The main reason why I like to walk a dike road is the perfect view to the landscapes on both sides of the dike. The river and the river forelands on one side, the mainland on the other side. On a clear day you can see miles away.
My sharp truck spotting eye (remember the sound from the Six Million Dollar Man?) worked flawlessly, despite the not so clear day. But there were also some other things to zoom into.
Here’s the Brotherhood of MAN, a neat array of bulk haulers.
Heavy-duty Scania R-series 8×4 truck with a roll-off system. It frequently tows a lowbed trailer for hauling heavy machinery.
1999 Ford Ka. Ford’s A-segment hatchback and factory go-kart, introduced in 1996.
Classic Fendt farm tractor, working on the river forelands. Near the end of winter often flooded.
Volvo FM 4×2 tractor with semi-trailer at a furniture factory.
2008 Renault Premium tractor with a steerable and liftable (obviously) pusher axle, 450 hp from a 10.8 liter engine. It has delivered steel plates to the shipyard. It must have, since it says Statendam Steel Plates on the cab’s side.
A small flatbed truck & tractor, an EV, most likely built by Spijkstaal.
1970 Volkswagen Beetle. These things just won’t go away, they will probably stay here till the end of days.
Heading west.
Heading east.
And here’s where the two meet.
From left to right: a Renault Twingo, Toyota Corolla Verso, Toyota Yaris, Volkswagen Tiguan and Fiat Ducato. There’s a blue car behind the Fiat, but I can’t figure out what it is.
Work in progress with a 2008 Spierings SK498-AT4 mobile crane. Lower engine by DAF, upper engine by John Deere. With a ZF automatic transmission and a Steyr transfer case.
This video shows how the crane of a Spierings AT4 unfolds and folds up.
Both practical cars in their own segment; a 2010 Fiat Panda and a 2013 Audi A4 Avant 1.8 turbo.
Back in town. From this angle the G-Wagen (is the Jim Klein family already driving one?) looks rather compact. But only from this angle. Across the street another first gen Ford Ka. That’s all for today.
The dark blue car is also messing up my mind. The position of the logo says Corsa B. But it seems too boxy to be one.
The Netherlands seem to make a good place for car spotting. Keep up the good work, Johannes!
It IS an Opel Corsa B, the five-door-hatchback. The ones with three doors look more coupe´-ish. I have owned one, it looks like a small wagon. The Fendt tractor seems to be a Series 3, (305- 308) built around ´85 to ´90. The German bread-and-butter-tractor, but expensive, even used.
Greetings from Ostfriesland
You guys must be right, a Corsa B 5-door with the “wagon looks”.
About the Fendt, I think it’s the same as this one, I took this picture about a year ago. In the same area. Agreed with Stefan it’s a Series 3 from the late eighties.
Thanks, Stefan. I also see them all the time, but somehow the picture made me unsure if it was a 3 or a 5 door.
+1 on the 5 door Corsa B.
Walking the dike roads would really appeal to my curious side, when I was a regular runner checking out the street scene was half the fun.
Pikesta, this time I -literally- focused on the vehicles etc. along the route. Some of them hundreds of meters away. Here’s an impression of the landscape:
http://www.curbsideclassic.com/uncategorized/cc-global-hiking-along-the-river-man-made-landscape-ships-buildings-and-a-few-trucks/
Johannes, thanks for the link, what magnificent countryside!! I have been to Holland once and hope to get back there one day. Your photo’s really bring back good memories.
Ha, no G-Wagen for us yet, but that is a nice one, it would likely be approved by She Who Must Be Obeyed…
Some very nice sights along your walk, it’s always welcome to see sights that are in essence everyday and ordinary, yet so different being in a different country. Also, it’s great to see green grass again, after Ireland coming back to Colorado was a bit of a shock since everything is still very brown here and only this last week beginning to turn a living color once more….
Nice to see a Ka. My daughter’s friend has one. Something about that shape puts a smile on my face.
They got a 1.6 lt engine in some parts of the world
My mother had one too in the late nineties. Black, so the big plastic bumpers didn’t stand out too much. It had Ford’s old and venerable 1.3 liter engine, to keep the price low. It was not fast, as in straight line performance, but it handled and cornered very well (hence: Ford’s factory go-kart).
I like the whitewalls on the VW.
We saw a lot of interesting things on and near the dikes on our river cruise.
The VW Beetle – what a phenomenon. Not only for being a practical everyday driver 47 years after it was made, but for being unremarkable as such.