As I may have mentioned last time, our trip to Amsterdam was absolutely wonderful. We spend ten days running around that amazing city, with a few day trips to Rotterdam, Haarlem, and Zaanse Schans.

And I took more than 800 photographs along the way.

On this page are a very few of my favorites and, if you’re interested in more, I have a friends and family-sized gallery here. That would be the number of pictures I could reasonably expect friends and family to tolerate were I to have them trapped in front of a slide show. Generally less than forty.

Anyway, at the top is a canal in the De Wallen (aka “red light”) district of the city at sunset. Even if you have no interest in the local businesses, you cannot visit Amsterdam and not at least walk through this area. And for a photographer, evening offers some amazing light to work with.

You also can’t travel to The Netherlands without visiting some windmills. This example is one of a half-dozen restored mills in the Zaanse Schans region, a fifteen minute train ride north of the city. If you’re interested in more from that day, take a look at this gallery.

Another day trip was to Haarlem, one of the oldest cities in The Netherlands, dating back to pre-medieval times. This is the tower of St. Bavo church, a neo-gothic cathedral in the center market area. The huge pipe organ inside was played by both Mozart and Handel. More views of Haarlem are in this gallery.

Yet another day trip took us to Rotterdam. Unlike the other areas we visited, most of Rotterdam dates from the 1950’s since the city was largely leveled during World War II. These are the Kijk-Kubus, cube houses designed by architect Piet Blom to fill space above the street near the Blaak Station. More shots from Rotterdam are in the same gallery with those from Haarlem.

And finally, another sundown shot, looking across the IJ from Centraal Station at a more modern part of Amsterdam. The tower is the A’DAM Lookout (formerly Shell Oil headquarters), with the EYE Film Museum at the left. The IJ is one of many man-made waterways in The Netherlands, expanded from a small river over the centuries, enabling the city to connect to the North Sea.