A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 31 October 2023 - T for no halloween

 Hello lovely ladies,

I'm still in the Netherlands, and very busy getting the apartment ready for the 'handover' tomorrow and packing my cases, hoping my suitcase is not overweight.

I have no postcards other than the postcards I found in my dad's album. So here is one:

It pictures a windmill called De Rooie Wip (Meaning: the red seesaw). This is the information I found:

De Rooie Wip is a seesaw mill on the Gemeneweg in Hazerswoude-Dorp in the Dutch municipality of Alphen aan den Rijn. The mill was built for the drainage of the Gemenewegsepolder, where it replaced a smaller mill from 1567 at a different location. The mill, which was built based on the example of the Groenendijkse Molen, was completed on June 2, 1639. In 1708, the upper house of the mill was blown away, after which it was immediately restored. De Rooie Wip was in operation until 1957, then as a reserve pumping station until 1960, after which it was sold to a private individual. At the same time, the Lodewijksvaart was dammed, so that the mill can no longer pump. In 1990, a circuit was constructed so that the mill can rotate. The paddle wheel with which the mill spins the water has a wooden casing.

De Rooie Wip is owned by the De Rooie Wip Mill Foundation and has national monument status. The mill can be visited on Saturdays when the mill is operating.

It has the stamp stuck on the front and so making it a 'Maxi card'. These are very collectable.

The mill on the stamp is the same as on the card.

The date stamp is dated 1963 so I tried to find some recent photographs.

The bottom part is where the miller lived with his family. Here is a photo of the interior:

The 'cupboard' in the red wall is in fact a box bed:

It's unimaginable that the miller slept there with his wife and 7 children! An old song springs to mind: 'There were nine in the bed and the little one said: roll over, roll over. And they all rolled over and one fell out, there were eight in the bed' etc.

Here you can see the staircase to the top part.

I managed to escape one day from my busy-ness and went to the center of Rotterdam to visit a museum (next Tuesday I will write a post about that).

There are many museums in Rotterdam. The most famous is Museum Boymans-van Beuningen. It has a huge art gallery next door and a brand new art depot.

The art depot is like a mirror reflecting the Rotterdam skyline. I took this picture but I didn't have time to visit it. (Next time). I found the following info:

Depot Boymans Van Beuningen was opened on 5 November 2021 by King Willem-Alexander. The world’s first publicly accessible art storage facility, designed by the architectural firm MVRDV, is situated next to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam’s Museumpark. It is the first building in the world that makes a museum’s entire collection public while also providing behind-the-scenes glimpses of how a museum works. In addition, it provides space to store private and corporate collections. The depot is a gesamtkunstwerk and a new design icon for Rotterdam.

I had lunch in a 'grand café':

This building used to be the main Rotterdam police station.

I sat indoors as it was not warm enough to sit outside.

That was the entrance. 

Then I walked it and sat down at a table facing the bar:

I read on the place-mat the story of this café:

Heilige Boontjes is a coffee bar and restaurant housed in an old police building in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. It solely employs ex-inmates, that roast and sell coffee, cook food and serve it. The purpose of the company is to help their employees to fully reintegrate into society. Besides, they aim to improve the living conditions of coffee farmers by paying them a fair price. The company was started by police officer Marco van Dunnen and social worker Rodney van den Hengel. 

Here is more info and an interview in English with one of the founders

And I ordered a goats cheese, walnut and honey sandwich:

Very yummy indeed. And I had a cappuccino with it. This will be my ticket to the T-Party, hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard at Altered Book Lover. 

One last picture of the café and then I'm off:

I've just remembered that it is Halloween in the USA, so I wish everyone a happy halloween.

Hugs,

Lisca