First of all, thanks again to all who have visited and/or commented. It's been a blast participating in this great group of city daily photo bloggers!
Second, this being the 1st of the month, it's Theme Day: Street sign or light. We decided to show some of the long street names we have here in Wassenaar.
As new residents it took us quite some time to get used to the long names. When you don't know the language, you might as well be speaking mumbo-jumbo when you try to say, or hear, or spell, these names! Based on a very informal survey, the street in the top photo wins the prize for the longest street name in town, and the other four are runners-up.
Incidentally, here is some info on 3 of the signs. The top street was named for one of Wassenaar's mayors in the late 1800's. How do I know? The helpful city leaders put an explanation on the bottom of the sign!
In the bottom row, the "Schout" street is named for Admiral Doorman, who served in the Dutch navy during WWII and went down with his ship during the battle of the Java Sea. The "Storm" is named after another one of Wassenaar's mayors, previously mentioned here.
I'm not as familiar with the middle two, although a brief Wiki search in Dutch leads me to believe they were both members of parliament in the 1800s.
There are over 100 blogs participating in September's Theme Day ... it may take some time to visit them all!!!
Seattle (WA), USA - Ocean Township (NJ), USA - Cottage Grove (MN), USA - Cleveland (OH), USA - Menton, France - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Singapore, Singapore - Boston (MA), USA - Mexico (DF), Mexico - Kajang (Selangor), Malaysia - Mainz, Germany - Evry, France - Port Angeles (WA), USA - Sequim (WA), USA - Maple Ridge (BC), Canada - Nottingham, UK - Toulouse, France - Wassenaar (ZH), Netherlands - Manila, Philippines - Mumbai, India - Montpellier, France - Bellefonte (PA), USA - Stayton (OR), USA - Moscow, Russia - Paris, France - Saint Paul (MN), USA - Austin (TX), USA - Lyon, France - Stockholm, Sweden - Hyde, UK - Hong Kong, China - Joplin (MO), USA - Seoul, South Korea - Chandler (AZ), USA - St. Louis (MO), USA - Arlington (VA), USA - Anderson (SC), USA - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Villigen, Switzerland - Sydney, Australia - Ampang (Selangor), Malaysia - Montego Bay, Jamaica - Norwich (Norfolk), UK - San Diego (CA), USA - Bandung (West Java), Indonesia - Albuquerque (NM), USA - Melbourne, Australia - Nelson, New Zealand - Quincy (MA), USA - Kyoto, Japan - Tokyo, Japan - Bend (OR), USA - Wellington, New Zealand - New Orleans (LA), USA - Cypress (TX), USA - Nashville (TN), USA - Bucaramanga (Santander), Colombia - Detroit (MI), USA - Saigon, Vietnam - Selma (AL), USA - Phoenix (AZ), USA - Miami (FL), USA - Arradon, France - Sheki, Azerbaijan - New York City (NY), USA - Inverness (IL), usa - North Bay (ON), Canada - Melbourne, Australia - Port Vila, Vanuatu - Tenerife, Spain - Auckland, New Zealand - Forks (WA), USA - Rotterdam, Netherlands - Chateaubriant, France - Madison (WI), USA - Wailea (HI), USA - Orlando (FL), USA - Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation - Ajaccio, France - Baltimore (MD), USA - Crepy-en-Valois, France - Rabaul, Papua New Guinea - Budapest, Hungary - Lyon, France - Saarbrücken, Germany - Adelaide (SA), Australia - Le Guilvinec, France - River Falls (WI), USA - Stavanger, Norway - Naples (FL), USA - London, UK - La Antigua, Guatemala - Philadelphia (PA), USA - Montréal (QC), Canada - Paris, France - San Diego (CA), USA - Trujillo, Peru - Haninge, Sweden - Prague, Czech Republic - Oslo, Norway - Grenoble, France - Shanghai, China - Toronto (ON), Canada - Durban, South Africa - Zurich, Switzerland - Cape Town, South Africa - Singapore, Singapore - Torino, Italy - Flagstaff (AZ), USA
11 comments:
Those are great signs. :) The last time I visited the Netherlands I only had a tiny little disposable camera, and I couldn't get a picture of one particular street sign, because to fit it in the frame I had to be too far away to read it!
Goodness, I could see this would be confusing to people who don't speak Dutch but then the Dutch put us all to shame as you all speak English and other languages. Congrats on your 100th post too!
Hi R&R,
Hahahaha :) yes right!:)
And than the name with the "G" (pronounce SCHHHHGEE)in it that makes it even more difficult.
Well 1 thing: you can always use your own English language in Holland, we will never, ever laugh about your pronouniation.
Have a good weekend :) JoAnn
from HOLLAND 'that countrie' with streets with LONG NAMES :)
My wife and I lived in Brussels many years ago. One of the challenges were signs in multiple languages both with very long difficult names ... Every street had two names.
yes we dutch makes sometimes from those silly streetnames. In Rotterdam you got street with names like; Laan van Avantgarde, our laan van van magisch realisme.
What a mouthful if you live in one of these streets and are ordering something over the phone for delivery and they ask you to spell the name - could be a long phone call.
Congratulated with post number 100. Nice photo too. My post number 100 is next week but I'm not a daily photo blogger.
Best wishes for your century. I like the title Burgemeester. I believe it means mayor.
Michelle ... too bad disposables don't have macro lenses!
Jilly, don't we know it, just yesterday I heard dutch speaking english, german, and spanish with ease.
JoAnn, I'm not sure the dutch "g" will ever translate into writing, but nice try :)
Denton ... dat klopt & mais oui!
Don, compared to Rotterdam, Wassenaar's street names are much less imaginative!
Gerald, luckily our street is not as long! Our trick, thanks to our dutch teacher, is to use the "military" alphabet (using names for letters) when we need to spell it in dutch.
Dick, thanks and we'll be looking forward to your #100 too!
Gail's man, we like the name too. Don't tell the dutch, but burgermeester is very similar to the german burgermeister, which was a joke in an old american christmas special ("burgermeister meisterburger)!
you would have to be a genius to figure these out...I am constantly amazed at how easy English seems in comparison to some. wow.
Great theme day photo!
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