With large part of Europe (and the world) in lockdown situation, we shall try to spin this to positivity. Since our lives are less hectic; We can't run from task to task anymore; Much of what we normally do, we need to postpone; Why not use our extra free time to enjoy the little things?

Since this weekend, the winter sun is showing its face in my little town Amsterdam (seems to be in whole of the Netherlands as I hear from friends and colleagues).

Fortunately, in my country the lockdown is not that brutal yet; We are more or less encourage to go outside from time to time. Not too many people do this though, resulting in an empty city. I suppose much less tourists and the locals tend to stay inside.

Not this little bird though; Miss Pigeon is watching my home, I suppose. She (or is it a he? can't tell) was standing like this for minutes moving her head from left to right and back again constantly. But no further body movements.

Maybe she is wondering why it is so quiet. No ships and boats passing through the canal. No other birds in sight. Maybe she was looking for her family and friends. Maybe she decided just to rest. Maybe she was there for me.... Who knows... At least I was able to enjoy her company when drinking my coffee sitting on the bench just next to her.

The view she had (part of it at least)...

This morning I took a walk around a few blocks; I really wanted to see how empty the city really is.

One of the hotspots around the corner is "De Hallen". Previously an old complex for trams to rest and spend the night; Now it houses a hotel, food market, library, cinema, art loan centre, and various little shops having the environment close to their hearts.

For the first time in my life I could see the main doors being closed in pure daylight. Normally they only close when its deep in the night and opens the next day before the sun is showing its face again. Pretty cool to be able to experience this...

One of the side wings of De Hallen; A few shops are located in this part which are still open. Guess, soon this will be closed as well, and when that happens, I'll for sure want to capture this on camera.

Normally full of people - this is one of the sides of De Hallen - Now completely empty... Doors closed; No tables and benches outside; No citizens around. Although this can give people the feeling we are in a ghost town; I really love the experience of this - almost - serene silence and emptiness.

The area around De Hallen is completely rebuild. A bunch of modern apartment buildings are erected just a year or so ago. One of these has a quite untypical Dutch architecture. The balcony glass we can see often, but not like this with the beautiful engravements. I love it!

The style of De Hallen and its direct surroundings is from upgraded monumental buildings to modern. But the architects didn't stop with the buildings, they even created the well known children game on the pavement. We call the game "Hink-Stap-Sprong"... Not sure what the English name for this is. When you know, let me know in the comment section and I'll update this post accordingly.

Check this out: The three little crosses marked on the '1' tile; The symbol of Amsterdam.

The architects went a little to far in my honest opinion. I prefer the kids drawing this game themselves, using crayon. Something that I've been able to see a lot now most of the children stay at home due to many schools being closed.

Don't want to bore you with all sort of photographs of empty street, but this one below. In normal times, one of Amsterdam's busy streets full of cyclist, cars and what not; Now empty! Completely empty!

In the far far distance a tram is moving around the corner. Although trams are still running, they hardly carry people. This one had just a few travellers onboard; Maybe not more than the number of fingers we have on one of our hands. So surreal!

I started laughing a lot when I passed this place hosting workplaces. Normally quite full of people; Now completely empty; Closed. But that is not what made me laugh; The name did "City Hub"... I suppose not so much a hub today :)

Every beautiful day - regardless temperature - we see boats sailing. But not only the streets in the city are kinda empty, but also the water. I do love boats passing by and all - hence I live at one of the most busy canals myself - but empty canals I do like very much as well!

Who knows, maybe Dolphins will come into our canals in a short while, like they do in Venice :)

More Little Things Enjoyments at HIVE: Continuation of this post here.

NJOY the LITTLE THINGS

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_{all photographs by edje using a somewhat modern telephone device}

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