Photo gallery of cities of Haarlem and The Hague (Den Haag) in Netherlands.
Tag: netherlands
In Black and white – Gallery #1
A photo gallery of pictures in black and white taken around in Europe.
In this gallery:
The Pont Du Gard in France, the highest (50 mt.) Roman aqueduct.
The statue of Marquis De Sade in the Château de Lacoste (France).
Two pictures of Jaume Plensa’s sculpture. The Nomade (the biggest one) in harbour of Antibes, and one of the seven Figures, an installation in Place Massena in Nice (France), representing the seven continents.
Some shots in Netherlands and Bruges (Belgium).
A shot of a frozen day in Campitello di Fassa (Italy).
Various gear.
Rotterdam (Netherlands)
Rotterdam is a very interesting city to visit in Netherlands for several reasons: architecture, history, museums, culture.
Rotterdam has the largest cargo port in Europe, is the city of the famous Erasmus of Rotterdam, and was voted 2015 European City of the Year by the Academy of Urbanism.
At difference of the others cities in Netherlands nowadays preserving the old typical houses and architecture, the heart of Rotterdam was almost completely destroyed by the German Luftwaffe during World War II (the Rotterdam Blitz), so, the city was gradually rebuilt between the 1950s to the 1970s developing an active architectural policy. Daring and new styles of apartments, office buildings and recreation facilities resulted in a more ‘livable’ city centre with a new and modern skyline.
Wandering into the city is very interesting to admire the skyline of Rotterdam, but also interesting are the open-air Maritime Museum along the banks, and the old harbour, nice piece of history of Rotterdam.
Other remarkable attractions in Rotterdam are the Erasmusbrug (also called ‘The Swan”) and, of course, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. This is one of the best art museums I’ve visited, and not because it has one of the mine favourites paint, the “Little” Tower of Babel, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, but it has a comprehensive collection of Flemish art and also classical and modern art: Hieronymus Bosch, Rembrandt, Monet, Kandinsky, van Gogh, Cattelan, Cézanne, Magritte, Dalí, Edvard Munch.
Gear: Canon Eos 6D, Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM and Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM.
Cube houses in Rotterdam
One of the most fascinating example of Rotterdam’s modern architecture is the Kubuswoningen (Cube Houses).
The city of Rotterdam asked at Dutch architect Piet Blom to design housing in the most historic section of Rotterdam’s port, so he decided to use the cubic houses idea, applying his earlier cube housing project in Helmond in 1970.
The concept behind these houses is that he tries to create a forest by each cube representing an abstract tree; therefore the whole village becomes a forest.
These cool houses are 100 square metres over 3 floors, and it was a bit extraordinary to see these houses fixed on one angle, and see a very different approach to living.
The cubic housing development endured various challenges and complications during design and construction. The cubes are tilted and sit on hexagon-shaped pole structures and contain the living areas, which are split into three levels.
The triangle-shaped lower level contains the living area.
The middle level contains the sleeping area and a bathroom, while the top level, also in a triangular shape, is used as either an extra bedroom or a living space.
The top level provides a great view since the apex of the room is a three sided pyramid with windows all around.
Gear: Canon Eos 6D and Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM
Marken – Holland – Part #1
The fairy-tale village Marken is on a peninsula in the Markermeer, in the North Netherlands, at only 20 minutes from Amsterdam.
Marken is a well-known tourist attraction for its characteristic green and white wooden houses (usually painted yellow and blue inside) and for his harbour quarter.
Houses here are built on little hills called werven, or on pilings to keep them high and dry.
Walking around Marken, is easy to see the impressive town’s architecture. Until 1957, Marken was an island in isolation from the rest of the Netherlands, so it developed an independent culture, architecture, dialect, dress and more. Marken ceased to be an island in in 1957, when a dike between Marken and the mainland was built.
These shots are taken after a storm, so, I was lucky to take a raimbow over the village in some photos.
Gear: Canon Eos 6D and Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM
Windmills in Kinderdijk – Part #2
Last shots of windmills in Kinderdijk.
Kinderdijk is a village in the Alblasserwaard polder of the Netherlands at 16 kilometers of Rotterdam, and a UNESCO World Heritage in Holland .
The most important aspect of Kinderdijk is undoubtedly the collection of 19 windmills dating from the 1500s, which are considered a Dutch icon throughout the entire world.
Gear: Canon Eos 6D and Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM with an Hoya HD polarizer filter
