Yes, the gates to Vondelpark can be closed, as I learned to my … surprise, chagrin and / or shock … the day of and the day after one of the major spring storms that knocked down trees. Unless one climbed over fences, stone walls, or gates such as these, one could not enter the park for a day or two. Gasp.
Amstelstation in A’dam. Point of departure for the ride to my 24 hours in Maastricht. I’ve not yet done research on this mural, but I hope to at some point.
Trying to enjoy Vondelpark and all my other urban-garden walks as much as possible while there are still leaves on the trees, especially since those leaves are changing color daily 🙂
So this was obviously some kind of competition, festival or both which I biked past on my way home from a glorious team-tennis Saturday recently. Tap or click on the image below & then enlarge it, and you’ll see a boat being lifted out of the water by a crane. I guess many of these boats were carried in by road rather than coming under their own power along canals from farther away 🙂
Same walk as the last entry: you get a sense why this is one of my favorite walk routes when the sun is shining, I trust? On the last warm swimmy day of August or early September, I followed a tennis outing (my club courts are a short bike ride behind and right, from the perspective of the photo above) with a swim on the far shore of this lake…but though we did see a few natives swimming on this outing, my bones would find the wind and air temperatures much too cold to brave those waters any more. We’re looking north across Nieuwe Meer, from the edge of Amsterdamse Bos, for anyone who wants to map-check any of it.
Back to the Bosbaan in Amsterdamse Bos on a lovely early-autumn evening. Note the moon just below the airplanes’ approach path to Schiphol, in the photos below. A well-placed bench allows one not only to contemplate the moon, the sky, the trees, the planes and the Bosbaan (the forest water track or water course, I guess) itself, but also to rest the weary legs.
You’ve seen almost this exact same view under very different light conditions in an earlier post. Neal will recognize the Scheepvaartmuseum (aka National Maritime Museum), and one of the tall ships which are (I believe?) a living part of its collection.
Nearly all the remaining photos from my 24 hours in Maastricht a couple weeks ago. I’ve shown some of the city from above and afar in an earlier post, where I also shared a bit of history. These are all from walks with my friend Steve around the city, plus some photos of the paintings people have made over the past century or so on the walls of the extensive underground tunnel network beneath Maastricht and extending as well to the Belgian side of the border. (Yes, the tunnel system has been used over the centuries both for commercial smuggling and for resistance or escape during WWII.) These were formerly underground limestone mines or quarries, but are now a tourist attraction. In that earlier post I showed you a lot of Ft Sint Pieter, which sits above some portions of the tunnel system. During one French invasion, they tried to destroy the fort by setting an explosion under it, but they got the wrong location and only collapsed the cave on themselves, according to our tour guide.
Also tucked into the gallery above is an image from inside that lovely hotel which we also showed you in another earlier Maastricht post, showing the stairs up to the restaurant from the lobby, all of which are within the soaring hall of the old cloister’s church. Remarkable place to have breakfast or a drink (the bar is at the back on the ground floor as you look at it) – thanks for the treat, Steve :-). Below: photo exhibit on my walk back to the train station about people on the move in the world, and I decided to photograph the one that shows one of MSF’s search and rescue boats at work. Below that, those city walks I keep mentioning :-), as seen from the foot and bike bridge over the Maas.
Nearly all the remaining photos from my 24 hours in Maastricht a couple weeks ago. I’ve shown some of the city from above and afar in an earlier post, where I also shared a bit of history. These are all from walks with my friend Steve around the city, plus some photos of the paintings people have made over the past century or so on the walls of the extensive underground tunnel network beneath Maastricht and extending as well to the Belgian side of the border. (Yes, the tunnel system has been used over the centuries both for commercial smuggling and for resistance or escape during WWII.) These were formerly underground limestone mines or quarries, but are now a tourist attraction. In that earlier post I showed you a lot of Ft Sint Pieter, which sits above some portions of the tunnel system. During one French invasion, they tried to destroy the fort by setting an explosion under it, but they got the wrong location and only collapsed the cave on themselves, according to our tour guide.
(so much world, so little time....) 