I grabbed this just before sunset in the Netherlands. I like the blues in the homes on the nearside.

It’s been a while since I posted some pictures of Holland, so here is a cool church and um… some cool squnched up old building.

Here is Saint Bevo in Haarlem. I’m not super happy with this picture because it doesn’t look as enormous as it really is. Below, I put a picture of the inside, with which I am happy.

These two were taken at the town hall in Haarlem in the Netherlands.

I found this little girl concentrating hard on a chess match. She was embroiled in a match with about 25 other people all playing against a single Dutch champion that would run from table to table and play them all simultaneously.

Here are two very different structures from Holland.

This is a very strange picture because of that strange art that is embedded on the left side of the picture. It was even more strange to stare at in person. I actually felt strange walking up to it and peering around to figure out what was going on.

Here are a night and day night of various parts of the Netherlands. One is reflected off glass and the other off the water.

Here is the top of that huge church from Haarlem. The latin came out very sharp and golden.

This is the shiny interior of a famous church in the Netherlands. The tiles are all ceramic, which make all the light and colors much more vibrant. You can see the afternoon sun streaming in from the right side.

Ulaf’s dream is to build engines for a top Formula One team.

Ulaf is currently operating a windmill in Haarlem. He takes his time when showing me how it works, telling me in great detail how the oak cogs were carved. He doesn’t get many visitors and he is excited that I want to know about all the machinery.

(this comes from my Portraits series)

Here are two interesting shots from Holland. I don’t really have much to say about them, other than they are two of my favorites.

Thanks Andrew for the mention on your cool blog… I’m honored. I offered to let him use the picture I took in his upcoming book, but I think it has already gone to print. I guess we just met too late.

Anyway, here is another trippy picture of Holland for Andrew; I know he had too many space cakes, and perhaps this is the passed-out-view he saw every morning when he awoke.

I arrived to Haarlem early in the morning and managed to capture the Grote Markt empty before Sunday services began. This is the same church where Mozart once played the famous pipe organ inside as a child.

And here is a shot of the inside.

After spending most of the day in Haarlem, I’m now convinced that it is a much better place than Amsterdam in almost every way, unless you count massive quantities of stoned British soccer hooligans as an important part of your Rick Steves’ featureset.

I took the train from Amsterdam to Haarlem after spending a while trying to figure out the Dutch train schedule, which required the discovery of a WW2 enigma machine. It was only about 15 km away, so it was a short ride. The town of Haarlem itself was extremely nice, completely unlike the Harlem in New York.

I spent most of the day walking around with my camera and my iPod. I must have walked about 15 km around the city getting completely lost in little alleyways. I took a ton of pictures and have only had a short amount of time to process a few of them for now. These things take a while, since my workflow on these things is Sisyphusian at best.

The first picture below is of Grote Kerk. At the end of the church is a famous pipe organ that Mozart once played on as a child. The pipe organ is 100 feet high with over 5,000 pipes. I recommend the Large version on black.