Tag: netherlands

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!

Hiatus Tuesday Photo Challenge

Access to WiFi has proven to be more of a challenge during my vacation in the Netherlands than I had expected. Also, my T-mobile data speed is insufficient to run my laptop network over it and write a blog post.

Therefore, my apologies for not having a post this week, which will restart next Tuesday when I return home. There will be lots of new photos!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Round Up 121

Lots of pretty things…

Welcome to the 121st round up of the Tuesday Photo Challenge!  Another record setting week of responses!

I think that your posts touched on every interpretation of the theme of Row that I can come up with.  Filled with creativity, your contributions were great fun for me to read and view.  The effort that you put into each one of these posts shone through!!

A heartfelt thank you for your participation in this week’s challenge.  Now I have to think of a theme for 122 🙂

Here’s another row, even though they are not rowboats…

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Volendam Fishing Boats

I’m sure that you can’t blame me for capturing this photo, as the the bright Red, Green and Blue look to be jumping off the screen!  During a visit to the old Zuiderzee fishing town of Volendam, I came across this view and had to catch it with my camera 🙂

The following were this week’s participants in the challenge with links to their posts:

  • Sarah’s entry in By Sarah takes us to some rather interesting rows, as they will be very tasty at some point in the future! [N.B. – blog may be set to private]
  • In pensivity101‘s post is a really interesting read, as she manages to use just about every version of the word row in this post… go see, if there’s one missing!
  • Petra creates another awesome post in Photoworld vol. 3, as she puts all the pretty things in a row! Great photos!
  • Kammie goes exploring in her post in The Nut House, and she finds lots of interesting sets of rows!
  • Shelley’s post in Quaint Revival really sucked me in, as there were some awesome rows, including a row of Batman actors, whose voices are compared!
  • Michelle features a wonderful photo in her post in Take a Walk and Discover, which takes the theme in two directions.
  • In Sync with Deep‘s post, we get a beautiful poem that was inspired by the photo that accompanied this week’s theme.
  • The post in Jordy’s Streamings brings us rows of contradiction, with wonderful photos and celebration!
  • This week’s contribution in Geriatri’X’ Fotogallery provides rows in several dimensions…
  • Charles treats us to a view of the Straits of Magellan in his post in charlesewaugh, where we find a very well-trained row of birds!
  • Xenia’s post in whippetwisdom combines beautiful photos with a lovely haibun, as whippets enjoy the tidal pools.  Xenia’s second post in her blog, Tranature, shares amazing photos of black currants all in a row and a great haiku!
  • Lisa captures some great photos on the theme in her post in A Day in the Life, which leads me to wonder which one you like best? I have my favorite!
  • Nicole leads us to Saint Malo, where we visit the breakwaters at the Plage du Sillon in Une Photo, Un Poéme; this is a truly beautiful post!
  • Miriam’s post in The Shower of Blessings takes us to Huntington Library, where there are a number of gorgeous rows!
  • In her blog Out of my Write Mind, Sandy shares row upon row of hand-tied flies, which are little works of art and are useful!
  • Shubham’s post in Hadd Hai Yaar takes a look at a variety of rows with a set of wonderful photos!
  • This week’s post on the theme in One letter UP – diary 2.0 is filled with something that would make me salivate…
  • In Na’ama Yehuda‘s post, she takes us back to some of the darkest times in human history with a deeply touching photo from the concentration camp in Auschwitz and a moving poem…
  • A stunning photo on this week’s theme is in Chateaux des Fleurs, as fish were trained to swim in a row at the Mystic Aquarium!
  • In MV Obsession‘s post, we get to see the benefit of visiting locales during the off-season: plenty of seats available!
  • Stella has a great collection of photos, as seen in Giggles & Tales; there are some amazing rows in them as well!
  • The post for this week’s theme in Fatma Mahmoud is simply lovely!  A beautiful row of crescents frame the Moon in a great image!
  • Klara takes us to a UNESCO World Heritage site with her photo in Sliku svoju ljubim II; Qutub Minar is the world’s tallest minaret!
  • Olga brings us along on a visit to a vineyard in Niagara in her post in Stuff and what if…; now, if we could just taste some of the wine too!
  • Susan takes us for a serious row in her post in Musin’ with Susan, which also features stunning colors in the photo!
  • Jason may be on the right track in his post in Proscenium: just make sure that you look behind you occasionally!
  • In another great post in WoollyMuses, there are some fantastic rows, and I learn the meaning of the word bollard!
  • In an entertaining post in Jottings and Writings, I got the feeling that there may have been a row with a sprayer…
  • Sonia explores the beauty of symmetry of rows in her post in Sonia’s Musings, for which she provides evidence!
  • Sonya gives us a lovely view of Port Nicholson Yacht Club in her post in Middleton Road; the view is simply stunning!
  • Robert shares a great photo in Photo Roberts Blog, which gives me a sense of other-worldly creatures standing next to the port…
  • With a wonderful set of photos, the post in Life Amazing shares a number of rows that are very interesting!
  • In a post that features some relaxed rowing in Serendipity, Encouraged, Todd shares some of his experiences from his visit to India.
  • A lovely post by Ju-Lyn in All Things Bright and Beautiful has a great photo that shows us many rows!  How many can you  find?
  • Debbie’s post in Travel with Intent whisks us away to Madrid this week, where the great vistas yield some wonderful rows!
  • In a great post in the 59 Club, Alice takes us to the theater district in New York City, where she features a wonderful venue!
  • Debbie wrote another wonderful post in ForgivingConnects, as she shares how she manages to forgive herself for being upset about the uncertainties that she faces; a great read!
  • George documents a set of three chairs through the seasons in an awesome post in Alchemist of the Woods; these chairs are looking for some people that they can support!
  • With a great set of photos in Pictures without Film, we get to view the Mitchell’s Fold Stone Circle in a novel manner (it involves advanced geometry!)
  • On a magnificent beach in this week’s post in Land of Images‘ we get to look at some weathered groynes… Yes, you better go find out what they are!
  • Bryan treats us to something rather special in Bushboy’s World: black beans!  You have to check out these beauties, as each bean weighs about 30 grams!
  • We always get treated to something interesting in the Blog of Hammad Rais, where we find out about the motorbikes of Karachi!
  • Marie’s post in the New 3 Rs: Retire, Recharge, Reconnect features a truly unusual site: the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend, Iowa!  This really looks worth the visit!
  • In a wonderful post in Photography Journal Blog, we also visit a grotto: the Blue Grotto in Malta, which looks truly gorgeous!
  • Ron takes us under the bridge in his post in Progressing into Solitude, as we get a different view that looks fantastic! No worries, there are no trolls!
  • Maria’s photo in KameraPromenader‘s post for this week’s theme is a gorgeous capture of water drops!  You’ll want to check it out!
  • Ilka takes us to the nursery in her entry for A Thousand Miles, tree nursery that is! All stand at attention!
  • Tatiana’s post in Travelartpix features a wonderful photo of a row boat that has seen better days!  She also features some great rows of drying fish in another post in Travelartpix.  You can see more of her work in Travelways.

I hope that you enjoy these posts and let the authors know!

The Port of Rotterdam

Another power of water!

The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge has the very fluid theme of Liquid, which is right up my alley, as the Netherlands is all about water!

Staying with the Dutch theme from my prior post in this WPC theme, I’m focusing on the city where I was born: Rotterdam.  Rotterdam is very much a port city in its character, as trade is the life-blood of its economy; it is the largest port in Europe.

A key part of the success of the port of Rotterdam is the digging of the Nieuwe Waterweg. In the first half of the 19th century the port activities moved from the centre westward towards the North Sea. To improve the connection to the North Sea, the Nieuwe Waterweg (“New Waterway”), a large canal, was designed to connect the Rhine and Meuse rivers to the sea. The Nieuwe Waterweg was designed to be partly dug, then to further deepen the canal bed by the natural flow of the water. Ultimately however, the last part had to be dug by manual labour as well. Nevertheless, Rotterdam from then on had a direct connection between the sea and harbor areas with sufficient depth. The Nieuwe Waterweg has since been deepened several times. It was ready in 1872 and all sorts of industrial activity formed on the banks of this canal.

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Lots of water!

In this image, we see the Meuse river in the center of Rotterdam, with a water taxi speeding along.  Most of the ports are downstream from this location, which is to the right in the image.  Each of the port areas specialize in certain cargo types, such as containers, crude oil, refined fuels, bulk supplies, etc.

If you get the chance to visit Rotterdam, I recommend that you take a harbor tour with one of the Speedo ships; these tours are both enjoyable and informative!

Have a wonderful day!

Something Dutch 

Part of the Old World charm is that we have places where we get together to have a cup of coffee, tea or a glass of beer. These cafes usually have some light food fare, such as sate or a kroket (or croquette, a cylindrical breadcrumbed fried food filled with a mixture of potatoes and chicken with spices). 

Mart Café

I always enjoy going to a cafe to hang with my people 🙂

Berkel Town Center 

I was born in Rotterdam, and lived there for about half my time in the Netherlands. The other town that I lived in is Berkel en Rodenrijs. 

Today, as I did a quick bit of shopping, I took this photo of one of the main shopping streets in town. 

Berkel Centrum

A great place to get your groceries and just about everything else you might need.