Yellowcube.nl

translation from French: Going back to the Hell of the North.

…because rain just makes it more interesting.

L’enfer du Nord I

when a tree dies, it just sticks around for a while

down we go.

translation from Czech: flowers

Even though the moon was providing me with enough light to find my way, I couldn’t help feeling a little uncomfortable. Perhaps it was that eerie silence hanging from these dark trees…

On January 2nd, 1960 the legendary Italian cyclist Fausto Coppi died, age 40. From 1940 to 1954 he earned the title of “Il Campionissimo” or Champion of Champions. His victories included the Giro d’Italia, the Tour the France and the notorious Paris-Roubaix race.

To commemorate Coppi’s 50th year of death a special theme bike is build, which will participate in this years’ amateur edition of the Paris-Roubaix race.

the bike’s creator can be found here

The island of Tiengemeten lies in the Haringvliet river, which is part of the extensive delta area located in the southwest of Holland, 30 km south of Rotterdam. It is reachable only by ferry and no cars are allowed on the island.

Getting to the origines of the name “Tiengemeten” is a question of doing some very basic calculus combined with some very old fashioned grammar. In the 17th century the island started out as a small sandy island of roughly 12 acres (5 hectare). In the old days, one “gemet” was refered to an area of about 1.2 acres/0.5 hectare. So, you need ten “gemeten” to get to 12 acres/5 hectare, hence the name Tiengemeten. Since the 17th century it has expaned from 12 acres to about 2200 acres (900 hectares).

Tiengemeten is a so called delta island, which makes it quite unique in both geography and wildlife. The different areas on the island continuously shift from land to water and vice versa, making the island change shape constantly and attracting a wide variety of aquatic birds and animals. Because of these unique features the Dutch government decided to turn it into natural reserve in the late 1980′s. The few farmers and inhabitant that lived on the island voluntarily moved to the mainland leaving their empty farms and houses behind. Tiengemeten is now a place where nature take its course and it provides a quiet place for walking, cycling and bird watching. I mainly went there to experience the total silence and wide empty views, which are quite an interesting thing to find within one of the worlds’ most densely populated areas.

Margaret Island (Hungarian: Margit-sziget) is a 2.5 km (1.4 miles) long and 500 meters (550 yards) wide island, in the middle of the Danube in central Budapest. Benches are situated on it as well.