Postcard from Utrecht

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. From time to time, usually on Wednesday, I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: Utrecht.

A view of the city Utrecht, with the Neude and Janskerkhof squares.

Looking at this postcard it seems to me the photo was taken from the tower of the Dom church, looking to the north. The square at the bottom right is the Janskerkhof (and to the right of it, on the edge of the card, you can just make out part of the Janskerk church). The square on the left is the Neude. The tower in the background is the water tower on the Lauwerhof street.

The card was sent in 1923, so this photo was taken at least 90 years ago.

Postcard from de Veluwe

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. On Wednesdays I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: de Veluwe.

De Veluwe is a region in the province Gelderland. The card shows a Veluwsch Binnenhuisje, an interior photo from the Veluwe region. I don't know if this interior scene is typical for the Veluwe, but whoever lived at this place is certainly well off.

The card was sent in 1933, so the photo is probably from the 1920s.

Postcard from Schoten

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. On Wednesdays I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: Schoten.

Schoten is a small town near Haarlem, province Noord-Holland. The photo on the card is of the Kloosterstraat street. The place looks different now, of course, but I could still recognize it on streetview (link). Many details, especially of the building left on the foreground, are still the same.

The card was sent in 1925, so the photo is probably from the early 1920s or maybe late 1910s.

Postcard from Walcheren

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. On Wednesdays I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: Walcheren.

Ladies in the traditional costume of Walcheren, an island in the province Zeeland, doing their traditional folk dance. This card ran in 1932, so I assume the photo is from the 1920s.

Postcard from Den Haag

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. On Wednesdays I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: Den Haag.

A postcard of the Hofvijver (litt. Court Pond, on the foreground). The street along the water is the Vijverberg, while the trees in the middle are on the Voorhout street.

The Hofvijver is a medieval pond, next to the Binnenhof (Inner Court) complex, built for the counts of Holland. Most photos of the Hofvijver include the buildings of the Binnenhof on the background, but, as the sender noted in French, the photo on this card is taken "de l'autre côté", from the other side, with the Binnenhof behind the photographer and the Vijverberg and Voorhout streets in the background.

This postcard also featured in the post Vijverberg on my blog Images of The Hague.

Postcard from Friesland

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. On Wednesdays I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: Friesland.

Two small boats on a presumably Frisian lake.

The card never ran, and I'm not sure how old it is, or where in Friesland it is. It is number 7 in the series "On and around the water". The texts on the back are in Frisian, the minority language of the province Friesland.

This postcard featured earlier in the post Water on my blog Roots.

Postcard from Walcheren

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. On Wednesdays I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: Walcheren in Zeeland.

A beautiful postcard with three kids in the traditional costume of the island Walcheren in the province Zeeland.

The card was sent in 1927, so the photo is probably from the early 1920s.

Postcard from Venlo: Manresa

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. On Wednesdays I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: Venlo.

The retreat house Manresa in Venlo. We had a Manresa postcard before - this one was sent by the same person, a year later (1922).

Postcard from Amsterdam

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. On Wednesdays I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: Amsterdam.

The Singel, a canal that once encircled Amsterdam and is now the innermost of the semicircular ring of canals encircling downtown Amsterdam. In the background (near the right edge of the postcard) we can see the Munttoren (Mint Tower).

If you come to Amsterdam, do a boat tour of the canals. You will see that the view on the postcard has not changed much.

Postcard from Holland

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. On Wednesdays I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: Traditional dresses.

The caption on this card is Een laatst vaarwel, a final goodbye. The ladies in traditional dress are probably bidding farewell to their fisherman husbands who just set sail to their fishing haunts at sea. The fishing boats were often at sea for several weeks at a time.

It should be possible to tell from their dress in which region the ladies lived, but I don't know much about traditional dresses, so I can't tell you anything about the location.

Postcard from Valkenburg

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. On Wednesdays I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: Valkenburg.

Around one hundred years ago, an interesting museum was built in the caves near the town Valkenburg in the province Limburg. In these caves are replicas of the best parts of the famous catacombs of Rome. The postcard shows the original entrance.

The website of the catacombs of Valkenburg seems to be in Dutch only.

Postcard from Lichtenvoorde

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. On Wednesdays I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: Lichtenvoorde.

The Rapenburgsestraat street in Lichtenvoorde, province Gelderland. I could not find this location in Google streetview, maybe the buildings have been demolished (or changed beyond recognition).

Postcard from Hillegom

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. On Wednesdays I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: Hillegom.

The Mariastraat is a street in Hillegom. The building on the left seems to be this one on Google Streetview.

Postcard from a hospital

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. On Wednesdays I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: A postcard from a hospital in Maastricht.

Vrouwenverpleegzaal, women's nursing room, in the hospital Calvariënberg in Maastricht. Patients and nurses all pose for the photo.

Postcard from Nijkerk

A lock in Nijkerk, province Gelderland.

Postcard from Venlo: Retreat house "Manresa"

Men who wanted to go into retreat could do so in retreat house Manresa in Venlo. Manresa, run by Jesuits, was in use from 1908 until 1973, for men only.

This postcard was sent in March 1921, by someone who was in retreat here. It shows the recreation room of Manresa, with in the background the billiard room.

Postcard from Amsterdam

Last week, the Unesco added 21 new sites to its world heritage list. One of those sites was the seventeenth-century canal ring Area inside the Singelgracht, in Amsterdam. The Unesco describes the area as follows:

The historic urban ensemble of the canal district of Amsterdam was a project for a new 'port city' built at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries. It comprises a network of canals to the west and south of the historic old town and the medieval port that encircled the old town and was accompanied by the repositioning inland of the city's fortified boundaries, the Singelgracht. This was a long-term programme that involved extending the city by draining the swampland, using a system of canals in concentric arcs and filling in the intermediate spaces. These spaces allowed the development of a homogeneous urban ensemble including gabled houses and numerous monuments. This urban extension was the largest and most homogeneous of its time. It was a model of large-scale town planning, and served as a reference throughout the world until the 19th century. [link]

One of the canals encircling the old town is the Keizersgracht (litt. Emperor's Canal) in Amsterdam. The postcard shows this canal.

Though there is an address on the back of the card, there is no stamp or date mark, and the card was probably never sent. The card is probably from the first decade of the 20th century.

Postcard from Zeist

The caption is Zeist, Vijver bij 't Groen Bergje - Zeist, pond near 't Groene Bergje. I don't know what 't Groene Bergje is; literally it means the little green mountain, so possibly it was a small hill near Zeist.

The card shows the pond (but no hill). On the background we see a shepherd with a few sheep and a dog, and a man who is sitting down at the pond and probably reading a book.

Postcard from Ede

A postcard from the Boschpoortstraat street in Ede. The name of the street changed later to Grotestraat. Note the clothes of the people on the street!

The postcard was sent in 1908.

Postcard from Alphen

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. On Wednesdays I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: A postcard from Alphen.

A water tower in Alphen aan den Rijn (or Alfen, as the label on the postcard states). This 26.5 meter (87 feet) tall water tower was built in 1902, and demolished again in 1958. A second water tower was built in 1911.

I could not decipher the date on the postmark, but the card is probably sent between 1905 and 1911.