Sunday, February 9, 2020

Trains, Boats and So Much More

BLOG # 1447

Here it is  - the next installment of Gem's World Postcards. Let's start the day with a card from Ham , Belgium. It's a look at the star-shaped Mardasson Memorial honouring the U.S. soldiers who fought in WWII's Battle of the Bulge, 16 Dec 1944 - 25 Jan 1945. The memorial located near Bastogne was opened on July 16, 1950.  86,890 Americans were killed or wounded in the Battle of the Bulge.



Gerda used a stamp from a 2019 mini-sheet of 5 celebrating the Liberation of Belgium in World War II .



Gerda has a fine postcard blog called My Postcard-Page. You can find it right  here .


Today's second card is from Zurich, Switzerland. On it we can see the Gornergrat Railway, a mountain railway, linking the resort village of Zermatt, located at 1,604 m above sea level, to the summit of the Gornergrat. That's the Matterhorn at the top of the card. It rises 4,478 metres.



Michaela used two nice stamps on her card, both issued in 2019. On the right is a stamp issued for the 2020 Youth Olympic Games held in Lausanne. On the left, a Lucky Pig stamp. A pink pig in Switzerland is a symbol of Good Luck. The pig is even chewing on a Four left clover ! This stamp is on unique flock paper. The stamp is actually soft to the touch and has a velvety surface that makes you want to stroke the happy pig. To give the stamp its softness, the paper first had to be sprinkled with soft particles before being printed. This is why these stamps took three months to be completed.




Monaco is up next. A great view of the harbour and marina of Monte-Carlo.



Jean Pierre used 3 stamps here. On the left, from 2016, is a stamp highlighting Princess Grace Rose Garden. The middle stamp, from 1989, is 1 of 2 issued with City Views. On the right, from 2016, is a stamp issued for a Bouquet Competition.




Post Boxes from all around the world are the subject of this next card.   I see one from Canada in the left corner, one of the more boring ones. Is there one from your country shown ? I like the heavy looking green one in the bottom left.



There's two stamps on this one. On the left is a Bird stamp , 1 of 4 is a 2017 mini-sheet. It was issued for Arktika- the mass migration of Arctic water and shore birds. On the right Kat used a nice Lighthouse stamp from a set of 5 in a 2003 souvenir sheet.




Kim is the sender of my next card. It shows a pedestrian bridge in the neighborhood of Zaanse Schans in Zaandam , Netherlands. Historic windmills and distinctive green wooden houses were relocated here giving it the look of a 18th /19th century village.



Kim used an International rate stamp featuring Windmills.




A card from Germany is next. Birgit from Schleswig-Holstein sent this card of a photo by German photographer Konstantin Dahlem. He has a large portfolio of photographs of ladies, many of them nudes.


Birgit used one of the very often seen Flower definitives. No need to show it again.


Now here's the last card for today. It's from Austria. Sabine's card shows the Semmering Railway train going over the Kalte Rinne Viaduct. The railway starts at Gloggnitz and leads to Muzzuschlag. It opened in 1854. It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list in 1998.


Sabine used a stamp from 2018, showing the work of Austrian painter Hubert Scheibl.


There it is . That 's all for this time . I have to thank Sabine, Kat, Kim, Gerda, Jean Pierre, Michaela and Birgit for their cards. As always, it's great to find cards like these in my mail box. Take care.

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