With the onset of spring, it makes traveling and photography much easier with temperate weather. The temperature outside has a particularly strong effect on certain aspects of photography, especially when shooting with Polaroid film. It is G’s medium of choice when shooting with his vintage cameras. This Saturday we drove out to the (former) Polaroid factory in Enschede, in the eastern part of the Netherlands. Though Polaroid went bankrupt, another business bought their production factory and began to produce Polaroid film again (The Impossible Project). They have several buildings on the original campus, but entry was restricted to the “factory outlet store”. The “store” is barely the size of a full bathroom, but we did get to buy”Polaroid” film there.
Not far from the Polaroid factory, we visited another (locally well known) location. There’s a memorial park to victims of the Enschede fireworks disaster (Vuurwerkramp) nearby. A fireworks factory blew up in the center of this town, destroying a large radius around it. Walking around the town, you can see how bad it was. There are many blocks of brand new buildings nearby, and some of the buildings are noticeably altered by the event. The cracked foundation of the factory was partially left in the middle of the memorial park. We didn’t stay long, since it started raining during our walk around the park.
Enschede is on the border of the Netherlands, literally minutes from Germany. G and I popped in and out of Germany, because we could. The highway through the border is passable like driving from state to state.
Despite the change in weather, we decided to keep traveling around. We drove towards the center of the Netherlands, and another of its major cities: Utrecht. The region around it is very green, and full of forests. One of the forest areas contains an artificial hill built by Napoleon soldiers during their occupation of the Netherlands in the 1800’s. The Pyramid of Austerlitz definitely has Egyptian influences, and contains a series of earthen grass steps topped by a tower. The area was closed by the time we arrived, but we were able to take a good look at the construction.
Overall, it only takes a few hours to cross the Netherlands from side to side. We managed to drive across it and back within the same day!
Memorial Park to the Enschede fireworks disaster.
Cracked foundations of the fireworks factory in Enschede
German/Dutch border
Utrechtse Heuvelrug. A series of forest covered hill in the heart of the Netherlands
It’s unsettling that my favorite grocery store chain Albert Heijn has large artillery defending the store…This area has a lot of war history, and isn’t too far from the locations of Operation Market Garden. This store happened to share its lawn with a war museum (in Nijverdal).
The Pyramid of Austerlitz.
To keep the army from destructive boredom, their General instructed them to build a monument inspired by the pyramid of Giza. It’s fairly big and reminds me of the Mayan pyramids instead.
Polaroid nerd
The Pyramid of Austerlitz at sunset
The forest around the Pyramid of Austerlitz
Location(s):
Enschede – Wikipedia – Maps –
Enschede Fireworks Disaster – Wikipedia –
Impossible Project/Polaroid Factory: –Wikipedia –
Utrechtse Heuvelrug – Maps –