A Different Walk at Vlietland...

In early October, Terri and I decided to change things up a bit and walk around the smaller lake at Vlietland rather than the usual route around the bigger lake. It was a good thing that we had left Kati behind, since she wasn’t allowed on most of the path. 

It soon became obvious why dogs weren’t welcome. 

Unlike the sheep at the farm by our house, these sheep had very bushy tails.

There are no stiles on our usual route, but this one had several... 

…and a full building for observing birds. 

 

Urbex at the On-After...

The lighting was so pretty that evening. 

The other really cool thing about the Tramkade District was the combination of new and old set in the abandoned factory buildings built in 1909 as well as some great urban art. We definitely have to take Veronica there one of these days.

 

Urban Art at the On-After...

The Tramkade had some pretty cool urban art on either end.

We had first spotted these painted feed silos on trail...

…and I was happy to get a closer view when we went to the Tramkade.

 

Beyond the Alien Homes...

Turned out that Bleeding From Below wasn’t keen on having us just run to the alien neighborhood and back, so instead bumped up the kilometers by taking us on part of his favorite cycling route. It was a lot longer than I’d expected, but it included lovely countryside outside of the city.

Hard to tell from this angle, but we were surprised to see a Belted Galloway in the pond; it didn’t appear to be stressed, just happy to be in the water.

After circling up in a parking lot, some of us went out for drinks...

...at Tramkade, a hip district of restaurants and bars located in an old animal and compound feed factory which closed in 2014.

Alien Homes in Den Bosch...

When I found out that Bleeding from Below was haring in Den Bosch at the end of September, I contacted him and suggested that he consider taking the trail to the Bolwoningen (Ball Homes), a Dutch community that I had read about on Atlas Obscura but had yet to see. Turns out that he had also never seen them despite living in Den Bosch for almost 20 years. 

Since it was over 5K from the start, only the runners could see these 50 funky homes built in 1984. The artist was apparently inspired by clay huts in Africa and igloos. Built of reinforced concrete and fiberglass, space is tight in these one-bedroom three-story homes with 592 square feet of living space.

Unlike the Cube Houses in Rotterdam, the Ball Homes were definitely off the beaten path. 

Lucky for us, Opee was willing to run back to the nearest store as these funny benches that looked like brushes made the perfect place for a beer break. Ironically Slippery’s son had a physics question that week about the size of these orbs.

 

Rotterdam Art Route...

The following day, Bob joined me and Jimmy when we stopped for the Rotterdam Art Route on the way to the Hash. Our first stop was our best, as we had a great conversation with artist Toon Fibbe. He had this shoe made by Sam, the Shoe Doctor, whose shoe shop was opposite the Chicago Board of Trade and Mercantile Exchange. It was a replica of shoes that commodity traders used to wear in order to stand above their competition. 

This sculpture was Toon’s way of asking how high would the traders have gone if a regulation hadn’t been enacted after some traders lost their balance while wearing platform shoes.

The rest of his studio was full of a fascinating exhibit called The Great Mirror of Folly, a life-sized diorama constructed of prints from 1720 depicting the first stock market crash that same year creating a collage in which streams of stock papers penetrate and deform the bodies of traders. 

Unfortunately I can’t remember the details but somehow it tied into today’s global income inequality; hearing Toon explain it all was very interesting. I hope for his sake he finds a way for his exhibit to be displayed in a museum. 

We then visited a few other locations on the Art Route. In this house, we walked across a sculpture of empty beer cans, which surprisingly held our weight...

…and in this school, I took this selfie.

On our way back to the station, we spotted these murals by Ox Alien, my favorite Rotterdam street artist …

…and reflections on the glass wall of the train station.