Yes, this sapling protector in my local park bears a crown design and the name of NL’s current monarch, King William Alexander. Don’t ask me why. If I had to guess, I’d say maybe the sapling itself was planted in 2013, when he took on the role after his mom abdicated and left him holding the crown?
So I think I’m entering new territory today, having yesterday hit 365 days in a row of daily (at least) posts again. I’m fairly sure I’ve never managed to go more than 365 days in a row, so welcome to a new chapter. Since spring has very much sprung here in Amsterdam, I find myself taking more and more images of all the lovely spring blossoms that grace the city at this time of year – examples above and below from various recent walks and rides. Sharing these photos with you is such a good excuse, reason and motivator for me to get out and enjoy the various bits of beauty and joy I inevitably find when I’m paying the right kind of attention to the world around me. Enjoy :-).
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.)
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.
Last day of my third full year based here in Amsterdam, a city in which I’m now always happy to “come home.” It celebrates its 750th anniversary next year, with that light shining up into the sky originating from that first settlement. There’ll be anniversary celebration events all year, which you can check out if you’re planning or thinking about visiting the city. I’ll share a few shots of a recent sunrise over Sloterplas (where I live), to wrap up this year in ‘city views’ from home. 🙂
(so much world, so little time....) 