Here in the New World we talk about “historical” when an object or a place is some 100 years old. In the Old World, “old” is more like 600 years old or even older. We arrived in North America only some 500 years ago. Buildings were created only in the last 150 years. Anything older has been replaced or destroyed.

This time I would like to take you to an old church. Construction began in 1450, a little later than many of the churches we know in Western Europe.

Walking around in a far away city with a camera is always good. Even more if the city is photogenic. However, when you are far far away, you probably don’t have a tripod with you. So you have to resolve to other means of stabilisation. Or not?

When I came out of a coffee shop ( coffee, nothing else, eh! ), I was greeted with this view of Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kiev. The same spot of the now famous Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004.

We probably all know what a church looks like inside, even if sometimes it’s only from a distant memory. Some churches look really simple, some look more elaborate. All of them have their photogenic properties. When you go to Eastern Europe, you will most certainly run into a kind of church that shows much and at the same time little on the outside.

In Ukraine I ran into this church. It looks pretty simple, well kept and not very wealthy. Until you look up and see that golden dome up there.

Shopping is always fun. Well, at least if it is not endless trying and rejecting shoes, clothes etc, that is. One can learn or understand a lot of a country by going to its markets. In the north of Holland in the city of Leeuwarden there is a market every week on Friday. The space taken by it is free on the other days of the week. Over the years, the weekly market has been moved around from time to time to make place for construction or other festivities.

This time I was in Leeuwarden and the market is back to where it was when I grew up. The cheese stand decorated with its pricing and presentation of all the different cheeses on sale. In the stand on the street, the pieces of cheese are vacuum sealed against weather and fingers.