Hoge Brug (High Bridge) over the Meuse River in Maastricht (Netherlands)

Adieu Meuse endormeuse et douce 

à mon enfance,

Qui demeures aux prés où tu coules tout bas.

Meuse adieu : j'ai déjà commencé ma partance

En des pays nouveaux où tu ne coules pas.

Quote by Joan of Arc 

from a Charles Péguy novel

St. Servatius Bridge over the Meuse River in Maastricht (Netherlands)

Probably born in Armenia, and buried in Maastricht, St. Servatius was the first bishop of the Netherlands. The cup in which he used to drink was delivered by an angel had the virtue of being able to cure fever . He prophecied the invasion of the Huns , who occurred 70 years after the announcement.

Legend of Sr. Servatius

St. Servatius Bridge crossing Meuse River in Maastricht (Netherlands)

            Thinking of Holland 

            I see broad rivers 

            slowly chuntering

            through endless lowlands, 

            rows of implausibly 

            airy poplars 

            standing like tall plumes 

            against the horizon; 

            and sunk in the unbounded

             vastness of space

             homesteads and boweries 

            dotted across the land, 

            copses, villages, 

            couchant towers, 

            churches and elm-trees, 

            bound in one great unity.

            ...

Hendrik Marsman

Bakkerbrug (Baker's Bridge) over the Oude Gracht (Old Canal) in Utrecht (Netherlands)

Je zult ergens moeten beginnen om het verleden een plaats te geven, het heden doet er steeds minder toe. Hoe verder je bent, hoe beter. Ga maar door nu...

You have to begin somewhere to give the past its place, the present matters ever less. The further you are, the better. Continue now,...

Beginning Letters of Utrecht,

never ending poem in the streets of Utrecht

Erasmusbrug (Erasmus Bridge) over the New Meuse River in Rotterdam (Netherlands)

"If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don't do it, and it won't happen."

Erasmus of Rotterdam

John Frost Bridge over the Rhine River in Arnhem (Netherlands)

- What do you think?

- Well, as you know, I always felt we tried to go a bridge too far.

Dialogue in film A Bridge Too Far

about the capture of this bridge in World War II

Hogespoorbrug in Zwolle (Netherlands)

The government of the city of Zwolle was lack of money so was forced to sell the church bell to Kampen. They tried to get a rather high price. Kampen accepted the deal, with the condition that they would choose the mode of payment. Zwolle accepted and Kampen paid with copper coins of four duiten. Local authorities counted the money with his hands so their fingers became blue after rubbing such amount of copper. So the citiezens of Zwolle are known as Blauwvingers ( Blue Fingers)

Legend of Zwolle

Koornbrug (Corn Bridge) over the New Rhine Canal in Leiden (Netherlands)

"Sembrado para comer es sagrado sustento del hombre que fue hecho de maíz.

Sembrado por negocio es hambre del hombre que fue hecho de maíz."

Miguel Angel Asturias

Erasmusbrug and Brienenoordbrug in Rotterdam (Netherlands)

"There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other."

Erasmus of Rotterdam

Oosterbrug over the Frankereind canal in Harlingen, Frisia (Netherlands)

"It's in our genes. We've been skating for centuries, every year when frost comes, there's something indescribable released inside. As soon as there is ice, everyone is the same, everyone is equal. Maybe that's why we love it so much."

Bert van Voorbergen, 

organizer of the
Eleven Cities Race

Zeeland Bridge over the Oosterschelde Basin between the island of Schouwen Duiveland and Noord-Beveland (Netherlands)

"God created the world, but the Dutch created the Netherlands"

Proverb

Magere Brug (Skinny Bridge) over the Amstel River in Amsterdam (Netherlands)

Nadie me da razón y yo me quedo 
mirando por entre los canales 
por los que pasan pájaros 
que no tienen noticia de nada 

Y el tiempo es solo una miserable barca 
que va dejando una estela sobre el agua. 
sin que nadie de cuenta de qué es lo que nos pasa. 

Camino por Amsterdam

Laureano Albán

Magere Brug (Skinny Bridge) over the Amstel River in Amsterdam (Netherlands)

"Amsterdam was a great surprise to me. I had always thought Venice as the city of canals; it had never entered my mind that I should find similar conditions in a Dutch town"

James Weldon Johnson

Old bridges Maasbrug and Willemsbrug over the Meuse River in Rotterdam (Netherlands)

Before me lie dark waters
In broad canals and deep,
Whereon the silver moonbeams
Sleep, restless in their sleep;
A sort of vulgar Venice
Reminds me where I am;
Yes, yes, you are in England,
And I'm at Rotterdam.

Poem In Rotterdam

Thomas Hood

Martinus Nijhoff Bridge across the Waal River in Zaltbommel, Gelderland (Netherlands)

I went to Bommel just to see the bridge.
I saw the newest bridge: two riverbanks
that seemed in times of yore to shun the ranks,
are friends again.
A little time, while I was sitting on the grass,
drinking my tea,
my head full with the landscape fair and wide,
from far away right from the infinite,
I heard a voice that sounded well to me.

Poem about a bridge
Martinus Nijhof

Bridge over Prinsengracht Canal in Amsterdam (Netherlands)

Stuck on the end of this ball and chain
And I’m on my way back down again
Stood on a bridge, tied to the noose
Sick to the stomach
You can say what you mean
But it won’t change a thing
I’m sick of the secrets
Stood on the edge, tied to a noose
You came along and you cut me loose

Amsterdam

Song by Coldplay

Bridge near "De Herder" mill in Leiden (Netherlands)

" I've always loved that idea of windmills - your mind aimlessly spinning. I don't know what the symbolism of it is but it's beautiful.".

Tim Burton

Bridge in Kinderdijk (Netherlands)

I saw you toss the kites on high 

And blow the birds about the sky 

And all around I beard you pass, 

Like ladies' skirts across the grass--

O wind, a-blowing all day long 

O wind, that sings so loud a song! 

I saw the different things you did, 

But always you yourself you hid, 

I felt you push, I heard you call, 

I could not see yourself at all

O wind, a-blowing all day long 

O wind, that sings so loud a song!

 

The wind

Robert Louis Stevenson

Erasmusbrug over the New Meuse River in Rotterdam (Netherlands)

A orillas del Mosa

escruto el firmamento

pensando en cien mil cosas

que se lleva el viento

Aleteando por el aire

me elevo a otro plano,

supero la gravedad

y encuentro a un hermano

Oh pájaro del deseo

que el viento mece

libérame del otro

y de lo que pese.

Poem A orillas del Mosa

Jules Deedel

Bridge in Zaanse Schans (Netherlands)

"A hand full of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains." 

Netherland proverb