Boats 'n Bicycles

Life in Amsterdam, Holland revolves around the canals. It's a easy way to travel around the city and as you can see many people live on canal boats moored in the canal. So unlike many other European cities which are choked full of cars and motorbikes here you find boats and bicycles which is certainly much more environmentally friendly and also a lot more peaceful.

Sea of Orange - Koninginnedag

This is a panorama shot at one of the major canals in Amsterdam, Holland during the Queen's Day crazy celebrations. 

Koninginnedag or Queen's Day is a national holiday in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Celebrated on 30 April (the 29th if the 30th falls on a Sunday), Koninginnedag is Queen Beatrix's official birthday. Though Queen Beatrix was born on 31 January, the holiday is observed on 30 April as it was the birthday of her mother and predecessor, Juliana. Many of the traditional activities are held outside, and observing the holiday in April makes suitable weather more likely.

The holiday was first observed on 31 August 1885 as Prinsessedag or Princess's Day, the fifth birthday of Princess Wilhelmina, heiress to the Dutch throne. On her accession, the holiday acquired its present name, Koninginnedag. When held on 31 August the holiday was the final day of school summer vacation, leading to its popularity among children. Following the accession of Wilhelmina's daughter Queen Juliana in 1948, the holiday was moved to her birthday. Her daughter, Beatrix retained the celebration on 30 April after she took the throne in 1980. Beatrix altered her mother's custom of receiving a floral parade near a royal palace, instead choosing to visit different Dutch towns each year and join in the festivities. In 2009, the Queen was carrying out this custom in the town of Apeldoorn when a car was driven into a crowd surrounding the royal family's vehicle; seven people in the crowd were killed, and the car's driver also died soon afterwards.

Flea Market

During the Queen's Day (Koninginnedag) celebrations in Amsterdam you can see many people selling items on the streets. This lady had staked out a good location on one of the bridges over a canal and was trying to sell a large array of clothing. I liked her comfortable cross-legged pose set off nicely with the cigarette in her hand.

Koninginnedag is known for its nationwide vrijmarkt ("free market" or flea market), at which many Dutch sell their secondhand items. It is also an opportunity for "orange madness" or oranjegekte, for the national colour, when the normally straight-laced Dutch let down their hair, often dyed orange for the occasion.

Red TNT Post Box

For some reason I collect photos of post boxes. Everywhere I travel I always note new and different designed post boxes and capture an image to add to my collection. This long oblong TNT post box was seen in Amsterdam, Netherlands. TNT N.V. is an international express and mail delivery services company with headquarters in Hoofddorp, Netherlands. In the Netherlands, TNT operates the national postal service under the name TNT Post. The group also offers postal services in eight other European countries, including the UK, Germany, Italy and Belgium. TNT's mail division recorded sales of about €4.2 billion in 2009.

Dutch Tricycle

This lady was transporting her children back from school in a neat little tricycle which seemed a perfect way to get around the city; environmentally friendly and offering a little exercise for the person cycling.

Happy Hour

This is a typical scene in Amsterdam late afternoon/early evening when people kick back and have a happy hour drink. These little corner bars and cafes are usually set up very well with outside seats so you can sit and relax in the cool evening air and watch people either heading home on their bicycles or sitting at the bar/cafe opposite you doing the exact same thing! This particular bar/cafe was on the Prinsengracht canal and very close to the hotel I was staying at so it was always an easy option to drop in for  a cleansing Dutch beer.

Minimilist Micturition

It took me a minute to figure out what this structure actually was ..... yes it's a toilet in central Amsterdam .... and definitely in the minimalist category. No need for those time wasting trips into a toilet when you can just duck behind the beautifully aquamarine painted walls of this stall in the street. You can even carry on that conversation with your loved one through the grill as you tend to your badly needed micturition in a quick, efficient albeit rather public manner.

Prinsengracht Canal

This is a view along the Prinsengracht canal or Princes Canal with the Westerkerk (Amsterdam's tallest church) seen in the background and on the left one of the buildings is the famous Ann Frank House. Many of the buildings along the canal were built during the Dutch Golden Age, a period spanning the 17th century when Dutch trade, science, military and art where the most acclaimed in the world. This canal is the fourth and longest of the canals in Amsterdam and is named after the Prince of Orange.

Canal Lights

The canals in central Amsterdam are delightful to walk around and as evening comes many of the bridges are lit up creating a beautiful sight. With many restaurants and bars along the banks of the canal it is easy to wander for a while then stop for a drink then head on for some dinner at a canal-side restaurant. 

Boom!

This building in Spuistraat in central Amsterdam was painted a bright blue colour and had BOOM! painted across the top making it very distinctive. In this area of Amsterdam there were quite a number of these old buildings with brightly painted graffiti.

Bicycle Bells

Bicycles are a common form of transport to get around Amsterdam and everywhere you go you will see stacks of bicycles parked. This row of bicycles had a colourful array of bells.

Artistic Amsterdam

During the Queen's Day celebrations in central Amsterdam you see a multitude of street artists, musicians, exhibitionists, vendors, etc and it's a very colourful day to spend people watching. This image was captured  of a couple of street artists showing their products and looking chilled-out to say the least. Perhaps the copious beverages consumed during this national holiday helped in attaining this chilled-out composure. I loved all the strong, vibrant colours in this scene as well as the individual characters.

Ronde Lutherse Kerk

This lovely building can be seen on Singel, Amsterdam and provided a good opportunity to use Silver Efex Pro 2 to post-process the image into an antuique style photo. 

The church was designed by Adriaan Dortsman (ca. 1636-1682) and was opened in 1671. The organ was built by J Batz in 1830 and it was restored in 1983 by Flentrop Orgelbouw. In 1882 it was rebuilt after a fire. In 1935 the Lutherans left the building and it became a concert hall.

In 1975 a tunnel was built by the neighboring Sonesta Hotel, today called the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel, for its own access. The hotel rents the church from the Lutheran church which is still the owner today. In 1983 the church was closed for a long period of restoration, but ten years later in 1993 the dome burned again. The church was again restored.

Today curious visitors and potential customers may enquire at the Renaissance hotel for an opportunity to view the church, which is not open for the public. A security guard must accompany visitors through the underground tunnel to the church where the ground floor of the consistory has been converted to bathrooms and the upper floor to a meeting room. Of the main hall, the impressive columns, galeries, organ and pulpit can still be seen.

BMW R80

This beautiful BMW R80 was seen in central Amsterdam. The BMW R80G/S is a motorcycle manufactured in Berlin, Germany, by BMW Motorrad from 1980 to 1987. Production totalled 21,864 bikes. It was the first in the BMW GS family of specialised dual-sport bikes, of which over 500,000 have been produced. The designation G/S is an acronym of the German words Gelände/Strasse, which mean offroad/road – highlighting the bike's dual sport design.

Psychedelic Dragon at Spuistraat 199

This building in Spuistraat, Amsterdam had a glorious psychedelic, red-spotted green dragon painted on the yellow walls which brightened up the run-down street. I just wonder what type of local stimulant had been used by the artist prior to painting this.

Drogisterij

Drogisterij in Dutch means pharmacist or chemist shop. This drogisterij in Amsterdam had a creepy looking statue of some turban bearing black man with a large gaping mouth and drug crazed eyes ..... probably not a great advertisement in my view.

i-Cycle

Everyone seems to cycle in Amsterdam and it's fun to watch all the different styles of bikes as well at the many styles of cycling. This lady was more intent on her phone than the business of cycling or perhaps she was just lining up the next mp3 playlist to give her inspiration for the ride home.

Canal Boat

This scene, shot on one one of the canals in central Amsterdam, almost looked like an oil painting with the murky canal water, the floating leaves and the run-down boat with the peeling paintwork. The photo comprised of 3-bracketed shots and was post-processed in Nik Software's HDR Efex Pro.

Koninginnedag (Queen's Day), Amsterdam

I was in Amsterdam last week on 30th April and experienced the extraordinary, crazy and bizarre party atmosphere of the Queen's Day celebration. The streets in central Amsterdam are all blocked off to traffic, that means no cars, no taxis, no trams and also no canal ferries. The streets are lined with stalls selling all manner of junk as well as a large variety of food and drink. The Dutch seem to focus very much on the latter activity and start drinking seriously from the early hours of the morning all through the day and into the evening. There are many small concerts and discos pumping out music all over adding to the party atmosphere. All in all it makes the Mardi Gras look like a children's tea party!

This video I took of some local musicians gives a small taste of the day's activities. I have other photos and video from some of the real crazy boat parties which I will post at a later date. I would love to find out who this duo are as the music they played was excellent .... anyone know who they are?

Koninginnedag or Queen's Day is a national holiday in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Celebrated on 30 April (or on the 29th if the 30th is a Sunday), Koninginnedag is the official birthday of Beatrix, Queen of the Netherlands. Queen Beatrix's actual birthday is 31 January; 30 April was the birthday of her mother and predecessor, Juliana. The holiday remains as an April observance in honor of Juliana and in hopes of better weather than would be encountered in January. 

In recent years, Koninginnedag has become more and more of an open-air party, with many concerts and special events in public spaces, particularly in Amsterdam, with expected crowds of up to 800,000. A major concert is held on the Museumplein in Amsterdam. To aid visitors in returning home by train after the major events, outdoor events must end by 20.00 and the Museumplein show by 21.00.

Venice of The North

Amsterdam has been called Venice of The North as it has over 100km of canals, 90 islands and 1500 bridges. The three main canals, Herengracht, Prinsengracht, and Keizersgracht, dug in the 17th century during the Dutch Golden Age, form concentric belts around the city, known as the grachtengordel. Much of the Amsterdam canal system is the successful outcome of city planning. In the early part of the 17th century, with immigration at a height, a comprehensive plan was put together, calling for four main, concentric half-circles of canals with their ends resting on the IJ bay. 
Known as the "grachtengordel", three of the canals are mostly for residential development (Herengracht or ‘’Patricians' Canal’’; Keizersgracht or ‘’Emperor's Canal’’; and Prinsengracht or ‘’Prince's Canal’’), and a fourth, outer canal, the present Nassau/Stadhouderskade, for purposes of defense and water management. The plan also envisaged interconnecting canals along radii; a set of parallel canals in the Jordaan quarter (primarily for the transportation of goods, for example, beer); the conversion of an existing, inner perimeter canal (Singel) from a defensive purpose to residential and commercial development; and more than one hundred bridges. 
The defensive purpose of the Nassau/Stadhouderskade was served by moat and earthen dikes, with gates at transit points but otherwise no masonry superstructures. Construction proceeded from west to east, across the breadth of the layout, like a gigantic windshield wiper as the historian Geert Mak calls it – not from the center outwards as a popular myth has it. Construction of the north-western sector was started in 1613 and was finished around 1625. After 1664, building in the southern sector was started, although slowly because of an economic depression. The eastern part of the concentric canal plan, covering the area between the Amstel river and the IJ bay, was not implemented for a long time. In the following centuries, the land went mostly for park, the Botanical garden, old age homes, theaters and other public facilities – and for waterways without much plan. Several parts of the city and of the urban area are polders, recognisable by their postfix -meer meaning 'lake', such as Aalsmeer, Bijlmermeer, Haarlemmermeer, and Watergraafsmeer.