Small Wonders.144
City Views.144
Last shots from Nijmegen, including international flags along the riverfront which I assume were there for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Eurogames, an LGBTQI+ – oriented (but naturally welcoming to all) sports festival and competition at which yours truly took home a “bronze medal” in the (very, very small) draw of men’s singles that I had joined. Those games and playing a ton of tennis while watching many friends play tennis (and many others whom I don’t know play soccer, volleyball and squash) took up most of my time during those days in Arnhem and Nijmegen back in July. You’ll see a few more shots pertaining to the games — including the list of sports planned for next year’s event; see if you can spot the sport which demonstrates life imitating art… Immediately below, a few more highlights from Nijmegen’s excellent and well situated museum (yes, same bridge – it’s on the bluff above the river).
Urban Entrances.44
Coasting.34
Summer is now well and truly gone here, so I’m piling all my remaining photos from that lovely early-summer visit to Texel into another post of my revived “coasting” series…since pretty much all of these are very much coastal in one way or another, eh? 🙂
Urban Garden.114
Urban Garden.113
City Views.143
Maastricht means “Maas Crossing,” or Ford of the Meuse / Maas. All the photos in this post were taken in and around Fort Sint Pieter, built at the top of a hill to the west of the main city, getting fairly close to the Belgian border. (Locals seem to call it a mountain, but that’s all in the eye of the beholder.) Apparently invaders (usually the French) attacked Maastricht many times, and this fort was built into the top of the hill after the success of one invasion, which set up guns at the top of the hill and lobbed them over the then-current city walls. (As the city grew, new walls were built further out than the old walls which usually remained up. You’ve already seen both this fort and one gate still standing from a past incarnation of one such wall.) More recently, Maastricht is known for the Treaty on European Union (aka the Maastricht Treaty), signed here in 1992. Maybe they hoped this union thing means they’ll never have to fire up these cannons again, eh? 😊
Small Wonders.143
Urban Garden.112
Urban Garden.111
(so much world, so little time....) 