San Marino, Madrid and a Swissair DC-4

   Blog # 1652 --- Day 1205 ( That's One Thousand Two Hundred and Five Days ) Since the Start of the Current ( Second ) Russian Invasion of UKRAINE .        

                                                                

                                                                     GLORY TO UKRAINE 

Written on Friday the 13th

Published Saturday 14th

Happy Friday The Thirteenth. Watch out for black cats, ladders and try not to break any mirrors, spill salt or walk on any cracks. All signs of bad luck. So there , you've been warned. Now on the bright side, talking about postcards, receiving or sending postcards, and even blogging about postcards will surely bring you only Good Luck. 

The Good Luck starts with a card from San Marino. Located in Southern Europe, it is a landlocked country completely surrounded by Italy. San Marino is the fifth smallest country in the world. Printed on David's card is this fact " San Marino - the smallest and oldest Republic in the world. " Now I agree that San Marino is the oldest republic but not the smallest. I say Nauru is the smallest at 21 sq km, while San Marino is the 5th smallest at 61 sq km.  

David used 3 lovely aviation themed stamps on his card. They are 3 of the 4 in a set issued in 2024 entitled City of Air . This set is one of the best aviation designs I’ve seen in a long time. These four are poster and t-shirt worthy. Can you imagine them mounted on a hallway wall? I’d never get tired looking at them. 

That was a great start for my blog today. 

My next card arrived from Madrid. Francesca's card shows a plethora of buildings and sights in Madrid. 

Francesca's stamps  -- The left stamp was issued in 2020 and shows King Felipe VI. The right stamp marks the 175th Anniversary of the First Spanish Postage Stamp. It was issued this year. 

This will be a rather short blog today, so here's the last card. A nice Swissair card, another one for my ever expanding Aircraft / Airline card collection. This one shows a Swissair Douglas DC-4. HB-ILU was initially delivered to Swissair in 1952. It was the last of five DC-4s that Swissair acquired between 1946 and 1952. The aircraft was later transferred to Balair and then to Aer Turas.

Jean Pierre used 3 Swiss stamps , two of which are Aviation themed stamps. The left stamp is from 2022 and is 1 of 3 in a set showing Swiss coins. The middle stamp if from 2010 and from a set of 4 issued for 100 Years of Aviation in Switzerland. The right stamp , from 2016 celebrates Aerophilately. 

That's another blog in the Blogsphere. Thanks to Francesca, David and Jean Pierre for these cards.