Queen Emma, one has learned, was quite popular in the late 1800’s. She’s also the great-great grandmother of NL’s current head of state, who is himself the first male head of state since Emma’s regency, which lasted from 1890 during the final day’s of her husband King William’s life until 1898 when her daughter Queen Wilhelmina turned 18. In other words, heads of state in NL were women from 1890 to 2013. When I compare NL to plenty of other countries I’ve lived or worked in, I conclude this may well have been quite a good thing indeed.
Departing Bangladesh a few weeks ago, I promised myself I’d keep an eagle eye out the window for anything I could legitimately call a mountain. Thus I offer you the Hajar Mountains in the northeastern UAE, most likely in the emirate of Fujairah, but possibly also in Ras al Khaimah or perhaps even Oman though I’m reasonably sure we were west of Oman by this point…
Coming back to NL from Chicago in May, we took off into a bit of a rain storm with low clouds, so I grabbed some views of the sprawling city before it vanished beneath the clouds as we climbed. Below, taken very shortly after the one above, you can get a bit more sense of the Lake Michigan shoreline off to the east as the plane banks to head northeast and we’re looking pretty much due east.
Two more airborne shots from my Cox to Dhaka flight last month. North of Chattogram (Chittagong) and looking east northeast, above; and still in Cox, looking south, below.
A triptych of canals from my bike ride out out to Muidersloot back in May: above, boats plying the Vecht River by the town of Muiden, plus another of the Vecht below right and a smaller field canal in the vicinity on the left.
There’s a petting zoo in the park I bike or walk through if I’m heading into the city proper, so if I decide on a leisurely stroll one weekend or evening (e.g. the best bakeries are over that way), I get to watch the goats cavorting.
I’ve pondered starting a new series called “transport choices” but just don’t think it’ll ever be visually stimulating enough to get me going or keep your eyes. This would be a good example: a Guardian article sent by a friend a a couple years back told me about this underground & underwater bike parking garage next to Amsterdam Centraal. Various articles on the Dutch (and in particular Amsterdam) choice to seriously invest in bike, foot and public transit infrastructure over and above car infrastructure strike a tone of mixed admiration and derision, I find – and this article was no exception. Having used this precise bike garage now multiple times to conveniently convey myself and my tennis-bag via bike to Centraal, drop the bike in a clean, safe, dry, attended underground lot for a cheap daily rate after the first free 24 hours and then simply walk up the stairs on the other side then directly into the station, I’ll say this use of my tax dollars is a far more welcome use than nearly all the uses my US tax dollars go for. Yeah, that’s my bike in its little spot before one of my Berlin trips this year. The Dutch deride me for my helmet, but I’m as impervious to that as I am to American derision for this fabulous parking alternative.
(so much world, so little time....) 