Above, the former King of Thailand in his youth as seen on the wall of a restaurant here in A’dam where I had dinner with an old friend last month. Below, his son the current King of Thailand as seen from my boat en route to Wat Arun :-).
That was 5:21am on May 21st, as the sun was still moving further north; it passed back through this building on its way back south, about July 21. I was out of town then so I missed it. As I miss the sun almost entirely these days, since we’ve reached the period of the year where it doesn’t shine through on this north side of my apartment, but only for a short bit of the afternoon from my western and one southern window. Ah well. Below, you can see both how the building site across the street from me was progressing three weeks later, and how much farther the sun had moved north, by the 12th of June. I should remember to take a photo so you can see how far they’ve come on that construction – it’s moving fast.
Amsterdam’s Dutch National Holocaust Names memorial (which opened in September 2021, not long after I moved to A’dam) is heartbreaking, and also beautiful in its simplicity and symbolism. I went again with a visiting friend on, appropriately, the weekend of the 80th anniversary of the first Dutch national liberation day.
(so much world, so little time....) 