Netherlands: Dutch Symbols, Cityscapes and Monuments

If you live in the Rhineland area of western Germany, you are very close to the border with the Netherlands. When you live anywhere in the Netherlands, you are very close to the border with the next country! From the center of the Netherlands, you can reach the extremities of the country within a couple of hours of train journey, and more often than not you are likely to be in the next country in this time.

In this small piece of land the dutch people have crafted their sandcastle of a country, becoming experts at harnessing the unique opportunities of the geography and keeping at bay the continuous threat of being a land under sea level. The Netherlands can be considered as the fist truly commerce based 'capitalist economy' ever, when Amsterdam ruled as the world's richest city and dutch Merchantmen sailed the seas from Suriname to Indonesia.

Canals lined with their narrow row houses are famous mainly from Amsterdam, but actually are ubiquitous throughout the country. The complex crisscross network of canals and their locks is important to the Netherlands not just for commerce, but also for regulating water levels of the low-lying areas.

Canal with multiple bridges in Amsterdam

Canals act as thoroughfares for boats and barges

In Utrecht, the peculiar specialty of the canals is the promenade on the water level

Dutch architecture in general has two very distinct styles: first is the retro medieval/classic style which is seen all over Europe. Second is the truly ugly modernist architecture which unfortunately dominate the centers of many dutch cities, a result of the post war modernist frenzy. For me these sections are eye-sores enough not to include any photos of them here.
Space is at a premium in the Dutch cities, and the narrow, steep and extremely confusing dutch stairs are a formidable challenge to the uninitiated. In the Netherlands, unadorned brick buildings are typical, with stepped gables and many with the famous hooks for hoisting furniture up from the outside (That's what narrow stairs lead to!)

Typical 'Canal Houses' in Amsterdam

City center of Deventer

City center of Deventer

Narrow alleyway near the old city walls of Maastricht

Old Market in Maastricht

The Brick motif is present throughout the country in all kinds of buildings: castles, churches, towers, canals, pavements - everywhere.
The topography has automatically led to whole dutch cities surrounded by moats, which are of course part of the canal network rather than a still body of water. Often the central canal passing through the town was the main 'highway'.

'Koppelpoort', the combined land and water gate in the city walls of Amersfoort

Inside the city walls of Amersfoort

the 'Tower of our Lady' in Amersfoort,
placed over the geographical center of the Netherlands

St. Nikolas church in Deventer

'Vrijthof' the central square in Maastricht

Another interesting motif associated with the Netherlands, although it did not originate there, is the Tulip. The Netherlands exports tons and tons of tulips, an increasingly rare example of massive agricultural export from a western European country.

Keukenhof Tulip gardens

Keukenhof Tulip gardens

Finally, the greatest cliche associated with the dutch countryside is - Windmills!
The dutch have traditionally harnessed wind power freely available in their flat, low-lying country for all kinds of purposes like grinding flour and pumping water to control water levels. Windmills still dot the countryside as well as the towns, but most of them are not in commercial use, and are maintained for their historic value.

'Kinderdijk', biggest Windmill farm in the Netherlands,
built to regulate water levels

'Kinderdijk', biggest Windmill farm in the Netherlands,
built to regulate water levels

There are two dutch symbols to which I have not dedicated any photographs, simply because they are already present in almost each photo here already. First is the fantastic and dangerous creature called the dutch Bicycle. Its safer to cross a dutch highway blindfolded in the middle of the night that to cross a dutch cycle path! I don't think there is any place on earth that allows such impunity to Bicycles like the Netherlands.
Second almost ever-present symbol is the gray sky and the drizzle. You never know when a perfectly blue-looking sky can start weeping, and turn blue again as unexpectedly. As a friend from the Netherlands once told me: Here, if you don't like the weather, wait for five minutes!

Stockholm

Stockholm, the city on islands! The grand capital city of Sweden has a really grand and unique location - on the archipelago of small islands leading from the inland lake Malaren out to the Baltic sea. Thus Stockholm is an island city in a country that otherwise has few islands. The city is absolutely full of ferries and bridges, and gaining a few metres anywhere seems to offer a view down to the water.

Stockholm is the biggest of the Scandinavian capitals, and the only major city in Scandinavia and in fact in all Europe, which was completely untouched by the second world war. It hence has an absolutely untouched city centre, unlike other major capitals where large portions have been rebuilt. The Gamla Stan or old town occupies a whole island of its own, full of cobblestone streets flying the Swedish blue-and-yellow flag. This area has what is apparently the narrowest lane in Europe!

A clear Midsummer day offers splendid vistas of Stockholm for many long hours, with the twilight stretching nearly to midnight, when the moon seems to hang brightly in a surprisingly pale sky, a delight offered only by northern latitudes.

Sweden is a constitutional monarchy, and hence comes with the full complement of the palace in the capital city and the ceremonial change of guard outside it.

A further must is the massive royal estate in the outskirts, which for Stockholm is the Drottningholm palace. The palace felt to me in principle similar in concept to other such estates like Versailles near Paris, Schönbrunn near Vienna, Windsor near London etc. The uniqueness of Drottningholm lies in that it lies on the shores of the convoluted lake Malaren, and can be approached from Stockholn centre directly by boat.

Stockholm is the heart and soul of Sweden, and like the whole country, it is large, open and friendly - a fabulous jewel of northern Europe.

Morocco: Atlas and Sahara

For a small country (By Indian standards of course) Morocco offers huge variety in landscapes. It has terrain that can pretend to be the American wild west, or the Arabian desert, or even the lush Himalayan valleys. And a few hours of travel, you can traverse all these fantastic views.

Starting from the culture capital of Fez, we headed southeast, towards the great Sahara. Almost immediately, you enter hilly terrain, and soon you are in the middle of the Middle Atlas. This range more or less marks the edge of Morocco's bread basket region. The Middle Atlas is lush, and as far as the eye can see there are green slopes, streams with rocky beds and sheep dotting the open pastures. I found the Middle Atlas to be the most pleasant region of Morocco that I saw, despite not presenting as dramatic views as can be seen in other parts of the country.



As soon as you cross the passes of the Middle Atlas, there is a stark increase in the arid nature of the landscape. There are dramatic moments where you can see the plateau between the Middle and the High Atlas stretching before you, and on the distant horizon loom the High Atlas with its magnificant snowy peaks.





And within some time, the looming horizon approaches, and suddenly you are in the dramatic surrounds of the High Atlas, the most significant physical feature of Morocco. The High Atlas stands as the barrier between the Sahara and the sea, and gives western and northern Morocco its mild Mediterranean climate. We crossed the High Atlas twice, to and from the Sahara, and the entire journey was simply one of increasing wonder.




Beyond the Atlas stretches the immense Sahara. As soon as you start descending from the mountains, you can literally feel the desert, long before you actually see it. The terrain becomes dotted with palm trees and oases, the soil, already red in the Atlas, becomes flat and dry, dust swirls in the air, and at long last, you see the fabled sand dunes in the distance.



The desert is not all just dunes of course, but equally obvious is that it is the dunes that make the lasting desert impression. A trip on camel back to spend a night in the middle of the dunes in a Berber camp was an experience unparalleled since a long time.


We had the strange and unexpected weather combination of clouds over the dunes, which made for unique views.



The desert surely counts among the loneliest places on earth. It makes you feel insignificant, exactly the way the sea stretching to the horizon does.



The return trip through the High Atlas brought us back to the the modernized world, and the bustle of Marrakesh. This another important Moroccan city paints a different picture to Fez. Having a hotel in the modern part of the city, the 'Ville Nouvelle', instead of in the Medina, showed us the modern facet of today's Morocco, and rounded off our trip with us hoping for a chance of an encore visit.

Morocco: Riads and Kasbahs

Riads are an essential part of Moroccan culture, and offer a wonderful cross-section view of Moroccan life. Very similar to a gujarati/rajasthani courtyard house in principle, it consists of a central courtyard with overlooked by balconies on all four sides. The outside of the building is unadorned, with all the intricate mosaic work reserved for the insides. The courtyard often has a fountain and trees, the narrow staircases showcase beautiful moroccan pottery, murals, silverware and the like, and are filled with the aroma of home cooking.



Many riads today have been converted from private residences into guest houses, and hence offer the tourist a wonderful window into this typical moroccan architecture.




Another very important feature which dots the moroccan countryside is the Kasbah. Essentially it is a walled clay fortress, most of them strung out overlooking the ancient caravan trade routes from the Sahara desert through the Atlas mountains towards the Atlantic coast.



Many Kasbahs are abandoned today, to be replaced by more modern buildings, often right next to the original Kasbah itself. Some of the most important ones are conserved, the most striking of which is perhaps the Ait Ben Haddou. This Kasbah has been used as the site for a number of famous hollywood movies. Today, it is a UNESCO world heritage site.





Another important site is the Kasbah of Telouet, ertwhile stronghold of the Pasha El Gloui, once one of the most powerful families in southern Morocco and vassal of the Sultan.



A fallout with the current ruling dynasty lead to a downfall of the El Gloui family fortunes. As a result the Kasbah is today rather dilapidated and not well looked after by the government, but still offers a wonderful echo of history for the traveller. The latticed windows looking out over the dramatic High Atlas themselves make the place worth a visit!