During the unique landscape photo tour inspired by the famous Dutch writer Nescio you discover the beauty of Amsterdam and Holland.
When I think of Holland, I think of choppy water, amazing cloud formations, a fresh breeze, and never-ending lush green dikes to keep people’s feet dry. Since most parts of the country is in fact around 4 meters below sea level.
Discover the meaning of Nescio?
Nescio means in Latin; “I don’t know”. He was a Dutch writer influenced by neo-romanticism whose real name was Frederik Grönloh. He was a businessman from Amsterdam and lived from 1882 until 1962. He wrote under this “Nescio” name as a pseudonym to keep his business persona separate from his private life.
During his life, he wrote several books and described romanticly the countryside from around a hundred years ago around the time of 1911 to 1915.
Inspired by the famous Dutch short story writer Nescio we offer a great inspiring private urban and landscape photo tour in and around Amsterdam. My recent photos have been taken on August 2019. Short stories by Nescio are: “de uitvreter”, “titaantjes”, “dichtertje”, “mene tekel”. During our photo tour I love to tell you more about these stories.
Just outside of Amsterdam, easily accessible by bicycle you will find the Dutch mountains. This is, of course, a contradiction in terminus since Holland is as flat as a pancake but for us photographers its the same idea. It’s a natural place for discovery and exploration of nature, wildlife and local culture.
When you ride with your bicycle up and down the many bridges over the broad waterways and look from there over the vast polder landscape you will understand.
Fresh air in the field to take a deep breath.
Allow that fresh cool and clean air in the fields to penetrate your lungs. This is especially nice after a few days in the port of Amsterdam unvoluntary or on purpose inhaling the marijuana and hashish vapours filling the air in every street and alleys of Amsterdam downtown these days.
This will be a photo tour and therapy exercise in one. Have your camera and perhaps a good wide-angle and telephoto lens ready and follow me.
During my Netherlands photo tours when you can spend an extra day or so, I can take you there. Recently I was much inspired to use my ultra-wide-angle zoom lens by Nikon again to make some dedicated images and see how this part of Amsterdam has changed over time. Nikkor 14-24mm F2.8
Undisturbed Dutch polder landscape views.
Amsterdam-City has certainly encroached more closely to this area but in a good way.
The good thing is that there are some large canals and vast bodies of water between them to keep Amsterdam’s urban sprawl away. Also, people here understand that this historical conservation and fragile natural environment needs to be protected.
This core landscape and unique undisturbed Dutch views are still the same, especially along the dike from towns like Schellingwoude to Durgerdam, and along the Markermeer lake towards Marken island.
All is still like a hundred years ago basically. No disturbances for views, beautiful wooden house draped along the narrow country road next to the hundreds of kilometers winding dikes. Between those endless green pastures with dramatic clouds fat black and white patched cows gently graze for the best quality of milk, butter, and Dutch cheese.
Between Durgerdam and Schellingwoude and looking over the vast water body that was once part of the “Zuiderzee” as this was once a huge bay connected to the North-Sea. Around 100km long and 50km wide with 300km of dikes to protect the countryside from floods. In 1933 the Zuiderzee was closed off by an enormous “Afsluitdijk dijk” and became afresh water lake.
This image below would, In my opinion, be perfect for a statue as a tribute to the incredible engineering work and pioneering attitude that had to come with fighting the sea for centuries in Holland. My image here is a testimony to that!
“The land of Nescio”, I call this part just outside of Amsterdam. Here you can feel and see the centuries of land reclaiming from the sea. This was were the East Indies company VOC build their ships in the harbor of Amsterdam. They could then sail directly to the ocean. The land was gradually reclaimed from the sea and the polder landscape was made with the dikes as protection. More about his here:
From my home in Amsterdam, I see the packed freight boats continuously 24/7 go by in a never-ending parade over the industrial canals transport via the Rhine canals to Germany, Belgium, and France.
The old Amsterdam bridge and its graffiti art scene
The old Amsterdam bridge builds in 1957 is a fine example of the way Amsterdam is connected to the north and North Holland province. There is a live graffiti art scene below the bridge and a city camping Zeeburg and the oldest park in Amsterdam the Flevo Park.
For this special Amsterdam-wide photography tour, we can meet near the Central Station and hire good bicycles and follow the cycle roads along the Amsterdam harbor docklands and restored and newly developed housing estates. Mixed urban landscapes with the old harbor warehouses next to old and weathered tunnels and bridges to shoot on the way.
A great location to start this photography tour and enter the unknown and get off the tourist trails of Amsterdam into the secret land of Nescio.
Great opportunities to do urban and landscape photography!
Looking forward to meeting you here!
Call me for free for more information and bookings