Netherlands - Noordwijkerhout

Greetings From Noordwijkerhout.

Sent by Elleniek, a postcrosser from the Netherlands.

This is from Wikipedia : Noordwijkerhout is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of 23.40 km² (of which 0.80 km² water) and had a population of 15,121 in May 2006. The town is in the bulb growing region (the Duin- en Bollenstreek) of the Netherlands, famed for its tulips.

The municipality of Noordwijkerhout also includes the following towns, villages and townships: De Zilk.

The coastal dunes where Noordwijkerhout is located have been inhabited since prehistoric times. Archaeological digs in the area just north outside of town have found items and implements from before Christ. During the Roman era, this region was inhabited by a Germanic tribe, called Cananefates by the Roman writer Tacitus.

Noordwijkerhout is about 5 kilometers from the North Sea and provides access to the beach and nearby hiking opportunities through the dunes. Just north of town is the Oosterduinse meer (Eastern Dune's Lake) which is used for swimming and windsurfing.

Noordwijkerhout is located in an area called the "Dune and Bulb Region" (Duin- en Bollenstreek). In the spring when the bulb flower fields are in bloom, many tourist come to the region to admire them. The town's fair is held during the first week of September.

Netherlands - Den Haag/The Hague

Images of Den Haag or The Hague.

Sent by Ina, a postcrosser from the Netherlands.

This is from Wikipedia : The Hague (with capital T; Dutch: Den Haag, officially also 's-Gravenhage) is the third largest city in the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam, with a population of 485,818 (as of May 31, 2009) and an area of approximately 100 km². It is located in the west of the Netherlands, in the province of South Holland, of which it is also the provincial capital. The Hague is the centre of a conurbation called Haaglanden (population 1,011,459) and lies at the southwest corner of a larger conurbation called the Randstad.

The Hague is the seat of the Dutch parliament, government and Royal Court (but the city is not the capital of the Netherlands which is a role set aside in the Dutch constitution for Amsterdam). Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands lives and works in The Hague. All foreign embassies and government ministries are located in the city, as well as the Hoge Raad der Nederlanden (Supreme Court), the Raad van State (Council of State) and many lobbying organisations.

The Hague is also the de facto judicial capital of the United Nations, being the location of its primary judicial institutions.

Netherlands - Greetings From Rotterdam

Sent by Kim, a postcrosser from the Netherlands.

This is from Wikipedia : Rotterdam (pronounced /ˈrɒtərdæm/; Dutch [ˌrɔtərˈdɑm]) is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and the largest port in Europe. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre. Its strategic location at the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta on the North Sea and at the heart of a massive rail, road, air and inland waterway distribution system extending throughout Europe means that Rotterdam can rightly be called the gateway to Europe.

Located in the Province of South Holland, Rotterdam is in the west of the Netherlands and at the south of the Randstad. The population of the city proper was 603,425 in March 2010. The population of the greater Rotterdam area, called "Rotterdam-Rijnmond" or just "Rijnmond", is around 1.3 million people. Rotterdam is one of Europe's most vibrant and multicultural cities. It is known for its university (Erasmus), its cutting-edge architecture, its lively cultural life, its striking riverside setting, its maritime heritage and the Rotterdam Blitz.

But the essence of Rotterdam is its huge, modern port. The largest port in Europe and one of the busiest ports in the world, the port of Rotterdam was the world's busiest port from 1962 to 2004, at which point it was surpassed by Shanghai. Rotterdam's commercial and strategic importance is based on its location near the mouth of the Nieuwe Maas (New Meuse), one of the channels in the delta formed by the Rhine and Meuse on the North Sea. These rivers lead directly into the centre of Europe, including the industrial Ruhr region.

Netherlands - Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout

One of many windmills in Kinderdijk, the Netherlands. Sent by Peter who lives in Hoofddorp.

The Kinderdijk-Elshout mill network is an outstanding man-made landscape that bears powerful testimony to human ingenuity and fortitude over a millennium in draining and protecting an area by the development and application of hydraulic technology.

It is located in the north-western comer of the Alblasserwaard. It drained the internal drainage districts of De Overwaard and De Nederwaard until 1950, when the mills were closed. The 19 mills that form this group of monuments are all in operating condition. The Alblasserwaard is bounded by the rivers Lek to the north, Merwede to the south, and Noord to the south. The properties consist of discharge sluices, Water Board Assembly Houses, pumping stations, and brick and wooden mills. Owing to changed technical requirements, the discharge sluices were reduced to two and reconstructed in the mid-1980s.

The Water Board Assembly Houses of De Overwaard and De Nederwaard survive intact. The former was built in 1581 and purchased by the Water Board in 1595 to house the Elshout lockmaster. It was used for several other purposes until 1648, when it became the headquarters of the Water Board. It is a two-storeyed brick structure on a rectangular floor plan with a hipped roof. When it became the Water Board Assembly House the modifications included provision of a meeting room, addition of a stone door-arch decorated with coats of arms of the reeve and board members, new windows, and bedrooms in the attic for members. It underwent drastic alterations in 1918 when the dyke there was raised and widened: 3 m was removed from the front of the house and a new facade built. It was restored in 1981-83. The assembly house of De Nederwaard is a plain rectangular two-storeyed building of the 18th century with a hipped roof.

The Wisbom pumping station was originally an auxiliary steam-driven pumping station for De Overwaard, built in 1868 with four scoop water-wheels on the exterior of the engine house. It was converted to electricity in 1924. At this time some modifications were carried out to the plain gabled brick structure. The Van Haaften pumping station, built for De Nederwaard, also dates from 1868. It was converted to diesel operation in 1927 and the scoop wheels were replaced by Archimedean screws. It was partly demolished in 1971-72 when the J.U. Smit pumping station was built.

The most characteristic features of this landscape are the windmills, used to pump water from the polders using internal or external scoops into reservoirs, on two levels. At one time there were more than 150 in the Alblasserwaard and Vijfheerenlanden area; this had dropped to 78 in the 1870s but today the total is only 28, of which 16 are in the Kinderdijk area. The eight mills that survive on De Nederwaard were all built in 1738. They are bonnet mills (in which only the top section revolves with the wind), built from brick and with large sails that come within 30 cm of the ground, hence their name, 'ground sailers'. Eight mills are also in place on De Overwaard. All date from 1740 (although one was reconstructed in the 1980s). They are bonnet mills and ground sailers but, unlike those on De Nederwaard, they are octagonal in plan and built from wood on brick substructures. The internal iron scoop wheels are slightly larger than those on De Nederwaard, as are the spans of the sails. In addition to the mills on De Nederwaard and De Overwaard; the World Heritage site contains two mills from the Nieuw-Lekkerland polder and one from the Alblasserdam polder. Both of the former are of the same type as on De Overwaard, but De Hoge Molen (The High Mill) has an internal steel Archimedean screw for raising water, rather than a scoop wheel. The De Blokker mill on the Alblasserdam polder is the only example in this area of the earlier form of mill, the hollow post mill, in which the upper part of the structure that revolves with the wind is considerably larger than that of the bonnet mill. The date of its original construction is unknown, but records show that there has been a mill here since the late 15th century.

Although they went out of use in the late 1940s, all 19 mills are still maintained in operating condition, because they function as fall-back mills in case of failure of the modern equipment. So far as the landscape is concerned, the other most striking feature is the evidence that still survives in two areas of the medieval land-tenure system, based on long thin strip fields. This is a landscape that has not changed significantly for centuries. (Source)

Netherlands - Delft

Sent by Laurie who lives in Delft in Holland. It shows various spots in the town of Delft.

Laurie, if you happen to read this, please tell me more about these places. Thank you.

This is from Wikipedia : Delft, is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland (Zuid-Holland), the Netherlands. It is located in between Rotterdam and The Hague. Delft is primarily known for its typically Dutch town centre (with canals); also for the painter Vermeer, Delft Blue pottery (Delftware), the Delft University of Technology, and its association with the Dutch royal family, the House of Orange-Nassau.