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Urban Canals.201

In the center left of the photo above, you’ll see a bit straw sitting on the water, and a coot swimming slightly to the right. That’s a coot nest, of one of two in the mini lake – canal thing that wraps around my building here in A’dam (yep, the tall on reflected in the water there) that I’ve enjoyed watching this season. All the various shots in this post are from the past few months on the interconnecting canals and lakes in my neighborhood.

Urban Canals.200

Sunset on June 20, left; sunrise about seven hours later on June 21, right. Were we up in the arctic circle on these days, the sun would journey all the way around, continously above the horizon. Maybe next year I’ll get up there again and photograph that! The joy of summer solistice is followed by the pain of ever-shorter days as the sun migrates further south again from this annual high point. Ah, well, c’est la vie.

Village Views.110

Some last shots of Bissone, the lovely little village on the eastern shore of Lake Lugano where I stayed for four nights last November :-). The serpents are the city (village, really) symbol, taken by the public pool.

Skylights.10

OK, so I went for this fabulous dawn / sunrise walk in Rome last week, with various buildings framing the setting moon wonderfully as the sky lightened. Couldn’t help myself, just kept taking photos. Yes, you’ll see the moon in each of the photos below, if you look closely enough or tap and enlarge. Don’t hate me if I’ve again gone overboard on this whole beauty thing 🙂

Windows.20

A pair of Tromsø windows on Tuesday afternoon (before 3pm) back in January…

Signs of the City.120

…in this case, the eternal city staying very much contemporary 🙂

Coasting.130

I began this series four years and a month ago, when my brothers and I gathered briefly in Oregon for time together before my move from the Pacific Coast all the way over to Amsterdam for work. I’m feeling a bit nostalgic – perhaps even a tad homesick – for the Pacific, even as I enjoy the Mediterranean and North Sea coastlines I’ve visited more recently :-).

Bridges.30

Last bridge pics from my lovely Centovalli afternoon trip down from Locarno last year. Interestingly, I saw these hills and lakes from the air en route to Rome from Amsterdam, two Sundays ago: look for it in upcoming posts :-).

Urban Garden.230

Small Wonders.270

These little guys were in that same lovely Chiang Mai temple complex as my most recent “orchids” post :-). (Tap the images to see uncropped versions.) And yeah, that was a work trip too. No wonder my poor body and brain sometimes get a bit confused and feel their age lol.

City Views.260

As with the Barcelona photos I’ve been showing you: couple days of work from Sunday to Wednesday last week, but one does have evenings and mornings for walks and enjoying wonders of the world :-). Hadn’t been to Rome since, wait for it, May 1981. Yikes.

County Views.160

With this post, we’re wrapping up our remaining photos of Trondheim, which is the largest city but not the capital of Norway’s Trondelag county. An interesting perception shift that came about over the course of this journey was that cities I used to think of as very far north (e.g. Trondheim, or even Bergen) I now think of as, by Norwegian standards, not really all that far north in fact. After all, they’re still below the arctic circle lol… 🙂
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Urban Entrances.160

Ah, Royalty.60

Above, Queen Matilda of Flanders, who is of an older generation and different from the Empress Maud of the Anarchy so well chronicled in the Cadfael series. Interesting, the succession challenges that even a royal system can bring. Human ego, I guess, eh? Last shots from my stroll around the Jardins du Luxembourg, final morning in Paris before heading off to Zermatt last October.