A weekend trip to Brussels

I accompanied my friend on a weekend trip to Brussels before she continued with the rest of her European trip.

Market day.

I was attracted to the bunny in the photo.

The Town Hall at 't Grand Place. 't is a contraction of het by the way.

Town Hall by night.

A nativity scene we saw somewhere, possibly in a church.

Taken from the train back to Amsterdam. It couldn't be the Erasmusbrug in Rotterdam as that didn't open until 1996. Perhaps near Antwerp. More research required.

A side trip to Volendam/Edam

A friend came to visit and we took a day trip to Volendam, a popular tourist destination where one can see traditional fishing boats. Well it wasn't so popular in winter as in summer.

The temperature was hovering around zero Celcius so there was a thin layer of ice on the pond. Some birds were standing on the thin ice and it looked as if they were walking on water. Jesus birds, quipped my friend.

The harbour. The weather was not so great and we ended up sheltering in a cafe for part of the time.

Kalverstraat

This is the pedestrians only shopping street of Kalverstraat.

The festive lighting was for the season,

The bright sign on the left is the American Bookshop which had good bargains in English language seconds and remainders.

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Scenes from Amsterdam

Late afternoon or evening. My internship was in Watergrafsmeer in the south-east and my lodgings were on Keizersgracht, and this looks like one of the canals and may even be Keizersgracht.

A busker in Vondelpark.

Part of Het Muzeiktheater,  part of the complex called the Stopera, probably taken from Blauwbrug.

Looking down the Amstel, from the same vantage point.

The Blauwbrug itself. Note the lampposts and the French influence.

Possibly the street market at Ten Katestraat. It's near Kinkerstraat district part of Amsterdam Oud-West.

This might take a bit of research to identify. Likely near the last photo. Would be a piece of cake for a resident, no doubt. Would have been outside the ring road enclosing the canals and a major road with tram lines.

Keizersgracht, near the Vizelstraat.

A second shot.

Winter pictures from the Netherlands and Belgium

In the winter of 1987 I took a month from my studies in the USA to spend a short internship in Amsterdam. Part of the reason was my mother and sister wanted to see me after 3 years of absence from home and I would be meeting them halfway in Europe. The other part was I missed Europe living in the USA.

I didn't keep a diary so the dates are approximate. But it doesn't matter as there is only a roll's worth of photos. I've had to do a bit of online searching to work out some of the locations, and I may still have got some wrong. Naturally the weather was gloomy. But there is a calming beauty in the sombre scenes. I also like the night scenes where the festive lighting lightened the mood.