ABC Wednesday: B is for Brugge, Belgium

My intrepid photographer and his long lens capturing other tourists in a small boat.

© Photos by Kay Davies and Richard Schear

Theatrical release photo from Wikipedia.

After seeing the 2008 comedy crime drama In Bruges starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes, we were determined to visit this lovely city in Belgium. We enjoyed the movie but we enjoyed the scenery even more.  It was actually one of the reasons we chose last year's Tulips and Windmills Cruise with Viking River Cruises. The reality did not disappoint, but unfortunately I was very ill the day we visited. Nevertheless, I took more than 150 photos and I don't know how many Dick took. The canals...the medieval architecture...the skies in varying shades of blue...we loved it all.

The English spelling Bruges was used in the movie, but the Belgian spelling is Brugge, which is now more familiar to us. A longtime friend from the Netherlands told me, before we went, about the port city called Zeebrugge, some 15km away. However, river cruise ships don't go to sea, but stop in Antwerp, about 100km distant. The Viking Pride tour-guides took passengers to Brugge by bus. I still think I would have felt better if it hadn't been for that hour or more traveling by bus. Give me water travel any time.

Posted for

ABC Wednesday

Mrs. Nesbitt's alphabetical meme, hosted by her capable team.

A is for Arnhem: A Bridge Too Far

On 17 September 1944 thousands of paratroopers descended from the sky by parachute or glider up to 150 km behind enemy lines. Their goal: to secure to bridges across the rivers in Holland so that the Allied army could advance rapidly northwards and turn right into the lowlands of Germany, hereby skirting around the Siegfried line, the German defence line. If all carried out as planned it should have ended the war by Christmas 1944.

Unfortunately this daring plan, named Operation Market Garden, didn't have the expected outcome. The bridge at Arnhem proved to be 'a bridge too far'. After 10 days of bitter fighting the operation ended with the evacuation of the remainder of the 1st British Airborne Division from the Arnhem area.

http://www.rememberseptember44.com

During our cruise in spring, 2011, with Viking River Cruises, we visited the city of Arnhem in The Netherlands. Our ship, the Viking Pride was berthed in full view of the bridge whose loss meant so much in the second World War.

Posted for the letter A
in Mrs. Nesbitt's alphabetical meme
ABC Wednesday
To see how other bloggers used the letter A, please click  HERE!

Watery Wednesday — "A Bridge Too Far"

Ghostly shapes seem to float around the John Frost Bridge across the lower Rhine River in the Netherlands city of Arnhem. Many lives were lost in 1944 when Allied forces, against enormous odds, tried to liberate the city. Although the battle ended in a victory for Germany, two movies were made about the determination of the Allied forces: Theirs is the Glory (British, 1946) and A Bridge Too Far (American, 1977). The city of Arnhem was eventually liberated by Canadian and British forces in 1945.

We visited Arnhem during our spring cruise with Viking River Cruises this year, when the Viking Pride (not visible here) anchored near the bridge.

© Photo by Kay Davies 

Posted for

Watery Wednesday

where, each week, 2sweetnsaxy invites us to "get our eyes wet" in photos.

To see what scenes wet the eyes of other photo-bloggers, please click

HERE!

Special shadows in a special Dutch town

Of all the places we visited in The Netherlands, my favorite was Hoorn. Heading back to the Viking Pride after our long walk through Hoorn, I made Dick stop while I photographed these: an old anchor and an old propeller. I would guess they're probably from a fishing boat, or a large pleasure craft. I loved their shadows. Even the chain holding the propeller has cast a bit of shadow for Tracy's meme:

Shadow Shot Sunday

To see other shadows in other parts of the world, please click

HERE!

The ever-changing skies of Amsterdam

Our European holiday started with a 10-day cruise on the Viking Pride, above, left, on the rivers and canals of The Netherlands and Belgium. We started in Amsterdam, first landing in Schiphol Airport and taking a train from there to the port where our ship awaited us.

The sky was several different shades of blue, with clouds coming and going the whole time we were there. As you may have heard elsewhere, there's never a dull moment in Amsterdam!

Photos by Richard Schear and Kay Davies

Posted for
Skywatch Friday,
the meme for people like me, who have their heads in the clouds. Skywatch is hosted each week by a team of dedicated photographers with an eye on the sky.

To see what skies have attracted the cameras of people in other parts of the world, please click HERE!

N is for (The) Netherlands

Photos by Richard Schear and Kay Davies

Here I am with my blogging friend, Wil, who rode her bicycle to Kinderdijk to visit with me while my husband walked around the famous Kinderdijk windmills with his camera. Best known to bloggers as "Reader Wil", she tells me she often rides to this little outdoor cafe to enjoy the weather, and she definitely makes a point of taking her visitors to see the windmills. Wil also chose Netherlands as one of her N words for this week's ABC Wednesday.
We had a wonderful visit with one another, and with other visitors sitting nearby. What a great way to spend a sunny day in The Netherlands! Thanks a lot, Wil.
(I also met another blogging friend in The Netherlands, but more about that in another post, even in a different meme, so keep watching my blog.)

Photos by Richard Schear and Kay Davies

Tulips are iconic symbols of The Netherlands. The wooden ones keep longer, but the real ones come in a wider range of colors.




Canals and live-aboard canal boats are also symbolic of this lovely little country, but I will never be able to think of The Netherlands again without thinking of bicycles.
Below, cyclists in Amsterdam park everywhere, even on bridges.

I fell in love with the wonderful little town of Hoorn, with its history and its waterborne beauty.
We had gone ashore to watch the chef from our canal and river cruise demonstrate herring-swallowing (with your head back, hold onto the herring's tail and drop it head-first down your throat).
After that bit of edification, we walked much longer and much farther than I expected, because every road and building was tempting!

Back onboard the Viking Pride, I fell in love again (it happens a lot in The Netherlands). This time I couldn't resist a nearby heron, completely unconcerned about his feathers being blown by the wind.

Posted for ABC Wednesday,
the alphabetic meme brought to us by Mrs. Nesbitt and her talented team.
To see how others illustrated the letter N, please click HERE!