Having shown you some graffiti art of more or less this very thing in a recent post, imagine my delight when, on Sunday, for the very first time I saw vintage trains (related to the tram museum which is also somehow affiliated with this whole affair) rolling down these very tracks and right past that very mural, clanging their bells loudly since most pedestrians walk along the tracks these days. 🙂
As I’ve mentioned, the blog in general and – more specifically – these numbered “series” that I’ve done the past few years tend to get me out the door, with an eye and mind open to something interesting or lovely (or both) in the physical world around me. Having launched this “Islands” series from my trip to Madeira last December, and being now in this numbers thing (a few of you may have noticed that I’ve gone sequential and numerically rhyming in the entries, to the extent manageable) …well, I needed to get more Islands to photograph! And it turns out I’ve already, unbeknownst to me, shown you any number of photos a few little islands in the ponds that adorn my beloved next-door park, good ol’ Vondelpark. That’s an island, behind the duck: who knew?!
It’s fun to create rules for oneself which give one the opportunity experience the world afresh, in a brief moment of pre-thunderstorm sun.
I’ve biked and even walked past this building literally hundreds of times, but had never noticed this lovely mural which in my view fits well into my “graffiti art” tag, though the other graffito of which I’ve left a small portion to the bottom right is more in the “teenage annoyance” category than the “art” one. Either it’s new, or the door was always up, or I was just focused on other things. This mural depicts what you’d have seen in the old days, when trams ran regularly down this line, with the “Haarlemmermeerstation” right behind it.
This is the view a person would have had, in those days, if they’d swiveled 90 degrees to the left, from the perspective in which I took this photo. That’s more info that you need, but perhaps useful for any who’ve visited me, in situating yourself. I’ve shown blog viewers the brick building in one or two posts taken from its far side, and this alleyway (which is now mostly used for bikes, parking, gyms and flea-market stores) only once thus far…but I’ve passed along it just about any time I took photos that are tagged “Park Schinkeleilanden,” for anyone curious enough to try to fit it all together :-).
No, I’m not yet back in Amsterdam, but I did collect some lovely photos of the spring bloom before I left. Thanks to everyone who’s been happy to see regular posts resume, I’ve decided I’ll try to go daily again, so this is being posted as I wait to board a flight from Austin back to SFO. Next up, more of Northern California, no doubt mixed with more from this weekend’s family Texas swing along with more from A’dam, and possibly even Bangkok or Hong Kong where I stopped for work on my way over…
This was my parting view of my lovely neighborhood and home in spring, before boarding the bus for Schphol that I’m on as I type this. Yes, friends, I’m about to start a complicated and long trip that’ll involve a week of work in Bangkok and Hong Kong, followed by some family and home time in CA and TX, before returning to this lovely circle after the crocuses and daffodils which grace it each spring have faded.
With this winter-sunset view of the Amstel in the heart of my adopted home city of Amsterdam, I leave all you dear readers for some undetermined period of time and complete my 365 days of at-least-one-post-per-day. I expect to be back in a few months — and any comments, post-views, or requests for less or more of this or that type of post in the interim may help guide me when I start the next chapter.
(so much world, so little time....) 