Sticking with my theme of using up more of 2023’s photos before taking my break, herewith all the remaining from-the-air shots of 2023. They’re in chronological order, so you first see my plane passing over the Dutch coast on 6 November en route to Dublin, then more of the English coast both on the east side (North Sea) and the west side (Irish Sea – so far as I could tell, we passed roughly over Liverpool, but clouds…), and then two 29 November images of the island of Penang and the sea north of it as we approached landing after my flight from Qatar to Penang (with a stop in Phuket); and, finally, 6 December photos as our plane traveled up the coasts of Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar en route from KL to Yangon. Not really sure which islands we’re seeing in these various shots, but fairly sure most were islands in Myanmar by this point.
Above, the moon sets over Sloterplas as seen from my balcony window on the morning of 26 December. (Before hopping the train down to Den Bosch aka ‘s Hertogenbosch for that lovely day we showed you in our last post.) Below, a gallery of pretty much every other remaining “city lights” relevant photo I took in NL during 2023 but haven’t yet posted. A note about the dawn photo of storefronts: the rose-shaped light decorations, which you will notice extend all the way down the street, tell you that this street is “Rozengracht,” which means either the street alongside the Rose Canal, or Rose Canal. In this particular case, I’m unaware of there actually being a canal named Rozengracht any more, but I’m guessing there might once have been one and the street is all that remains after the city did what the Dutch have always done, redirect the water. It’s entirely possible a more-knowledgeable Dutch friend will either email me or post a public comment to educate us all :-).
The heavily-flooded Maas (Meuse), which here functions as the border between the Dutch provinces of Gelderland (to left, north in this photo) and Noord Brabant. Took this, plus the shots of two different castles in two different villages below, during a 26 December walk with my friend Kiki while visiting her for a lovely Christmas-holiday afternoon.
Three important things happened today in my world: 1) The sun actually shone for most of the afternoon; 2) Clouds were sufficiently absent long enough for the sun to be still shining as it sank beneath the horizon (below, at 4:41:08 according to my camera — above was at 4:25:39); and, most important in my little world, the earth has rotated enough now that it actually shines in the windows on my balcony for a few short minutes at the end of its time above our horizon here. (For a comparison sunset further north and west plus several hours later, check this past post from early August: my windows face mostly north, a decent amount of west, with only one little sliver of southwest.) Note that it might have shone in a bit for a couple days now, but with clouds omnipresent nearly full-time since early October (I do not exaggerate), wouldn’t know. So this is just me sending a bonus post to let the sun feel appreciated and welcomed.
2023 saw my first — and second! — visit to Geneva, with the second visit giving me the chance to watch the sun rise over mountains and lakes in France and Switzerland (above), with distant views including Mt Blanc back in France on the “far side” of Switzerland, as it were, from the side on which our plane had entered. The return flight from that first visit was an evening flight that let me watch the sun set over France and then watch cities over France, Belgium and NL light up (below) before we came in for our landing at Schiphol here in A’dam. One gallery for each flight, below.
Cheating slightly here, since one shot was really taken in a village and the other in a city, but I think one must not continue the whole holiday-lights thing too far into the new year…
A bonus video from a harbor walk that (my cousin) Sam & I did en route to a concert during his visit in October, for those with bandwidth to view it – posting it separately in hopes it’ll work better this way.
I’ve decided it’s time to stop clinging to my remaining photos from that lovely high-summer visit to Paleis Het Loo, now that we’re more than six months later and emerging from the year’s shortest day here in the north. Above: Amsterdam’s Royal Palace from the same morning as the last couple posts. This building is used as the capital’s royal reception hall for guests some of the time, and as a museum the rest of the time. (In NL, the seat of both government and state, i.e. where the PM, King and parliament all ply their respective roles is The Hague…but everyone agrees Amsterdam is the capital nonetheless.) Apparently this building began life as a Town Hall in 1655, and was made over into a residence for royals in the 19th century. Now that my bike ride to work takes me past it both coming and going, I do expect and hope to get in for a visit. Below: all those remaining mid-summer photos left from that lovely afternoon which led to the first post in this series.
2023 saw my first — and second! — visit to Geneva, with the second visit giving me the chance to watch the sun rise over mountains and lakes in France and Switzerland (above), with distant views including Mt Blanc back in France on the “far side” of Switzerland, as it were, from the side on which our plane had entered. The return flight from that first visit was an evening flight that let me watch the sun set over France and then watch cities over France, Belgium and NL light up (below) before we came in for our landing at Schiphol here in A’dam. One gallery for each flight, below.
I’ve decided it’s time to stop clinging to my remaining photos from that lovely high-summer visit to Paleis Het Loo, now that we’re more than six months later and emerging from the year’s shortest day here in the north. Above: Amsterdam’s Royal Palace from the same morning as the last couple posts. This building is used as the capital’s royal reception hall for guests some of the time, and as a museum the rest of the time. (In NL, the seat of both government and state, i.e. where the PM, King and parliament all ply their respective roles is The Hague…but everyone agrees Amsterdam is the capital nonetheless.) Apparently this building began life as a Town Hall in 1655, and was made over into a residence for royals in the 19th century. Now that my bike ride to work takes me past it both coming and going, I do expect and hope to get in for a visit. Below: all those remaining mid-summer photos left from that lovely afternoon which led to the first post in this series.
(so much world, so little time....) 