coffee @ Hopper, breakfast @ de Bakkerswinkel, clothes @ Margreet Olsthoorn, sneakers @ Seventyfive, and drinks @ NRC. And I get my lunch @ The Bagel Bakery!!
I discovered this coffee spot when I was still studying and cycled to uni every day, well almost every day. It is a quiet little café; you can easily take your laptop, and study or work all day. Or curl up in one of the comfy chairs with a magazine or iPad, which you can borrow for free.
Hidden in a part of the centre of Rotterdam where you don’t walk by easily, the Nieuwemarkt square, you’ll find the Urban Espresso Bar. A little breakfast, lunch and coffee place. It is a really small place, but they have the most amazing coffee. In summer they have a terrace on the little square and you can enjoy your coffee in the sun.
Who doesn’t like a picnic? In the park or in this nice little breakfast/lunch place. Because of the picnic tables, the checkered tablecloths and the wooden plates it really feels like having a little picnic when you’re there.
Finally back in Rotterdam after a month of Madrid!! And I could not pick a better time to come back. It was a weekend full of fun with my friends; festival, world cup game and the store opening of Susan Bijl!
Besides its beautiful name you have to go to the SWAN market in Rotterdam because it is such a fun place. It is located at the Museumpark in summer and not a big market at all, just nice and cozy. The entrance for the market is only 1 euro and for that you can enjoy a lot of things. Shop at the stalls for handmade bags, vintage clothes or local made food. Or grab a coffee and carrot cake or beer and hamburger to eat at the picnic tables and enjoy the live music.
A new breakfast bar opened in Rotterdam, the Ontbijtbar. It is located near the central station and has a nice little terrace outside. They serve their oatmeal and granola in carton cups which make it feel like a picnic party.
As my all-time favorite coffee spot in Rotterdam, Hopper cannot be missed on my Rotterdam hotspot list. Because of this place I have my morning coffee every day ready for me, I have a lovely terrace around the corner of my apartment to drink my coffee in the sun and not unimportant I survived my thesis time. Basically, I owe my life to Hopper :p.
