Walking the Edge of Rotterdam: A Journey Around the Ring Road

Exploring the Boundaries

After walking the A10 Ring Road around Amsterdam numerous times, I found myself drawn to similar walks in other cities-exploring the boundaries where urbanization gives way to the countryside. There’s something intriguing about these edges, where the city meets the wild, where the planned meets the unpredictable. My latest challenge was to walk around the perimeter of Rotterdam, tracing the ring roads that form a near-perfect rectangle around the city.

The goal? To follow the highways A20, A4, A15, and A16-the roads that encircle Rotterdam-while walking as close to them as possible without ever venturing into the city center. This walk turned out to be more than just a physical challenge; it became a reflection on the stark contrasts that exist at the fringes of urban life.

The Inspiration Behind the Walk

My fascination with urban boundaries and how they shape our experiences of a city has grown over the years. Walking around a city’s edge reveals something you rarely see when you stick to the well-trodden paths of its center. Most visitors to Rotterdam probably never stray more than a kilometer or two from Central Station. In fact, most people who live in cities don’t see much of the outer neighborhoods, unless they happen to live there.

This project was born from a desire to break free from the city’s center and explore the spaces that often get overlooked-the places where trams and buses terminate, where industrial zones meet residential areas, where wealth and poverty exist side by side. By walking the perimeter of Rotterdam, I hoped to better understand how the city connects with its surroundings, and how the people living on these edges interact with the city.

Planning the Route: 55 Kilometers of Rotterdam’s Edge

Rotterdam is enclosed by a network of fast roads-the A20, A4, A15, and A16-that create a boundary around the city. These highways form a near-rectangle, enclosing the core of the city while connecting its outskirts to the surrounding regions. When I plotted the route on Google Maps, it came to about 55 kilometers, a challenging but doable walk for one day.

The plan was to follow the ring roads, keeping the highway on my right as much as possible, and explore the suburbs and industrial zones that surround Rotterdam. I knew this walk would take me through various landscapes-from residential areas to farmland, from industrial complexes to parks-without ever actually entering the city itself.

The Journey: Walking at the Edge of Speed

The day of the walk arrived, and I set off a little later than I should have. In hindsight, I was underprepared. I hadn’t walked such long distances in months, and my feet weren’t ready for the challenge. About two hours into the walk, I had to stop and cut my toenails because they were pressing against my shoes, causing discomfort. Later, my shoes gave me blisters, and I found myself swapping them for flip-flops-a less-than-ideal choice for such a long trek.

Despite these setbacks, the walk was fascinating. There’s something surreal about walking alongside a fast road, hearing the constant hum of cars speeding by while you move at a slow, human pace. The highways are engineered for efficiency, designed to whisk people from one point to another in minutes, yet here I was, taking hours to travel the same distance.

One of the most striking aspects of the walk was the sheer size of the junctions and roundabouts at the intersections of these highways. When you’re driving, you barely notice the scale of these spaces. But when you’re on foot, it’s impossible to ignore just how enormous they are. Navigating these areas on foot often took up to an hour, as I had to figure out how to safely cross or navigate around these vast expanses of asphalt.

Observing the Social Fabric of the City

As I walked, I couldn’t help but notice the stark contrasts in the neighborhoods I passed through. Rotterdam’s suburbs, like many urban fringes, are a patchwork of different social realities. On one side of the road, you might find social housing, built to accommodate the city’s most vulnerable residents. Just a kilometer away, you’d find luxurious homes with large gardens, separated only by a river or a highway. These two worlds coexist in close proximity, yet they rarely interact.

This observation reminded me of my previous walks along Amsterdam’s A10 Ring Road, where I saw similar divisions. The wealthier parts of the city are often just a stone’s throw from areas of deprivation, but the divides between them are reinforced by geography, infrastructure, and social barriers.

Reflections on the Challenge

As the hours passed, I began to feel the physical toll of the walk. Covering 55 kilometers on foot is no easy feat, especially without proper preparation. By the time I neared the end of the walk, my legs were sore, my energy was depleted, and I realized that I had burned close to 4,500 calories. The experience was a humbling reminder that while walking is a simple, everyday activity, long-distance walks require a level of fitness and preparation that I had underestimated.

Next time, I would approach it differently-building up my stamina with shorter walks before tackling such a long route, and making sure my shoes were properly broken in to avoid the blisters that plagued me this time.

The Intersection of Psychogeography and Urban Exploration

This walk tied into my broader interest in psychogeography, the idea of exploring the emotional and psychological effects of geography and urban spaces. There’s something uniquely powerful about walking through a city’s boundaries, where the urban meets the rural, and seeing how those spaces make you feel.

Cities, especially ones as complex as Rotterdam, are man-made environments, and they shape our experiences in ways we often don’t notice. Walking at the very edges of the city gave me a different perspective-one that isn’t available when you’re simply passing through by car or tram.

Conclusion: A Walk Worth Reflecting On

Walking the ring roads around Rotterdam was a challenging but deeply rewarding experience. It allowed me to see the city from a new angle, to witness the contrasts and connections that exist at its fringes, and to reflect on the ways in which cities shape our lives and interactions.

While the physical challenge of the walk left me sore and tired, the insights I gained into the urban fabric of Rotterdam made it all worthwhile. I’m already thinking about my next boundary-walking project, and how I can continue to explore the edges of the cities we call home.