Photo Festival Naarden (2)

This one I like very much, it is a portrait made by Marie-Cecile Thijs.

Outside the Big Church were king size photo's of people having diner and caught through their window from the outside by Herman van Heusden and Robert Elsing.

At the beautiful fortress area were also photo's exposed.

Photo- Festival Naarden

The Photo-Festival in the little country city Naarden is always great to visit. Photo's of dutch photographers are exposed in the open air and in all kind of different locations like the church,  a garage or a barn. You have a walk trough the village and everywhere you see photo's even in the shop windows or the shops self. The theme was this year "Portraits".

The exhibition in the Big Church of Naarden.

As Naarden is a fortress village there are corridors under the ground where also photo's were exposed.

Tomorrow I show you more. See their website here

Hanging around

I was hanging around at Schiphol airport today to pick up my daughter from her holiday. It is a bit uncomfortable to make pictures on an airport nowadays. There is security everywhere looking around to grab an old lady with a camera in her neck. But I like to observe all the people coming home from  holiday. Saw very tanned people returning from Spain and Greece, saw doggies greeting their daddies and a very tiny grandmother from Portugal greeting her granddaughter, they were almost the same height. At last my daughter arrived on time and safe and we had a nice drink and chat on the airport and went together to her home.

SkyWatch Friday

Most times of the year we have grey skies, but this spring the skies are for two month's already mediterian blue with a white cloud so now and than, This photo is near the cementery of Almere Haven. See for other SkyWatches here

Birds eye view

Another view from the H&M building of yesterday at Dam square in Amsterdam. Look at all the pigeons.

The orange jackets left was a schoolclass looking at a performer, I saw him fire spitting.

The building is the Wax Museum Madame Tussaud.

Dam square

From the fifth floor of a new H&M shop on Dam square in Amsterdam you have a great view on the Palace. I have never seen it from this point so high and so close. It is complete restored outside and inside, stones are washed and repaired and it looks fresh again.

The tympanum is white again with gold-leaf. The expectation is that when the palace is ready our queen will resign and her son will be king. The accession to the thrown has to take place in the nearby New Church and the new king will walk form the palace to the church. So we wait and see.

Noordermarket, Amsterdam

Every monday morning is the Noordermarket in Amsterdam, a market with all kinds of things, food, fruit, vegetables and a lot of second hand and low priced new clothes. My husband and I love to browse around, I was to busy to make some photo's, but my hubby sneeky made some of me.

Got something! Look at the woman left , she is fitting a dress like everybody does in the open air. It is fun and nobody bothers, there are mirrors to have a look.  I also fitted my skirt over my trousers, (luckily my husband didn't photographed that).

Finaly we had a coffee in an original cafe at the market, a so called "brown cafe".

Sunday Bridges

The Vondelparc in Amsterdam, a very romantic bridge I think.

See for more Sunday bridges here

Weekend Reflections #87

In the museum of modern art MKKA in Arnhem at a fashion exhibition of the duo "Spijkers and Spijkers" twin sisters fashion designers. The little boy in front is fascinated by the reflections of himself, you can also see him on the left. For other  reflections see here

Bicycle boat

This is a shelter for bicycles in Amsterdam on an old ferry in the river IJ behind the Central Station.

Amsterdam, city of photo's

A typical Amsterdam picture, you see three bridges, a canal-boat and a bicycle linked to the bridge.

At this exhibition in the "Amsterdam City Archives" I saw 150 beautiful photo's of the city from 1935 up to and including 2005. I love those pictures, so much memories passing by and so much changes in seventy years, its residents, workers and tourists. I think the image I made myself at the top will never change. There will always be canals and bridges, but the people are changing as the boy in his short pants at the poster, you will not see these nowadays.

A bunch of?

At the same museum garden in Arnhem as yesterday, another funny artwork. At first sight I thought balloons but the title is "a bunch of breasts", well that is a different way of looking. It is made by .Maria Roosen

The Filosloof

Last weekend we visited the MMKA,  a museum for modern art in Arnhem. In de garden I found this sculpture of "Maja van Hall". The title "the Filosloof" is very funny in dutch, but a bit difficult to translate in english. It means philosopher and drudge in one word. It expresses exactly the mood of vacuum cleaning, you do the work but your mind is elswhere on another level.

After two months of non-stop sunshine, is has started to rain here at last, so I think I am going to do a bit of  "filosloven" today.

By the way you know probably the famous fashion blogger "the Sartorialist". He visited Amsterdam this weekend to make some photo's and we saw him cycling on Dam-square! It was to fast and crowdy to make a picture of him but you can see his photo-result  here . The poor man ended up in the football festivities of local club victory Ajax.

Eye Film-institute

Behind the Central Station in Amsterdam, in the North part of the City , a very special building has arised,  the new Film-institute. Spring 2012 it must be finished. The architects who designed the building are from Vienna "Delugan Meissl Asscociated Architects".
The building will have 4 modern movie theaters with 80-300 seats, places for exhibitions, educations, movielab and a restaurant with terrace  on the water.
If you want to see more of the building look here

Bus terminal

At Amsterdam Central Station the bus terminal is getting a roof of glass with coloured parts.

Weekend Reflections #86 in Almere

A Weeekend Reflection of the Public Library with the University (Hogeschool) in Almere City.

See for other reflections here

I read that many bloggers had problems yesterday too, posts are back but no comments. Anyway let's go out today and forget the whole thing as my blogfriend CaT of .picture/day said

Blogger problems

I really don't know what is going on with blogger today. Couldn't use my blog the whole day and got a message that they had removed last posts and were busy to restore it, now my last post of yesterday has disappeared. Yesterday I had problems too. Does anyone has these problems too? I will stop for a while until all is fixed.

On the terrace

Yesterday we had lunch on a terrace in Almere City. In the back you can see the modern architecture of our city. Right in front is me trying to hide away as my husband made the photo.

It is still sunny weather although we had some rain but not enough for nature.

By the way did anybody had trouble today to use blogger? I couldn't get in my dashboard and make a post. I got strange code's, on the helpforum I saw german and spanish speaking people who had the same problem.

Relaxed

Amsterdam, sitting in his window and watching the crowds in the street below. I really don't know what the papers in the other window are for, a message?

Couple

Sunday afternoon in Almere City, I captured the couple but saw later I had a man with a bike too.

Willows in the white

Because of the warm weather, 30 degrees Celsius yesterday!, the plants in nature are growing very fast. I don't know the name of these, but the pollard-willows are almost disappeared in it.

It is a strange spring this year, very hot and dry for weeks now. The tree before my home is loosing his leaves already because of lack of water.

A real American Diner

In the Queen Beatrix-parc in Almere is this real American Diner. The owner did a lot of efforts to transport it to our country and to get it placed in the parc.

It is an original from 1939 from the Art-Deco era of the 30's. From 1939 to 1992 it was at the entrance of a cotton factory in Pennsylvania USA. In 1992 the diner moved to Sussex, England where it was fully restored and converted according to European standards. Summer 1993 it functioned as a reception area for investers of an American-style shopping mall in Oberhausen, Germany.

Diners can now no longer be exported from America because it is protected cultural heritage.

I like them very much, on our tours through the USA we have seen a lot of them, specialy at route 66.

Look at their website here 

Weekend Reflections( #85) / Almere City

The City mall in Almere City.

See for other participants Weekend Reflections here

Mao?

Is this Mao drinking a coke? I have only seen him in his "Mao-suit".

 A shop-window in Amsterdam with Chinese art.

The postman

Does the postman still always rings twice?

Remembrance Day

May 4 is our National Remembrance Day to honor the victims of World War II. One of them is the well known Anne Frank, the jewish girl who wrote her famous diary during her hiding in Amsterdam. This statue is situated at the "Merwede-square" where she lived before her hiding. It shows her how she left her home with lots of clothes on and a suitcase in her hand, looking back for the last time to the home where she lived at nr. 37. It is left from the doorway at the second floor.

Her home is complety restored and brought back as it was in the thirties painted with he same colours. Since 1997 it has a special destination, foreign persecuted writers can live there for a year and write in peace.
Look for a view in the house here

Elm seeds

It looks like snow or blossom, but Amsterdam is covered with seeds of the Elm trees.  As it hasn't rained for some time, and with a strong wind blowing, it is spreading through the whole city.

This is a very beautiful part of Amsterdam  "the Princes island" with old warehouses, now renovated in dwelling houses.

Something quiet

After our hectic day in Amsterdam yesterday we were at the city-estate "the Kemphaan" in Almere at  a little spring-fair and I saw for the first time a sheep been shaved so close. It looks not so comfortable for the poor one, but she was pretty calm and lost a lot of warm hair. 

Queensday (2)

It is very popular to sail in the canals with a group of friends, some beer and a lot of very loud music. That last thing many people don't like so much and the police had ordered limited decibels, but it didn't work at all.

A bit crowdy on the water, they all have to go through the same passage.

The cafe "The barking fish" in the Jordaan has every year a special facade about the Royal family. This is our princess Maxima in a parody on a television programme "The Voice of Holland"

See here for the link of last year, Queen Beatrix in the Matrix.