Going Dutch ~ Visiting my Beautiful Holland

Hi gals, today I am hoping to impress you with some pictures of my beautiful country. I spent Thursday and Friday being on a work trip to the other end of my little country. That meant a five hour train ride, going from the deep south to the northern tip of the Netherlands.

 

 

Thursday was a day with lots of beautiful cloudy Dutch skies. This is the train station in Groningen where we got off. Groningen was built during Holland’s golden age and is a beautiful city, that I sadly didn’t get to see much off this visit.

There are many very old buildings in Groningen, but the city is also known for its modern architecture too. In front of the station (where I am standing taking this pic) is a small draw bridge for bikers and pedestrians. It opened up to let a boat pass when we wanted to cross it. And this is what I saw then.

 

 

The underside is decorated with (faux) Delft blue tiles. Cute isn’t it. Note to self: find a place for some Delft blue tiles in my home……

 

 

As small as my country is, the difference between north and south is pretty big. Remember that picture I showed you recently? My region (that is wedged in between Germany and Belgium) has hills and valleys and a very un-Dutch landscape.

 

 

So every time I visit the North with its flat, wide open landscape, with meadows as far as the eyes can see, I feel like a tourist. A tourist in my own country.

 

 

The architecture is quite distinctly different too. So I was very happy that in between meetings, and other work things, we got to do some landscape and quant little town admiring too.

 

 

 

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I loved this black door from the restaurant where we had a yummy dinner. Do you see that ‘tree’ in the window above the door. That is a life tree, and they are very common in Holland, at least in old houses. They signify the tree of life.

 

 

The two day visit was very much work related but with my little camera in hand it felt like a mini vacation nonetheless. I always seem to see and notice so much more when I have my camera in my hand and I am scouting picture possibilities. I love that about photography. It makes the ordinary become extraordinary. Change your perspective a bit, zoom in or out and even the most mundane little thing becomes picture worthy.

Of course this little church is anything but ordinary, it is quite photogenic….

 

 

And of course there were wind  mills too. What would Holland be without its mills.

Talk about photogenic….

 

 

As seen on Instagram (find me there as MSongbird):

 

 

Friday was a rainy day. No impressive clouds  in the sky, just drizzle in my face.

But even in the rain a windmill looks good.

 

 

So is this as you imagine Holland? Any wind mills in your part of the world? And are there big differences in landscape and architecture in your country too? Does it make you feel like a tourist too?