CURACAO ~ Dutch Delft Blue ~

... And the surprises keep coming... Caribbean beauty nr 7!!💙... an aspect of Curacao’s unique history comes to life in the wide variety of Dutch Delft Blue souvenirs... Delft Blue is a typical Dutch style pottery painted in classic blue and white... the handcrafts are made with great detail... I wonder did you buy a "Delft Blue" souvenir😉??Thank you soooo much Glenn!! ♥(ˆ⌣ˆԅ)→ Gem's World Postcards

Ⓒ HEINEN DELFTWARE Curaçao is a Lesser Antilles island in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, near the Venezuelan coast. Curaçao is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the capital is Willemstad.

Delft Blue is the world-famous earthenware that has been produced in the city of Delft since the 17th C. Between 1600 and 1800, this earthenware was popular among rich families who would show off their Delft Blue collections to one another. Although the Delftware potters preferred to call their earthenware “porcelain”, it was only a cheaper version of the real Chinese porcelain. Delft Blue was not made from the typical porcelain clay, but from clay that was coated with a tin glaze after it was fired.

Stamp:

XCOR Space Expeditions
(Issued 26-09-2014)

Curaçao ~ Christoffel National Park ~

... Dear Andrene 😍I'm sooo happy to find two more great postcards from your cruise in my mailbox today... it took almost two months to arrive (dated January 20)...  and what a fantastic new National Park for my collection... somehow, whenever I hear "Curaçao" I only think of sandy beaches and blue cocktails ツ... it's the largest national park on the island and attracts each year many visitors... nature lovers will find the park full with local birds and plants, including species, which are not easily seen elsewhere on the island... such as wild orchids, the Palabrua, the rare native barn owl, the Curaçao White Tailed deer... Thanks a million!! (✿ ♥‿♥)

© Poto: Werner J. Bertsch

Christoffelpark is a national park located at the north-western end of the island of Curaçao.

The park covers almost 2000 hectares and was founded in 1978.  It includes a mining complex and three former plantations. Plantation Savonet is one of the earliest plantations to be set up on the island and is one of the most complete plantation complexes with structures including the plantation house, store houses, dams, wells and much more. The former plantation house now locates Savonet Museum.

Inside the park is the 372 meter high Christoffelberg, Curaçao’s highest mountain and named after the explorer Christoffel Columbus.

Stamps:

Bays of Curacao
(Issued 08-08-2016)

New Constitution - Fish
(Issued 11-01-2011)

CURACAO ~ Sea Aquarium Beach ~

Caribbean postcard nr 2... a perfect holiday destination  for chasing away the winter blues... warm sunshine, endless miles of beach and sand...would love to be on a beach like this right now^^...and both cards with an excellent choice of stamps... Big thanks to friends Karel and Nicole!!

Photo © Werner J. Bertsch Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country  is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Curaçao is the largest and most populous of the three ABC islands (for Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao) of the Lesser Antilles, specifically the Leeward Antilles.  Its capital is Willemstad.

Sea Aquarium Beach is a beach  located to the south of Willemstad. The beach is named after Curaçao Sea Aquarium, located nearby. The aquarium is also unique because instead of a large filtration system it is actually maintained by the ocean. This aquarium has ocean rocks for walls and the ocean freely passes in and out the areas where the large fish are maintained.



With fantastic stamps!

CURACAO ~Willemstad - UNESCO~

...most likely  the last new place to add to my collection in 2014 ( nr 159)...a Caribbean tropical paradise... also with a selection great stamps used!! Many Thanks to friends Karel and Nicole!! :)

Willemstad (the capital of  Curaçao)  historic center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site features unique colonial architecture  and include  seventeenth- and eighteenth-century merchants' houses on Handelskade, in the Punda area.The city is divided into two neighbourhoods, Otrobanda and Punda, located on either side of the canal.

The Queen Juliana bridge is a four-lane road arch bridge crossing the St. Anna Bay.Reaching a height of 56.4 m (185 ft) above the waterline at its apex, it is the highest bridge in the entire Caribbean. The bridge is 500 m (1,400 ft) long and weighs a total of 3,400 tons. It was opened in 1974 and named after Queen Juliana, who at that time was the reigning queen of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

With nice stamps!