I was saying Dutch people are the nicest people
in the world until...... you as a pedestrian
set foot in the bike lane.
And then, things get extreme.
You get aggressive, actually.
Yeah, it's crazy. You go mental at that moment.
Good morning, Vagabuddies.
Day two in Rotterdam.
We are heading to brunch
on this street called
Witte de Withstraat.
I hope I pronounced that right.
All right, guys. We've just finished
our little brunch, and we've been joined by
Willem and Bob SIzoo.
These guys are
some of the best Instagramers on the gram.
You guys are from the Netherlands, right? Yeah.
What should we do?
We're first going to the spot with a yellow bridge,
and then we'll just go around the area.
One of the themes of today's video is
about sustainability, and obviously sustainability
is important for all the world.
But a place like the Netherlands where it's literally
below sea level, I think a lot of people are conscious
about how to make less of an impact on the earth.
Bikes are part of it.
But some of the businesses we're going to see
later today are doing some really innovative
urban farming techniques.
The first place we're going to go check out is
a bridge that was completely funded
through crowd-funding.
Now it's become somewhat of an Instagram
mandatory stop.
We're just going to cancel today's vlog.
We're going to take the metro underground
up to where we're going.
What's happening?
Our passes are only good for the overground.
So scratch everything that we've just said.
We're not going underground.
We're staying overground
Our debacle continues.
So wait. Where are we now?
Then we walk to there.
Weren't we just here though? No.
I'm really confused, but we're good.
It's just one stop, and then we walk the rest.
So we could have just walked the whole way!
Sometimes taking what seems like the easier option
ends up being much more difficult.
Yes.
What happened to that Beamer?
We arrived to this building.
I believe it's a former industrial building
or an office that was going to be torn down.
A bunch of creatives have taken it over,
built a bridge that connects the north and south
of the city in a really colorful way.
It's pretty cool.
It's like the Yellow Brick Road over Rotterdam.
Yellow Brick Bridge.
And you can see on the side all the wooden planks
of the people who funded the project for Kickstarter.
And essentially the purpose is to connect the
north and the south of Rotterdam over these train
tracks, which would otherwise divide the neighborhood.
The bridge idea is pretty cool.
What they've done is created this bridge.
They've also created a tunnel,
which is open 24 hours a day to make
pedestrian access easy
in a place where beforehand it was impossible.
I think it's really important theme in cities today,
not just to be sustainable, but to make
public spaces something for everyone.
It's pretty cool. It's just a cool project.
And at Vagabrothers, we're all about building bridges.
No more walls.....just bridges.
Where are we going? Top floor?
Yes.
All right, guys. Our next stop is
at the base of the bridge on the top of the building.
It's a rooftop bistro with a rooftop garden
called Op Het Dak.
It's pretty cool. It's kid of like an underground
even though it's on the roof,
it's like an underground movement.
They came up here and reclaimed the roof
of this building and turned it into a
functioning, thriving urban farm.
I think the coolest aspect of it is that
as a consumer, you're literally sitting on a
patio overlooking the garden.
They just come out here and take the harvest
and bring it right back into the kitchen,
chop it up, put it on the plate, and serve it to you.
Got the compost bin here.
Oh, look at these little onions.
Um. Fennel.
Anybody know about fennel?
One of the reasons we've decided to
talk about these topics here in Rotterdam is
in recent years Rotterdam has become a
hub of sustainability.
There's just a lot of citizen initiatives,
whether it be to crowd-fund a bridge
or to start a garden like this.
A lot of people working at the grass-root level
to make the sort of change they want to see in the world.
It's pretty cool. We're going to have a coffee
because we need one
and then continue our exploration. Let's go.
Coffee.
Eureka. We found it.
The motto of this store: Denoism.
is the quest for being a sharp-looking badass.
Ends here. Let's go check it out.
Get some style.
You know your shopping experience
is going to be a good one when you're greeted
by friendly people right off the bat who
offer you a drink, be it a coffee or even a beer.
They offered the beer, but we took the coffee.
Dutch and Danish people have
some of the best style in the world,
in my opinion.
My name is Nick, the co-founder of this store.
It's a hybrid life style store for men,
but all denim related.
This is the atelier
This is where we make custom tailored denim.
Normally when you buy a pair of jeans, for instance,
they use 500 liters of water to get it
from this to a really light denim.
They call this dry denim because they didn't
use any water during the process.
And you can wear it on motorcycles.
A bit more thick protection.
Look at this bike.
Cool cafe racer.
Marko and I have actually have both just
purchased motor bikes.
So there's going to be a lot of motorcycle
content coming at you guys soon, too.
Long T
Sold.
And let's just throw that in there.
I'm going to get an anchor to remember
being in the maritime city of Rotterdam.
And also a French-style sailor shirt.
Nice meeting you guys. Yeah.
Take it easy. We'll see you next time we are here.
Yeah. Take it easy.
Here we go. Cheers.
I don't think you can take the whole thing at once.
Otherwise you have to give the rest of it to me.
That place was dangerous, Bro.
I think the quest to be a sharp-looking badass
never truly ends. Let's us know.
What do you guys think?
Do you want to see us doing more style, travel fashion videos?
Let us know in the comment box,
and we'll try to accommodate.
There's Marko hopping on his bike.
Welcome to the mushroom farm.
All right guys. Right now we are in
the underbelly of this old, abandoned swimming pool.
It's like a water park, I guess.
It's the Bio Dome, Bro.....
It's called the Tropicana, and now
it's an initiative to turn the port of Rotterdam
into a green capital of Europe.
There's a lot of cool individual companies
and entrepreneurs down here.
We're going to start off with one of the coolest ones:
a mushroom farm using a lot of the old equipment
from the pool. Let's check it out.
Here we have the old parts of the beauty salon.
And it's really bizarre to now grow mushrooms in here
because it's the complete opposite of beauty.
This is one of our growing rooms. We have many.
It's brown and that's because of the coffee waste.
If we get clean, fresh, coffee waste,
we can grow mushrooms on it very easily.
I feel like we should also clarify that these are
not magic mushrooms.
These are gray, oyster mushrooms;
edible mushrooms you put in sandwiches
and in food.
And right outside the Bio Dome
is Aloha cocktail bar and restaurant,
right on the river
and such the vibe that I need right now.
Some bubbles.
Thank you. You're welcome.
Cheers, Brother.
It's been a good day so far in Rotterdam.
I'm having fun.
I love good patio bars with lovely cocktails
and amazing views.
This checks all the boxes. Check!
And to bring it full-circle,
this restaurant uses products grown by
the mushroom farm in the basement.
Keeping things awesome.
News break: I look like some Dutch singer.
What's his name? Leo Kleine
Kind of, here a little bit and maybe there.
All right guys. We just showed up at a new spot
called Fenix Food Factory.
It's essentially a collective of different restaurants,
breweries, cider houses....
all in a former warehouse.
This is a great idea.
And I love the fact that you're sitting
opposite skyscrappers
and this really beautiful city skyline. I don't know.
It does kind of have a New York feel over
here even though there's the Hotel New York
right cross the way.
Let's go get some food.
Cheers.
It's been a nice day.
Thoughts on Rotterdam?
A fitting place to conclude our day here
talking about the new Rotterdam;
the future, sustainability,
building new things in the bones of old places.
I think it's awesome.
I've been very, very impressed by the ingenuity
of the locals in making this a leader of
sustainability, and also doing it in a cool way.
So cheers to that.
Rotterdam has blown me away like
beyond all expectations.
If you guys like the video, you know what to do:
thumbs-up, share it with your friends, and subscribe.
And in the meantime, stay curious, keep exploring,
and we'll see you guys on the road.
Next episode: North Sea Jazz festival