So, I was visiting Museum Vught – a former and the only SS concentration camp outside Nazi Germany during the Second World War. And this striking building was right next to it. It says “Justitiele Inrichtingen Vught”. “Something justice institution?”, I asked out loud. “It’s a prison!”, replied my hubby….

Vermeer’s View of Delft
Here is Vermeer’s View of Delft (Dutch: Gezicht op Delft) present day. An approximate position from the modern riverbank on Hooikade, south of the historic center. View of Delft is an oil painting by Johannes Vermeer, painted around 1659–1661. This painting of the Dutch artist’s hometown is among his best-known…

Dutch Holocaust Memorial of Names
As I entered this garden, I found myself in a labyrinth of passages flanked by two-meter-high brick walls. The dramatic angular stainless steel mirrors seemed to be hovering above the columns. Upon closer look, names, date of birth and age of death were inscribed on individually stacked bricks. This is…

Underwater Underground Bike Parking
For years and years, the construction in front of the Amsterdam Central Station went on and on like a never-ending situation. The water in the Open Havenfront was pumped out, the site was rebuilt, reconstructed and transformed. Something about the excavated pit with anchored sheet piling walls and micropiles (anchor…

De Schaduwkade Monument
So, I stumbled on to another bridge with a story … This time, I stood here across the Amstel overlooking the Schaduwkade (Shadow Wall) Monument on my left. A monument to two hundred Jewish residents of the Nieuwe Keizersgracht in Amsterdam, who were deported and murdered during the Second World…

Joes Kloppenburgbrug
A bridge with a story to tell … In Dutch as written on the plate … “17 augustus 1996 vrijdagnacht halfvijf in de Voetboogstraat te Amsterdam. Vier dronken, opgefokte jongens zoeken ruzie met cafégangers en een zwerver. Ook twee studenten moeten het ontgelden. Zij worden volledig in elkaar geslagen. Joes…