UPDATED 02/05/2025 The unsuspected Haarlem Red Light District towards the end of this street at Begijnhof. It is a small cluster of operations around Waalse Kerk Haarlem or Walloon Church Haarlem. Yes, a real church! The undistinguished pink building with red lanterns hanging outside is Het Poortje, a brothel in…
Tag: free
Amsterdam
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Mozes en Aäronkerk
Every time I go shopping for bric-a-brac at Amsterdam’s oldest flea market on Waterlooplein / Waterloo Square, I would always look up and wonder about this imposing two identical 30-meter-high towers corner building called Mozes en Aäronkerk / Moses and Aaron Church. It is unmistakably one of the iconic buildings…
Amsterdam
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Kerk De Papegaai | The Parrot
Nestled between the shops on Kalverstraat, Amsterdam’s the busiest shopping street … A church with a neo-gothic facade is the HH. Petrus and Paulus Church, better known as “The Parrot” (Dutch: De Papegaai). A striking façade but most people walk right past it. According to the church website, there has…
Den Haag
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King Willem of NL & LU
I have always noticed this bronze statue whenever I walk past the Binnenhof complex. Some noble guy sitting on a high horse on the Buitenhof, overlooking the Hofvijver lake, in the centre of The Hague. I never give it much thought. A week later when I was visiting Luxembourg, I…
Limburg
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Drielandenpunt
Drielandenpunt in Dutch means three-border-point or three-country-point or Dreiländereck (“Three-Country Corner”) in German, or Trois Frontières (“Three Borders”) in French. I visited three countries in three seconds! Less if I run 🙂 Right here at Drielandenpunt in Vaals (province of Limburg), the borders of the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany meet. There are no river dividing…
Amsterdam
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Best McDonald’s with a view!
McDonald’s Airport Schiphol McDrive Noord 📍Loevesteinse Randweg 200, 1118 EL Schiphol. Like a child, I was so excited to see these countless planes land again and again. I can see why the locals and fanatics are gathering here for hours just to plane spotting. My McDonald’s chicken nuggets never tasted…
Rotterdam
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Het Dam Paviljoen | Dan Hua Pavilion
On the occasion of Rotterdam’s 650th anniversary in 1990, the association of Chinese entrepreneurs in Rotterdam and its surrounding area took the initiative to build this Dan Hua Pavilion. A typical example of Chinese garden architecture! Dan symbolizes the city (coz Rotterdam = Lù tè dān) and Hua (huá) means…
Rotterdam
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Views of Delfshaven
It was a lovely day exploring the historic Delfshaven. This former port of Delft (hence the name Delfshaven!) is unlike the rest of Rotterdam. I roamed the uneven cobbled streets admiring canal houses. Ships lined up the quaysides flanked by 17th-century warehouses. The town’s old church is known as the…