Rotterdam is a city in South Holland, the Netherlands, located geographically within the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt river delta at the North Sea. Its history goes back to 1270 when a dam was constructed in the Rotte river and people settled around it for safety. In 1340 Rotterdam was granted city rights by the Count of Holland[10] and slowly grew into a major logistic and economic centre. Nowadays it is home to Europe’s largest port and has a population of 624,799 (2014, city proper), ranking second in the Netherlands. The Greater Rijnmond area is home to approximately 1.4 million people[11] and the Rotterdam The Hague urban area makes for the 168th most populous urban area in the world. Rotterdam is part of the yet larger Randstad conurbation with a total population of 7,100,000. (more…)