Taking this photo early last Saturday caused me to be late enough (= 3 minutes) for that morning’s yoga class that the teacher scowled at me a bit and I felt guilty. But the frost on the railing of this foot / bike bridge caught my attention as another possible image for the water series we launched yesterday. But though I’ve shown you this windmill and canal already twice before, I like how this image came out so much that I’ve decided to post it now as my first blog photo actually taken in 2025. The foot / bike bridge, as you might see from the photo, also descends a good meter or two from its southern to its northern side, and zig-zags a bit.
I’ve held onto this shot, like those lovely sunset shots of the Concertgebouw in the last post, since I took them in October pre-Paris / Switzerland trip so that could remind myself now that indeed the sun does shine in Amsterdam, and when it does the city’s lovely :-).
During the walk on which I took all of these neighborhood-bridge photos just before Christmas, we had three separate episodes of sleet and one of rain, with sun and cloud mixing on both sides of each sleet or rain event… Winter in A’dam.
Above left, the fields of North Holland as our plane took off for my last trip by plane in September. Above right, the cities fields and rivers of Bangladesh south of Dhaka en route to Cox later the following day. Below, Dhaka from the air and other shots of rivers and countryside we flew over after taking off from Dhaka about 11 days later…
I’ve decided to begin the new year with a first entry celebrating light in the darkness of winter. And to use up just about every remaining 2024 photo that could fit into this category all in one go, thus beginning what readers have termed my annual mad rush to empty my folders of last year’s photo before I take a blog break and then resume. Among the things you’ll see if you look for them in the gallery below are (light) pears in trees on Dam Square in the heart of the city; quite a few images from this year’s light festival (which include many showing a series called “moon rise,” as well as the one saying “closed until canals freeze over:” that’s art!); a view down one of the famous canal intersections in which you can see the arches of nine different bridges all lit up as that canal travels southward under other street bridges; and two specific photos looking out from my apartment, one of which shows a building lit as a Christmas Tree and another showing the early-morning deliver early last month of a truck bringing some absolutely massive construction equipment for the new high-rise apartment complex they’re building across the street from me. (Over my morning tea, I watched the drivers and lead trucks sort out how navigate the super long truck around the traffic circle below us, including at one point taking out and then putting back a road traffic sign. And lots of other impatient cars turning and around going back the wrong way, which they could get away with b/c of how early it was.)
Last day of my third full year based here in Amsterdam, a city in which I’m now always happy to “come home.” It celebrates its 750th anniversary next year, with that light shining up into the sky originating from that first settlement. There’ll be anniversary celebration events all year, which you can check out if you’re planning or thinking about visiting the city. I’ll share a few shots of a recent sunrise over Sloterplas (where I live), to wrap up this year in ‘city views’ from home. 🙂
There are several pieces of infrastructure that bridge water in this post from the Vaartse Rijn train station in Utrecht, where I happened to be a few weeks ago while visiting some friends recently out of hospital in various parts of NL. None of these various forms of “bridge” are for cars. Just above, you see the Vaartse Rijn going generally left to right, and a side canal heads up to the top and left, bridged by a bike and foot bride into the station area. The trains themselves cross on the elevator tracks in the top right corner, and passengers get to and from those tracks on stairs, some of which also cross the water itself. I do so love living in a country that spends money on non-automotive infrastructure!
(so much world, so little time....) 