Two Cards, One New Country

Today's mail brought me two postcards. One was from Germany, a result of my participation in Postcrossing. The other is from Anguilla, new country # 212 of my collection. Anguilla is a British overseas territory in the Caribbean, one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles. The island's capital is The Valley and it's population is approximately 13,500 inhabitants. The postcard shows some scenes from a past Anguilla Summer Festival. The festival is held during the first 10 days of August. It is the island's cultural showpiece. Its main events include beauty pageants, a Calypso Monarch competition, musical performances and a Parade of Troupes, in which costumed teams of dancers perform in the streets. The card was sent by Trudy Nixon , Executive Director of The Anguilla Hotel and Tourism association. Trudy used a stamp from a 2003 set of 12 definitives featuring past sailing ships. The ship on my stamp is the Rose Millicent. The set of 12 is just beautiful and one that I would love to have in my collection.

The German card is from a Postcrosser. The card features Mannheim. Mannheim is a city in Germany with a population of around 330,000 persons. It is situated at the confluence of the rivers Rhine and Neckar. Mannheim is unusual among German cities in that its central area is laid out in a grid pattern much like many North American cities. The city's symbol is der Wasserturm ( the water tower ) which is pictured on this card. The stamps used are from 2007 and are flower definitives.

A small update today, but a good one. Any day that I add a new country to my collection is just a great day. Just 54 to go.