Roadside Pictures

[RobertArthur]

@ Polarengineer, I have no idea when you last visited Amsterdam. Just to clarify: that bicycle parking facility is in Amersfoort, close to where the first shipment of Volkswagen Beetles arrived in April 1947. Nowadays it is a sleek, modern residential area. The area in front of Amsterdam Central Station looks a lot tidier these days. An underground bicycle parking facility has been built, above which the canal boats pick up passengers as usual. Modern times, modern inconveniences: the escalators (or slides?) that descend endlessly into the depths malfunction frequently and have an extremely slippery top layer, resulting in many falls. Above at street level new trams run with a dashboard for the driver reminiscent of that of a jet fighter. Elsewhere in the city not too many changes.The railway equipment has also changed considerably.

[RobertArthur]

Electric power? No, a little bit of wind and sunshine is all you need to dry your laundry. More electric power needed elsewhere, in Las Vegas. Power outage, black-out?

[RobertArthur]

Innovative solution to urban parking problems.

[RobertArthur]

A famous address in Vienna, Berggasse 19. And just around the corner of that street I thought: there's no such thing as coincidence. In German, the word for battery is ‘Akku’. Every year a new battery? Am I dreaming this or is it reality? I immediately retraced my steps. Doctor! Doctor? How should I interpret this dream?

[RobertArthur]

How long has this been going on?

[RobertArthur]

The significant impact of oil crises led to a resurgence of electric vehicles. The French Post Office participated in a national programme aimed at saving energy. Several experiments were conducted in partnership with Renault and Peugeot during the 1980s. In 1985, Renault launched the Express électrique, but its range was too limited for postal delivery rounds, which posed a problem. In the years that followed, further experiments were conducted.
In 1995, following an agreement with EDF and the French government, La Poste committed to having 10% of its fleet made up of electric vehicles by the end of 1999, representing a target of 800 to 900 units, which the company did not achieve within this timeframe.

They continued, emphasis on the cities. La France profonde, rural communities, that's another story, not easy at all, how many kilometers do you get from the batteries.....In Guilliers, a small town in Morbihan, La Poste has been trialling the use of an electric vehicle on its longest local route since December 2024. This local experiment is part of a much larger project. La Poste, which already has one of the largest electric fleets in the world with 37,000 electric vehicles (48% of its total fleet), has planned to invest €200 million by 2025 to acquire 8,000 new light electric vehicles. The stated objective is clear: to achieve complete electrification of its distribution fleet by 2030.

Source 1.

Source 2.

[RobertArthur]

[RobertArthur]

This time from a slightly different perspective, not from ground level, but from above. When you, as an ordinary landlubber, go shopping, visit friends or go to the hospital for a medical check-up, you take the car. Just walk there and get in.

For some professions, however, things are a little different. How do you get your car to dry land? In any case, it provides a slightly larger playground for your young children, albeit temporarily. In the meantime, the skipper will deliver his cargo somewhere.

[RobertArthur]

John Adams, who later became the second president of the United States, lived in two locations during his mission in Amsterdam (1780-1782): initially for a short time on the Oudezijds Achterburgwal 143 and then from 1781 to 1782 at Keizersgracht 529. The latter building is considered to be the first American embassy in the world. A Dutch-American story.

It was actually quite by chance that I happened to catch sight of it. I stopped by the French bookshop ‘Le Temps Retrouvé’. In addition to lots of books there was also a charming young Parisienne browsing around with her little toddler next to her, well-behaved and attentive as French children often are. She was clearly already fully integrated into Amsterdam city culture, judging by the cargo bike she had parked outside the door.

When I left the bookshop empty-handed – the bookshelves here at home are still full – I started reading a very short story on a plaque outside. That's how you learn something about the history of the USA. The former diplomatic status of that building still resonated in the classic car parked there.

[ajm]

Some people will park anywhere especially if marked with a cross