Queensday in Amsterdam (1)

April 30 is Queensday in the Netherlands. We celebrate the birthday of  Queen Beatrix with a free day off with big parties on the streets. Everbody is allowed to sell their attic-stuff on the street, so the whole city is a big market where also children try to earn some money by selling their old toys.

We are still having summer temperatures and it was a wonderful day. The colour orange everybody is wearing is a tribute to our Royal Family who bares the name "House of Orange".

The Wedding

Did you see it? I was glued to the television and made some pictures.

Decorated bridges in Amsterdam

Amsterdam is inconceivable without water and bridges. The bridges are seen as an architectural jewel for the city. From 1917 to 1952 "Kramer" was an architect at the Department of Bridges of the Municipal Public Works. In total, around four hundred bridges Kramer has designed, the sculpture which was done mostly by the artist "Hildo Krop". From this relationship numerous works for the city of Amsterdam has arisen.In the areas of urban expansion between the two world wars, bridges and many other places one can find images to "Krop".

I grew up in such an area and I have always liked the statues. This one above is a gate-keeper, at the former "Weesper-gate".

I found an interesting website with pictures of the decorated bridges here

Horses

Aren't they cute? Mother and child I suppose, I spotted them on our tulip tour, along the road.

Tulips, tulips and tulips.

I did not know so much about tulips, a tulip was just a tulip for me. But a learned a lot here, there are so many colours, shapes, it opened my eyes. Here they have put together all the different kinds and I had a good look at them.

This is my first macro photo, did not know it was on my camera (shame on me).

Look at the funny milled edges, had never seen these.

With two different colours.

And this is my sweetie in the pink. There is a small path between the tulips, so he did not trampled  them. If you want to know more about the tulip history look here.

And at the end we had a nice drink in the garden and enjoyed the incredible hot weather 26 degrees Celcius. It has not been so hot at this time of the year since 1949! It is also very dry for a time and we had a big peat-moor fire in the north-east part of the country.

Tulip fields

In the "North-East polder", 60 km north from Almere we have the most amazing tulip-fields at the moment. From the little village Creil you can make a Tulip-tour by car or bike along the colourful fields. We drove by car looking left and right, calling "ooh and aaah" and stopped many times to make photo's, as many other people did. See more Tulip festival here

Tomorrow more about the tulip.

Sunday in the parc

The Vondelparc in Amsterdam.

Weekend Reflections #83

A flying cat at the Cobra Museum in Amstelveen.

See for other participants at Weekend Reflections here

Sky Watch Friday

A Mediterian sky in Almere 26 degrees Celcius! See for other sky watches here

And a happy Easter.

Tea-garden

The tea-garden in Eemnes, it is so weird to sit outside in the hot sun so early in spring with leaveless trees. Global warming?

There were some interesting things to see.

This is us enjoying the sun.

City woman in the country.

Such a fluffy chicken I have never seen before.

Isn't she cute?

This one was doing a trick for me, look I can eat on my knees.

We have the most wonderful weather here, for April it is exceptional 24 C! We cycled to Eemnes a small village about 13 km from here to a tea-garden. It was in the middle of the countryside and we had a walk over a dike where sheep were lounging and eating. I am not a country girl so I have never walked between sheep. I was afraid the mothers would be angry and protect their lambs, but they were very friendly and posed for our photo's.

And there is always a black sheep of course, just one.

Sinking shop

Amsterdam buildings are built on piles because of the soft ground, but some houses are sinking nevertheless after all those hundred years, like this antique shop in Churchstreet.

See for interesting information about "Deep foundation" here

Fair

This weekend we had a spring fair in Almere Haven with a gamble machine.

And a kind of crane which swept you over the top. Not my kind of fun.

Oostvaardersplassen

Yesterday we went again to the "Oostvaardersplassen", a big nature area near Lelystad. This part we had not been before and I must say it made a bit desolated impression on me. It looked like a terrible hurricane had blown all trees, all the wood was dead. It was more or less a disaster area. I think nature has to go its own way here. 

We did hardly see any animal, only two dears and a few ducks and gooses who we also can see around our corner at home. Two people passed us with big photo equipment, I wonder if  they saw something special.

Ceramiek

In the Public Library of Almere Haven is an exhibition of ceramiek of two artists, Genevieve Raap and Ellen Spierings. I have no further information about them except they are connected to the art-centre "Kunstlinie" in Almere.

Skywatch Friday

Sitting on the couch I noticed this strange sky just before sunset.

See for more Skywatch pictures  here

Blossom

I have seen many blossom photo's on the blog's already,  but it is every year a miracle indeed to see all the flowers in the trees.

Vondel parc (3)

This is the place to be "the Film-museum" to hang out and do tricks with skeelers.

Vondel parc (2)

The Vondel parc can also be used for romance, it is very photogenic for bridal photo's.

Vondel parc (1)

The Vondel parc in Amsterdam is a green hart in the city, like Central parc in New York.

With the sunny weekend everybody was enjoying, chilling in the grass, as you see in my header, it looked like a pop-festival. Children were playing on these big letters which is a slogan to promote Amsterdam.