This week’s post features a photo from a decade ago, evoking nostalgia for a different era. It highlights Volendam fishing history.
For this week’s installment, I’m going back to a photo from only 10 years ago, which also reminds us of a different era.
Here’s that photo…
Captured from the docks of the picturesque town of Volendam, these boats go back to a time when fishing was more plentiful in the Zuiderzee and, after being close of by the Afsluitdijk, the IJsselmeer. Volendam and several other towns along this body of water have a rich and storied history, often interrupted by floods and bad storms.
Memories of a day spent at the port of Rotterdam with aunt Marlies, featuring ‘de Ballentent’
It’s been an intense day today, so a little tardy in getting my post on-line. In this one I’m going back to June of 2011, as I was sauntering along the port of Rotterdam with my aunt Marlies. We were simply enjoying the sights and company, as we were taking in some of the classic locales of the city of Rotterdam, one of which is featured in this post.
Here’s that classic ‘kroeg’ along the Parkkade…
This establishment is named De Ballentent, which was established just after World War II at this location on the edge of Het Park, which was noted in a Travel Tuesday post a while back. First of all, the name ‘Ballentent’ is what we call a fair attraction where one throws balls at objects for prizes. Also, this establishment is what in Dutch we would call a ‘kroeg’ or a pub in English. It’s one of those places where people sit down, have a drink and chat with each other.
Growing up in the Netherlands there were plenty of locations I had not visited until much later, such as Kinderdijk and Leiden. Here I make up for one of those in 2011.
Even though I grew up in the Netherlands, there are a number of locations that I never visited; or is it because I grew up in the Netherlands. One of these was Kinderdijk (until 2022), which was no surprise to our Dutch tour guide, as all of us in the Netherlands can see windmills just about every day. Similarly, it was not until 2011 that I visited Leiden.
Here’s an image from that visit…
Visiting my cousins in Leiden made for a very nice walk around the city and just an all-around great time. Of course, one of these cousins lives in Australia, so she traveled the farthest! During the walk we came across this windmill, named ‘De Put’.
Another windmill, you say! This one is actually a replica that was rebuilt in 1987 and sits next to the Rembrandt Bridge. The original windmill was built in the early 17th century and was captured in an etch by Rembrandt, who lived in Leiden in his early life. So, definitely somewhat special!
This week features a statue of Queen Wilhelmina, who ruled the Netherlands from 1890 to 1948, located in Het Park, Rotterdam.
In the vein of last week’s post in Travel Tuesday, I posted a lovely statue in the dry climate of Egypt. This week, I figured that another statue might be interesting, especially since it has a very different charm. This time, it’s in the much wetter climate of the Netherlands.
Here’s that statue…
Queen Wilhelmina reigned as queen of The Netherlands from 1890 until 1948, at which time she handed over the throne to her daughter Juliana. This statue of Wilhelmina is located in ‘Het Park’ (the Park) in Rotterdam and was unveiled in 1968. The sculpture aims to capture the queen’s personality in her simplicity, as the mother of the Dutch people, looking up to her people. Her robustness also typifies Wilhelmina’s approach and perseverance in leading the Dutch nation throughout the difficult years of World War II.
The city of Rotterdam has a lot of gems, including this futuristic architecture from 1977!
Some weeks I simply get stuck in a single country while going through my photos. I guess it’s the Netherlands for this week, as this installment of iPhone Friday gets us to Rotterdam. During a visit in 2017, I found myself walking through the city of my birth. There’s always something new to see in the city!
Here’s one of my favorite views that you don’t see everywhere…
Although these houses were already 40 years old at the time of this photo, they still look futuristic. Architect Piet Blom came up with this design, of which there are several locations. The first set were built in the city of Helmond in 1972, and these in Rotterdam started in 1977. The Rotterdam collection has 38 cubes and 2 super-cubes, all of which are attached to each other.
As they were (and are) quite the novelty, residents were often asked by passers-by to let them see the inside. So one of the residents opened their house as a “show cube”, and makes a living offering tours of their interesting abode. I have taken the tour and can tell you that hanging art on the walls requires additional attachment points!
Join me for a Thursday Throwback as we explore the peaceful shopping experience on Kerkstraat in Berkel en Rodenrijs.
This week I’m keeping us in my original home country of the Netherlands. After moving to the United States most of my visits were more packed with family visits than time to relax and enjoy the simple aspects of daily life. In today’s post there’s one of those moments, where I did get that time.
Here’s a simple walk down Kerkstraat…
‘Shopping on Kerkstraat (Church street)’ is a relaxed pace view of life in the town of Berkel en Rodenrijs. Doing our shopping for groceries, figuring out today’s dinner and maybe stopping at the café for a cup of coffee. It’s a pace that is bit more relaxing than rushing through a supermarket!
I hope your day brings you some relaxing moments!
A memorable snapshot taken in Schiedam, Netherlands, featuring a tobacco shop named ‘Dandia’ alongside a Marlboro sign stating ‘smoking is deadly.’
Sometimes during my travels I see something that just stands out a little bit for some unknown reason. Quite often I’m not sure that I can really tell you why I took that snapshot other than that it caught my eye. Today’s image from 2008 certainly falls within that category.
Here’s a snap from Schiedam in the Netherlands…
The literal translation of the text on the Marlboro sign is ‘smoking is deadly’. Regardless, the tobacco shop has the rather upbeat, perky name of ‘Dandia’; sounds like it’s all dandy like a dandelion! Part of the reason for this shot was that my father was a life-long smoker, who always maintained that he could stop smoking at any time. Of course, he never mentioned the restart less than an hour later…
In this week’s Travel Tuesday post, I posted a riddle about finding windmills in the posted image.There were several answers given and one was spot on!
In this week’s Travel Tuesday post, I asked the question of my intrepid readers about how many windmills they could find in the image that I posted. There were several attempts at this riddle and I am happy to say that there was one that was right on the money! Congratulations to Chris Breebaart! Please go visit Chris’ blog “What’s (in) the Picture?” where he shares his excellent photography!
Here’s the image that I posted, so you don’t have to go back…
There were several tricky bits to this, as some of the windmills are partially obscured and only parts are visible. As a matter of fact it was so tricky that my first attempt to answer the question was off by 1 windmill! However, looking at the source image and enlarging it quite a bit, I think that I found all of them.
Here’s my annotated version of the image…
The most difficult one to find is #10, as a little bit of it is visible through the capstan of windmill #9.
Hope you enjoyed this little puzzle!
We’re restarting this series with a visit to the Netherlands, specifically Kinderdijk in 2022.
As I was thinking about what kind of post to put together for today, the idea of re-establishing a series of travel images might be of interest. So here we go, bringing back some of those moments that captured my eye and imagination. Let’s start this week with the country of my birth: the Netherlands.
Here’s a moment from travels back to the home country…
In 2022 I visited Kinderdijk, well-known for its abundance of windmills, for the first time. Even though I grew up less than an hour from Kinderdijk, the thought of going there never crossed my mind. After all windmills are all over the country with about 1,200 of them still remaining; once there were 10,000 of them, but technology has replaced most of them.
With this image I wanted to provide a sense of yesteryear, when 10,000 windmills would have dotted the countryside. I’m curious how many of you will be able to find all of the ones in this image…
A 2008 trip to the Netherlands and a visit to Beeld & Geluid, the Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision.
In this week’s installment, it’s time to go back to the mother country, the Netherlands. This was from a trip in 2008 to visit family with my youngest daughter in tow. The two of us took several side trips and overall had a pretty good time.
Here’s a view of some windows that we encountered during this trip…
Beeld & Geluid (Vision & Sound) is the home of the Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision. It houses an audiovisual archive of Dutch media. The architecture of this building is striking from its facade to its interior. As we were exploring some of the galleries I managed to get this snapshot.
One of these days I have to come back here and look through their archives. I might even be in them, as our high school qualified for a nationally televised quiz show.
This is my mid-week contribution to the Monday Window thread, a creation of Ludwig Keck. To read more about Ludwig, check this page.