Top attractions in Rotterdam

Photo: Playing Futures: Applied Nomadology@flickr (CC BY 2.0)

This top museum presents Dutch and European artists throughout the ages, and one room highlights only Dalí's works. The sculpture garden boasts Claes Oldenburg's "Bent Screw."

Photo: Rick Ligthelm@flickr (CC BY 2.0)

The art museum doesn't offer a permanent collection, but rather, it puts on 25 different exhibitions each year, ranging from photography to paintings to design.

Each tilted, cubed house on a 45° angle represents a tree, and as an ensemble, a forest. If you want to see what it's like inside one of them, pop into the Kijk-Kubus Museum.

Inaugurated in 1960, the concrete observation tower offers a commanding 360° view of the city from 315 feet above the street. The elevator ride takes a mere 30 seconds.

Named after the 15th-century Dutch Renaissance humanist, the gleaming white, emblematic symbol of the city, nicknamed "The Swan," stretches 2600 feet across the Maas River.

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The 19th-century building, which was once the Royal Yacht Club, contains a fine collection of acquired ethnographic pieces from Asia, Africa, the Pacific and the Americas.

Photo: Tim Strater@flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Amazonica exhibit at the 150-year-old zoo transports visitors to a tropical world full of butterflies in a lush environment. Water pools hold catfish, turtles and piranhas.

Go on a culinary adventure in the extensive market hall in Rotterdam. Don't forget to look up: the 11,000 m2 glass façade (about the size of two football fields) displays giant artwork by artist Arno Coenen.