The bike ride

Today I went cycling with Marjolein and Gerrit. It was a wonderful day and we crossed some beautiful places. here's today's photo-report :-)

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This is the route we cycled. Starting at the Eastern most ferry point, Gerrit lead us through an old part of Amsterdam Noord where the houses were build to last only 20 years or so in the 1930's I believe. They don't even have a proper foundation but they're still standing and looking great!

Then it was Nieuwendijk, Durgerdam, Holysloot, Broek in Waterland and Zunderdorp. And then back home.

At Nieuwendijk there is a small water lock that you are allowed to operate yourself. Very cool!

Even cooler though was the small cafe next to it that served us crispy fresh and warm apple pie! We were there 10 to noon and actually saw the pie delivered. Can't get any better. It was good pie too! (Not that you can tell from Gerrit's face ;-)

After this first stop we cycled to Durgerdam. Lovely little town but you can skip the cafe / restaurant there because it's a bit too touristy and service isn't that great. Besides, they sell microwaved poffertjes instead of home made which is a big, big, big mistake in my book...

Continuing the on dyke next to IJselmeer.

We had a lovely lunch in the sun at Holysloot after which we took the tiny ferry across which was a small adventure. Very nice photo of Marjolein on the ferry :-)

Not a bad piccie of Gerrit on the ferry.

The ferry on it's return voyage. It fits about 10 bicycles max. I think.

And on the other side we found ourselves in the fields. Few cows on the other side of the field. Thankfully the dirt had dried in enough places to be able to walk without getting dirty.

My bike.

We had to cross 4 of these little bridges. There was a special rails for your bicycle...

... Mine didn't fit.

We had landed in the middle of nowhere really. Awesome!

Then we cycled to a place called Broek in Waterland. Lovely little village.

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We walked around a bit and I spotted this Dragonfly. Beautiful creature!

Pretty old houses from the 17th century there as well.

(Photo by Marjolein Verdam)
And then it was back home through Amsterdam Noord. I always find coming back in to Amsterdam a bit of a downer after seeing the beautiful countryside...

It was a great day, time very well spend :-)

Fence update

My Paul Anka cd arrived today. Very pleased. I already had all the songs ripped but I like them so much that I wanted the cd. It's not your normal Anka music. These songs are jazzy / big band versions of pop / rock songs from various artists like Nirvana, Michael Jackson and Van Halen.

These plants been bugging me ever since I moved in but I never got myself to fix them.

Then suddenly I felt like straightening them out. I cut them back a lot and I tied them to the wall.

In the evening I also put my fence together. Now it needs to be painted but I need a few warm and dry days for that. Good luck with that :-/

Bye bye corner building

Nike has put up a very big and very blue basketball net ad in my street.

It was strangely quiet at the station this morning. Normally there are a lot more people running around.

Surprise, surprise. Another remainder of the Citybox fire goes down.

Been walking past this little office for over a year.

Feels weird when it's taken apart...

At work my colleague Tanja has asked me to look after her plant while she's on holiday. I'll take good care of it :-)

My boss Ritchey stuck his head through the window and thus got photographed...

Another colleague Paul S. Brought cake with him when he went out to get his lunch. Very nice gesture :-)

Mr Mental Healthcare Marketing Menno also couldn't resist...

On my home...

It's gone!

Takes months to build. Takes 1 day to take down... Funny.

The Franeker planetarium

Marjolein and I went on a trip through the country today, by train. I visited the toilet on the train and it was very new and clean and big and spacious and it had a very funky huge door! I had to make a photo, I couldn't resist. Those buttons were just screaming "PUSH ME!"...

Marjolein being blown away by the vastness of Franeker...

Big place, big station...

Beautiful little village though. Very well kept.

Franeker's "Kalverstraat"...

Franeker's church. Unfortunately they put up a very ugly light so that you can't photograph the church without it anymore...

This was the main reason for our visit. Eise Eisinga's planetarium. The world's oldest, running, planetarium. It's been doing so for about 240 years.

Before we went in we had lunch in the planetarium cafe next door. It wasn't incredibly awesome...

The planetarium was though. Absolutely astonishing! In only 7 years did this man build a working copy of our solar system in the ceiling of his living room. All the sizes and distances are correct. It also shows the times of sunrise and sunset, the "size" of the moon, the current date, star sign etc. It's truly amazing!

This is the "engine". It's just a very big clock really ;-)

Above the ceiling...

This is the man; Eise Eisinga. A Frisian wool carder with a passion for the stars.

Stars and planets make hungry so I looked up this cozy sounding restaurant in Leeuwarden on my phone. This was not quite what we had in mind though...

So we had dinner at a smaller and much cozier place called Spinoza.

The RAM

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The Alpine Endurance was turned around yesterday. There are a few air vents at the back that make an insane amount of noise.

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This, dear reader, is what a real car looks like

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The family of Nile geese is still around.

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Another day, another cruise ship. This one was massive as well, like yesterday's...

In the evening I went to the DIY store to buy cement. I came back with a ladder, no cement.