Postman Postcards #1

I have started taking my camera on my postround as I often see something and wish I had it with me:

Unusual sky over Maastricht as the sight-seeing boats passes the Corversplein

Famous People?

Whilst walking around my 'route de poste' this week I was starting to get annoyed by the names of the streets. The area I deliver to has many streets named after people. But I realised that I didn't know who any of them were.

Antonius Bieleveltstraat
Franciscus Romanusweg
Karel de Vogelstraat
Gebroeders Hermansstraat
Louis Loyensstraat
Matthias Wijnandstraat
Theodoor Schaepkensstraat
Valentijn Clotsstraat
Antoon Lipkensstraat

So 9 names and no clue who one of them is.

Time to do something about it;

Antonius Bielevelt

born in Maastricht in 1576, Bielevelt was an artist. Some of his works can be found in churches in Florence and his materpiece 'The Holy Family' hangs in the Uffici Gallery in Florence.

The Holy Family by Antonius Bielevelt 1644

Franciscus Romanus

born Gent (Belgium) Mar 23rd 1647, Romanus was a laypreacher and architect. He restored the 'Dominican' church in Maastricht and rebuilt the first arch of the Maas Bridge.

In 1865 he went to Paris to restore the Pont Neuf bridge over the Seine, he was also involved with the restoration of Ront Royale over the Seine.

Karel de Vogel

Also an artist born in Maastricht in 1663. He worked mostly in Rome and painted mainly flowers which earned him his Italian name 'Carlo del Fiore'. A lot of his works can be seen in German Museums.

Gebroeders Hermans

The brothers Hermans; Lodewijk and Franciscus Bernadus born both in Maastricht 1750 and 1745 respectively. Both artists. Lodewijk painted still-life, mostly flowers and fruit. In the state archives in Maastricht 8 paintings recovered from the the St. Nicholas Church can be found.

Frank was a art teacher in the Central Latin school of art in Masstricht, where he was well known as an historical artist.

Louis Loyens

Lodewijk (Louis for short) born 1689 in Maastricht, was a magistrate and clerk of the court in Liege. He put together the Chronicals of Maastricht from which all future chronicles were formed.

Matthias Wijnand

born in Maastricht in 1643, Matthias was Canon for the 'St. Servaas' capital. Wijnand left all his worldy goods to the Maastricht students studying Philosophy and Theology in Leuven. This set a precedent and later the Mayor and Priests of the St. Matthias and St. Servaas Churches gave out study finances in honour of his gesture.

Theodoor Schaepkens

born in Maastricht 1810, Theo was also an artist. Scholar of the school for artists in Maastricht, later the Antwerp art academy and later in Italy and France. He painted a great number of historical paintings, portraits, etchings and lithographs.

Valentijn Clots

Clots was a military engineer and produced topographical maps of Maastricht and ink drawings of the city. He was a devotee of East Indian ink and colours made from natural products.

Antoon Lipkens

born in Maastricht 1782, Tony was a civil engineer/surveyor and later became an Engineer/Auditor in Luxembourg. Lipkens was founder of the Delft Academy, today known as Technical University of Delft.

Well now I know. Not sure if I will gain anything from it but.

Working in the City

I was getting fed up with my first post round and the immense amount of cycling up into the countryside so I took on a city 'round' aswell. And when they offered me the neighbouring section of the city of Maastricht it seemed an easy decision to give suburbia a 'boot' and become a "city boy".



So now I am delivereing post to 2 sections of the centre of Maastricht where I can enjoy the river with the fog in the morning, the sun reflecting off it in the afternoon and the sunsets in the late afternoon (now 5pm).

The best part is that my first round is in 'Wijk' . For me one of the most interesting parts of Maastricht. The best shops, the best restaurants, the best bars, but still not realised by most of the tourist population so it remains pretty quiet most of the time. I deliver to art galleries, restaurants; as in: tapas, Indonesian, Japanese, French, posh 5***** restaurants, designer shops, fetish wear shops, antique book shops, Irish bars....you get the picture. And the fun bit is in this part of town you can't pop the post through the door as the place is normally open so you have to walk in and meet the owners and hand over the post.

The second route is mostly student territory and cheapish housing as far as the centre goes but the 'studes' are also intersperced with the old timers. The other day I had a fascinating conversation with an eighty year old woman about which postal company I worked for. And she told me even though I was still lost and having trouble finding the right postal box : "You are lost but you are living in Holland for more than one week I think.mmmm". Quite flattering considering it's taken 12 years to get such comments. Anyway I plan to have a cuppa with the old bird in the next few weeks as her hobby seems to be to look out for the 'postman' each day.



So I am quite sad to say goodbye to suburbia which I have enjoyed delivering to for the last three months but looking forward to getting to know the city and the people better.

Postie

I recently started a post round which i have to say I am really enjoying so far. It is for a competitor of the usual post company and I only have to do it twice a week and the weather so far has been perfect. I am not so sure how much I will enjoy it when 'come rain or shine' happens. But so far it has been very enjoyable getting out on the bike, seeing the dutch way of life, and meeting the people of suburbia.

My round is a very affluent area of Maastricht. The 'Doorns'. Each street ends in 'Doorn'; so as 'Vuurdoorn, Gaspeldoorn, Duindoorn, Meidoorn, etc, etc.

Apart from the Doorns (in blue) there is the Vijverdal in 'yellow' which is the psychiatric hospital, which can be interesting as the inamtes scream at you as you deliver the post.

The 'orange' part I take next which is a series of schools where you get through various security to make sure you are nor a 'pedo'. And also here many teachers telling the pupils, "Oh there is the postman, watch he has to put the post in the post box". Very educational.

The bit which I choose to do last is the 'Bemelerweg' (green) which is a bit a of trip into the countryside and uphill so best to do with an empty bag. This ends at a farm where there is two very aggressive Dalmation cross-breads waiting on chains to attack you as you deliver their post. Fortunately they are both tied in such a way that neither one can reach you if you zig-zag through to the postbox. Always an exciting way to finish the round.