Wish You Were Here

Back in 1957, George was practicing his writing skills and sent a couple of cards to Gramps and Nanny, Nellie and Najeeb Abdallah of Binghamton. I'll post the backs of the cards first for a change of pace.

Here are the fronts of the cards in the same order.

Tram Tuesday - Berlin II

These early views of Berlin show many forms of transportation, including horse-drawn trams, buggies, and carts, a stunning omnibus, and some more modern trams on the Oberbaumbrücke crossing the River Spree.  In the view below, it would seem that all of the passengers on this bus are men, with the possible exception of the one in the very front.

Here's a view of the dramatic Oberbaumbrücke. In later years, this bridge became a pedestrian-only border crossing between West and East Berlin. Today the Berlin U-bahn provides service across the upper part of the bridge.

The card below provides a wonderful contrast of the more modern electric tram with a traditional horse-drawn carriage. In the background, you can see the Neue Wache (guard house for the troops of the Crown Prince of Prussia), with some sort of military event in progress.

This next view of Friedrichstrasse includes a horse-drawn tram and carriages. Is the vehicle on the lower right an automobile? I can't tell.

Finally, here's a view showing the famous Cafe Bauer, destroyed during World War II, and now the site of the Lindencorso Restaurant. This is the just across the street from the former Victoria Hotel and Cafe shown on the first card.

All of these cards are blank on the back.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

These views of Amsterdam look very similar to modern views, with tilting canal houses settling unevenly over the years.

One of the things that differentiates today's view from yesterday's is the forms of transportation. These cards only show people on foot along with one lone horse-drawn cart. Today, you would see some cars, motorcycles and mopeds, but you would also see thousands of bicycles. The bicyclists do not wear any fancy bike gear though, no spandex racing outfits like we might see here in the United States. On our recent trip, we didn't see any helmets either, just typical street clothes, although sometimes the bicyclist might be holding an umbrella or a cup of coffee. All very casual. Here's a night view from the living room of the place where we were staying.

And here is a view of the bicycle parking garage near the train station. I'm afraid I would never find my bike.

Unfortunately, there are no messages on the backs of these cards, but there are interesting instructions in the stamp box. If you wanted to send the card at the less expensive printed-material rate, you were instructed to cross out Briefkaart and Carte Postale. At this less expensive rate, you were only permitted to include the name and date, no message was allowed. This was not unique to the Netherlands. I have seen it on cards from a number of different countries, but I've never seen the rules spelled out like this. The backs of both cards look the same, so I'm only including one.