Photos are meant to be shared
In a country with a lot of water bridges are essential. Last week a floating crane was used to insert the movable part of 260 tons into the new Prins-Claus bridge in the town of Dordrecht. It only took the 63 m high crane a bit more than 1 hour to insert the 47 m long part into the bridge which in total is 141 m long. The tolerance in the gap was 5 mm. The price for the new bridge is 12 million Euro.
Before 2003 I took most pictures as slides, only few as color or black and white negatives. Scanning the slides is tricky and even with a good scanner it takes a lot of time and the result is not always good. For the first time I now have sent a negative film away for scanning and I am quite surprised, since the quality is almost better than what this same lab produces from slide films. Here are a couple of examples.
I have written a story about Chiloe in my blog:
https://h-s-coronastories.blogspot.com/2021/03/number-62-chile-1998.html
As a comparison, all the photos in the blog are scanned from slides
The camel is for North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula what for the Americas is the horse. In the little village of Babile outside of Harar in Ethiopia the Somali farmers trade their camels once a week. Most are sold for meat. The prices range between 500 and 5000$. The scene probably has not changed considerably since Richard Burton, the british explorer, first visited the area in 1854. And he did so by using one of the three caravans of camels leaving Harar with merchandise like the famous coffee every year.
Water is carried in dried and hollow pumpkin containers
Ethiopian men like to dye their beards red
I have written a story about a visit to this fascinating area in 2012:
https://h-s-coronastories.blogspot.com/2021/05/number-67-ethiopia-2012.html
Rotterdam is Europe’s biggest port. A long peninsula separates the two entrances and is a fantastic place for boat spotting. The northern entrance leads to the older inner port and is mainly used by river boats and container ships. The southern entrance leads into the ore and coal port and the oil terminal and sees the big tankers and bulk cargo ships carrying more than 200.000 tons of ore. Some people spend whole days there, but sometimes the air from the refineries and industry is so bad that it gives you a headache
Pollard willows are a typical characteristic of the traditional dutch landscape. They were planted along ditches. The young branches were cut to provide material for basket weaving. Today few people still weave baskets. Cutting the branches is too much work and nobody bothers. When the branches are not cut they grow thicker and the trees become unstable and topple over in storms. Slowly the traditional pollard willow alleys disappear
Spring has arrived and just in time the government has lifted some Corona restrictions. One is that outside seating in cafes is possible again. The back of a mirror of a motorcycle reflects the guests of an ice-cream parlour
In the 17th century tulip bulbs became an object of speculation. In 1637, the price of a single flower bulb could reach a price of up to ten fold the yearly income of a skilled artisan in Amsterdam. Later the same year the bubble burst and fortunes were lost as quickly as they had been earned before. However, the flower bulb industry is still doing well in the Netherlands and numerous varieties of tulips as well as daffodils and gladioli are cultivated. “Tulip mania” became a metaphor for economic bubbles of prices high above the actual value.
For me it is always surprising how the sensitive flowers can survive the severe Dutch weather. Storms of wind force 8 and torrential rain are no rarity in the main flower season between March and May.
More photos and a longer story on my blog: https://h-s-coronastories.blogspot.com/2021/05/corona-walks-3-flower-fields.html
In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s the german company Grünenthal Chemie marketed the use of thalidomide under the name contergan as a medication useful against morning sickness, sleeplessness and anxiety. It was also used as a sedative for pregnant women, although it was never tested on this particular group. The use of contergan led to numerous miscarriages and birth defects, in particular severe deformations of the limbs. The reason was an enantiomeric impurity, which was difficult to detect with the means of the time. There were 10,000 victims in 46 countries. It took a long time and numerous law suits to get at least financial compensation for the victims.
The coast along the north sea between the French-Belgian border and and the northern tip of the Netherlands is one long stretch of sandy beach. Behind is an area of dunes. The sandy ground behind the dunes proved to be perfect for the cultivation of flower bulbs. In spring the colorful fields are a popular attraction for tourists. The flowers are not marketed but discarded. Only the bulbs are harvested, dried and sold.
My neighborhood was built in the first two decades of the 20th century. The building plan left lots of space for green. In the spring the display of flowers in the gardens add to the ornaments of the art deco houses. The use of bricks in different colors was typical for the time. Only the oldest houses got names
