This week I was in Den Bosch, also known as 's-Hertogenbosch, the official name, or Oeteldonk, the name during Carnival (Mardi Gras). To show you how seriously they take the Burgundian Carnival traditions here, the first shop I saw was a party store dedicated to Carnival that flew the Oeteldonk flag, which is not the same as the regular city flag. The frog is a symbol of the swamp that this area used to be.
I didn't have time to visit the city center, which is a well-preserved medieval walled city, but I did notice some remarkable buildings just to the north of the center.
This apartment building from the early 20th century looks a bit like a castle or monastery, but in a subtle way. I like the subtlety. A postmodern architect from the 1990s would have added battlements and a portcullis.
What I didn't notice until I added the photo here: there's a hair salon on the corner called Courage - probably pronounced as in French. Is that name meant as a warning?
Walking towards the center, I noticed three high-rises with a rounded triangular floor plan. They looked very elegant. My photos don't do them justice.
These flats are called the Amazones, and I should mention that they were designed by Liesbeth van der Pol. You won't see me compliment a modern architect every day.
Here I'm walking back to the north again. On my right side is a lake called De IJzeren Vrouw (The Iron Woman). I didn't take a picture of the lake, it didn't look attractive on this grey overcast day.
Another detail I missed until I edited the picture: there's a Christmas tree on the same spot on almost every floor. The residents must have planned this.
As you can see, some balconies have been covered with glass completely. It must be windy up there. But there are no privacy screens or curtains. I don't know whether I'd like to have such a sitting room where people can see you from all sides. I won't write down what I thought about things you could do there, if you weren't ashamed about what the neighbors would think.
The worst thing you could say about these flats is that they're out of place, although they're clad with bricks. The rest of the neighborhood looks almost suburban.
Reading up on the local history for this post, it struck me that it wasn't inevitable that Den Bosch, the capital of Noord-Brabant, became the fourth city in the province, after Eindhoven, Tilburg and Breda. In the 19th century, the conservative city council decided to limit industry, higher education and housing outside of the city walls.
Now Den Bosch is growing, though, and it will profit from the tendency of Dutch people to move from the periphery to the middle of the country.