Holiday Greetings

Merry Christmas and all the best in 2010 for all Daily Bloggers!

Covered in snow

Shot of the Gereformeerde Church across the street.

Holiday Season

The Christmas feeling is kicking in today with me! I thought this is really an awsome shot and not such a familiar site in Holland.

Castle in the morning with snow

It is winter today! This morning a thick layer of snow and more then 600 km traffic jams. I have not been on Daily a lot this month, I am starting up my own business. Maybe a bit strange to hear in the times of crisis, but I have a certain knowledge which sells good.... So I am taking a change!

St. Nicolas goodies

St Nicolas treats...

Grey

It are grey, dark, cold and rainy days over here, never the less a great shot of the windmill.

Advert

Nice recovered ad from the old days.

A bike

A bike, I had a nearly fatal accident with one of these things when I was a kid, I always remember when I see one.

Shop

This is a building in the shopping street, I like the way how they made the angle look less sharp.

Old

Cool looking old house in the centre.

Goodies

The shops are filled with Sinterklaas goodies!

The old tree at Välsta

I love to follow the Photos From Haninge blog of Steffe. He takes pictures of one particular tree in various seasons. For a few days now it has been on my desktop at work...

Look at the Välsta tree pictures

Goodies

Sinterklaas has arrived!, tomorrow more....

Flowers

I made a short round to see what is interesting to shoot for Daily. I guessed that a lot of the scenes and things people are doing are similar all over the world.

In the supermarket I thought this must look the same everywhere, except maybe for this shot. Each supermarket, big or small sells flowers. Two ladies are looking for a nice bunch of flowers to put on the table, give to a friend or something(when you bring a small visit it is a custom to bring some tulips are whatever). Do you see this kind of flower stalls also at your supermarket?

Centre shot

Rain, bicycles and umbrellas.

Autumn shot

A shot of how autumn looks like in Woerden.

Apples

It seems to become a rainy Saturday but I need to go outside soon to get my share of apples for the week at the weekly farm market.

(and I need to make some new shots which I can post at daily)

Rembrandt

A house called Rembrandt.

Taksim Trio

I have been to the theater of Woerden to a performance of the Taksim Trio. Never heard of the people, the only thing I knew is that it was Turkish music. I enjoyed it a lot. I closed my eyes and completely drifted away..

Old house

I need to go into town and make some new shots. The autumn/winter is really starting, all the pictures I have are still of sunny warm days. But this one I still like to post. This old house is so interesting. It stands in the middle of town and it feels like it's an old old man who has seen a lot, but still going strong.

Time for a cup of coffee

A moment to un-hurry in a cafe, while looking at all the people who don't...

Nieuwkoop Tower

The tower of Nieuwkoop, build in 1672, used to be part of a 'High house' of a Lord. In 1816 the house itself was demolished. (this was a time when most of the medieval housed, castle, city walls and structures were demolished). The tower remained and is pretty high. Nieuwkoop is quite close to Woerden but I never new it existed..



Grotere kaart weergeven

Great Building

This is an old picture taken at Enkhuizen. It is a tourist office, I believe it used to be a stock for amuniton. Great building, it looks a bit Roman-isch.

Russian buns

I have had friends over for dinner and cooked a real Russian meal. The dessert was a real success. Buns stuffed with a mixture of boiled maw-seeds with honey, cinnamon, raisins, treacle and some other spices.

Advert

Great advert, it looks like long island but it's a compilation of famous buildings all around the globe.

Entrance Gate

An empty gate, nobody there...

Bench

Autumn is really here.

Cows

I have been on a holiday to Russia, for that reason I have not been posting images for a while. But I am back :), I have made 800 pictures so I decided not to post any of them but continue with Holland pictures. This picture is of several weeks ago. We are going into autumn so the landscape doesn't look like this anymore..

Do you see it?

I didn't noticed it when I took the shot, but later on I did... Do you see the squirrel?

river and land

I am staying with the Dutch landscape theme for a while, I have made such good shots a couple of weeks ago. However the landscape doesn't look like this anymore, the autumn is setting in..

Milestone

The multifunctionality of a 18th century milestone... Now a days it is used by sheep to....

A Cheese soo formidable!

Yesterday I have been to the Cheese and Delicacy fair, there I met a cheese so tasty and so good! It rarely happens that your taste buds explode and that saliva comes in an instant, but with this cheese it really happened. It's an Italian cheese made of a combination of cow, goat and sheep milk which fermented in chestnut leaves.
My goodness it was soo good, I recommend it to everybody (who likes old cheese).

Another one...

This is a shot a bit closer. It is the same type of mill I posted on earlier.

Country

Great shot of the coutry side, about two weeks ago now. The moisture in the air give a dreamy look to it, and in the distance another windmill!

Love is in the air

This is a shot I made a while ago in the summer. I spotted a couple, who were very in love with each other, they stood out of the crowd so much, while their ways of conversation was not very different from the others. But their eyes radiated love!

Just nature

Just nature, not really just nature, it's human activity now only for the accommodation of nature. The water you see used to be a canal, part of a defence system of a fortified building, part of the so called water line. This was a defence system which would flood part of the country so alien armies could not progress to the states of Holland. The wood in the water used to be of the (walking) bridge to access the fortress. It is now a hangout spot for birds.

Old farm

An old farm on the road to Bodegraven. In Holland are a lot of 'hidden' farmers neighbourhoods. Meaning there are several roads and paths to a town or city going through rural areas. Sometimes it looks like time stood still.

House

Cool house located at the shore of the old Rheine. For American standard this house might not seem so special but for Dutch standards it is a huge and probably very expensive house.

Rent a Swan

A picture from the local 'Rent a Swan' business. The only thing I could see you rent a swan for would be a posh wedding, probably it makes money.

Yes Yes!

It's a bit of track but I post it anyway. Today I have run the 10 km 'canal run' of Utrecht. I have been training for two months. And to he honest, I had to concur something in me this morning, I was actually nervous but I did it! In one hour, I ran it with my sister and a mate from school (I am the tallest of the two)

We are walking on the 'trekpad' literally 'pull path' or towing path, it used to be used by horses to pull canal boats. In Holland they used mainly horses. In Russia it were usaully people Illa Repin made the most famous painting of Russia on this, 'The Wolga thugs'.

Landscape

We are leaving the mill and moving on, into the Dutch landscape, which is flat and very cultivated. I will do some posts on it. It was a lovely day for a walk!

Climbing up

It takes some effort to reach the top.

Inside the Windmill

Until 1910 millers used to live inside the mill. A tiny little living space not much larger than the average children room. By 1910 a social law against poor living conditions was passed and the white house you’ve seen on the previous post was build.


The same window from the outside.


I think it must have been very cozy, when having no children but with a bunch of kids it must have been quite unpleasant.

Windmill

I live (like many other Dutch people) in a polder, from Wikipedia:

A polder is a low-lying tract of land enclosed by embankments known as dikes, that forms an artificial hydrological entity, meaning it has no connection with outside water other than through manually-operated devices. There are three types of polder:
Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a lake or the sea bed.
Flood plains separated from the sea or river by a dike.
Marshes separated from the surrounding water by a dike and consequently drained.

The type of polder I live used to be marsh land. Around 1300-1400 this area was colonized. This means dikes had to be build and canals dug. First they relied on draining methods of the Romans but somebody invented the windmill! The wind mill you see is from 1400, the basement. It got destroyed in a war in 1600 and was rebuild directly afterwards.


Now a days the draining is done automatically, but at times the ‘Ministry of Water State’ asks to the mill to join in. There is more heavy rain then there used to be. In fact the mill would be sufficient for this polder because it is strong and capable of transmitting large quantities of water.


Mills are now usually run by volunteers. The mills themselves are kept by the state, they cost a fortune but are considered valuable landmarks. Holland is so stuffed with old stuff, if you like history it is worth a study. It would take a life time to learn about it.