Amsterdamspam!
Oct. 8th, 2013 01:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beelikejLast Saturday I went to Amsterdam to visit brotherdearest and in the afternoon I met up with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sillie82 for some catching up on fandom and life. I had asked her to join me on my (treasure) hunt for more limited edition chocolate bars of Tony Chocolonely and she also helped me find a book for Children's Bookweek \o/
Due to repairs on the railroad, the trains to Amsterdam were ridiculously full and I had to stand back and forth. Fortunately I found a place to lean so I could read*, but it was not very comfortable. Yet over all it was a pretty great day. I also did some zoom-tests with my new camera, so I ended up with loads of photos (again;).
Outside Amsterdam Central Station, no zoom; see that winged wheel on top of the building? Let's take closer look...
Regular zoom. This wheel stood on top of the station from 1889 until 1930 and was reinstated in 2005. It's the international emblem for railroads: the wings refer to the sandals of Mercury, patron god of travelers)
With digital zoom you can see it really looks better from far away *grins*. The wheel is about five meters high.
Taken from the station: view on the Prins Hendrikkade. What are those coloured shapes on the buildings?
Regular zoom: parrots with parcels! Yeah. I don't know either.
Digital zoom (32x) - we found out later it's a shop for Christmasdecorations.
Gorgeous houses in the Haarlemmerstraat, where we found two shops that sold the chocolate we were looking for.
I was curious about the top of the building on the right. Zoomtime...
...it's a unicorn!
Super digital zoom reveals a very funky face. It looks more like a goat than a horse-creature to me;)
Indulge me with one more zoom experiment; on the left you can see the canal in the distance, on the right you can tell how many people are crossing the bridge! (Right click to view bigger;)
Walking along the Singel, we passed loads of these lovely sidestreets.
This sign of the cordwainers & cobbler-guild was originally placed in the Ham-Eters-Gang (Ham-eaters-alley) in 1663 but was moved here in 1871 when the original buildings in the alley were taken down.
Gorgeous pillar on the corner of Spui and Kalverstraat
Taken for lovers of the apostrophe.
The statue of Rembrandt van Rijn (on Rembrandtsplein) is surrounded by characters from The Nightwatch. Very cool.
Stainglass windows in one of the country's most famous bakeries. I made poorsillie82 wait a lot while making ALL the photos.
Last but not least: ridiculously huge jars of Nutella. One day I will buy one. One day.
*BOOKREC: Silhouette of a Sparrow - Molly Beth Griffin.
Yesterday I started in The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. I'm about a third in and I already suspect that will be my next recommendation;)
I'm guessing most of you will be watching Supernatural tonight, I will be on the couch for The Great British Bake Off. Feel free to squee at me with spoilers, I'll catch up later! Hope y'all have a great evening:)
sillie82 for some catching up on fandom and life. I had asked her to join me on my (treasure) hunt for more limited edition chocolate bars of Tony Chocolonely and she also helped me find a book for Children's Bookweek \o/ Due to repairs on the railroad, the trains to Amsterdam were ridiculously full and I had to stand back and forth. Fortunately I found a place to lean so I could read*, but it was not very comfortable. Yet over all it was a pretty great day. I also did some zoom-tests with my new camera, so I ended up with loads of photos (again;).
Outside Amsterdam Central Station, no zoom; see that winged wheel on top of the building? Let's take closer look...
Regular zoom. This wheel stood on top of the station from 1889 until 1930 and was reinstated in 2005. It's the international emblem for railroads: the wings refer to the sandals of Mercury, patron god of travelers)
With digital zoom you can see it really looks better from far away *grins*. The wheel is about five meters high.
Taken from the station: view on the Prins Hendrikkade. What are those coloured shapes on the buildings?
Regular zoom: parrots with parcels! Yeah. I don't know either.
Digital zoom (32x) - we found out later it's a shop for Christmasdecorations.
Gorgeous houses in the Haarlemmerstraat, where we found two shops that sold the chocolate we were looking for.
I was curious about the top of the building on the right. Zoomtime...
...it's a unicorn!
Super digital zoom reveals a very funky face. It looks more like a goat than a horse-creature to me;)
Indulge me with one more zoom experiment; on the left you can see the canal in the distance, on the right you can tell how many people are crossing the bridge! (Right click to view bigger;)
Walking along the Singel, we passed loads of these lovely sidestreets.
This sign of the cordwainers & cobbler-guild was originally placed in the Ham-Eters-Gang (Ham-eaters-alley) in 1663 but was moved here in 1871 when the original buildings in the alley were taken down.
Gorgeous pillar on the corner of Spui and Kalverstraat
Taken for lovers of the apostrophe.
The statue of Rembrandt van Rijn (on Rembrandtsplein) is surrounded by characters from The Nightwatch. Very cool.
Stainglass windows in one of the country's most famous bakeries. I made poor
sillie82 wait a lot while making ALL the photos.
Last but not least: ridiculously huge jars of Nutella. One day I will buy one. One day.
*BOOKREC: Silhouette of a Sparrow - Molly Beth Griffin.
Yesterday I started in The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. I'm about a third in and I already suspect that will be my next recommendation;)
I'm guessing most of you will be watching Supernatural tonight, I will be on the couch for The Great British Bake Off. Feel free to squee at me with spoilers, I'll catch up later! Hope y'all have a great evening:)
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Date: 2013-10-08 12:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-09 08:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-16 08:29 pm (UTC)Also, APOSTROPHE FUCK YEAH \o/. That is all.
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Date: 2013-10-17 07:07 am (UTC)