Postcard Valkenburg Trichtergrubbe, sent and returned 1922, Wilhelmina 12½ cent

Dutch postcard from 1922 showing a sepia phototype of the Trichtergrubbe near Valkenburg in South Limburg. The image shows a hollow forest path flanked by large deciduous trees, with a small white bridge in the distance. Beneath the image, the caption reads "Trichtergrubbe VALKENBURG". Published by Reinards-Hermans of Valkenburg under number M 3414 20. The verso bears a Dutch postage stamp of 12½ cent with the portrait of Queen Wilhelmina from the Bontkraag series and a postmark Valkenburg 1922. Addressed to Monsieur P. Girard, poste restante, Norderney in East Frisia.

The card was not collected and bears the stamp "nicht abgefordert. Postausgabe Norderney", after which it was returned to the Netherlands, as evidenced by the handwritten note "retour" and the crossed-out "Allemagne". A red oval "Porto" stamp and the blue "30" refer to the return surcharge. The French-language message, in purple ink and partly in cross-writing, thanks the recipient for sweets and pralines and recalls memories of a pleasant stay in Valkenburg. Norderney was in the interwar period a popular North Sea spa town for the well-to-do of northwest Europe, and the double adventure of sending, non-collection and return makes this card a small document of interwar poste restante correspondence between the Netherlands and Germany. The Trichtergrubbe is one of the hollow paths in the wooded area around Valkenburg, favoured walking destinations in these years for tourists at the spa.