Nostalgia for Amsterdam

picture credit Vondelparkpicture here

Parks are fantastic places in big cities.Everyone scooped up in appartments , either in old or new parts of the city, makes their way to the park as soon as the weather is OK. I mostly grew up in the Vondel park in Amsterdam when I was a little girl .

Don't you just love the print on my mum's dress to the left ! I can see that being super trendy right now !!

She was very handy so I bet her dress and mine, and even the bonnet, was made by herself.

   

She always dragged me in the park, missing the countryside she came from so much.

 I suppose all the gardening and doing craft and making things stems from way back and seeing  my mum doing this herself when I was little.

I was born right in the middle of Amsterdam, in a side street of the Weteringschans.You can't get more central than that.

Here is the street I was born in.Not right on the canal, but a nice little homely street, perfect for young couples.The whole neighbourhood was aware of my mum's pregnancy and did what they could to help after I was born, with a rota of neighbours even bathing me as my mum was ill for a while after my birth.

" I have come to bathe my little Brechtje" one of them would always say when she came round.I supose she preferred that name to Beertje, which was what I was really called.

                                                 picture credit here          

My mum tells me sweet stories of her being pregnant and having a coffee every day at Hotel Americain at the Leidseplein.The waiter would give her her coffee and an extra cube of sugar " for the little one" .

                                                  picture credit here

Then we moved from the centre of Amsterdam to a new appartment in the South West of the city.
The apartment blocks look pretty grim to us right now.

                                                         picture credit here

But for me it was an exciting time as all around us a whole new part of Amsterdam was being built, so around the appartment blocks there was lots of empty wild land that was destined to be built on but full of sand, plants and ditches..perfect for playing cowboys and indians.. and learning about wild flowers too..

                                                          picture credit   here

We even had a small garden - on our balcony- where I grew my first radishes.I did a lot of watering of the passersby with my small wateringcan, as that was much more fun than tending the radishes- especially as we lived on the 3rd floor and no-one knew where the water was coming from , hahaha.

 Here I am with my friend Frans, who always came on holidays with us.Even then he was more sensible than me- he is watering the right plants, and not the heads of people.

I hope you have enjoyed your small tour of Amsterdam in the past.. .. have a great day!!
XOXO

Bea