Category: Netherlands

Living Unit

Living Unit I56A6630

Living Unit

In a prison not in use anymore in Utrecht currently there is an exhibition named “Hacking Habitat“. Various artists give their vision on the trend to curtail all of our privacy nowadays.
Living Unit is the unit where Dutch artist Maarten Schuurman has put all his belongings. He lives “off the Grid” with these six suitcases where he succeeded to put all his belongings in. The less possessions you have and the more you move around like a squatter, the less control “they” can exercise over you.

Consequently Maarten took back a lot of control. Actually that’s also the theme of the exhibition: Taking back control (or Hacking) of your habitat.

Haagsche Harry

My Own photo of Haagsche Harry _DSC6173

Haagsche Harry is a comic character in a series of cartoons authored by Marnix Rueb. One of the ingredients that made the character popular was the use of typical Hague vernacular in stead of general Dutch. In addition Harry wasn’t shy of offering critical views of everything and everyone, in particular political types including mayors and Queen and King.

Unfortunately Marnix died October 14, 2014. Thanks to a collection and a stipend from The Hague a statue of Haagsche Harry has been created and placed in one of the main shopping streets of The Hague in remembrance of Marnix.

Marnix_Rueb The author, Marnix Rueb photo from Wikipedia.

Speeding RWS 70 – Sail AMS 2015 – 1

RWS 70

In the early morning of Wednesday, August 19, 2015 I boarded a typical Dutch steel motor yacht which was rented by a friend who had invited 3 couples for a tour from Zaandam to IJmuiden and back in order to see the parade of the Tall Ships participating in the Sail Amsterdam 2015 event.

From 8.00 hr on to 10.00 hr the Noordzeekanaal would be saileable from Amsterdam To IJmuiden only and the other way around from 10.00 hr till approximately 16.00 hr it would be one way traffic from IJmuiden to Amsterdam. No freight was allowed at all during the parade.

Directions were given that the absolute speed limit would be 6 km/hr for everyone.

RWS 70 is a patrol vessel of Rijkswaterstaat. Sometimes Rijkswaterstaat is called a state within a state. It was founded in 1798 as the Bureau voor den Waterstaat. Currently it is as an agency part of the Dutch ministry of Infra structure and Environtment. As it is incorporated long before Trains and Cars became en vogue, waterways were the way to transport people and goods. From there Rijkswaterstaat has 3 tasks: Make and maintain the Dutch waterways. Protect The Netherlands from the water by creating and maintaining water defence works (think dikes and dunes) and create and maintain roads.

It is clear to me that the RWS 70 is speeding here at minimal twice the 6 km speed limit without apparent signs that it was on duty. Moreover as the maximum speed of this class of patrol vessels is around 28 knots, I fail to see why it doesn’t give an example.

By this bad example the two small boats following it also apparently believe they are in their right to speed.

Dolphin Sniffing

IMG_6394Do I Like Dolphin?

IMG_6395No, I don’t like dolphin

I’m going Backward and forward through thousands of photo’s I have made in the past and am still making. As a retiree I have much more time for this hobby than before and I discover little gems each day.

These two were made during a stroll in December 2007 along the northern beach of Terschelling. It was after a hefty storm and still windy. That all was probably too much for this baby dolphin that had landed on the beach. Seagulls had feasted already on its dead body  and the dog asked himself apparently: “Do I Like Dolphin?” and concluded: “No, I don’t like dolphin”

You can license them here and here.