Last post of 2011!

Me, Sofietje and hubby of  sccollections wish you a very Happy New Year.

Bicycle

Although Christmas is over the shops are still decorated. This is a hairdresser shop with an original bicycle in Amsterdam.

Exhibitions

There are a few interesting photo exhibitions in Amsterdam. We visited two of them yesterday. The first was in "FOAM" the Photography Museum Amsterdam about the american photographer Joel Sternfeld (1944). More than one hundred color photographs were shown about american life since 1970. I loved it.

The second exhibition was in "Huis Marseille" Museum for Photography. The Japanese photographer Naoya Hatakeyama (1958) makes photo's of explosions and blasts like in an open limestone mine. He also photographed the devastation ot the tsunami in his country and ironicly his own parental home had disappeared in the tragedy with his mother who didn't survive.

I wanted to show you the difference between the two museums. They both are housed in a canal house, the first one is partly rebuild in modern style and the second has preserved its original marble entrance.

Taphophile Tragics #1

Blogger Julie from Sydney Eye has openend a meme photoblog about cemeteries called Taphophile Tragics wich caught my eye. I didn't know it had a name but I must admit that I visit cemeteries quite often when I am on hollidays abroad. Don't know why but I am always interested in the stones and names and the way people lay their loved ones to rest.

The above grave is in Sodankyla, Finland where I was last June and I was surprised by the stone faces of this eldery couple. Had never seen this before, mostly you see pictures in glass.

See for other participants here

Sunlight

In winter you sometimes have these sudden sunlights falling at one specific point. This is the back of the Palace at Dam-square in Amsterdam.

Candlelight

In the Netherlands we have two Christmas days, the so called first and second Christmas day. The party is not over yet, tonight we will have another diner with candlelight.

Weekend Reflections

I wish everybody very happy Christmas days with beautiful reflections.

See for more reflections here

Vrolijk Kerstfeest!

City lights

Was in the city Utrecht yesterday with beautiful festive lights in the streets. I didn't have much succes to capture a good picture, to dark, to light, to blurry, grrrrr. These are the "best" ones.

 

Kitty with glasses

Many cats love to sit in a shop-window, it is warm and they have a good look outside. This one is garding the glasses which are displayed in preserving bottles!

Festive lights

When evening falls the cafe's in Amsterdam look very inviting with the festive lights.

Santa village

This Santa I met in June in Rovaniemi in Finland, the place where Santa lives. It was 30 degrees C (86 F) at that time and a bit weird to see all the Christmas stuff in the heat.

Here you could give your letter to Santa and at this time of the year you would receive an answer of him. I didn't because I don't believe in Santa....

It was possible to meet Santa in person which I also didn't do. They made quite an experience of it, you had to walk a whole parcours over little bridges in the dark and to take a photograph was not allowed. In the end you had to wait with a lot of other visitors to meet and great Santa and have an (expensive) photo with him. I turned around and made a sneakily photo of this picture, which is a bit blurry, but now you see the one and only real Santa.

Christmas Carols

There was a lot of fuss going on last Saturday in Amsterdam. Occupy people made a few banks inaccessible, so police was all around with sirens and arresting people. We escaped to a more quiet area a few streets away were we found these singing people. What a peaceful contrast.

Christmas decorations

Many little shops in the centre of Amsterdam have Christmas decorations.

Weekend Reflection

Another shop-window with reflection in Amsterdam.  See for other reflections here

Skywatch Friday

You can go to the right or the left but the sky will be the same.

See for other skywatches here

Winter Wonderland

The garden centre in Almere has transformed into a "Winter wonderland".

Santa's in all sizes.

 I think Sofietje would be scared to death when I came home with an owl.

The miniature village with moving objects, like dancing people in a ballroom, look at the price, almost 80 euro.

I didn't buy anything of the stuff but it was fun to look around in dreamworld.

Weather

In November we had the driest month in 100 years, well those days are all over now. Storm and rain bother our country every day with so now and than a little sunshine to chear us up.

So close the curtains and lighten the candles.

Christmas tree

Each year a big Christmas tree is placed at Dam-square in Amsterdam. This one is 22 metres high and comes from Germany. It has 40.986 led-lights which I haven't seen yet,  I have to come back later when it is dark. When I passed the tree just had been placed during the night, that's why the "cherry picker" is still standing there.

Sofietje playing

Sofietje has a baton with something fluffy on a rope which makes here very excited. She is jumping as a wild animal around and attacks the couch as a real tiger when we move it up and down.

"Roadrunner" is coming along.

Christmas market

We had a Christmas market in Almere this weekend. It is something we didn't have for a long time in the Netherlands, Christmas was never a big issue here,  but times are changing and now we take part in the festivities of a market. These ladies were singing Christmas carols.

There was even a Father Christmas.

Suddenly we heard the whistle of a steamship sailing into the harbor. For a moment I thought "Sinterklaas" had come back to bring more presents, but it had nothing to do with the Christmas market. The ship just came along to anchor here. 

Weekend Reflections

I tried to make a photo of the season shop window of the "Bijenkorf" but it ended in a reflection of the opposite street. See for more Weekend Reflections here

Christmas decorations

In a the big department store "the Bijenkorf" there is each year at Christmas another decoration in their light-well. These dolls are turning around slowly.

And the decorated Christmas-tree of course.

Biebkriebels as paparazzi

Yesterday I walked in Amsterdam when I saw a crowd in front of a cinema palace "Tuschinski". It happened to be a premiere of a childrens movie I had never heard of. But the funny thing was I suddenly saw many wellknown actors in reality in front of me. I joined the busy press photographers

and started to make my own "celebrity" photo's. I must admit these are no international actors, only known in our little country the Netherlands.

The man is Aart Staartjes and the little boy is Teun Stokkel, they are both the main actors in the movie Het gordijnpaleis van Ollie Hartmoed

Susan Visser

Kitty Courbois

Bracha van Doesburg

The press photographer Edwin Smulders who became famous when he made the first photo of our crownprince Willem Alexander with his Argentine girlfiend Maxima in New York.

Looking a bit suspicious at me, his concurrent, hi, hi,hi.