The weather remains unusually warm and pleasant here in the Netherlands. I am mostly working on the scans I did in New York, which will be printed for my New York/Amsterdam/Berlin portfolio. On Sunday we picked up Brendan, my son, from the island of Texel, on the North Sea coast. He was there visiting with his grandparents who have a house on the island.

Texel is the largest of the barrier islands along the northwest coast of Holland. Were it not for the dikes, it would consist primarily of a ridge of dunes. But there is a substantial hinterland behind the dunes with much farming, a few towns, and scattered vacation houses and camp grounds. The landscape is beautiful both in the dunes and on the flatland, and there are picturesque older farmhouses. But generally, the architecture is bland with lots of cheap brick and concrete. Despite the relative remoteness of the island–you can only get there by ferry–it is primarily a destination of middle class Dutch and German tourists, and to me, it lacks character. I’m sure the Dutch would argue with that.

Texel, on the coast of the Netherlands