Monday, March 19, 2012

MONNICKENDAM: Finding Money

The day we set out to see the Marken lighthouse (last post), we ended it by visiting the nearby quaint town of Monnickendam, just 10 miles NE of Amsterdam. It received city rights in 1355 and has ca. 11K inhabitants.

My post today at Vision and Verb is about Finding Money and highlights this gevelsteen (gable stone) from this charming city:


De Tijd Vliegt = Time Flies

But first, the city. We were there for only two hours before heading home for the day. It's amazing what you can see in two hours...just like when you meet a friend for the first time and get the "picture" almost immediately.


Monnicken = Monks (who built the dam)
So all over the city you see the city emblem of a monk with his stick.


Smack-dab in city center you see the tall tower of the Speeltoren, a museum.
Right next door to it is the equally famous weighing house, De Waag (below).


This is Astrid's picture from her wide-angle lens.
Here you see both the Speeltoren and De Waag.


Right across the street from De Waag is the Café de Zwaan, where we ate our lunch.
I was more interested in the decor, I see, than in what we actually ate.


Then we were ready to walk around.
Now you know why this is one of those Dutch towns that depends on tourists!


Do you see how crooked the church door-facade is (top-left image)?
And how high that top-middle door is from the ground (in case of flooding)?
The bronze statue is De Palingroker (the eel smoker) in the Oude Haven (old harbor).


Speaking of the Oude Haven (old harbor)...
the town sits on the IJsselmeer in the municipality of Waterland. Exactly.

Now, getting back to my Vision and Verb post today on Finding Money. Of the 60+ gevelstenen (gable stones) in the town, which you can see here in the Dutch database, I found 33 (some of which are in the collages above):


Do I need to translate that Clothes make the man?




That middle cow gevelsteen is from 1611!


See why I feel like I've hit the jackpot in towns like this!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Speaking of hitting the jackpot, by the time we were finished that day, between Durgerdam and Monnickendam, with Marken in between, we also found a handful of weathervanes:



FINDING MONEY is not always about finding money!
Don't you love it?!

26 comments:

  1. We can depend on you to find and chronicle the charming details of such a sweet town!

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  2. Ruth: Yup, leave it to me, Sister, to fill up your page with all kinds of trivia that please me to no end. :)

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  3. An absolutely delightful Dutch town. I've never been there, although I've visited the Netherlands since childhood, being a next-door-neighbour, from just the other side of the border from Venlo.

    I love the many quirky images you saw and captured.

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  4. WOW..this little town looks so quintissentially (is that the right word?) 'Dutch'. Love all of the details..the photographic tour. Well done!!!

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  5. Friko: WELCOME to my site! I do recognize your name, so it's an honor to see you here. Thank you for stopping by. If you're originally from Germany, then you really do know these things. :)

    Marcie: Quintessentially is a perfect word for anything so Dutch as this town. I love it. Now you have a taste of why I love it here so much! Thank you for stopping by here and commenting. Now you know what I mean about the gable stones!

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  6. It was a day of finding treasures, over and over again.
    These old towns are known for their gevelstenen.
    I never knew, there were that many.
    You did a great job with the collages.
    Collecting gevelstenen is almost like collecting stamps, but then different. (do I make sense)
    Wonderful post.

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  7. Astrid: I love that you are seeing these treasures through my eyes, enjoying them with me. There will never be too many to see, nor will they ever become ho-hum! Thank you for sharing this journey with me. I love your fan support. :)

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  8. i love how you take us to visit these lovely charming little towns that we might not even see for real.

    so many things to see and enjoy there.

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  9. PC: I'm so glad you enjoy these little tour guides, Maria, because I sure find great pleasure in putting them together! :) I'm always "short of eyes" when we do these photo hunts. I feel so very lucky.

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  10. I love the way the phrase "time flies" has been depicted :-) A great image, together with all those other great images!

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  11. Anne: You'd love all the gable stones of the Netherlands! This one is a real beauty. Thanks.

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  12. I DO love it! always so much fun to tag along on your trips!

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  13. Such a different world than North America -- and perhaps even from other parts of Europe. It's amazing all the things you get to see, Ginnie!

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  14. WS: You'd love it here, Susan, so I'm very glad you can tag along! :) Thanks.

    Karen I'm amazed every day and keep pinching myself. We're not in Kansas anymore! :)

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  15. You certainly visited a charming town, lots of gablestones and weathervanes to keep you and your camera happy. And I'm very glad that you ARE happy and you've made the right move to live in the Netherlands. I think I should have booked my trip for a little longer so I would have time to visit, but too late now!

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  16. Sham: The thing is, I KNOW the day will come when we will meet! When it will be, who knows but it will happen...and it will be the right, perfect time. Thanks for helping to prepare the way! :)

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  17. The architecture always leaves me speechless. The decor in cafe is wonderful and those little alleys of water (ha, I forget what you call them) are so quaint, but those cars are parked SO SO SO close to the edge!

    The church door certainly is crooked... that is due to settling? Why isn't the rest of the building crooked?

    The old harbors are so amazing, I would be tempted just to bring a bag lunch and stick around the whole day shooting macros and various shots.

    Treasure abounds everywhere you turn in the Netherlands!

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  18. Margaret: You would have a heydey here in this country! No doubt about it. And yes, the edges of those canals that have no railings...I almost always say something to Astrid about them. They wouldn't be allowed in America. She usually laughs and says we'd be surprised hoe many cars have to get pulled out of the canals!

    There is crooked architecture all over the Netherlands. I wonder how it happens in just certain places and not in others. I just stand there and stare!

    I also stare at the harbors. You can find them everywhere because there's so much water in this tiny country!

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  19. Very beautiful architecture, gablestones, and weathervanes. How all you find all these objects of beauty, I'll never know. ;)

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  20. Tim: Thank you kindly! You'd be surprised how much there is right in front of us every day, Tim. Truly unbelievable, still.

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  21. Oh so beautiful!!! I guess I've been too busy celebrating birthday's to read blogs.. Oh how much fun.. I've been dreaming of a place to go and photograph.. Still trying to figure that out.. So much fun!

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  22. ET: You would love all these photo hunts, Jen. I just wish I could take you in my pocket. :) But I bet you have a gold mine right there where you live!

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  23. De Tijd Vliegt = Tiden Flyger and Gevelsteen = Gavelsten -in Swedish.
    It has some similarities, our languages :-)

    You've got a really awesome collection collage in this post. I'm always amazed over how you're "sewing them all together". Yeah, sure there is some photo software help, but you still have to sort the photos to use out first... Time consuming and you have to make decisions, something I'm not so fast at... lol...

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  24. LCT: There is also a lot of similarity between Dutch and Norwegian, so maybe that means Holland is more Scandinavian than we think. :) I love the thought.

    Thank you for recognizing the time and patience it takes to do these collages. First I make sure all my images are processed the way I want them. Then the fun part is putting them all together in their little groupings. I really do like the process. :)

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  25. Oh my... it has definitely been awhile since I've stopped by! As you know from other messages exchanged via social media, I've been ill for a couple of weeks and am now off and running on yet another photo adventure myself. I cannot begin to tell you how much I've missed visiting your blog so I absolutely HAD to stop by this evening... the earliest evening I've been in my room since the workshop started.

    I absolutely adore the lead-in image... "Time Flies" as well as the many gable stone collages you put together! And, it is always nice to see you include Astrid in one (or more) of your images!

    Now I'm off to V&V for my fix (so late that I will have another opportunity really soon to visit V&V for your NEXT post). :-) Cheers and Happy Easter...

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  26. Victoria: I hate it that you were sick for a couple of weeks. For all the things you have been doing lately, it doesn't surprise me that your body needed some rest. But now, here you are going off again on another photo adventure. Can't keep a good woman down! :)

    Thank you for your continued encouragement of what I do here. I say this all the time but it's more for Astrid and me, to keep a running record of our own adventures. We feel so lucky to share these things together!

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