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.
I probably share too many of these wonderful views of my local lake and park, but when the simple act of looking out one’s windows, or taking a stroll around the block, can give one such lovely views…it’d be wrong to not enjoy and share, eh? 🙂
Another ode to lovely mornings by the Seine to begin…and then to business lol. A few days ago we promised to reveal how many bridges are in that photo from right next to my home in Amsterdam. There are three bridges within the frame of the photo, though in fairness only one of them is easy to discern in the bottom foreground of that photo, given its vantage point. I’ve photographed all three bridges in photos below, now from the perspective of my windows 15 storeys up. For reference, the photo I shared before was taken from the far right side of the first image below, looking towards Sloterplas and the third bridge which you can see below right, i.e. a bit below and left of anything you can see in the first image below. The second bridge is easily visible below left, and the first bridge is on the far right-center of the left-hand photo below, though what you see easily here is just the road surface as it crosses the mini canal en route to that street and construction site to my north. 🙂
Tap or click the individual images below to see them full size, if you want to make more sense of it. And since I’m linking Paris & Amsterdam in one post here and it’s the 750th anniversary of Amsterdam, we’ll do a wee historical ‘did you know?’ By and large NL (and trade-wealthy Amsterdam) managed to remain free of French dominion for hundreds of years, once in fact by purposely flooding fields to keep the ‘Sun King’ out. Only once did they succumb, to iced-over fields and Bonaparte. Who was himself beaten three times later on, first by the self-liberating humans formerly called slaves in Haiti, and then twice a decade and more later, by the English-Austrian-Dutch etc. coalition. Ah, the wheels of history.
Various shots from the lovely big park (with lake) that’s across the street from me here. There’s a sign with map in one of the photos below, where they majorly overhauled and upgraded some kids’ fun play areas (some of which I’ve shown you before) last spring. The cute sign-posts above and below predate that overhaul, but no doubt link to kids’ outings over the years. (The tent is a rare instance of someone clearly living rough here.)
I’ve stuck with just Norway posts since last Wednesday, so now I’m back in A’dam as of this morning I figured I’d reiterate my love of this city on a clear morning, circa two weeks ago on a morning bike commute to the office.
At the top of the above photo is a bit of a hidden little island that’s tucked on the edge of my local park, Sloterpark. Curious about it, I walked over to see that it’s some kind of youth club recreation area, and though I wasn’t able to photograph them well, I’d like you to imagine a dozen or so teenagers zipping through the breaks in the trees on mountain bikes. I think they’ve turned it into a mini mountain bike race course or something. Below are the usual-suspect islands along the edges of the main Sloterplas flood-control & canal-navigation lake next to which I’ve lived since August 2023.
Taking this photo early last Saturday caused me to be late enough (= 3 minutes) for that morning’s yoga class that the teacher scowled at me a bit and I felt guilty. But the frost on the railing of this foot / bike bridge caught my attention as another possible image for the water series we launched yesterday. But though I’ve shown you this windmill and canal already twice before, I like how this image came out so much that I’ve decided to post it now as my first blog photo actually taken in 2025. The foot / bike bridge, as you might see from the photo, also descends a good meter or two from its southern to its northern side, and zig-zags a bit.
(so much world, so little time....) 