Bruxelles - Brussel

Hello everyone !

Today a short post with some pictures I took in Brussels.

The first and second ones have been taken in the European Quarter. The third one is Brussels Town Hall, located in the famous Grand Place. And finally, the fourth one is well-known sculpture Manneken Pis.

Hope you're all having a great weekend :-)

Rotterdam

Hello everyone !

Today I'm showing you another place I visited in the Netherlands : Rotterdam.
Rotterdam is the second largest city in the Netherlands and has one of the largest ports in the world : the port is the third busiest port in the world (after Singapore and Shanghai). It is also a very old port since it has been used for 7 centuries !

This is a beautiful picture I found of Erasmusbrug (Erasmus Bridge). This cable-stayed bridge is more than 800 meters long. One part of it is a bascule bridge that opens for ships that cannot pass under the bridge. The bascule bridge is the largest and heaviest in Europe. Erasmusbrug is sometimes used for some events.
You can see the bascule bridge open in the next two pictures I took myself.

And here you can see the old part of the port :

During World War II, the German army invaded the Netherlands in 1940. The city of Rotterdam was bombed and the heart of the city was almost completely destroyed. Nevertheless, the City Hall survived the bombing.

Sculptor Ossip Zadkine later captured the bombing with his statue De Verwoeste Stad (The Destroyed City) which you can see below.

After the war, most buildings had to be rebuilt and that is the reason why Rotterdam has such a mixture of old and modern architecture, such as  the Kubuswoningen (the cube houses).

And of course, the bronze statue of Erasmus of Rotterdam :

You can also see my other posts:
Den Haag
Utrecht
Zaanstreek
Kinderdijk
Gouda

I hope you're all having a great day :-)

Gouda

Hello everyone !

Today I'm showing you another place I visited in the Netherlands : the beautiful city of Gouda, famous for its Gouda Cheese and its 15th century Town Hall.

Here you can see the city hall (one of the oldest in the Netherlands), which is quite a huge building. As you can notice in the square, there's also a market where you can buy fruit or the typical Stroopwafel (Syrup Waffle).

And now, some pictures of the streets and canals :

 

You can also see my other posts :

Den Haag
Utrecht
Zaanstreek
Kinderdijk

Hope you're all having an excellent day !

Kinderdijk

Hello everyone !

Today I'm showing you another place I visited in the Netherlands. It's called Kinderdijk (Children's Dike).
Kinderdijk is a village situated not far from Rotterdam in a polder.

To drain the polder, a system of 19 windmills was built in the 18th century. This is, the windmills remove the excess of water in order to keep the polder dry.

It is the largest concentration of old windmills in the Netherlands, as well as one of the best known Dutch tourist sites, because it's the only place in the world with so many windmills so close together.

The windmills have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997.

Kinderdijk is a very picturesque village, it's worth visiting it !

You can also see my other posts :
Den Haag
Utrecht
Zaanstreek

Hope you're all having a great day :-)

Zaanstreek

Hello everyone !
As I told you in my last post, I'm back from a short trip to the Netherlands, where I have visited many different places.
One of them was  Zaanstreek.

Zaanstreek is a district with historic (and well preserved) windmills and houses. It is therefore one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Netherlands. This district is also believed to be one of the world's first industrialized areas.

This area is also called Zaanse Schans.

There is also a museum, souvenir shops and restaurants.
Overall, the Zaanstreek is a very beautilful place to visit !

You can also see my other posts :
Den Haag
Utrecht

Hope you're all having a great day :-)