Tagged: harbour

Ship and ugly fence on Park Quay in Rotterdam

6. November 2023

Misery on Park Quay: the Horrible Fence

Park Quay, or in Dutch: de Parkkade, is one of my favorite places in Rotterdam. It is a so-called waiting location, a place where seagoing vessels wait for a berth, undergo inspections, or change crew. But recently, this beautiful quay has been marred by a fence. How did it come to this? Nautical Park Quay is one of the few places in Rotterdam where the city and the port come close together. Of course, the historic ships in Leuvehaven near the Maritime Museum also create a nice nautical atmosphere. And with the boat tours by Spido or Futureland, you can… Read More

Nieuwe Maas river, Waslijn sculpture, Willemsbridge and Noordereiland in Rotterdam, The Netherlands under a spectacular sky at sunrise

Photography

14. January 2021

A January Morning in Rotterdam

The month of January, and especially the first half of it, is the perfect time to take photos at dawn. The sun rises around a quarter to nine, so you don’t have to set the alarm inhumanely early and walk around with a jet lag for the rest of the day. Therefore it has become a habit to undertake several photo expeditions through an awakening Rotterdam in this time of year. This year I hesitated. Photos during the blue hour look cool mainly because of the multitude of light sources, from glimmering daylight to headlights, street lamps and especially interior… Read More

The shining pot of the Boymans museum collection building under construction in Museum Park in Rotterdam during the blue hour on a morning the the winter of 2020

Photography

26. January 2020

January Mornings: the 2020 Edition

In a previous post I explained why early January is such a good time to go out taking photographs at daybreak. There’s no need to set the alarm inhumanely early because the latest (in the sense of the least early) sunrise is around New Year’s Day. And in this time of year sunrise coincides more or less with the morning rush hour, making it easy to adorn the photos with light trails and other special effects. Also this year I went out a few times early in the morning for a photo expedition through Rotterdam in the blue hour. Unfortunately… Read More

The floating pontoon bridge across Leuvehaven harbour near the Maritime Museum in Rotterdam during the blue hour before sunrise

Photography

3. February 2019

January Mornings

In a previous blog, I told you that the earliest sunset, the first milestone on the way to spring, already happens on December 12. The latest sunrise is two and a half weeks later, on December 30th. The graph below makes it clear: on that day in Rotterdam – and it won’t be much different elsewhere in the Netherlands – the sun won’t appear untill 8.50. Expeditions Sunrise at (almost) 9 AM ; that means that in January you do not have to get up extremely early to experience the blue and the golden hours. So every year I set… Read More

Aerial view of the old center of Amsterdam including the Singel canal, the dome of the Koepelkerk and the tower of the Westerkerk

Photography

26. March 2018

The Open Towers of Amsterdam

Like most Rotterdammers, I tend to refer to Amsterdam somewhat pejoratively as 020. Thats the city’s area code, which seems to indicate it came second after Rotterdam, 010. But secretly I think it’s quite a nice place. Okay, I still don’t understand why it is the capital when the government is located somewhere else. But especially when it comes to old and new architecture and urbanism there is a lot to see around the Y river. The Open Tower Day on 24 March was therefore a good occasion to take a fast train to Amsterdam. This event can be considered… Read More

"Old" vintage postcard, or rather a digitally aged recent photo of the White House and the Old Harbour in Rotterdam

Digital art

30. January 2018

Vintage Rotterdam

Take a good look at this vintage postcard of the White House and the Old Harbour in Rotterdam. An old picture, found in a cardboard box that has been in a cold and humid attic for decades. Let’s try to date it. Fin de siècle Er, did I hear you say fin de siècle? I assume you mean the end of the nineteenth century. That sounds like a valid assumption; the White House, the “American” skyscraper that for years was the highest in Europe, dates back to 1898. And the classic barges in the foreground, located in the Oude Haven,… Read More

Detail of the Rotterdam Water Map, shaped like rust patterns on the hull of a ship, zoomed in on the city center and the Kop van Zuid district

Cartography

28. August 2017

Rusty Rivers – the Rotterdam Water Map

On one of my photo tours through Rotterdam I went to Park Quay. At that location, not far from the inner city, often relatively large seagoing ships are moored. This time, one of those ships was in obvious need of some major maintenance. I made some pictures of it, including this one: Rust I can look at this kind of pictures for hours. A lot of things are happening here on a couple of square meters! The red paint on the ship’s hull is irregularly discolored into a wild palette of shades all the way to purple and pink. In… Read More

Photo made at the Old Harbour in Rotterdam on a misty day, with the White house and the boats in the harbour in sharp vision but William Bridge as a vague contour.

Photography

22. November 2016

Fog in Rotterdam

Fog is a natural phenomenon that can occur in any season, but in autumn it’s more likely to show its face. That seems to be related to relatively large temperature differences between day and night, although Wikipedia reports that the forming of fog depends on many factors. The presence of open water certainly also plays a role. And we have a lot of open water in Rotterdam. Like all special weather phenomena mist provides opportunities for photographers. And at the same time it creates challenges: if you are surrounded by mist, the pictures tend to be rather featureless and gray.… Read More

Photo taken low above the ground in a snowcovered Park in Rotterdam, illuminated by a low sun shining through the trees

Photography

30. December 2014

The Winter of ’14: Two Days of Snow, Ice and Slush

And so we had a White Christmas after all in Rotterdam. Well, almost, because the first snow flake fell shortly after midnight on the 27th of December. But it felt a bit like the third day of Christmas anyway. It was the beginning of a winter that would last for two days. Not too long, but already now there has been more snowfall than in all of last winter. And it was long enough to add a few nice photos to my collection Winter in Rotterdam. On that first day the temperature was just above freezing so there was a… Read More

Kerstkaart met schilderachtig beeld van een kerkje in het winterlandschap in nationaal park Thingvellir in IJsland

Design / Digital art / Space art

15. December 2014

Merry Christmars

For decades, I’ ve been putting a great deal of work into my Christmas cards. And sometimes into those of others. This year I made one by commission of Explore Mars, a (mostly) American non-profit organization that promotes Manned Mars exploration: The design and the text “Two Down, Mars and the Universe to go” is a reference to Neil Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind” and the recent landing of the European spacecraft Philae on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Mars comes into view as the next big step. And after that there are a few hundred billion stars and their planets to… Read More