Street corner

On the corner of a street in the centre of Meppel.

Printing Museum

Meppel has been known for a long period of time for its printing businesses, and has an interesting Printing Museum (Drukkerijmuseum). Here the process is described how the business developed over the years, showing the different techniques of hand-setting and printing, offset presses, fonts, characters and such.

The lay-out of a type case. It makes you realise how times have changed!

Happy weekend :)

Meppel streets

The shopping streets in the centre of Meppel are car-free. In the background is the Maria Church, a reformed church dating from the 15th century.

Happy Friday!

De Wetering

"De Wetering", as this building at the Church Square in Meppel is called, was built in 1921 as a transformer station, to transport electricity from the power station to the end users. Not what I would have expected at first sight, it must have had a thorough restoration.

Designed in Renaissance Revival style the building nowadays serves as a centre of the Dutch Reformed church. It is listed as a National Heritage building.

De Vlijt mill

Today's photos were taken from the Steamboat Quay in Meppel  -the boat you see on the right is (yes, once more :) ) the pancake ship. The mill in the background is called "De Vlijt" ("The Dilligence" in English), a smock mill in Meppel. It was rebuilt in 2002 on the octagonal brick base of a tower mill from 1859 that had been taken out of use in 1933.

In Dutch we call this type of mill a 'achtkante stellingmolen'. While googling for some more information I read that the base of the mill is used as living accomodation and office space, so it's not open to the public. The official De Vlijt website (in Dutch) can be found HERE.

A girl from Staphorst

Near the Steamboat Quay (you can see the pancake ship from yesterday's post in the background), I found this sculpture picturing a girl from Staphorst, a village near Meppel. The sculpture was created in 1967 by Dutch sculptor Theo van der Nahmer (1917-1989) by order of local publisher J.A. Boom, on the occasion of their 125th jubilee. It was a gift to the town of Meppel.

As Van der Nahmer's wife had a close friend from Staphorst, she most likely inspired him for this art work. The people from Staphorst are known for wearing traditional costumes, which can still be seen today.

Pancake ship

The Liberté was built in 1901 and has been a cargo vessel in the European waters for over 75 years. In 1993 restaurant owner Jan Vrielink bought the ship and brought it to Meppel, where it was transformed into a restaurant ship specialised in pancakes.

It's a real eye-catcher now at the Stoombootkade (Steamboat Quay) in the centre of Meppel.

Meppel centre

Typical houses that can be found in the centre of Meppel. This is the Grote Kerkstraat.

Meppel canals

I visited Meppel today, a small city in the south-west of the Province of Drenthe. Meppel developed in the 16th century as a transport and distribution inland harbour. Nowadays there is only one main canal left. I took this photo on my way from the train station to the centre, at the point where the canal is divided in two.

Linking to Weekend Reflections.