Art and Repose - a Mural

Card no 382 - EJ

Mural – “Art and Repose”, Almere Haven

Country: Netherlands

Place:  Almere Haven

Received: 2^nd February 2013

Distance: _c340 miles

Travelled for: 8 days

This mural is in Almere Haven.  Almere Haven is the oldest part of Almere, a planned city in the province of Flevoland, in The Netherlands.  Almere is the youngest city in the Netherlands: the first house was not finished until 1976 but it is now the 7th largest in The Netherlands.  Although Almere Haven does not have its own railway station, it is well-connected to Amsterdam and the rest of Almere by a good bus rapid transit system.

Almere Haven has a small harbour with ferry connections to the Dutch mainland, and is surrounded by large forests of poplars containing buzzards, foxes, small deer, and owls. The closest forests are Het Beginbos and Waterlandsebos.

Almere Haven features the most idealistic architecture in Almere, when the goal was to build a model city on the newly reclaimed land of Flevoland. The city was planned before increasing population pressure in Almere and rising property prices caused compromises on the original vision.  All housing developments are built to provide views of greenery and open spaces, and each group of houses is clustered around a little park, usually with easy access to the surrounding forests, so residents of Almere Haven do not have the sense of living in a crowded urban area.

Almere Haven also does not have the inconveniences of busy traffic, car pollution, and road noise because all roads are cul-de-sacs connecting to a well-hidden ring road that provides the only car access in and out of Almere Haven. The bus road system also forms a ring and most residents are no more than a few minutes walk from a bus stop.

As always the extra stamps on EJ's card are interesting!

 The above is the Wolf Snake (Lycophidium semicinctum or, as it is more properly known nowadays, Lycophidion albomaculatum).

And the Nile Crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus).