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

A Postcard A Day - Friday 27 October 2023 - Friday Smiles

 

Hello lovely ladies,

Happy Friday! 

I'm still in the Netherlands clearing my mum's apartment. My sister who has done all of the paperwork and  organising, has gone back to the UK. I'm left to do the last things and sort through the photo albums and organise the cleaning until the handover on November the 1st.

But let me show you my postcard for today.

My late father was a windmill enthusiast. He was a member of the society that wants to  'keep windmills turning'.  

I have found several postcards among his photo collection. Here is a vintage postcard of a windmill combination near The Hague:

These windmills are dated back to the 17th century, originally there were four of them but the fourth one got demolished around 200 years ago.
One of the three remaining windmills burned down at the beginning of the 20th century as a result of a lightning strike, luckily, it has been restored.

My dad took photos of the three windmills from pretty much the same place:

The three mills, owned by the province of South Holland, have been restored in recent years and are ready for milling. The pump in the lower mill was replaced in 2006 by a pump with a larger capacity, making the three-way more balanced. 

Here is a recent aerial photo from the Internet:

In this type of mill – known as a smock mill – the cap could be turned with the aid of a tail pole and a capstan wheel.

There is a sign (in Dutch) outside one of the mills:

The translation is:

The three mills were built in 1672 for the drainage of the Driemanspolder. The province of South Holland has owned these mills since 1958.

The mills,  octagonal smock mills, form a stepped drainage system of three heights.

Together they raise the excess water approximately 5m.

The mills are permanently inhabited and for this reason the interior cannot be visited

The Leidschendam three-way runs once a month, on Saturdays.

The postcard was posted in 1972 and has a stamp from that era with the head of queen Juliana on it.

As this  blog post is about the smiles,  I'm showing you some photos from one evening this week when we went out for a meal at the local Greek restaurant.

My sister (in the orange top) is sitting next to my cousin and his wife was taking the picture:

You must think that I do nothing but eating and drinking but it was my cousin's last day here and the restaurant is within walking distance.

I'm sitting next to my brother in law.

The place-mats were really pretty with a scene from a Greek island:

The waiter took this picture of the five of us.

I forgot to photograph the food but this was my dessert:

It was too dark to take a picture of the outside of the restaurant, which is in the shopping mall opposite my mum's apartment block. But I did take this picture of an olive tree in a pot outside the restaurant:

Did you notice the pot was made of bottle tops?!

That is all from me today. I'm going to link with Annie's A Stitch In Time.

Of course there will be some funnies at the end to make you smile.

Have a lovely weekend,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 24 October 2023 - T for Rotterdam, scones and christmas decorations

 Hello lovely peeps,

I'm in the netherlands at the moment, clearing my mum's apartment. My sister and her husband are here too and we have really done a lot. We got some quotes for taking away the furniture and the first quote (by a charity) was 2000 Euros! They said that the local tip charged by the kilo and all of mum's furniture is heavy oak. It was not fashionable and they reckoned it could not be sold. 

Fortunately we have been able to get in touch with the next tenants, a Brazilian lady and her partner. She was living with her sone and did not have any furniture! So she was happy for us to leave it rather than have it destroyed. (It's really beautiful furniture). So we are soooo relieved. 

Let's start with a postcard as per usual:

Here you can see the football (soccwer) stadium of  our local team Feyenoord. They were champion last season and are a very popular team.

Last Tuesday I left you still in the UK. My daughter Tracey took me to the airport and on the way we stopped at a nice garden center for coffee. The Christmas decorations were already out!

I know it's still October but in the UK they start early. The garden centers compete against each other with their beautiful displays.

I really love silver coloured decoration (rather than the red and green or very colourful decorations). 

These sort of things:

I have always had silver/white Christmas decorations and tree decorations.

Of course there were many other things to see apart from the Christmas stuff:

When I saw this I had to think of my friend Keren who ikes bees (and wears bee dungarees) and of course Erika. 

I love all these bowls:

Do you see all those egg cups on the right? I was too busy drooling over the beautiful bowls that I hadn't spotted the egg cups!

Then we went to the coffee shop:

We had coffee and scones:

They were huge, delicious scones!

As this is the T-Party, this can be my ticket to the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard. Do check it out.

Towards the end of the cafe there were some really interesting picures on the wall. I'm shpwing you this one as I think Iris would like this:

I'm sure this is one of Henry's distant cousins. And what a fine specimen he is!

That is all from e tnight (It's Monday night).

Wishing you all a very good week and happy T-Day!

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 20 October 2023 - Friday Smiles

 

Hello lovely ladies,

It's Friday. People who work will be rejoicing that the weekend is nearly there. I'm retired, so every day is weekend for me.

I'm in the Netherlands again, in Rotterdam, in my late mother's apartment. My sister has come too and together we are getting quotes from house clearing companies. They are quoting us 'silly money' and blaming it on the council who charge so much money at the tip. They have to pay per kilo. My mum has beautiful solid oak furniture so it weighs a ton. A real shame that nobody wants that sort of furniture any more. 

Anyway, let me show you a postcard:

It's a postcard from the Netherlands that I bought when I was here last time. It shows a typical Dutch cheese shop. It has the traditional large flat cheeses and also the smaller round ones like the Gouda cheese. Most people will shop using a bicycle, so there is always a bike parked outside a shop.

The passed weekend I spent with my daughter Tracey and we celebrated my eldest grandson's 18th birthday (See photos on my Tuesday blog). 

Then on Monday Tracey and I went out for lunch and I forgot to take a picture. But we did have cake for afters. Again I forgot to take a picture. Then I read what it said on my cake plate and I laughed. This I had to photograph for the Friday Smiles:

The writing says: No good story started with a salad.

On Tuesday I flew from Manchester airport to Amsterdam airport, where I got on the train to Rotterdam. Although it was only 4 pm, the train was chockerblock and I had to stand the whole way. Then in Rotterdam, I had to change trains and stand some more. The weather was nice(ish) and I walked the 15 min from the station to the apartment.

My cousin and his wife have just come back from a caravqn holiday in Croatia and they have stopped on a nearby camp-site and are helping me. Every hole in the wall needs to be filled in. My cousin is doing a splendid job:

On Wednesday night we got a Chinese takeaway:

On Thursday morning I went shopping at a nearby mall. It's a 20 min walk, but I needed the fresh air and I needed a bra. There are dedicated lingerie shops. I was attended to by a lovely experienced lady who brought me one bra after the other for me to try. Eventually I found one I liked (and that fitted well). She wrapped it up for me and it wasn't until I got home and unwrapped it, that I realized what is printed on the wrapping paper:

It certainly made me giggle! I hope it made you smile too, as this is Friday Smiles where we share the smiles of this week, or the silver linings. I'm going to link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time. Will I see you there?

Have a great weekend,

Hugs,

Lisca