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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

This is one more gate in the various layers of city wall which Maastricht built itself, back in the days when city walls were still in vogue / useful / necessary.

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

We’ve shown you this bridge in at least one earlier post, though under quite different light conditions :-).

Urban Garden.113

All these photos come from what’s now a natural parkland that’s slowly reclaiming what I believe was once the first cement quarry in NL. It’s all on the hill and below the hill further to the west of Fort Sint Pieter. Look closely and you’ll see a strip of the Maas (Meuse) behind the factor in the upper middle part of this photo above.

Country Canals.23

Since there is a river in the gallery below, and tidal action above and below, I’ve decided I can label this last collection of photos taken during my June visit to Malaysia as Country Canals :-). These were all taken from the train between Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

Coasting.33

I’ve been in Dakar for meetings since late Monday, much enjoying proximity to the sound of waves and ocean views again.

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

Yep, I still have photos that I find attractive enough to share left over from my Texel trip at the end of June. 🙂
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Urban Entrances.43

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City Views.142

 Since I really only visited cities in Myanmar, I’ve decided I can gather all the remaining photos which I have not yet posted into one big City Views post. These images are from the cities of Sittwe (in Rakhine), Lashio (in Northern Shan), Mytkina (in Kachin) and Yangon.
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Small Wonders.142