Bennekom

I think you have all seen Amsterdam - this way or another. Saz told me that it was one of her favourite cities for example. I will post some photos of the Dutch capital, I promise, but before I do that, let me present you with some photos I made in the city where we lived during those days. This city is called Bennekom and is located in the 50-100 km vicinity of Utrecht and Amsterdam at the South East of The Netherlands.

So.

These are my legs. I am lying on the bed. Please note the toy goat (aka the Capricorn) at the end of the bed and the poster, which is not quite visible, is a Chinese map of 2005, which was the year of the Rooster (which, besides the Capricorn, is also my sign). I saw these two signs and took them as signs. Signs showing that this place will be good for me.

This is one of the good foods our hosts provided us with. We usually had breakfast and dinner with the host family and spent the rest of the day doing other programmes. More photos of that will be coming soon, but this post is dedicated to Bennekom only. A neat suburbian Dutch city that is.

Now look at this.

Can you spot the old man?

There was a time when trams crossed the streets of Bennekom. At some stops, bronze statues of people were placed. Did they do it to symbolize the waiting or just to put some art into the everyday life of the everyday people of an average small town? Or all these? Anyhow, the idea was good. The statues are good, too. The tram service, the rails have long been gone, the statues all remained. The statues remember and they also remind people for the waiting, for something that has gone away. I like these statues.

And finally, this is something typically suburbian Dutch in my dictionary: clean streets, not very large houses. Note, how some of the trees are adjusted to certain shapes to fit for the small space between houses. All kinds of vegetation is well managed, properly kept - a bit too well for my standards.