Canadutch » Rotterdam

Het Dak van Rotterdam

Breigh — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:08:52 +0000

Today someone in one of my photo clubs shared something on Facebook and I thought it was SO cool! It’s a website that has taken a collection of panoramic and 360 degree photos taken from all different rooftops around the city. They have put it together so that you can tour Rotterdam from above via these photos.

(The following photos are screenshots from the website, not photos I have taken – I wish!)

Basically, you just click on the circle to see the view from the rooftop of that building. You can use your mouse to pull the view from side to side or up and down.

It really is such a cool idea and put together so nicely! So if you would like to take a tour of this wonderful city that I live in click here!

I’m quite curious how they got access to all these rooftops. Is it just a matter of going in and asking someone? I’d love to be able to get up in some of these locations, especially for some night time photography. I’ll have to look into this sometime!

Pea Soup Sunday

Breigh — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 07:47:04 +0000

Last Sunday I posted about the foggy weather and sure enough, it’s the same this week, another Pea Soup Sunday! I guess it could be worse, it could be pouring down rain, or freezing but still… I could use a little sunshine again!

I get the feeling we are in for a rather long and dreary winter in the Netherlands this year, which is a bit sad after the dreary summer we had.

On the upside, it’s less than two weeks until I get to start decorating for Christmas, and you KNOW how much I love Christmas!!!

Foggy Sunday

Breigh — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 07:29:39 +0000

This morning I woke up and couldn’t tell if the windows of our flat were foggy or if it was REALLY that foggy outside.

Turns out, it REALLY was that foggy outside. I grabbed my point and shoot and quickly snapped some photos from our front balcony. It’s a bit wonky but you can get the idea. There is some serious fog going on here in Rotterdam this morning. I’m sure it will probably burn off a little later when the sun is out, or maybe not… doesn’t really matter, it feels like a cozy and quiet day here in Casa Soldaat.

Hope you all have a great Sunday!

P.S. Click HERE to view the photo a bit larger.

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101 List–Join a Book Club

Breigh — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 12:46:49 +0000

Number 16 on my 101 List was to join a book club. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for quite a while but never really bothered to look into. So when some friends of started one, I was all over it!

I’m not actually in the above photo, as I had forgotten my tripod and was busy taking the photo myself, but you can see the friends that are currently in the club with me. A great group of ladies who are a lot of fun to sit around gabbing with. We do chat about the books quite a lot but of course the conversations often move on to other subjects as well.

The first month I hated the book (Middlesex) but this month I absolutely LOVED the book we read. It was called The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and I plowed through it in no time. Next month we are reading The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, a book I’ve been meaning to read for a while now. In December we are reading The Help so that we all get through it before it comes out in the cinema in January. I’m really looking forward to that one.

One more thing off the list!

Oude Luxor Theater – Backstage Pass!

Breigh — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 19:28:24 +0000

Last week a friend asked if I would go along with her to check out a photo club here in Rotterdam. She left a link to the Urban Photo Collective on Facebook and asked me to check it out. My first instinct was to decline, because it’s a Dutch group and I was nervous about not fitting in. I tried to do that inner self pep talk thing that I do from time to time and quickly messaged her to let her know I would go, before I had a chance to change my mind.

So that Saturday afternoon we hopped on the tram and went to meet the group. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous, but once we arrived I felt much better as they were very friendly and welcoming.

I had been under the impression that we were going to do a photo walk around some of the bridges in the city, but when we arrived we were told by the organizer that he had a surprise for us (I love surprises! ), he had gotten us into the Old Luxor Theater to look around! I was really excited to hear this because I had been there twice before and remember wondering what it would be like to be able to take some proper photos, as it is never allowed during a performance. The first time I was there was my frightening visit to see the acrobats and the second time was for this year’s Rotterdam Film Festival.

I thought we would be able to go in and they’d let us in the theater, but it was so much better than that. They basically opened the doors and let us crawl through the place like cockroaches. We were allowed to roam free, go down into the dressing rooms, climb up in around the scaffolding backstage and anywhere else that struck our fancy. It was very cool.

The theater itself is gorgeous. The multicolored seating with the loveseats thrown in here and there gives it such an interesting look. It was hard to not just take a thousand photos of the lights and seating alone.

I probably could have stopped after a hundred photos of the seats, but the lighting, ohhh the lighting. I loved it! Especially the shape as it crawls along the wall and across the ceiling. It really made every photo different depending on the angle you capture it.

Being able to go down into the dressing rooms was an experience I wasn’t expecting. I’m not sure what I thought was going to be waiting for me but it was something along the lines of what you see on TV. You know, the superstars in their super lush dressing room. That really wasn’t the case at all, they were pretty modest and sort of like Dutch doctors offices… just the bare minimum. I guess it cuts down on costs and makes cleaning up easy.

They were also in the basement, with walls covered in posters for shows that have played in the theater over the years.

I didn’t take any photos in the regular dressing rooms as nothing really interested me, so I walked around opening doors and peeking to see what was inside. That’s when I found this little gem…

What in the…?

The other dressing rooms had plain white walls, a plain white countertop and some plastic chairs. The walls were covered in mirrors surrounded by white lights and each room had its own sink. That’s pretty much it. I’m not sure who the special person was that got this dressing room, but they certainly put their own touch on it! Wow. Just, wow!

After that disturbing display, I found a rather cool lounge area.

The neon Luxor sign was my favorite bit. I had these images in my head of those little acrobats hanging out in this room between their sets, having a few beers. No wonder my friend and I were so frightened for our lives. This room should be strictly off limits for any show that requires throwing things.

After visiting the other areas I decided to take the plunge and climb up around the scaffolding backstage. I went halfway up the stairs when I first got there, but then quickly turned around and went back down. Yes, I chickened out, but I made a triumphant return.

I purposely made those two small because they are kind of blurry. I blame the lack of light and not the fact that I was shaking, because I wasn’t.

After all that climbing around and peeking into places I shouldn’t, I sat down to have a drink of water and just take in the scenery. Then I noticed this…

I wonder who Arie & Silvester are, and I wonder how they managed to get their own loveseat. Did they donate to renovations of the theater? Are they people who work there? More importantly, what do I have to do to get a Tammy & Xander loveseat?!

I really love this group, because they are all about getting out there and taking photos. They don’t judge, they don’t care what level you are and they just want to get together and enjoy their common hobby. Thankfully they welcome anyone along to enjoy it with them. So if you’d like to do something like this, why not see if they are in a city near you?!

I am already looking forward to meeting up with them again. If you are in the Rotterdam area, maybe I’ll see you there!

The Early Bird Gets The… Theater!

Lightning Over Lombardijen

Breigh — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 07:55:38 +0000

One thing I’ve always wanted was to get some photos of lightning, the really giant fork lightning like you see on all the great photos on Flickr. We don’t get a lot of that here in the Netherlands, and if we do we don’t see much because it’s often really cloudy.

Last night we had a thunder and lightning storm here in Rotterdam and there was a LOT of lightning. Most of it, as usual, was up in the clouds… but there was some really cool visible lightning too. So I took a stool, my camera and tripod and camped out on my front balcony. I was going to get lightning photos come hell or high water! Uhhh… and the high water thing was a definite possibility because it rained like mad last night and we do live below sea level, after all!

In the end I didn’t even care if I caught any actual lightning because it was so cool watching the clouds light up in the sky and how each flash brought something different.

As you can see, I did end up getting some photos of the lightning anyway, YIPPEEE!!! It was so worth sitting there with a numb arse hitting my shutter every 6 seconds!

I took so many photos, most of which ended up with nothing on them, but I quickly realized that if I didn’t take photos one immediately after each other, I was going to miss out on something. The few times I did stop to shift on the stool, scratch my leg or adjust the camera… KABLAMMO!!! MEGA LIGHTNING!! Argggggh! It never failed, every time I wasn’t taking a photo, the lightning streaked across the sky in a totally undocumented display.

Figures… lesson learned!

*EDIT* Just saw a video someone posted of the same lightning in Utrecht. It makes me wish I’d also gotten out my P&S and gotten some video too. ANOTHER lesson learned! Here’s the video:

Rainbow Over Lombardijen

The Day I Almost Killed a Cyclist

Breigh — Sun, 01 May 2011 13:14:34 +0000

Rant incoming!

It’s about people, and how they suck… and the rules of the road in the Netherlands that I just don’t understand!

Today my husband and I were driving to the supermarket, and he nearly hit a biker with the car. We both instantly thought that the guy was in the wrong, and apparently he thought the same about us.

Here’s the scene:

We were driving along the street when we came along one of these weird dremples (speed bumps) with the pole next to it. The reddish lane is a bicycle lane, but this old-ish lady in a schooter was sat in that lane chatting with her two friends (the two on the right in the blue).

The biker WAS in the bicycle lane, but because the woman was blocking the way, he swerved out to go around the pole on the OTHER side, then I don’t know if he realized he knew them or what, but he stopped – DEAD, like, on a dime.

Xander, assuming he was continuing on was driving along like normal behind him and had to slam on the break, just stopping in time before hitting him, and the guy was REALLY angry. He came to the window giving Xander crap about how he is supposed to stop AT ALL TIMES if someone is at a crosswalk, on and on and on. The old bitch in the scooter kept giving her two cents as well, the entire time she was yelling and getting in the middle of it all. The biker was at my window, so I had him and Xander yelling at each other on either side of me, far too fast for me to follow properly or get my own two cents in, so all I could do was yell at her to STFU and let them sort it out.

Here’s the problem. He was NOT stopping to cross the crosswalk, he was on a bike and the crosswalk leads to the tram on the left. He stopped dead because he recognized the people and started talking to them… so he wasn’t in the cross walk because he was going to use it, he stopped in a cross walk to talk to the people who were next to it. He was also still ON his bike, and if I’m not mistaken that’s not supposed to be the case either. If he is crossing a crosswalk as a pedestrian he should be getting OFF his bike and walking it across.. OR continue on and cross at the intersection.

Everyone around him (ie… his FRIENDS) were telling him oh yes you were right you were right, but I don’t see how this is right at all!

First of all, he should have stayed in the bike lane where he belonged. By coming out onto where we were he was essentially switching lanes and you don’t switch lanes and then stop DEAD in front of the cars behind you. This all goes back to the old bitch sitting in the middle of the bicycle path and not moving. It’s her fault really…

Anyway, he was convinced that it was Xander’s fault basically because “I am on a bike and I am at a crosswalk therefor whatever happens it is your fault!”, surely that can’t be right. I mean I know the law falls largely on the side of the cyclist but it can’t be that cut and dry, can it!? Wouldn’t the fact that he not only swerved out in front of traffic, leaving the designated bicycle lane and was ON his bike stopping in a crosswalk he wasn’t even going to USE, rather just to chat to people on the sidewalk matter?!!

UGH sometimes I hate people. As we drove away I fantasized about all the things I would have loved to do, like pushing him off his bike and then beating mouthy scooter bitch with it, throwing him in front of a tram, you know… the usual in need of anger management type of stuff you feel after those kinds of situations. I swear, if I had been more confident with the language and a little less shocked about the whole thing, he would have wished Xander just ran him over and killed him to spare him the pain of my wrath.

So, what is your opinion? Was Xander totally at fault here simply because he was the one in the car, or does the cyclist also have some ownership in the situation? I’m really curious what would have been decided by the police if Xander actually HAD hit the guy… the fact that Xander could have been found to be completely at fault BAFFLES me. BAFFLES!!

Cecab Rotterdam vs Groove Kings – A Face Off!

Breigh — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 11:28:02 +0000

Saturday my friend Penny and I went into Rotterdam for a girl’s day before she leaves for holiday to California for three weeks. We shopped, had lunch, shopped, sat on some terraces and shopped. It was a beautiful with our first 20+ degree weather of the year.

At the end of the day we went to watch a display that was being put on by two clubs here in Rotterdam, Cecab Holland and Groove Kings. It was a lighthearted face off between the Capoeira club and the breakdancers, and it was SO much fun to watch!

Before it all got started, the capoeira club put on a display for the crowd. It’s such a strange sort of martial arts, but the chanting and music was oddly relaxing.

Then these guys showed up, and the fun really began! I really love watching breakdancers. I wish there was somewhere I could go on sunny afternoons to watch them perform and take photos. I had only my point and shoot with me that day, I really wished I had brought my DSLR.

I still managed to get some pretty good photos though, and I’m so glad I had a camera with me at all! I would never have known this was going on if my husband hadn’t seen an ad for it in the paper and told me about it. He knows I love this stuff!

It was amazing what some of them could do. The flips, jumps, twists and bends that the rest of us mere mortals couldn’t even imagine being able to pull off without a trampoline and a body cast.

Here’s some video I took throughout. It was better to see the movement than just photos, I think.

Hey Moon, You Are ZUPAAAH!

Breigh — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 21:10:02 +0000

Tonight is the night of the super full moon, where it comes the closest it has been to Earth in approximately 18 years. They say the moon is supposed to appear 14% bigger than usual but I’m not sure how you are supposed to really tell.

A while back I took photos of the moon for my 101 List, but I figured since this moon is supposed to be SUPER, I probably should again.

Was it actually super? Well, I dunno… it just looked like the moon on a clear night to me, but what do I know? It did seem to be shining especially bright over the neighbourhood. I’m not sure if it seemed bigger but it did seem brighter. That may be because it’s been a while since we had a full moon on such a clear evening.

I attempted to take some photos try to to make another HDR photo but it didn’t really work out. I’m pleased with the moon photos I got, but it does make me want a better zoom lens.

Then again, there are lots of different things I take photos of that make me want all sorts of different lenses. Perhaps I should plant some money trees rather than strawberries this spring.

Early Morning at Zuiderpark

Breigh — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:19:23 +0000

Early this morning my husband and I grabbed the dogs, hopped in the car and headed to Zuiderpark. The sun had just come up and we were both itching to get out and enjoy it, and what better way than a nice walk with the dogs. Boy were we in for a shock when we got outside. It may have been sunny but it was FREEZING!

That didn’t stop us though, and thankfully we were both bundled up enough to stay warm.

I was messing around trying to take my photo in the window and he hopped in the car. So it turned into an odd but cool photo of us both. I like it.

I took a lot of photos in the park as well…

It was cold and misty there too and the boardwalk was even still covered in frost.

I had to give props to the people who were out there jogging in that cold. That’s some serious dedication right there.

We learned the hard way that while there were some nice views to be had in the shaded areas, it was bitterly cold there, so we decided to stick to the paths that were getting the sunshine, it was much more pleasant!

I didn’t realize until I got home but I have a photo of this same scene that I took almost a year ago. It was March 24th, 2010 and look at how much greener and clearer it was. I remember that day, it was warm and I was out biking in just a t-shirt and a light jacket. I hope it’s that warm again at that time this year!

There were a lot of birds. Even a dead one by a garbage can, which was gross and I did take photos, but I won’t post them here.

I love this photo, it almost looks like I’m really in the middle of the forest.

This is my Project 365 photo for the day. I’ve sat on this bench having a snack in the summer while out on one of my bike rides. It was a bit too chilly to stop and relax there today.

It really is so nice walking around there. It amazes me how you can be right in the middle of the city but feel so far away. I find it so peaceful, especially if you go nice and early and during the off season.

Check it out! Sneeuwklokjes!! When I saw those I didn’t care that I snapped the photo a little too quickly because my hands were freezing, or that the only feeling I had in my nose was that it was running… I saw flowers blooming and I saw sun.

This is a good thing! A very, very good thing.