Le Thébaïde

Purple circles indicate the visited cities.

Geldermalsen, Gelderland. It is a VILLAGE. It has nothing except some plant and poor houses. Guys, nothing special. Skip it for Gurkum or Utrecht.

Den Bosch, North Brabant. The most gorgeous city of North Brabant. The only city here which I genuinely enjoy. Seriously.

To begin with the buildings catch up such cities as Leiden, Alkmaar and Delft. Definitely catch up. Of course, with NB colorite, but it makes it not not even a bit worse!

The river surrounding the city is all nice and cute :3

Brabantstaad. Very normie-like, nothing special, go to Breda one to have bolder experience.

Center of

Central square is quite cute. Eindhoven has it worse.

However, the famous "church" is just ok. I expected more. 1.

2.

Some romantic feelings in your tumblr.

Gorinchem, South Holland. Just your typical dutch city™

Leiden, South Holland. Not so many photos and not so many points to make them. People depict Leiden as a pearl of the Netherlands, but personally I didn't enjoy it in a way different than "it's another Alkmaar, but with bigger grachts". Maybe, I just wasn't in the museum or not a parent of a kid who studies there, but it is what it is. It is also not as green, as I expected, the center is pretty greasy overall. Nevertheless, it still worths the visit.

You can see that it is not so different from other dutch cities. I think that hype over it just comes from its location. BTW, if Alkmaar was located in that place, it would be also overhyped. But everything I hear about Alkmaar is "Meh, just andere normie dorp, doesn't worth zelfs een minute of my eye". Pathetic.

Guys, it is not me being mean there. Just don't get biased. Visit not only Groningen, Maastricht, *ahem* s'Drachenage, but other parts of the Netherlands as well. I headed all of those "10 MEEST INTERESSANT STADEN IN DE NEDERLAND, JE MOET ZIEN" right into my trash bin, because I tired of them recommending the cities, which actually turn not to be so good.

Delft, South Holland. Yes, that university city™, which accurately connects Den Haag en Rotterdam. Yet more beautiful than both s'Gravenhage en Rotterdam. Why?

Because beide of them has no such beautiful, green streets.

Because they also have no grachts, which are a pleasure to walk on. Ahh, those lillies are my love :>

And, overall, because they have no centraal church. Just joking, I love beide of the cities equally.

Delft is just somewhat more classy. Which doesn't make it better or worse.

Gouda, South Holland. Gouda is the city of the Netherlands where the famous cheese sort is from. Yet, was one of the poorest that time. But I won't tell you now the city legends.

The city is OK. Too typical for the Holland, but OK. Beautiful center, surrounded by gracht, a lot of trees (but not too much) and tricolor city flag.

Sometimes it is very nice. Architecture is gorgeous! Really, brilliantly preserved and looks fantastic.

The central square consists out of some museum (?) surrounded by neighbouring building. Have seen kind of scenery in Alkmaar/Leeuwarden, if I am not wrong.

I really love how all of those DIY tuins look! It may resemble poor post-soviet countries, but the combination with old buildings is hilarious (in a good way).

The church itself is just OK. Not good, not bad.

Narrow streets should be recognised as a dutch national achievement. There is no more country with such beautiful and cute streets!

Grachts look very nice.

, Overijssel. I have a very positive opinion about Zwolle. I used to think that Overijssel is that grey, boring region in the Netherlands, which has nothing but UTwente and Heng/Almelo. Yeah, I thought that Zwolle is just a transition city, which has completely nothing interesting, not even UTwente. However, my visit to Zwolle have turned me upside down.

Zwolle is a very nice and cosy city. Overijssel's Utrecht, which is rich in architecture, trees and grachts. Gezellig.

Zwolle's architecture is quite different from architecture of other provinces. For example, N. Brabant's architecture is bright and lovely, Gelderland's architecture is vibrant and juice, Holland always tends to drab and itchy buildings, while Zwolle is strict, monumental and solid. I hope that you understand here what I mean.

Zwolle's churches are smaller and cheaper than Brabant's and Limburg's ones. And somehow... Different? Certainly in architecture. More free, I will dare to say. I like them more.

But, overall, architecture of Zwolle is pretty unusual. Bridges are filled with flowers, which is not a case with Holland and etc. And it has much more experimental architecture like that steppy gracht.

There is also a palace, which I find quite leuk. Have never seen those ones before, especially in N. Brabant cities.

Some cute narrow streets between the buildings. Looks great in combination with the style of the buildings.

Heerenveen, Friesland Sprek jo frysk? Wolkom op myn blog, mewrouw. formed from madam on occupant language and "mew" which cats say. foarme út mefrou op craptaal en "mew" dy't katten sizze. Hjoed sil ik it ha oer de glorieuze stêd Hearrenfean.

Fryske tsjerken binne de bêste tsjerken. Nederlanners sille ús noait berikke.

Strjitten, winkels, frysk brea. Himel.

Yn dit paleis wenne Jezus sels.

DY SJEN DAT NET!

Wat kin better wêze dan in fryske gracht?

Leeuwarden, Friesland. Leeuwarden is the best city in the Netherlands. It has the best architecture, the best grachts and very lovely and cute people. I definitely enjoyed my time here, it hardly can be compared to any city of the N. Brabant or even Amsterdam.

Grachts of Leeuwarden are always full of flowers and happy people making their way inside.

The architecture is simple, blond and minimalistic. Which I also enjoy. One could say that Friesland is a Scandinavia of Europe — beautiful lakes, awesome nature and comfy cities.

Leeuwarden is a part of the small group of places in the Netherlands I genuinely love (Utrecht and Nijmegen are the others). It combines the best parts of dutch cities into something special.

Leeuwarden's cathedral is amazing. It is not something dominant in the city, but I still quite enjoy it for its modest glory.

And the narrow streets. The thing I like the best in the leeuwarden. 1.

2.

Speaking about architecture. Just look at the photo above. It is so nice!

The main square of Leeuwarden, which is also noteworthy for being clean and loud ^^ Resembles Alkmaar a bit.

Den Helder, North Holland. The thinnest city in the Netherlands. Yes, exactly such impression. It looks very poor and bland. Maybe I just wasn't in the historic center, but it is what it is. I just couldn't handle it more than an hour.

The gracht. I love that it is so green and lovely, but... I don't think honestly that it is a decision of a mayor, considering other parts of a city. It just looks like they didn't have money to build something along it.

Den Helder is prominent, because it has a port which gives dutch the access to their islands. It is also prominent in Russia, because it had some creepy gay scandal.

The buildings can look like... Ugh.

Alkmaar, North Holland. The most placid city in the Netherlands.

Historical center is calm.

Even the very center is calm

Grachts can seem a bit like Dordrecht's. Holland stuff.

But sometimes buildings can be very beautiful.

So as the water.

And nature.

Of course, there are still problems.

Sittard, Limburg. The most rural city in Limburg. Photo kinda shows all of it.

However, yes, it can get urban sometimes. Fun, indeed. It is also pretty Limburg.

And the gardens are so beautiful. Je kan dem zien op https://geheimetuinen.nl/.

The statue in the center. Quite fun.

And another garden. I like the garden atmosphere in Sittard.

Rawrmond, Limburg. So, after Weert I went straight to the Roarmond. It was much more Limburgish city. A lot of tall houses and churches. Which is why it was quite nice over here. Also there were a lot of pride flags, which is so nice of them :>

And in Rawrmond churches don't look so nice, they are in fact greasy and look abandoned. I don't appreciate this, as I think that everything must look clean and tidy, but it gives church a somewhat historic and cute look.

The gardens are nice though, but there are not so many of them. Much more in other cities like Sittard and Maastricht. And the rivers, Roermond is situated near the big river.

A square, I bet? Look at tidyness. Almere, esp. Also look at the buildings. Typical Limburgish.

I really love the style. God, I want to have a copy of that building. It is awesome, Limburg has one of the most gorgeous buildings in de Nederland!

I love how they've settled LGBTQIAP+ flag on a very old building. Considering Wilders inclination in Rawrmond, I suppose that it was hard.

Typical Limburg street, honestly, with some Brabant influences.

Weert, Limburg. Uhm. Eh. The most brabantic stad in the Limburg? Seriously, because it is so similar to the other cities of Noord Brabant in terms of architecture. Like it is definitely not a genuine Limburg style "Tall buildings which are red in colour". However, it doesn't mean that this was a bad city. It was quite original and worth to make a visit into if you are into Limburg, but if just like to get around, hate brabantstaad, then it is not a city for you.

Stadhuis. What can I say? Modern, docile, beautiful. Near the train station, which I also appreciate. But, honestly, I prefer something more traditional, because I am tired looking at all of those modern things in old cities.

Liked the building design. Seriously, I love to meet such buildings, they are different from the mundane crap I usually see and are worth to take a photo of.

A church. Honestly, looks good, but not much different from the others. Every dutch city has a church, which is the most clean and tidy place in the whole city. I believe that it has nothing to do with religion and the Netherlands is actually the most secular country in the world, it's just how the things are!

Typical view of the city. Can seem to be quite nice.

And yet note, that no trash over there. Everything is clean. Something which flevish authorities have to not. Clean up the Almere, it looks terrible.

Lelystad, Flevoland. I can't give a name to it. Not just a city, but it is both cute and disgusting, both pleasant and irritating, both a town and a village. It's Lelystad. The city is named after Cornelius Lely, who projected it, but , honestly, I believed that it was after the word "little", as it is so cute... But it is still not a perfect city. The air is even MORE irritating than in Almere, which is quite an achievement, considered the shittiness of air there. However, it is not as dirty, yes.

The center is quite nice. Little buildings, not zuidas inspired. Looks warm and comfy. And the architecture is very nice, I like how the buildings look. Almere has a lot to learn.

Sometimes the style can be quite experimental, like on the following photo. Urk-inspired? I don't know. Yes, I also see and was at this orange building, it is also a bit wacky.

But sometimes you see this...

And this...

Almere, Flevoland.

The most disgusting place in the Netherlands.

God, forgive me. To begin with, the air is terrible. I don't know why, but it is what it is. It is just full with some salty moisture, and while it was near okay in Middelburg, in Almere it is much more harsh and irritating. And when you look through all of those streets with this air... Gosh. I just can't stand it. This is actually the reason I wasn't wandering so long in the Almere, while it definitely required much more attention (wanted to visit the port part, eh). Secondly, the trash is everywhere. Seriously, it sucks, even in the most shitty Moscow Neighbourhood the situation is better. No offence, just my own perception, I may be wrong. Consider also that I came in the evening, so there may be just no maintenance, while in Russia they work primarily in the evening. However, things definitely need to be done!

Yes. The ugliest stadhuis. Right after the Lelystad, I bet. It looks like a shopping mall, and the square after it is also dirty. Which sums up everything about Almere. And the flag. It is pretty ugly. Yes, offence, fuck you. North Brabant has a much better flag!

The center was... Eh... Nice?... However, I don't like an obvious zuidas style. However, in this case I understand that the whole capitalist influence comes from the people, who work in the Amsterdam and want Amsterdam there. But overall it is nice. Just not so fun to dwell in and explore, the same thing in Zuidas. And it is also pretty small.

I can see some nordic influences. Yes, in the very center it is neat. But some buildings can look shitty. You can see a rainbow center far away. It looks appalling. God, Netherlands is the most beautiful and ugly country at the same time. Fuck.

Just a field in the center. I bet that they carry some activities there. Carried, at list. If it is not, then it is still a nice place to hang out in, especially if you live in such a shitty city as Almere.

The Hell. The fuck. Why? I understand, business, gelden, VVD, but WHY? It looks absolutely disturbing. Especially this stained glass crap on the top. If I didn't know that I am in Almere, I would've thought that it is Nizhny Novgorod or Bryansk, or some other crappy russian city in the middle of Drenthe.

Toilet inspired setting. I had no doubts that it would be Kruidvat. However, yes, I must admit that it looks original, not just like another beton box or etc.