Almost Wordless Wednesday

Last year, I started to do an Utrecht Daily Photo theme, but quickly slacked off, since I felt like I should add a bit more text to the photos if they were going to be on this blog. This year, I’ve been trying again, but this time on a separate blog, in fact, on Tumblr, which doesn’t make me feel like I should add much text. Anyway, if you want random photos of Utrecht on a daily basis and don’t want all my rambling thoughts, feel free to check out Trajectum Trajectories for a daily photo. There’s no rhyme nor reason to the photos I’ll be posting, other than I kind of like them and they’re taken in Utrecht.

Foto Vrijdag: Reflections

Hint of Things to Come

I’ve checked off another Rietveld building from my list. It was such a lovely day, so we took Pippo out and decided to go visit another of Rietveld’s houses that isn’t too far away. Once I have a chance to go through the photos and get them uploaded, I’ll post more about it. Can anyone guess which building it is in the meantime?

The Nieuwegracht and The Domtoren

I’m still working on resumés and getting approved at various writing/freelance sites, so here’s a photo I took the other weekend at the end of the Nieuwegracht (the new canal … that dates to the 1300s) looking toward the Domtoren (the cathedral tower). It’s a lovely street to wander along, admiring all the old buildings.

Daily Life

I’m afraid I’ve been slacking again with the blogging and photographing and the general keeping up on things. Part of it has been sinuses, part of it has been having a life, and part of it is trying to get more work. For example, this weekend I went to a friend’s Tet (Vietnamese new year) party and had a wonderful time, while today I’ve been trying to wrestle my resumé and MS Word into submission. As a result, I don’t really feel like doing more research into some of the buildings and other interesting sites around town. So today you’ll have to make do with this photo taken along the Drift canal. I’ve posted recently about some of the other buildings along the Drift, buildings which technically can be seen in this photo. I love the rows of black shutters in the foreground, and if you look in the very far distance, you can actually see the apse of the cathedral. Of course, there’s also the ubiquitous cyclist and rows of bikes. I think outdoor photos would look strange to me now without them! Still, it’s nice to stop and appreciate having this be a normal street scene for me. I count myself lucky!

Biru the Chow Chow

The internet is a wonderful thing. A quick Google search and voila! I had the name and artist for this sculpture that stands down at the lower tip of the Utrecht binnenstad (city center), just down the street from the Centraal Museum at the Servaasbrug. The statue is named Biru, after the dog owned by the artist, Joop Hekman. This one is a copy of the original, which is part of a larger grouping in Enschede. The artist himself originally hails from Utrecht and he, perhaps not surprisingly, had contact with Gerrit Rietveld. It was through Rietveld that he was eventually commissioned to create the statue/fountain that stands in front of the Stadsschouwburg (city theater) here in Utrecht! Somehow I’d never found out the name or artist of the fountain, despite seeing it regularly. He has a few other outdoor sculptures here in town, which I’m now curious to go see.

Stijlish Bicycles

I haven’t been doing so well with the daily photos the past few days, in part due to other distractions. Yesterday, we (finally) went to the Rietveld Universum exhibit at the Centraal Museum. It was an excellent exhibit, which I shall write more about when I’m feeling a bit more chatty. Today, I just don’t feel like I can write about any of the topics I want to write about and do them justice. So for now, enjoy this colorful photo of the bicycles that are decorated in the colors associated with De Stijl and Rietveld. They’re available for use at the museum to visit other locations. Now I’m considering giving my own bike a bit of a new paint job!

But I Bet It Costs a Fortune

The weather we’ve been having really has put me into a funk. I’ve had no interest in going out for a walk around town to get new and attractive photos. I’m hoping the bit of sunlight we’re supposedly getting Friday will stick around and help cheer me up. In the meantime, you’ll have to make do with some older photos of the city.

I took this one a week or so before Christmas, but never got around to posting it. From the looks of it, this is a single residence. Just this one narrow bit. I have no idea if it’s like the Tardis and is surprisingly spacious inside, or if it really is as small as it seems, making some NYC apartments look big in comparison. Or maybe it’s attached to one of the other buildings after all, and is just a separate entrance. I’m really kind of curious, especially since this isn’t the first time I’ve seen one of these small spots in town. This one is located behind the cathedral, so I’m sure that even if it really is a tiny living space, it probably costs a lot!

A Hill

Utrecht — and much of the Netherlands — is a flat place. Not a lot of hills or mountains, so sometimes I feel like I can tell you exactly where to find any hills or slight inclines that may exist in the city center. Most, if not all, are man-made.

One of the interesting things about most of these hills, though, is that they represent the location of some of the old city walls that protected the old city. In fact, this particular hill really is a leftover from the old walls. A small segment of the wall still exists just behind where I was standing when I took this photo.

Mail Owl

I’m guessing some Harry Potter fans might like this mail box/slot I saw this morning. Some of the nicer houses in town do have these built-in, decorative slots for the mail, instead of the usual flap in the door. The only downside is figuring out where to put the ja/nee sticker. I suppose you could always get a custom decorative nee/ja to go underneath!