Tag: netherlands

Vacation Retrospective

Confessions of a traveler!

As I selected Retrospective for this week’s TPC theme, I thought it would be nice to look back at countries visited during the 2010s! So here it goes!

Austria

Love atop the Stephanskirche!

Looking down from the shorter tower of the Stephanskirche provides an incredible view across all of Vienna!

Canada

Walking among the treetops!

In Vancouver, BC, I got to walk among the treetops, high up above the canyon floor (below…)

Scotland

Skye is simply stunning!

On the Isle of Skye, I got to see some of the most incredible landscapes, such as here, where I’m a ways up in the Quiraing range. I could sit here forever and watch the clouds change the landscape!

Israel

Apollonia National Park

I got some time in Israel to explore the Apollonia National Park in Herzliya; this amazing Roman settlement was a wonder to behold!

Italy

Looking across Massa Maritima

Our Italian trip was filled with amazing towns (idea for some posts…), such as Massa Maritima; the hill towns in Tuscany are just stunning! And the food was awesome too!

Netherlands

Centraal Station, Rotterdam

As can be expected, there have been numerous trips to the Netherlands, and Rotterdam is still among my favorite cities in this world!

Iceland

The Herring Era

Iceland is filled with amazing vistas, and I spent way too little time there (4 days) to scratch the surface. One of my discoveries was the Herring Era museum in Siglufjördur! It brought one back to a different time!

Czech Republic

Looking up in Prague!

Sometimes, travel doesn’t go as planned, and you get to spend an additional 24 hours in a location. This happened in Prague, which is not a bad place to find yourself in!

Ukraine

A view in Kharkiv

My visit to Ukraine was fantastic, as the hospitality was amazing and I got to see some of the sights, such as the view here!

England

Albert Docks at Night

Liverpool, England, was an impromptu visit that gave me the opportunity to see my favorite Premier League team play at Anfield, their home ground! A fantastic city too!

In less than 2 weeks, I will be in India, so the adventure continues!!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Fantasy

Walking through a fantasy land…

Welcome to week 187 of the Tuesday Photo Challenge!

After all these wonderful takes on the theme of Slope, I wanted to take the challenge into a completely different direction… This was brought on by my receiving my copy of Luminar 4 and playing around with one of the key features, the AI sky replacement tool. That led me to putting a Fantasy spin on the image I captured while walking the dogs with my sister in the Netherlands.

Your challenge is to use the theme of Fantasy and take it into your choice of creative directions; be it an image of your fantasy location, a fantasy that is in your mind, or whatever speaks fantasy to you! Have fun with this and let your thoughts and lenses go into the land of fantasy!!

I can’t wait to see what you might come up with!

Here’s that surreal walk through the park…

Starry Night in the Park

This small Nature area lies on the northern side of Rotterdam, close to the river Rotte, from where the town received its name. It’s a great location to go for a jog, get a breath of fresh air, or walk the dogs!

The full rules of this challenge are in TPC Guidelines, but here’s the tl;dr:

  • Write a post with an image for this week’s topic
  • Please tag your post with fpj-photo-challenge (if you’re not sure about how tags work, please check out this WordPress article about tagging posts)
  • Create a pingback link to this post, so that I can create a post showing all of the submissions over the week (note: pingbacks may not appear immediately, as my site is set up to require approval for linking to it; helps against previous bad experiences with spamming)
  • Have fun creating something new (or sharing something old)!!

Fantasy football, move over, fantasy photography is on the rise!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Round Up 180

Colors and flavors everywhere!

Welcome to the 180th round up of the Tuesday Photo Challenge!

Thank you very much for a great array of groceries from all over the world! I was not surprised by the variety that you brought to this theme, as I’ve experienced a lot of the amazing locations that all of you have covered in your travels!! It really brightened my mood to see your photos and narratives and there were some extremely funny posts among the contributions!!

Hope you’re already having fun with this week’s theme!

Here are some more groceries…

The Markthal

This photo was taken inside the Markthal (Market Hall) in Rotterdam, Netherlands. This building provides an indoor market, where you can find a great variety of foods, interesting restaurants and living space! The gigantic curved space created by the arching structure also functions as an apartment building! Imagine living above and around the market and going for some quick, fresh food within steps from your front door!

Please enjoy the following blog posts:

  1. Nicole kicks off the week with a great shoppe in her post in Une Photo, Un Poéme: it really gives me the feeling of taking us back to the days of Dickens!
  2. Sarah focus on a very popular part of groceries in her post in By Sarah! Those cheeses look amazing and make me want to get a taste of them!
  3. The town of Chabanais is well-represented in this week’s contribution in theOnlyD800intheHameau; those colors are simply stunning!
  4. A wonderful trip takes us to the market in Bangkok with a lovely photo in Take a Walk… and Discover!
  5. There’s a lot of truth in the post in Don’t Hold Your Breath: there’s nothing like getting fresh fruits and vegetables right from the farm to the market, as is evident in Kenya!
  6. Na’ama proves that children’s words ring true in her post in Na’ama Yehuda: a salad is just not a salad without a good variety of colors!
  7. Diane shares a wonderful comparison on grocery costs in her post in pensivity101: I like the idea of getting fresher food for less!
  8. Maria clearly enjoys visiting food markets, such as in Budapest and Barcelona, as we can see in Kamerapromenader; wonderful color on those wares!
  9. In a fantastic post in Life Amazing we get to enjoy some of the traditional markets in Turkey; they look stunning!
  10. Elizabatz takes us to La Merced market in Mexico City in Albatz Travel Adventures; the variety of the offerings is truly amazing!
  11. Jase may be seeing vapor trails, but the post in Proscenium is really cool, as long as we get from the farm to the kitchen!
  12. Brian always has a wonderful outlook on the world around him in his posts in bushboys world; I urge you to go check out his post and find the funnies!
  13. Jackie takes us to a fancy market in Toronto in her post in Junk Boat Travels, where the food looks good enough to eat!
  14. Woolly reminds us of those wonderful shopping carts, where each wheel wants to go in a different direction, in a lovely post in Woolly Muses; pass me the watermelon please!
  15. Cath takes us to some wonderful markets in her blog, Cath’s Camera! I’m definitely partial to the Parisian market!
  16. Eric shares an amazing view of the market in his post in Up North, as this Peruvian market has a charm all of its own!
  17. Cee shares some magnificent shots of stunning groceries in her post in Cee’s Photo Challenges! Awesome variety!
  18. Deb has the absolutely freshest produce in her post in Twenty-Four, and it looks ready to pick!
  19. Olga has an eye for some of the more unusual produce that we get this time of year in Stuff and what if…; those gourds are cool, but the chanterelle is tops!
  20. Teressa brings a model into her photos in another lovely post in Another LQQK; fantastic trip to the grocery store!
  21. The posts in iball round the world are alway of great locations, and the Marché Bastille in Paris is no exception! And to provide some great contrast, the second market in iball around the world is in India; it’s great to see both the similarities and differences!
  22. David takes the approach of groceries past in a gorgeous photo in his post in David M’s Photoblog; the abandonment of this store gives an eerie feeling…
  23. The spirit of the season is reflected in another fantastic post in Beautiful Photographs; Halloween looks pretty interesting!
  24. Yes, there are times that the groceries can wait, as we see in Land of Images; time to get the pot of gold first!
  25. Susan captures one of those great moments in her post in Musin’ with Susan; it’s quintessential shopping at the market! Also, please check out Susan’s week in review in Musin’ with Susan!
  26. Robert brings us a stunning set of night photos in Photo Roberts Blog, as he visits the market in Hamburg at night.
  27. That tomato blew my mind in a great post in Chateaux des Fleurs; even for beefsteak tomatoes, that one is a giant!
  28. Sometimes what catches the eye is just perfect, which we see in Heart 2 Heart; that is a great market display!
  29. This week’s photo shared in sgeoil is one of those images that really paints a picture and brings it all together as a unified composition. Well done!
  30. Of course, I had to laugh reading the awesome post in One Letter Up – Diary 2.0! Now, I know what Grandma Friendly groceries are!
  31. Debbie has the most interesting travel destinations, as we can see in Travel with Intent! Zanzibar has a fantastic market and it made me smile to see where Superbowl shirts wind up!
  32. Tatiana provides us with a magnificent exploration of markets in Mexico in her blog Travelways; the colors and experience of being there come across wonderfully!
  33. I love the market we get to see in the lovely post in A Day in the Life, as I could see myself picking up a lot of products there!

Please let all of these great bloggers know your thoughts about their posts!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Tourism

At any scale…

Welcome to week 181 of the Tuesday Photo Challenge! Due to some family circumstances, I haven’t completed last week’s round up yet, but will later tonight.

From all the groceries that I saw flying by on my screen over the past week, I know that I have a lot to look forward to! As that had me in a Dutch mood, I thought that it might be interesting to scour my photos from the frequent travels to the Netherlands for some more material. As a result, I thought that Tourism might be an apt theme for this week! From all the travel images that I’ve seen over the years from lots of my loyal contributors, I’m sure there might be a wealth of opportunity here!

So share some of your favorite spots from among your travels and tell us a bit about why you enjoyed it! Can’t wait to see the avalanche of material!!

From my tourism collection, I thought I’d give you two views of one building…

The Rotterdam Library in real life…
The Rotterdam Library in Madurodam…

These images come from a single trip and were taken 2 days apart. In the top image, you get to see Central Library in Rotterdam in its full glory bathed in warm Winter light; it’s an interesting building and the inscription at the top reads ‘Heel de aarde is je vaderland’: ‘the entire earth is your home country’, attributed to Erasmus. The lower image shows you the model of this library in Madurodam, which is a wonderful exhibit in The Hague, featuring models of a variety of noteworthy buildings from across the entire country of the Netherlands. The exhibit is updated as new buildings come into prominence, but, of course, many of the old favorites will always be there!

The full rules of this challenge are in TPC Guidelines, but here’s the tl;dr:

  • Write a post with an image for this week’s topic
  • Please tag your post with fpj-photo-challenge (if you’re not sure about how tags work, please check out this WordPress article about tagging posts)
  • Create a pingback link to this post, so that I can create a post showing all of the submissions over the week (note: pingbacks may not appear immediately, as my site is set up to require approval for linking to it; helps against previous bad experiences with spamming)
  • Have fun creating something new (or sharing something old)!!

Let’s see what your traveling has produced!!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Groceries

This little piggy went to market!

Welcome to week 180 of the Tuesday Photo Challenge!

After rocking those stone photos for the past week, I have worked up an appetite! As I was browsing through images, I came across this one from my travels, which made me wonder: everyone in the world gets their Groceries somewhere, but where might that be? So, for this week’s challenge, share where groceries are acquired, either where you live or somewhere along your travels. I think it will be interesting to get a global view of groceries!

I look forward to seeing all your fun contributions to this week!

There’s some variety of items here…

Variety is the key at this stall!

This shot goes back to a February day in Rotterdam, when we visited the market to get some wares for the week; this market is pretty good size, even during Winter. As the Netherlands is a significant producer of fruits and vegetables, the variety is always pretty good. Utilizing greenhouses for growing, the season becomes nearly year-round for many produce items.

The full rules of this challenge are in TPC Guidelines, but here’s the tl;dr:

  • Write a post with an image for this week’s topic
  • Please tag your post with fpj-photo-challenge (if you’re not sure about how tags work, please check out this WordPress article about tagging posts)
  • Create a pingback link to this post, so that I can create a post showing all of the submissions over the week (note: pingbacks may not appear immediately, as my site is set up to require approval for linking to it; helps against previous bad experiences with spamming)
  • Have fun creating something new (or sharing something old)!!

Let’s get something to eat and take a photo or two!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Rectangles

Rectangles everywhere!

Welcome to week 171 of the Tuesday Photo Challenge!

The inspiration for this week’s theme comes from my starting to organize a bit of my travel photography. While doing this, I came across an image from 2008 during one of my visits to the Netherlands. As there is quite a bit of geometry at work, I thought that Rectangles might be an interesting theme, as they are everywhere and can be captured in many ways. You can get them straight on, or at angle that warps the perspective… Feel free to let your creativity guide your rectangular interpretation!

Above all, have some fun and share your vision!

Here’s that capture with lots of rectangles…

Institute of Sound+Vision

This image is from inside the Netherlands Institute of Sound+Vision (Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid); the view downward caught my eye, and luckily I still had my camera in outdoor settings (it was a bright February day), so that the exposure caused the moving figure to blur. It made for a nice serendipitous effect!

The full rules of this challenge are in TPC Guidelines, but here’s the tl;dr:

  • Write a post with an image for this week’s topic
  • Please tag your post with fpj-photo-challenge (if you’re not sure about how tags work, please check out this WordPress article about tagging posts)
  • Create a pingback link to this post, so that I can create a post showing all of the submissions over the week (note: pingbacks may not appear immediately, as my site is set up to require approval for linking to it; helps against previous bad experiences with spamming)
  • Have fun creating something new (or sharing something old)!!

Don’t be a square! Go capture some rectangles and have a blast!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Connections

Welcome to week 157 of the Tuesday Photo Challenge! Yes, this post means that this challenge has been running for 3 years now! Thanks to all the amazing support from the blogosphere!!

Of course, you blew me away with the response to last week’s theme, which I thought might have had special meaning to many of us. This week, I want to make the theme about the most important thing that I can think of in our endeavors here and in many other aspects of life: Connections! Making connections with one another and learning more about the world and the great people, with whom we share it.

Your challenge is to capture any type of connections that you would like to share, as they come in many guises and at many levels. This is a great opportunity to let your creative energies flow freely and see where they take you. I can hardly wait to see what connections you will feature in your posts!!

Here’s a literal set of connections…

Floral Connections

These wonderful, bright yellow flowers are all connected to their supporting branches, striving to reach every bit of light that they can! This image comes from a visit to the Botanic Garden of the Technical University in Delft, Netherlands. This is a wonderful place to explore and enjoy the beauty of Nature, reconnecting to all that is special…

The full rules of this challenge are in TPC Guidelines, but here’s the tl;dr:

  • Write a post with an image for this week’s topic
  • Please tag your post with fpj-photo-challenge (if you’re not sure about how tags work, please check out this WordPress article about tagging posts)
  • Create a pingback link to this post, so that I can create a post showing all of the submissions over the week (note: pingbacks may not appear immediately, as my site is set up to require approval for linking to it; helps against previous bad experiences with spamming)
  • Have fun creating something new (or sharing something old)!!

Let’s all make new connections and enjoy this week!