Tag: street scene

A Walk Through Historic Bruges

On my first morning in Bruges, I set off at just past 7:00 am to walk to the center of the old city. I soon came upon the enormous 115.6m high tower of the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady. Construction of the Gothic church began in the 13th century and was completed in the 15th century. The brickwork tower is the second highest such structure in Europe (or the third, depending on which source one chooses to believe). Whether second or third, the massive tower dominates its surroundings.

Bruges is a small Belgian city of about 120,000 people located on the North Sea in the northwest of the country near the Dutch border. The center of Bruges is part of a sizeable UNESCO World Heritage Site of some 430 hectares. My plan was to walk from my hotel near the southern end of the oval-shaped Site to the Markt or Market Square, about 1 kilometer away in the heart of historic old Bruges.

The Belfry of Bruges is the centerpiece of the Market Square. The tower, a mere 83 meters high was built in 1240, but has been damaged by fire and repaired several times since then.

I will have more about Bruges in the days to come.

That’s a Chinese Temple! Amsterdam

I was walking, day dreaming, along a narrow, bricked, rather non-descript Amsterdam street when I looked up and saw Chinese characters on the wall of a building. I was disoriented for a moment wondering what this place was doing in the middle of Amsterdam, realizing seconds later that I had walked into Amsterdam’s Chinatown.

In fact the name Chinatown is something of a misnomer, as this small area contains restaurants serving all kinds of East and Southeast Asian cuisines. My quick, very unscientific survey suggested there were more Ramen shops that anything else. There may have been some Asian markets as well, though to be honest the only shop I noticed was dishing up snacks laced with cannabis. My pot days are very long gone at this point, though I did try edibles a couple of times in the past. They put me to sleep.

I was not tempted to eat anything in Chinatown. Or Asiatown, call it what you will. Prices are crazy and the food served up is generally not nearly as good as what I get closer to home for a fraction of the price.

Amsterdam’s Oldest Public Park

Wertheimpark, first opened to the public in 1812, is named after a prominent 19th century Jewish banker and philanthropist. Sitting by the side of a canal and near the city’s botanical garden, the park has quiet paths lined with stately, lush green trees, several notable trees (that is, trees over 100 years old), and plenty of open space for dogs to play and neighbors to meet when they are keeping an eye on their playing dogs.

Just off to one side of the open field, there is the artist Jan Wolkers’ “Never Again Auschwitz” memorial to people who died at Auschwitz and other Nazi extermination camps. The memorial is also referred to as “Broken mirrors.”

Amsterdam Glows in the Morning

I was at the beginning of a walk that would take me to Amsterdam’s botanical garden and the small but lovely Wertheimpark when I walked into this image. Thinking back, it seems to me the walk had a specific destination, but a month later sitting in Hoi An, I cannot remember what that might have been. The sun was still low in the sky at 7:30 in the morning; the light on the tree and the water literally glowed. The dome of St. Nicholas Church is in the center of the photo. Amsterdam is genuinely a beautiful place.

Though I did not know it at the time, I was standing on the historic Armbrug bridge when I took this photo. The original bridge dates back to 1538; the current bridge, the product of a renovation undertaken in 1988, is not particularly memorable. I happened to run across the history of the bridge when I decided to post the image above and went looking for where I was standing when I took the photo. Not that anyone has asked, but as a point of information, I use an application called Mapy.com when I do map searches online. While Google Maps is better for finding nearby restaurants, unlike Mapy, it had nothing about the Armbrug bridge. In fact when it comes to using a map as a map, Mapy comes out ahead of Google in virtually every respect. Developed and headquartered in the Czech Republic, Mapy has Android and Apple apps, and works fine on my Windows PC. Fed up dealing with criminal organizations like Google? Check out Mapy. And that is today’s unsolicited advertisement.

The Old Town Hall, Ribe, Denmark

The old town hall of Ribe pictured in part here is in the center of the old village near the town square and Ribe Cathedral. The original town hall on this site was built in 1496, though it is not clear to me whether the building pictured here is the original structure or a newer one. Today the old town hall houses a museum that I did not visit and occasionally hosts local weddings.

Mostly I like the colors and textures in this image: the wall with old and new red brickwork, the wooden door with its wrought iron decorations, granite foundation stones of grays and browns, and cobblestones in the foreground. The street light in front of the building casts a shadow giving the image depth.

The Daily Commute, Copenhagen

The people in this photo are commuting to work first thing in the morning. Copenhagen is definitely a bike-friendly city. There were people biking everywhere I went in the city, almost entirely on public bike paths. Some people were out for exercise and recreation, but it seemed to me that for most, bicycles provided basic transportation – from home to workplace and back, for shopping, going out on the town and more.

In looking around for information about biking in Europe and Copenhagen in particular, I ran across the Copenhagenize Index (https://copenhagenizeindex.eu/) that, according to its website “is an evidence-based benchmark tracking to what extent the world’s cities have progressed in making cycling safe, convenient, and mainstream.” If you are interested, the organization’s 2025 index report is available for download as a pdf.

The report ranks the world’s top 30 cities for bicycling; Copenhagen is number two. Three of the top 30 cities are in Canada, none in the United States. Portland and Minneapolis are ranked 35 and 44, respectively.

Several days ago Sean Duffy, the Trump-licking moron wasting space as Secretary of the US Department of Transportation, complained that bike lanes are some sort of DEI initiative. When the index ranking the stupidest countries ever is published, no question where the United States will place.