Monday 4 January 2010

Volendam, Holland



"The potato regatta" is all the information it gives on the back of this card which was sent to me shortly before Christmas, 20 December 2009 to be exact. 

Each April in Volendam, a race is held for sailing barges and clippers.  It is a reminder of the days in the 19th century, in the time of the potato famine, when boats such as these would carry food and potatoes from the Netherlands and continental Europe to Ireland and Scotland.  It became something of a competition between the skippers to see how fast they could do the trip.  The present day regatta attracts 40 to 50 of these traditional sailing boats for a weekend of races.

9 comments:

  1. You're so blessed to have traveled far and wide. I collected postcards as a child. I was a member of an international correspondence club and loved receiving postcards from penpals. :)

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  2. Such magnificent sailing ships. We, occasionally, have a beautiful masted sailing vessel come into San Francisco and they are
    spectacular.

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  3. really beautiful card! I love harbours so much.

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  4. How interesting! A potato regatta! My favorite food. I'll take mine mashed and piled like a volcano so there's plenty of room for the gravy. Beautiful picture - harbors are naturally beautiful and exciting!

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  5. I was just wondering if there's any traditional dutch village like Volendam or similar located south of Amsterdam, so that we can make a stop, instead of having to drive up north and then coming back down.

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  6. If it is Dutch, I'm loving it.
    What a wonderful postcard.

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  7. The country is called 'Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden' in Dutch, in the full formal version, this translate to 'The kingdom of the Netherlands'. This is shortened to 'Nederland' in our own language, and 'the Netherlands' in English, that is with an S.

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  8. I am very well aware of that Mr Seo. However Volendam is in North Holland within the Netherlands. I have removed your spammy link, hust as I did with your friend flowbee..

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  9. My parents took my sister and I to Holland when we were about ten or so... we went to Volendam, which was a spot they had visited on their honeymoon. We took a photograph in a cute spot, and when we got home and developed it, my mom dug through their honeymoon photos to find one of the two of them... in the exact same spot. Thank you for reminding me of that wonderful family moment!

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Welcome to my postcard collection! I love hearing what you think of the cards - but spam WILL be deleted.

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