We’re splurging all the remaining photos from our lovely May day-trip bike exploration to Muidersloot with this post. I’ll try to explain a few things that you may be curious about, depending what level of attention you give to these various images. Museums in the Netherlands like to do art in many ways. (The plural in Dutch is musea – which if we English speakers used a more latin-root approach I suppose we’d say too, but I think folks would laugh at me if I talked about going to several musea in a day…)
Above, you see one of the ways Muidersloot was adding contemporary art to the abundant history it always offers just being what is: installation art with a theme of rising sea levels. If you don’t get it, stop and think. It’s possible you’ll chuckle a bit. In other photos you’ll see various insect sculptures in the moat or on the grounds. While I wandered the gardens, I heard loud rumbling and noticed a pod of helicopters crossing the sky. Feeling all Apocalypse Now, I was torn between diving for cover and taking photos. The image below and a few more in the gallery demonstrate which instinct won. (And no, pods of helicopters crossing the sky are not a thing I’ve seen here before, nor do I know what this was about.)
On July 19, having gone even further north (and thus to the left, from the perspective of this image) for more than a month, the sun passed directly through and above this iconic landmark above, on its way back south for the next eight months. I’m already mentally preparing myself to miss it ever more in the months ahead, til I can again welcome it from my bedroom window once its come far enough north again.
All from the Pride Boat Parade (the third weekend with an LGBTQI+ Pride event or parade, as it is I guess every summer, just I’ve not been around to notice as much the past few years) — fun, despite some brief rain showers that came on around the time of this photo immediately above. The inflatable things like the Ode to Queer Icons one, above, are pulled down to go under the bridges then pop back up – I caught the one at the top just before it popped back up :-).
Last shot I took before landing back in NL from the US, back on 14 May; and first shot as we took off on 8 September. The intervening months may have been the longest stretch without any flights that I’ve had since I moved here. As these pages attest, I got out and about quite a lot in that period but always by train. Carbon-footprint reduction plans in action. 🙂
One wfh-morning, a week or so before I flew to Bangladesh, I decided that I really did need to finally go for a swim across the street, before the weather got continuously cold and rainy again. Why wasn’t I doing this every sunny morning all summer????
The Dutch coastline at Ijmuiden, early morning May 14th, as our plane flew north – northwest across the North Sea after crossing the islands of Ireland and Great Britain on its flight path from Chicago to Amsterdam. The most common landing path I’ve experienced is up this way, sharp right turn over the land, then lining up for the runways in a more or less due-south pattern which I can watch from the windows of my apartment :-). Below, three photos taken each a bit later on the same trajectory.
The island of the title is at the top left above, middle in the closer-framed image below. We’ve shown you this island before, but taken from above looking down at this lake: my home is in the tallest building you can see just above at the top middle, and you’ve seen and will continue to see many lovely photos taken from my windows near the top left of that particular building :-).
Indeed, right inside the city of Amsterdam but in the lovely park I’ve been showing you since I moved to my new place last year :-). Above, looking west one evening last week and below, looking east from the same foot / bike bridge over the canal. For orientation, in the photo below, the apartment from which I’ve taken all the various photos of this lovely lovely lake would be on the far side of the lake and to the left a bit (northeast).
Before its residents voted to incorporate the lovely town of Weesp into the City of Amsterdam, I’m not sure I could have chosen to categorize the canals you’ll see in each of the photos in this post as “urban,” especially when you consider the lovely little images of coot parents building their nest in two of the photos below. But … a part of the city of Amsterdam Weesp now is, so here you see some of it’s “urban” canals and other delights.
All from the Pride Boat Parade (the third weekend with an LGBTQI+ Pride event or parade, as it is I guess every summer, just I’ve not been around to notice as much the past few years) — fun, despite some brief rain showers that came on around the time of this photo immediately above. The inflatable things like the Ode to Queer Icons one, above, are pulled down to go under the bridges then pop back up – I caught the one at the top just before it popped back up :-).
Before its residents voted to incorporate the lovely town of Weesp into the City of Amsterdam, I’m not sure I could have chosen to categorize the canals you’ll see in each of the photos in this post as “urban,” especially when you consider the lovely little images of coot parents building their nest in two of the photos below. But … a part of the city of Amsterdam Weesp now is, so here you see some of it’s “urban” canals and other delights.
(so much world, so little time....) 