Zeeland 24 - 27 september 2010

Last week I visited the Province Zeeland together with a couple of friends from the Fotoclub Almere. Together we rented a small bungalow near Bruinisse for a long weekend to visit the beuatifull beaches, nature and villages of the south-west coast of the Netherlands.
Zeeland, a province well-known for its centuries long struggle against the sea, is one of our most beautiful provinces and now a days most famous of its Deltaworks. After the flood of 1953 (during which more then 1800 people lost their lives and more then 100.000 became homeless) large bridges and dykes were build to prevent such a happening for once and for all.

So lots of pictures were made of the beautiful sunset and landscapes on Saturday. Sunday the wheather really was to bad to do anything outside. We went to the tropical Zoo of Kwabbendijke and in the evening as the wheather had cleared up a bit we went to Zierikzee for some nightfotography. I did some experiments with long shuttertimes (to see the lights of passing traffic).
Monday we finished with visiting Neeltje Jans, a former artifisic island where parts of the dykes were made for the protection against extreem high floods.

A collection of my pictures of the weekend are on my website:

www.iamnotsimple.nl

Mudflat hiking on Wadden Sea

 

Sunday September 5 we finally made it. A mudflat hike from Holwerd to Ameland which was postponed for 2 times in a row (both September 2008 and September 2009) the hikes could not be made due to bad weather conditions. You probably wonder what makes this hike so special that bad weather ends up in postponing it for a year? Well you have to book a guide and they are very often fully booked. Especially in the popular weekends up to 600 people may want to cross.

The trip itself is so special as you walk from the main land of Holland to one of the islands in the Waddenzee. A sea that almost falls dry on low tide.

Here some background info of the Waddenzee (or "het Wad" as it is called in Holland):

The Wadden Sea is an intertidal zone in the southeastern part of the North Sea. It lies between the coast of northwestern continental Europe and the range of Frisian Islands, forming a shallow body of water with tidal flats and wetlands. It is rich in biological diversity. In 2009, the Dutch and German parts of the Wadden Sea were inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List.[1]

The Wadden Sea stretches from Den Helder in the Netherlands in the southwest, past the great river estuaries of Germany to its northern boundary at Skallingen north of Esbjerg in Denmark along a total length of some 500 km and a total area of about 10,000 km². Within the Netherlands it is bounded from the IJsselmeer by the Afsluitdijk.

The islands in the Wadden Sea are called the Wadden Sea Islands or Frisian Islands, named after the Frisians. However, on the westernmost Dutch island, Texel, the Frisian language has not been spoken for centuries. The Danish Wadden Sea Islands have never been inhabited by Frisians. The outlying German island of Heligoland, although ethnically one of the Frisian Islands, is not situated in the Wadden Sea.

The word wad is Dutch for "mud flat" (Low German and German: Watt, Danish: Vade). The area is typified by extensive tidal mud flats, deeper tidal trenches (tidal creeks) and the islands that are contained within this, a region continually contested by land and sea. The landscape has been formed for a great part by storm tides in the 10th to 14th centuries, overflowing and carrying away former peat land behind the coastal dunes. The present islands are a remnant of the former coastal dunes.

The islands are marked by dunes and wide, sandy beaches towards the North Sea and a low, tidal coast towards the Wadden Sea. The impact of waves and currents, carrying away sediments, is slowly changing the layout of the islands. For example, the islands of Vlieland and Ameland have moved eastwards through the centuries, having lost land on one side and grown on the other.

The Wadden Sea is famous for the rich flora and fauna, especially birds. Hundred of thousands of waders (shorebirds), ducks, and geese use the area as a migration stopover or wintering site, and it is also rich habitat for gulls and terns. Today, a great part of the Wadden Sea is protected in cooperation of all three countries; see Wadden Sea National Parks for the protected areas within the German borders.

The governments of the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany have been working together since 1978 on the protection and conservation of the Wadden Sea. Co-operation covers management, monitoring and research, as well as political matters. Furthermore, in 1982, a Joint Declaration on the Protection of the Wadden Sea was agreed upon to co-ordinate activities and measures for the protection of the Wadden Sea. In 1997, a Trilateral Wadden Sea Plan was adopted.

The Wadden Sea was designated a Ramsar wetland of international importance on May 14, 1987.

In June 2009, it was placed on the World Heritage list by UNESCO

Many of the islands have been popular seaside resorts since the 19th century. Mudflat hiking (Dutch: Wadlopen), i.e., walking on the sandy flats at low tide, has become popular in the Wadden Sea. It is also a popular region for pleasure boating.

 

Then now about the trip itself: Starting from Holwerd (a very tiny village) in the north of Holland, when the tide is getting low you can walk on the bottom of the sea and make a cross-over to Ameland (one of the islands of het Wad). The first part (about 2 km) through the heavy mud, which make your feet suck in it up till your ankles and then you have an easy walk of 8 km on the sandbanks of the sea. These sandbanks are separated by channels which have to be waded. During the wading the water may rise up till your waist (depends how tall you are J ) and this is also the reason that every participant has to carry a backpack with of course food and drinks but also a complete set of dry clothes. After almost 3 hours we reached the coast of Ameland where we took a short rest and then had to cross the island to the clean water of the Northsea. Here we were able to wash up and change our clothes.

At this point we could chose to let us ride to Nes (a town on Ameland) where the ferry to the main land leaves. However, I decided to make another walk on the beach and made another walk of 2 hours to Nes (with 2 stops for drinks at local bars, one at the seaside and one in Nes). About half an hour left to get the last ferry of the day. Good timing though!

 

My pictures can of course be found at: www.iamnotsimple.nl

 

 

 

 

 

Blaricum moor

Saturday August 28 just a few hours before sunset I visited the moor of Blaricum. Although the wheather of last week was very poor, with lots of rain, this Saturday was rather dry. With the sun setting and a rather cloudy sky a perfect evening to make some photo's of the moor. The heath in full bloom, the contrast of the setting sun and some Scottish cows walking by. Well have a look at the following url:

http://www.iamnotsimple.nl/#4.0

A few pictures have been modified a little, just to create some more contrast in the clouds.
Enjoy!

Launching a website......

Today I launched my website where I am going to publish pictures I made in the past and the pictures I am going to make in the near future. The site can be found using the folloowing URL: www.iamnotsimple.nl
The reason I chose this url is quite simple: I just thought "arjan's photogallery" was a bit boring.
The album now presented on the site is made of pictures I made for a project of the Fotoclub Almere of which I am a member since september last year. The project I participated was to create a serie of 5 pictures with subject "Light". I worked with 4 other members of the club and each of us had to make 1 photo for the serie of 5. The final serie we made will be shown at an exhibition in Almere City Hall during the month July.

As I am not sure yet about the looks of the site a lot of maintenence will be done on it in the coming period, but i will take care that at leat one album will always be visible to the visitors.

have fun,
Arjan

11 February 2010

Two days gone since my last posting and everything still going up- and downhill smoothly. It is just that after our trip to the Marmolada Glacier the weather turned into a bad way. Tuesday afternoon already clouds came coming up and yesterday was even a sad grey day. Today was still cloudy and snow fell down.
Skiing with such a weather is a quite different experience, because of the little contrast in colors you cannot see any relief in the snow so actually you have no idea where you are going to.
Because of the new snow the slopes were not prepared and during the day little snow mountains (half a meter high) are created and you have to find your way in between, which means you have to make a lot of fast curves and if you misses one you’ll go right through it. After an hour or so you are really tired of it and it will not surprise you we were back at the hotel early in the afternoon.

Tomorrow will be our last day of skiing for this year and according to the hotel owner it is going to be a nice day and in the past he used to be always right about the weather.
Saturday I will leave Ortisei at around 6 in the morning to keep far away from any traffic jams as because of the carnival weekend lots of traffic is expected in the southern parts of Germany.

Till next time,
Arjan

Ortisei 2010

Saturday, February 6, 2010
Rather an early start today, as I am on my way from Ettlingen, Germany to my final destination in Ortisei, Italy. I am going to spend the entire week with only skiing in the beautiful mountains of the Dolomites. Yesterday I travelled from my home town to Ettlingen for a family visit and today I am facing another 550 kilometers of highway.
The trip went rather smoothly and I only had a little loss of time at the Austrian/Italian border, when an overactive custom member wanted to check my papers and my car. There are far too much stamps in my passport and he wanted to study them all. Then followed some questions whether I was the owner of the car and he had a quick look at my bags (did not have to open them), finally he went down on his knees and had a look at the bottom of the car (still wonder why? Can you hide anything there??) Then I was off for the last 80 km to Ortisei.
Checking in at the hotel I learned that the financial crisis has struck over here as well. Not many of my skiing friends have turned up and so we are only with 4 (normally around 8 to 10). And as this is the first week of the high season over here, I noticed that the hotel is not fully booked, which it normally is.

Sunday, February 7, 2010
We met our guide from the ski school at 11:00 so there was no need for an early start. Just some skiing around the village to get warmed up. It is not our usual guide, but he seems to be OK. His name is Romeo (typical Italian). He is going to show us around the slopes for the rest of the week.
Today we are starting off at the Seiser Alm. Weather and snow conditions are really perfect. Today there are some clouds, but between them there is lots of sun and it it freezing a couple of degrees.

Monday, February 8, 2010
Another tour on the Seiser Alm, but now we are really going far till the end of the area. Some new slopes are built over here and there are 2 fine slopes to ski on. The weather is even better then yesterday. No clouds at all and no wind.
And for all who are concerned: My knee is doing still very good, still no pains and the skiing goes well.

I am posting this story using the WIFI-connection from the hotel, but I must say the Italian Government is a little paranoid about internet usage. Imagine: No anonymous internet is possible in Italy. Every user of the net has to be registered! How about Big Brother is Watching You! Italian law forces, by means of anti terrorism, to register everyone to enter the net. So like being at an internet café I have to be registered in my hotel as a user of the net.
Tomorrow we will be facing a new experience. We will have an early leave from the hotel by minibus to Wolkenstein ( a village nearby) where we will start a skiing tour partly around the Selva Massive and all the way up to 3348 mtr to the Marmolada glacier. As the weather forecasts are very good the views from above will be spectacular. We will be out there all day and I get back to you all later with any further reports.

Cologne (Germany) - Neuss - Zons 14-/15/16-08-09

Half August we visited Cologne, an old city in Germany, famous for its great Dom church. Although we had plenty of time in Cologne to wander around and have a look in the old city, our main goal for our visit was actually a city nearby Cologne called Neuss. Close to Neuss the museum Langen Foundation has been built by the Japanese architect Tadeo Ando, whose buildings we both admire. When you approach the museum only one conclusion is possible. The style of his buildings is very recognizable and I am always surprised by the way he uses space and light in his creations.

In the city of Cologne we made a walk through the old harbor (Rheinauhafen). From the old harbor nothing old is left anymore. A new project is to be finished by creating new offices and houses. Anything is done to let it still have the look as a harbor and the so called crane houses were designed.

Sunday we finalized our visit to Cologne by seeing the castle gardens of Augustburg at Brühl, the botanical garden in Cologne and we had a very quick look at the museum of east Asian art (architect: Kunio Mayekawa which has a very small but nice Japanese garden (architect: Masayuki Nagare).

You can find more info. about the Tadeo Ando museum on www.langenfoundation.de/index.php?id=110&L=0 ; go then to
- Langen Foundation
- Architecture
- guidance (Rundgang)
Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside. We did not see the crowd and dinner party you see at the end of the video; actually we didn't see hardly any people, which is understandable, since the museum is situated quite remote.

Interesting was the nearby Museum Island Hombroich, both with the Raketenstation Langen Foundation part of the Hombroich Cultural Environment: the development of the Hombroich Cultural Environment, which has its roots in the Hombroich Museum Island established 20 years ago. The starting-point for all these developments was an extensive collection of fine art and a 'forgotten place' in North-Rhine/Westphalia situated close to Düsseldorf, where a special synthesis of art, architecture and natural surroundings was able to emerge. In 1994, the Raketenstation close by also became a part of the Hombroich Island and thus documents spatially the extension to a Cultural Environment.
The buildings, hangars, earthen walls and observation tower on the grounds covering roughly 13 hectares were renovated and redesigned. New buildings by Erwin Heerich, Oliver Kruse and Katsuhito Nishikawa supplemented the existing ensemble along with sculptures by Heinz Baumüller and Eduardo Chillida.

Very pleasant to walk around on this Museum Island with the beautiful weather we had.
Very strange was the fact that around the Langen Foundation there were also some artistic buildings, deserted and nobody around to give whatever explanation.