About Cathedrals and houses in Almere

Lately I learned that Almere - hometown of Arjan - has its own Cathedral. A real copy of the Cathedral of Reims (France) made of living trees, called "the Green Cathedral" (in Dutch: de Groene Kathedraal). In 1978 178 poplars were planted in Almere as an idea of Marinus Boezem.


Now in 2008 the trees are fully grown and together with stone paths forming the perfect shape of the real Cathedral in Reims.

In the future the trees will die and collapse and a ruin of a cathedral will become reality.

A so called contra cathedral already has been planted and when fully grown in about 25 years a ruin and a "real"cathedral can be visited next to each other.......

Before visiting the green cathedral we went for a walk through a very new neighbourhood of Almere. Both of us surprised to see that very modern looking villas were built next to classical ones. And also wondering that if you are living in such a nice and expensive house how it could be that the surroundings are protected by such awful and cheap looking fences. Do people have no taste when it comes to protection of their property?

Hereunder are a few examples of the architecture of "Almere Overgooi"

For more info. about this 5 orange appartments, have a look at http://www.nextarchitects.com/overgooi/

The whole serie of pictures can be found on:

http://community.webshots.com/album/565012418gdsCbe

Almere + Euro Cup Soccer 2008

This picture related to soccer is about the nicest I was able to make last weekend in the Netherlands and most probably it will be the last one possible to be made after the elimination of the Netherlands from the Euro Cup Soccer 2008 last Saturday ….

I took it together with some other pictures in Almere. If you want to see some pictures of this city, one of the youngest of the Netherlands, please visit following link:
www.photobox.co.uk/my/my_homepage.html

Konnichiwa !

sweet memories from Yuri-ga-hama beach near to Yoron-to (thank you, Rietje!)

European soccer in The Netherlands

I found enclosed picture in a Dutch newspaper dated 15-05-08 showing the already existing madness of the European soccer cup starting in 1 week.

I invite you to email me the best picture you can make, which I will publish on this webblog.

Thanks in advance and have a wonderful orange day !

video - Pilgrims at Yashima-ji temple no. 84

14-05-08

We continued by public bus to Yashima-ji, temple no. 84 of the 88 temples of Shikoku, the pilgrimage after Kobo Daishi. We were so lucky that with us, a bus - so not the diehard pilgrims ... - arrived doing their rituals, incl. reciting/singing. We acted like paparazzi to save it all in image. Interesting to see it so lively and again, no other tourists, great!

video - Koya-san Garan - reciting monk

12-05-08

A monk reciting his prayings at on outside Shinto-temple.

SORRY, YOU HAVE TO TURN YOUR HEAD 90 degrees ...

video - Koya-san Garan - monk ringing the bell

12-05-08

A monk activating the huge bell, present at any Buddhist temple, at 1 p.m.