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travel photography based in dublin, ireland

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Toledo, Spain was a city like no other. With each step further you take on this golden and hilly city, the further back in time it takes you. With each wander down its dozen of narrow alleys, another sword and armour shop will you see. We took the hour long walking tour in Spanish from a lovely Toledan history student, which brought us from Roman paths to medieval castles to old theatres and ended up on a hill with a beautiful view of all of Toledo. We also saw the smallest wee window in the world. (multiple) Pitstops were made for wine. The hour long drive from Madrid was damn worth it. 

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My second favorite time of day apart from 6am, is sunset. This was last May, in Dublin’s financial district IFSC. After a long summery sunday, where we had every meal outside on the balcony, I went for a walk while the setting sun bathed Dublin with a warm glow, while the city peacefully wound down. The nice thing about living in IFSC is the quietness that envelops it after 6am, when all the offices have been left and the lunch hotspots closed their doors. There is a calm, that looks and feels just like this. 

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Patiently waiting for that summery blue / green contrast to re-appear

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Madrid, Spain

Madrid caught me off guard. I wasn’t expecting it to be just so original and eloquent in its architecture. It was almost Parisian. Without a doubt, one of the most beautiful European cities I have ever been to. People don’t talk about Madrid more! Because you get distracted eating tapas and cheap delicious wine all day that you forget to take photos? Maybe. That’s probably it.

Taken : Rooftop @ Cícurlo de Bellas Artes, Calle de Alcalá

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Bicycle Face, Amsterdam

Amsterdam is incredibly creative. People are (mostly) happy and like to cycle, hence bicycle face.  Bicycles have priority over cars here, where you are statistically more likely to get hit by a bike than a car. Beep!

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Firewood from the garden in Swartbroek, Netherlands, the most beautiful little tiny village Tim grew up. In the summer, the quietness, neat open fields and green scenery really made for some long sunny bicycle rides to the asparagus and other vegetable farms to collect fresh produce for dinner. 

Swartbroek is really small. The only thing Wikipedia says about Swartbroek is that it is small. It’s pretty small. Just when I had gotten into the swing of cycling on my bike, we had already left Swartbroek for another village. The nicest five minutes cycle ever. 

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Red Hook Waterside, Brooklyn, NYC

Back when New York was New Amsterdam, Red Hook was Roode Hoek (Red Corner) because of the use of red clay soil in it’s architecture. In the 1920′s it was the busiest freight port in the world, a period which ended in the 1960′s when containers became the new fashion in shipping. 

For a long time, it was a sleepy industrial neighborhood of West Brooklyn. Now, a lot of its warehouses are either being used as creative spaces for artists or being revamped into spacious new apartments or offices, while keeping its grungy facade (at least I hope they are keeping it). 

I usually spend my summers in NYC. Brooklyn is a place I can’t get enough of. I took this when my boyfriend came to visit last summer. 

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Berlin : Ost und West

Berlin had a beautiful explosion of art, culture and music after the fall of the wall in 1989, which you can still feel there as great as ever.

Side note, I took this when Tim and I went to Berlin to celebrate New Years Eve 2016 and it was just freezing, something crazy like -13C. I can’t imagine how much I would have liked Berlin more if it had been warm enough to stay outside longer.  

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Asia > Amsterdam : Luxury in the Golden Age Exhibition in Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam in 2015.

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The original Haarlem, the second largest city in historical Holland. Here, hofjes are very much still  a thing of the present: beautiful garden courtyards with almshouses surrounding them. 

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For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.

Robert Louis Stevenson