LEFTOVER LOWLAND LANDSCAPES – my favourite shots

Behind the town of Zaandam is the area known as De Gouw, ‘The Shire’. It’s not large and there’s not a lot there. I can see why shires appealed to J.R.R.Tolkien.

We’re entering ‘Year in Review’ mode, so it’s time to publish photos that didn’t quite fit into any other stories.

Landscape photography suits me well. Unlike friends and relatives, birds and bikes, landscapes stay relatively still while you fiddle with the camera settings. I’m coming to appreciate Dutch scenery more and more. There are no spectacular snow-capped mountains, towering waterfalls or breathtaking desert canyons. Instead everything in little Nederland is on a small and manageable scale.

The English word ‘landscape’ is derived from the Dutch word ‘landschap’. Remember that! Now you can say you learned something by visiting this blog.

Of course any collection of Dutch landscapes needs a windmill shot. This one is on the Amstel River, between Amsterdam and Ouderkerk.

I like this shot because it’s of an unremarkable path near the Voetangel, just out of Ouderkerk aan de Amstel.

The ‘Afsluitdijk’, the dyke that turned the Zuiderzee into the IJsselmeer and keeps Amsterdam’s head above water. The statue is of Mr Cornelis Lely, the engineer of the project to reclaim the area that is now the province of Flevoland.

And finally, another corner of the small, nondescript nature reserve near Zaandam. Unremarkable, except for its beauty.