Alkmaar, Netherlands

This one was sent in an envelope. :(



NL-1550153

Alkmaar is located in the province of North Holland. Edam cheese is made here, and every Friday morning from April to September they have a cheese market, which is mainly a show for tourists. In fact, you can't even buy cheese at the cheese market - it is just a demonstration of how the market used to work in the old days. Alkmaar also has a cheese museum.

I've been postcrossing for about 4 years and these are the only two cards I've ever received from Alkmaar. I got them within 2 weeks of each other.

 Stamps from 2003 (left), 2002 (middle) and 2010 (right).

Dutch horse

NL-1628912

The sender of this card says "On the front a wild horse in a Dutch setting." Surprisingly, there are wild (well, feral) horses in the Netherlands, but the horse on this card does not really fit the phenotype. Nevertheless, a really nice card. :) Thanks Yoyce for checking my wishlist.

The stamp is from 2011, a definitive on "environmentally conscious life."

Zelhem, Netherlands

NL-1454925

Despite being a multiview, I really like this card. Artistic, nice font, well-designed!

Zelhem is a village in Gelderland, Netherlands. Apparently it's not famous for much, but is known for the good witch Smokshanne, who in the 19th century flew around Zelham on a broom backwards, with only one clog, the other having been lost in flight. The village's 1200th anniversary party was Smokshanne-themed.




The stamp on the right is familiar to us. I can't find any info on the stamp on the left.

Delft Blue

From Peggy for the surprise me RR. She writes that Delft Blue is a typically Dutch form of art, and that these are traditional costumes not often seen anymore except to amuse tourists. Thanks Peggy for the card and for these old, awesome stamps:

 A stamp from 1996, and one from 1991 showing Pieter Zeeman, nobel-prize winning Dutch physicist.

This one is from 1995 and shows the World Scout Jamboree, which was held in the Netherlands in that year.

Netherlands Horses

This card came as an official from Gerrie last September. I get a lot of horse cards from the Netherlands - it seems horse cards are almost as plentiful as cityviews there (and I like horses a lot more than cityviews :).

Normal stamp on this card, so I won't post it.

'S-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands

St. John's Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church in the city of 'S-Hertogenbosch, North Brabant, Netherlands. Construction of the church was completed in 1525, but it was damaged by fires in 1584 and 1830. It has undergone 3 restorations, the most recent being completed in 2010. Sculptor Ton Mooy created 25 new angel statues, the last of which wears jeans and holds a cell phone. The phone has only one button - it dials directly to god, according to Mooy. This "modern angel" was, incredibly, approved by the cathedral's fathers (although they rejected a design for an angel wearing a jet pack).

Thanks Truus for this official card.

The green stamp on the left is from 1989, showing a Boyer type sailing ship, used to carry freight from the Netherlands to the U.K., Germany, and the Baltic in the 16th and 17th centuries. The stamp on the right is from 2010.

Netherlands Museum Railway

A card from the June 2010 RR, from Wesley. The train is part of a museum in the eastern part of the Netherlands. This is the largest museum railway line in the Netherlands. The museum actually *is* the railway line, and you can ride on the train! The national railroad company used this railway line to transport freight up until the 1980s. It was preserved as an industrial monument of the peat moor country through which it runs, opening as a museum in 1992, and carrying passengers from 1994.

The railway operates on a regular schedule for museum visitors, and also hosts special events. For example, on November 26 and 27, St. Nicholas and his assistant Zwarte Piet will be riding the train.


This would not fly in the U.S. Apparently blackface, and Santa having a black slave sidekick, is not considered racist in the Netherlands.

Great stamps! The top two stamps are both from a set issued in 2001 for National Book Week, entitled "Between Two Cultures." The one on the left is a quote from E. du Perron, an influential Dutch poet of Eurasian descent, and the one on the right is a photograph taken by Ulay. That one on the bottom is from 1972 - wow!

Texel, Netherlands

A card from the Suprise Me RR. The heart is actually a hole cut in the middle of the card, which I had never seen anything like before. I have to wonder why the designer chose the ugly picture to take up 2/3 of the card... but perhaps it's a blessing in disguise since the scuff marks left by the mail sorting machine are only defacing the ugly picture. :P (I think the card would be a lot nicer if the other five pictures, which are nice, made up the entire card.) Anyway, I still like it.

Texel is one of the Frisian Islands located in the Wadden Sea, although it is actually in the province of North Holland, not Friesland. Tourism is Texel's main economy, and it does look like a nice place for a vacation if you want to take it easy or go bicycle touring. About one third of the island is a nature preserve, complete with a visitor's center and wildlife museum, where you can watch the seals being fed twice a day. (I am not sure why they are feeding the wild animals at a nature preserve, though.)

More nice stamps. The one on the left reads "zomerpostzegels 1992, floriade nederland" Floriade is a flower festival held every 10 years in the Netherlands. In the middle is a stamp from 1995 showing the equation discovered by J. D. van der Waals, a Dutch Nobel Prize physicist. The stamp on the right is undated so I am guessing it is a definitive.

Eindhoven, Netherlands

For some reason, I decided I should post a card I don't like. Normally I only post cards that, if I don't love, there is at least something interesting about it. Is it too negative to say why I don't like this card? First of all, it is a multiview, and neither picture is that attractive, plus the way they are put together isn't at all artistic. If it were even symmetrical or the color scheme were matched, I think it would look nicer. I have a number of other cards that I don't like for the same reasons... maybe some people really like this type of card? Otherwise I don't even know why a company would print it. I can't discount the possibility that in some towns there are no nicer cards, and of course I still appreciate the sender's effort to write a nice message and send me a card. She writes that the top is the soccer stadium of Eindhoven, and the bottom is the market square, where she likes to sit in the market square and have a drink in the summer. It does look like a good place for that. :)

According to wikipedia, Eindhoven is unique in the number of modern art pieces in parks and around the city, including this one:

And a google image search shows many attractive pictures of the city that would also make good postcards.

Maybe I should go into the postcard design business. Actually I did design one postcard myself, and had it printed through Vistaprint (mainly because there are no commercial postcards of Sogenji and I wanted one). It must be nice enough because a lot of people on Postcrossing have put it on their favorites wall.

OK, now I am getting off my soapbox.

Netherlands Kiddie Art

NL-286196 from a primary school class in Steenwijk, the Netherlands. "This year we laern how to speak Englisch. We hope you like our card! We made it ourselvis." Cute! :)

Normal stamp, so I won't post it.

Symbols of Holland

An official from the Netherlands, showing tulips, clogs, and a windmill.

Tulips, first wildflowers from central Asia, were cultivated in Turkey, then brought to the Netherlands in the 17th century. "Tulip" comes from the Turkish word for "turban."

Clogs are called klompen in Dutch. Heehee. Apparently the traditional wooden ones can be accredited for safety standards, impermeable to sharp objects and even concentrated acid. Perhaps I should get some for work, as they recently instated a change to the dress code so now we have to wear close-toed shoes.

I didn't put in the stamp as it is the normal world-heart one.

Dutch Horses

From Annerie for my vacation RR group from last month's trip to Portland. That was the trip where I ended up wandering around downtown Portland in the evening looking for some dinner, and trying not to cry in public. I passed a homeless person sitting in a doorway. Instead of asking me for money, he said "Take care. You look like you have a lot on your mind."

Well, something good came of that weekend, because I like this card a lot. The horses look so peaceful in their field in the sun.

She used great stamps. Two (left and middle) from 1988, and one from 1990 (right). The middle one says "200 Jaar Australie" and on the map of Australia "Nova Hollandia." The one on the right says "Hoofdkantoor Koninklijke PTT Nederland NV Groningen." Can anyone explain them?

Holland Images

It's been ages since I posted a card from the Netherlands, which is weird since I have tons of them! This is from José for the June Jubilee RR 2010. He writes, "The only things missing are the tulips and the clogs." I wonder how typical this is for modern day Netherlanders. Surely most of them live in cities and have washing machines? :P

The stamp on the right is apparently from 1984?! Showing the black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa). In the middle we have William of Orange, also known as William the Silent, who led the Dutch revolt against the Spanish in 1568. Finally, on the left is Martin Luther, famous for the Protestant Reformation. All great stamps, and a welcome change from the heart-earth definitive!

Nijmegen, Netherlands

I got this card from Desiree for the October "surprise me" round robin. Nijmegen, near the German border, is the oldest city in the Netherlands, having celebrated its 2000th anniversary in 2005. This card is a map of the center of the city. Nijmegen is famous for its International Four Day Marches, held every year in July since 1916. Participants walk 30, 40, or 50 kilometers each day for four days. Originally it was mainly a military event, but nowadays civilians greatly outnumber military participants. Those who finish are showered with gladiolus flowers and receive a medal. Naturally, there are also festivities to accompany the march, drawing as many as a million visitors to Nijmegen.

The stamp on the right features Petrus Plancius, a Dutch cartographer of the 1500s. I think this stamp was issued in 1996. The stamp on the left is dated 1992. Thank you Hans for the information on this stamp! (See comment below.)

Oldenzaal, Netherlands

Oldenzaal is an 850-year-old town located in the mid-east of the Netherlands, near the border with Germany. The buildings in the foreground are old houses, and in the back you can see the Basilica of St Plechelm (the patron saint of the Netherlands), where his 1,050th anniversary was celebrated in 2004. The writer of the postcard says that she sings in the church choir there.

Once again I cannot get TNT post to load, but this stamp is pretty transparently celebrating Aniek van Koot, a famous and talented wheelchair tennis player.


These appear to be definitives in make-up rates of 2 and 5 eurocents.

Fryslân, Netherlands

From MarianneJS for the June 2010 RR.
I love the different colors on this card.

Fryslân, Netherlands.
Fryslân, or Friesland, is unique among the Netherlands' twelve provinces in having its own language, West Frisian, spoken by 70% of the population along with Dutch. Signs in Fryslân are bilingual and there are TV and radio programs in Frisian. Fryslân is mainly an agricultural province–hence the black and white Frisian cows on the card. Fryslân also has 195 windmills, and many lakes and rivers. Located on the northern coast of the Netherlands, Fryslân incorporates the four Dutch Wadden Islands. Vlieland, the furthest from shore, is accessible by ferry, but no cars are allowed on it. This whole area sounds like a great place for a bike tour.

The stamps are really cool! The minisheet of two is from a Dutch comic book, "Jan, Jens an de kinderen" by Jan Kruis. The stamps themselves are fairly old, from a 1998 issue. I couldn't find any info on the one on the left.

Dutch Cows

NL-383557 from Christha in Arnhem, Netherlands.
This card was waiting for me when I got home from Vancouver on Sunday night. I'm not normally a big fan of cows, but I love the perspective and the bright contrasting colors on this card.

I couldn't find any info on the stamp, although I did find it on the TNT Post site... it's the definitive for the outside-Europe airmail price of 95 eurocents.

Slurp!

Now that I've started posting for today, I don't want to stop!


Dikke smakkerd voor jou = Big kiss for you!

This card came inside a package I got from Kim in the Netherlands for the "20 things" tag, so it's written, but not stamped. However, she also sent me a bunch of used NL stamps in the package, so I'll post some of those instead. "Denk groen doe groen" = "Think green, make green," a series of stamps (apparently - I'm extrapolating from the Netherlands Post Office website, which is entirely in Dutch, with help from Google Translate) celebrating sustainability, with these three depicting green energy, organic food and drink, and carpooling. Click the photo for a link to the Netherlands Post Office page about these stamps.