Spring is a particular time in the Netherlands. It is the season of the tulips, and the whole country seems to be in bloom. I always wanted to do a biking trip in Holland around this time of the year and I finally managed to do it in April of 2017. It all started where it always starts – in the awesome city of Amsterdam, right strictly at the time when the place was waking up from its winter sleep.
When traveling to Holland, you notice a lot of beautiful landscapes, endless tulip fields, and scenic views on windmills. But the towns are as exciting and pretty as the nature surrounding them. The following pictures were shot in Leiden, Gouda, Woerden, and Delft.
Usually, I don’t use as much processing, but looking at my pictures from Cracow last year, I felt inspired to work on them a bit. Especially interesting for me were the red colors of the city’s historic buildings, and I searched for a way to bring them more to the front while giving the pictures a more classic black-and-white look at the same time. Three of them (pictures 1, 3, 4) show the Wawel, the former castle hill of the Polish kings, and an important national monument of the country.
Having lived in Lisbon, Portugal, for a few months, I still missed out on some things. Revisiting the city in October this year allowed me to catch up on these experiences. High on my bucket list was a visit to the ruins of the Convento Di Carmo, a former Catholic convent destroyed in the infamous earthquake of 1755, leaving it in a state of decay for the following centuries. Today, it’s open for visitors and offers a fascinating perspective on Gothic architecture and evanescence.
This is the last and final part of my series about traveling to Bosnia and Hercegovina in the heart of the Balkans. It is an exciting and still conflicted country; the remnants of the wars can still be seen, and Bosnia remains divided. At the same time, it is a beautiful country with stunning nature and a rich history full of helpful and friendly people. And it is (for now) a relatively cheap travel destination, very much recommendable to backpackers. The pictures below were shot in Mostar and Sarajevo.
This is the second series about my revisit of the capital of Portugal, Lisboa in October 2017. You’ll find the introduction right here.
Michael Hoffman Photography 