Today's card is from Marion in Germany but, the card she sent was bought in the Netherlands. There's a connection and you'll get to know what it is later in this post.
The card reads "Groeten uit Vaals" meaning Greeting from Vaals in Dutch. It shows different places from the town of Vaals in the Netherlands. Vaals is located right on both the Belgian and German border, with the much larger German city of Aachen at just a stone's throw away.
The connection between Germany and the Netherlands which I was talking about earlier is that Vaals is where the borders of the countries Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands meet.
The postcard shows different places in the town of Vaals.
The first place is the Three country point, known in German as Dreiländerpunkt. The hill you have to climb to enjoy this meeting of borders is called Vaalserberg and it’s the highest point in mainland Netherlands. So, when you visit Dreiländerpunkt, you are also visiting the highest dutch mountain.
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| The stone in the middle marks the point where the three countries meet. |
The three-country border is just a line on the floor. You can easily walk from a country to the other without worrying about visas, currency or anything else. On Dreiländerpunkt, one can understand better the concept of an open Europe.
Did you know that at one time, this spot was a quadripoint? A fourth country named Neutral Moresnet existed from 1816 to 1920 before it became a territory of Belgium after World War I. In fact, the road leading to this spot is called Viergrenzenweg, which roughly translates to Four Borders Way.
The second place is the "Labyrint Drielandenpunt" which means "Labyrinth at the Three Countries Point" in Dutch.
It is Europe’s largest outdoor shrub maze. It was built by British landscape artist Adrian Fisher who used 17,000 hornbeam shrubs to constitute the maze. In the middle of the maze, which is said to have taken up to an hour to complete, is a platform allowing visitors to look off into any of the three countries as well as at their fellow maze travellers as they struggle in the network of hornbeams below.
Next is the Huis Clermont or Clermont house in Dutch. It is the former home of the cloth manufacturer Johann Arnold von Clermont and later that of Franz Ignaz Tyrell, who used it as a factory building, office and urban Used residence.
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| Clermont House; View of the south and west wings. |
It has been a town hall since 1979 after extensive restoration measures the municipality of Vaals. The complex was built during the years 1761-1775 by the architect Joseph Moretti.
The fourth place is a memorial stone which reads "Hoogste punt van Nederland" which means "Highest point in the Netherlands" in Dutch. This memorial can be seen on the way to the Baldwin (Germanic for Baudouin) Tower.
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| The memorial with Baldwin Tower in the background. |
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| The lettering on the stone. |
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| King Baudouin Tower |
It is a 34 meters high tower located in Belgium, 6 meters from Germany and 20 meters away from the Netherlands. This tower is where one can have the best view from the area where these three countries meet. From the top of Koning Boudewijntoren (Baudouin Tower), named after King Baudouin of Belgium, you will be able to see the Belgian city of Gemmenich. On the dutch side of the tower, you will be able to look at Vaals and Wolfhaag. On the German side, you are going to see Aachen on the horizon.
The last picture on the card shows the lush green fields of Vaals. All around Vaals are numerous fields with many walking paths and gates that one can wander through.
Marion talks about where she's from in Germany and also about the Three-country point and the Labyrinth which I had talked about earlier.
She wrote --
"Dear Vishnu!
Happy Postcrossing greetings from southern Bavaria. Part of my family lives near Cologne at the western border of Germany. There is the Three-Country Point of Germany, Belgium and Netherlands with the beautiful maze garden. All the best. Marion."
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published with the permission of the sender
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Bavaria is also known as the "Land of Castles" with its unique examples of great European architecture and magnificent interior. Bavaria is what many non-Germans probably have in mind when they think about Germany. Ironically, much of southern Bavaria has more in common culturally with neighbouring Austria and Switzerland than with the rest of Germany. Along with the Rheinland and Berlin, it is Germany's most popular tourist destination.
Marion stuck two beautiful stamps, a 5-euro cent stamp and an 85-euro cent one.
The smaller denomination stamp depicts a flower called Phlox. It is a part of the Flower definitive series which the Deutsche Post has been releasing over the years.
The other stamp depicts the Bavarian forest, which is a wooded, low-mountain region in Bavaria, Germany that is about 100 kilometres long. It runs along the Czech border and is continued on the Czech side by the Bohemian Forest.
Surprisingly, there were 2 different marks on the stamps.
One was a pictorial cancellation from Altötting, a pilgrimage town in the heart of Bavaria. It was an illustration of a shrine.
The other was a postmark which read "Briefzentrum 84". Briefzentrum literally means "Letter centre" and is a district centre for the processing of letters for Deutsche Post. The number 84 corresponds to a particular centre. this one being from Landshut, a town in Bavaria.
The pictorial cancellation, in particular, was a visual treat for me.
Labels: Germany, Multi-view, Postcard, The Netherlands
