Festival

At a Springfestival in Almere this "Johnny Depp" entertained the public.

The little one was impressed.

Bicycles

Riding in a tram you see interesting things in Amsterdam. Watch that man with the two yellow bicycles at the right.

Here we go. The Dutch can even cycle with two bicycles!

Skywatch

Riding in a tram through Amsterdam I noticed another corner house with turrets. I am apparently fascinated by them at the moment. A blue sky with white clouds makes it perfect for

  "Skywatch Friday"

Looking up

I lived In this neighbourhood in Amsterdam for about nine years and never noticed the beautiful houses.

All the corners have a tower.

I think I had a to busy life in the seventies, first full time working and than raising two kids from baby to todlers. My focus was on the ground to keep the kids away from dangerous traffics, I just did not have time to look up!

Jan Steen

Amsterdam has some parts where the streets have names of famous people. Close to the Albert Cuyp market the streets have names of famous painters. This one is named the  "Second Jan Steen street"

Recently a portrait of the painter with a short biography has been attached to the wall.

Jan Havicksz. Steen 1625-1679

Painter of mostly humorous, daily scenes to which we owe the expression

"a household of Jan Steen". In 1648 he was co-founder of the Leiden painter's 

guild, in which he held various positions. He also had a brewery and later 

opened an inn in his home in Leiden.

Linking to "Signs, signs2"

Sheep

The sheep herd in our surroundings of Almere Haven.

It is so nice to have them around so close between the residential houses.

Made the photo's with my IPhone. It seems Google styles them a bit.

Linking to "Our World Tuesday"

Monday Mural

A wall with murals made by "Hugo Kaagman" an Amsterdam artist.

We had a nice meeting with the artist himself in his gallery.

Where he took a lot of time to show us his extensive works.

Linking to "Sami's colourful world"

Bridge

Amsterdam has many drawbridges. We were just walking over this  bridge when the alarm bells got off and the barriers went down. It is always  a miracle to see the street suddenly moves up in the air.Watch the wires of the streetcars that move up too, they have an ingenious system that can come loose and close again.

This was the boat that had to pass.

And the cyclists waiting. The cars and streetcars have to wait at more distance from the bridge at the right. We have a popular saying here that when you arrive too late at school or at work "I can't be blamed the bridge was open!"

Reflection

A reflection in the new Central Station of Utrecht.

Linking to "Weekend Reflections"

Skywatch

A skywatch through the new entrance of Utrecht Central Station.

Linking to "Skywatch Friday"

Walking on rooftops (3)

The last building we climed was this industrial HAKA building.

This time it was really climbing many, many steps.

And the steps got even worse...

But we reached the roof.

And had a view at the Roofpark, a park with fountains on top of a building. They seem to do many things with roofs in Rotterdam.

A view at the largest port of Europe. Rotterdam is the gateway to an European market of more than 350 million consumers.

Then it was going down again....

Walking on rooftops (2)

The next high building was built in 1931 for  the Municipal Energy Company (GEB). During WW2, the German Army built on the roof a lookout which made the building 7 meters higher.

The lookout was with dirty glass which made it more misty for a photo.

You can see the "Euromast" tower built in 1960 for a flower exhibition (Floriade).

Here a picture hubby made of me on the building I posted yesterday. I didn't dare to step on those metal rails as many did to make better photos. I thought this was high enough for me....

Walking on rooftops

In Rotterdam people could enjoy a weekend visiting rooftops of high buildings. This "Hoge Wiek" building was the first we went up. It used to be an apartment building for nurses next to the  "Harbour Hospital". Now it is inhabited by students..

From below we could spot the visitors on the roof already. Lucky there was an elevator to the 16th floor an then a few steps.

We had a great view over the Maas river. Unfortunately the weather was a bit misty.

But you got a good impression of "Manhattan at the Meuse"

The "Willemsbridge". Linking to "Our World Tuesday"

Mural

Standing on the roofs of Rotterdam last weekend I noticed this mural. I have no idea what it is and have no further information about it, but it is huge as high as the 4 storey building.

Linking to "Monday Mural" Samis Colourful World.

Airpark

In Rotterdam a former trainstation has been transformed into a park.

There are all kind of plants to walk along.

The park is above streetlevel and is named the "Luchtpark" (Airpark)

To make it more real there are put some fake sheep in the green.

There are some achitectural objects to sleep in the evening.( not for real I think)

Another object to sleep in.

It was fun to see.