Amsterdam’s support for public art at neighborhood level means that interesting new things pop up frequently. 🙂 I like paying taxes into a system that provides great low-carbon public transit, public healthcare and engaging public art that’s clearly driven by a school art project.
Best sorta closer views I’ve managed to take of Ijmuiden (right) and the Zuid-Kennemerland National Park (that’s the green dunes in the center), because on this flight we took off to the north and then turned towards England so, as you see, we banked right over it all :-). Any time you see photos of Sloterplas from my apartment, this is basically what’s out there in the distance where the sun is setting – it’s all more or less due west of me. Below, more including the coastline of Noord and Zuid Holland. I also got some of the best views of the islands and peninsulas of Zeeland, and the area around Hoek of Holland and the Maeslantkering that I’ve gotten, so stay tuned :-).
Amsterdam’s “Hortus” botanical garden underwent a major renovation over the past couple years, with the greenhouse you see above as one of the lovely outcomes. A few days after I took the above photo (just a shot snapped on my bike ride home), we had the chance during an ‘away day’ workshop inside one of the Hortus buildings to do a lovely guided tour, from which came the circle gallery (if you’re in full-view) of photos below. Having been founded only in 1638, A’dam’s Hortus isn’t even the oldest botanical garden in NL (Leiden’s is), although it probably does rank amongst the 20 oldest in the world.
Windows at Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam’s centuries-old botanical garden which happens to be around the corner from our office and a good place for offsite meetings :-).
I’ll apologize for the condensation drops and reflections in the window, but I still think it’s worth the view. Here you see pretty much all of Noord-Holland, as well as the Ijmeer, Markermeer and Ijsselmeer, including of course the entire city and surroundings of Amsterdam, all the way up to Texel at the north (left) end. Below some more shots – all from my Ams-ORD flight last December.
