Before I come to that, here’s my ‘workdesk’ photo – my workdesk this week is the little table in the living room ’cause I’m still working on the ‘clothing’ for my son’s birthday (it’s going to be a jacket, he already knows that so I don’t spoil a thing by telling you…) that will get some/a lot of Japanese embroidery (“Sashiko” – see last post.) I ordered special Sashiko needles to work with and I’m in love with the Japanese packaging!

WOYWW #473

Oh, and that brown ‘thingie’ that looks like a piece of chocolate? That’s a leather thimble I made myself to protect my thumb. So I’m sitting in the living room stitching away while watching the World Cup Football on the television.

However, one cannot sit inside all day so my beloved and I go out for walks sometimes. Last Sunday I took my camera with me – you may remember the photos of the ‘tourist trip‘ I made through my little town a couple of weeks ago? A lot of you commented on the star-shaped ‘ring of canals’ around the town that could be seen on the arial photo.

Here’s the photo again and I marked the route my beloved and I walked.

Yep, we walked all around the ‘star’. Before we start our walk at the ‘Bolwerk’ as it is called (Bastion – the star shaped canal was dug to protect the city. More history about the town can be found here) we walk through our neighbourhood to get there.

I talked about the big church “Tall John” that stands a few steps from our appartment in a former post, but on the East side my home is protected by a church that I find even more beautiful than my tall friend… when I step out of the front door I can see it’s roof. See that, right in the middle of the photo? That’s the Oostkerk (Eastern church)

To get to this church, we walk through the Spanjaardstraat, a historical street with beautiful houses and monuments. (The Eastern Church looms already in the distance.)

We take a small detour and walk through the Verwerijstraat to approach the church from the other side.

… and here it is in it’s full glory, my fave building of this town, the Oostkerk. Where tall John behaves as a vain young girl, flaunting her looks, the Eastern church is rooted and stands strong, like a big, broad protector. Is it strange to say that I ‘trust it more’…? (On this internet page someone commented giving some nice, historical info on this church.)

I just find the Eastern church more ‘honest’…. look, there’s a skeleton sculpture above the door that reminds us of human mortality…

… there are more sculptures on it’s walls, showing different figures and shapes.
This one shows all kinds of shells.

I wave ‘my big protector’ goodbye and with a few steps we stand on the star-shaped ‘bastion’ and start our walk along the water.
“Walking the star” takes about an hour and I took several photos along the way.

There’s a mill standing on the bastion (if fact, there’s two windmills on the bastion, this one is called Seismolen.)

I love those little houses on the water, there are several floating in the canal and it’s home to the ducks.

Coming at the end of the bastion we cross the city centre to get home again and yes, there’s “the vain lady, flaunting her looks” Tall John.

The weather today is as nice as on the photos and I’m going to settle with needle and thread in the easy chair on the balcony. I wish you all a day as beautiful as mine!

Edited August 2018: I received a lovely email from ‘Bookmundi’ who got inspired by my ‘tourist blogposts’ to write an awesome guide (CLICK) on the Netherlands, it’s worth a read if you’re planning to visit The Netherlands.