Handelskade, Willemstad
The candy-coloured UNESCO waterfront of Willemstad, tankers sliding through St. Anna Bay on a live webcam.
About this view
The Handelskade is the Caribbean's most photogenic waterfront: Willemstad's candy-coloured row of 18th-century Dutch merchant houses reflected in the water of St. Anna Bay. Local legend says a governor banned white facades claiming they gave him headaches; the rainbow stuck.
This is a working harbour view: tankers and freighters slide improbably close to the café terraces on their way to the inner port, and the Queen Emma pontoon bridge, the "Swinging Old Lady", swings open on floats to let them through. Bridge openings are the event to catch.
On this live webcam the light is best in late afternoon Caribbean time, when the low sun saturates the facades; after dark the whole row is floodlit in colour.
