Carcassonne, France

Carcassone is a fortified town in France and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I received this postcard from a postcrosser who had visited Carcassonne this past summer and loved it.

http://www.carcassonne.culture.fr/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcassonne

http://www.unesco.org/archives/multimedia/index.php?s=films_details&id_page=33&id_film=213

The stamp features Willem van Oranje, Prince of Orange. 

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_van_Oranje

Views from the Netherlands

I LOVE receiving postcards from the Netherlands! This one has scenes from Friesland, a province in the north.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friesland

The dog in the upper right-hand corner is a Stabyhoun, a rare Frysian breed. "Staby" means "stand by me" in Dutch. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stabyhoun

Brabant

Brabant is a province in the southern part of the Netherlands. It looks pretty and pleasant, as so much of the Netherlands does. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Brabant 

(officially it's North Brabant, and "south" Brabant is in Belgium)

Nice stamps!

Utrecht, Netherlands

Utrecht, the fourth largest city in the Netherlands!

www.utrecht.nl/smartsite.dws?id=13353

A Rose from The Netherlands

A pretty pink rose amidst cream-colored roses. 

The stamp on the back.

Smile!

"Smile, that's what more people should do".

Wouldn't the world be a better place if more people followed this advice?  The sender wrote this card the day the Netherlands advanced to the final game of the World Cup.  I received it on July 12, the day after they lost to Spain.  Those poor guys weren't smiling much on that day.  

Oostpoort, Delft

This is the "Eastern Gate" in Delft, Netherlands.  It was built around 1400, and is the only city gate remaining in Delft (I cannot seem to find how many gates there were originally).  This card arrived on May 15, 2010.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Gate_(Delft)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delft

Delft is a city in the province of South Holland.  Well-known persons from Delft include Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (the father of microbiology and developer of the microscope ~ which I think is very cool), and Johannes Vermeer (painter, well known for works such as 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' and 'The Milkmaid').  I am learning so much about the Netherlands. I am told that I am of Dutch descent. In my reading, I had seen that the people in the Netherlands call themselves "Nederlanders", and that only in English are they known as "Dutch".

Here's a link to a postcard I received from the Netherlands where I learned about the different provinces.  North Holland and South Holland are two of twelve provinces:   acollectionofpostcards.blogspot.com/2010/06/groeten-uit-noord-holland.html

Here is the stamp from this postcard:

Groeten uit Noord-Holland

"Greetings from North Holland".  Not the 'north of Holland', but the province of North Holland.  The Netherlands has twelve provinces, and North Holland is one of the twelve (yes, there is also a South Holland).  'Holland' is incorrectly used as the name for the entire country; it is only in the name of these two provinces.  I did recently hear a cyclist from the Netherlands refer to his country as Holland, but I wonder if it is because he is on an American cycling team and they refer to it as Holland. Who knows? I know that the Netherlands is famous for tulips, cheese and windmills, but I didn't realize sunbathing was very popular! 

A Handmade Postcard from The Netherlands

My second postcard arrived on September 11, 2009 and made me quite happy:

This one is from a woman in the Netherlands and is handmade.  She took these photos while out cycling.  I think it is charming because this shows me the area where she lives. The message on the back is very nice and personable, telling me about her daily life, her cats and that she had purchased flowers that day!  It is a favorite because it is so personable, and she took the time to make it herself.