Some European Buildings of Old.

BLOG # 1570 --- Day 903 of the Pandemic --- Day 188 of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

                                                                GLORY TO UKRAINE   

Howdy folks. I'm back again after a short hiatus. I have a number of cards to show today and they all provide images of different buildings throughout Europe. Most are real buildings but this first one may be an artist's impression. I don't know because translation was never my strong point. It still isn't. 

Anyway the card arrived from Belgium, and here it is. 

Johan used a new stamp from June. It is 1 of 6 in a minisheet featuring Medicinal Plants of Belgium. It arrived with a First Day of issue , June 13th, cancellation. 

Next is a card showing the Imperial War Museum in London. In front of the building are 15 inch guns from MHS Resolution (left) and HMS Ramillies (right). The current location was opened on July 7, 1936 by the Duke of York, later King George VI. 

 Ron's stamp is a Universal Mail International Postcard rate stamp, picturing Prince Philip.

Now we have a card from Spain. It shows the New Cathedral in Plaza de Anaya, located in Salamanca. It was constructed between the 16th  and 18the centuries. 

Dominique used a King Felipe VI stamp from 2020.

Time now for a card from Macedonia. Here we see a part of the Skopje Fortress. Different iterations of the fortress have existed on this site since the 6th century. It is located on the highest point of the city, overlooking the Vardar River. 

Ana used two older stamps on this card. The stamp on the left was issued in 2001 and commemorates the 75th Anniversary of the Zoological Museum. The right stamp, from 2006, commemorates the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of musical composer Zivko Firtov. 

Here's a card from Tallinn, Estonia, showing a view of Toompea Hill. This is a limestone hill in the central part of Tallinn. It is an oblong tableland , measuring 400  by 250 metres and is about 20-30 metres higher that the surrounding areas. At the top sits a castle, a tower and some government buildings. The area is part of the Tallinn Old Town UNESCO World Heritage Ste. 

Meelis used a lovely assortment of stamps on this card. The large round stamp on the right was issued in 2013. It was issued as a single stamp minisheet for Cultural Heritage Year, 2013. The green colored stamp is from 2018 and commemorates the 300th Anniversary of Kedriorg Palace. The 2 stamps on the left are Post Horn definitives from 2020 and 2017.

These next cards and the last for this time and they were both sent by Dominique, one from France and one from Germany. The French card is first. Here we have a 14th century bridge over the Gave de Pau in Orthez, a commune in southwest France. The bridge has four arches and a tower at its centre.

 

Dominique used a stamp from this year on this card. It celebrates La Mulatresse Solitude (1772-1802 ) She was a heroine in the fight against slavery on French Guadeloupe.

Here's Dominique's second card and my last for today. On this one, we're looking at Bamberg Cathedral. Constructed in the 13th century, it is now part of the Town of Bamberg UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It contains many works of art, including the marble tomb of the founder and his wife, the Empress Kunigunde, considered a masterpiece of the sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider, and carved between 1499 and 1513. Another well-known treasure of the cathedral is an equestrian statue known as the Bamberg Horseman. This statue, possibly depicting the Hungarian king Stephen I  most likely dates to the period from 1225 to 1237.

We have 2 stamps on this one. First is one of the never ending set of Flower definitives. The other stamp, issued in 2018, celebrates the 275 Anniversary of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. 

Well that's all for this time. Thanks for the cards of today go out to Dominique, Meelis, Ana, Ron, and Johan. I never cease to be amazed at all the cards I receive from good people like these. Postcard collecting is such a wonderful hobby, I never know what to expect in my mailbox. Just imagine, going to my mailbox sure can change my day for the good. 

Take care,

 

T Rex, a Dhow, Rumba and Air Armenia

 BLOG 1589 --- Day 893 of the Pandemic --- Day 178 of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

                                                                   GLORY TO UKRAINE

Hi folks . Well I`m back with a few cards again. This time I am starting off with a card showing a couple of cows. This replicates a painting by Antoine De Ridder. I wasn`t able to find much information about him or his painting. That`s the way it is sometimes !

 

Johan used a new stamp from June. It is 1 of 2 issued with the theme - -Sports - Together We Win. 

Nice First Day of  Issue on this one. 

Next up is a card from Drumheller, Alberta, the Dinosaur Capital of the World. My lovely Teena and I did a day trip to Drumheller a short while ago, and of course as a result I get a card from her. On the card you can see a giant T Rex, which you can climb up inside and admire the Alberta Badlands from inside its gaping jaw. 

   Teena used a beautiful Orca stamp from the Endangered Whales set of 5 issued in May. 

Great postmark cancellation received from The Drum Post Office. 

The third card for this time arrived from far away Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. The country proclaimed its Independence on 27 June 1977. 

The card pictures a boat- a dhow on a stopover with passengers aboard and more waiting to board. The dhow originated in the Red Sea and also sailed in the Indian Ocean. 

Bruce used 2 stamps on this one.  The left stamp was issued in 2000 and is 1 of 6 in a Marine Life issue. The right stamp celebrated Women's Day in 1997.

Now here's a card My Lovely Teena sent home for me from Cuba roughly 4 months ago. It celebrates the Rumba - the dance and the music. Rumba refers to distinct styles of music and dance developed in Havana and Matanzas, Cuba. The Rumba is recognized as the dance of love. It is danced to slow, sensual music with a Latin beat and features a hip action known as the Cuban Motion. 

 Teena used a 2016 minisheet of 1 celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Havana International Ballet Festival. It features Alicia Alonso, the great Cuban prima ballerina.

Now here's the last card for today. It's the latest in my Airline / Aircraft Postcard Collection. This time it's an Air Armenia Airbus A320, registered as EK32039. This aircraft is 21.5 years old. It first saw service with Sabena in 2002. Then it moved through Air Luxor, Air One, CSA, FlyGeorgia, and then Air Armenia from 2013 -2015. It is currently flying with Iberia Express. 

 

This card is from Bruce and Jean Pierre. The stamps used are 2 definitives from 2021 showing icons of the Van Kingdom. The large stamp on the right is from 2022 and celebrates the Armenian Presidency of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. 

 

So that's the end of the blog for today. I have to thank  My Lovely Teena, Johan, Bruce, and Jean Pierre for today's cards. I still have a few cards left on my desk so I should be back in the not too distant future.  Take care.

Moores Family Day on the Blog

BLOG  1588 --- Day 887 of the Pandemic --- Day 172 of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

                                                               GLORY TO UKRAINE

 Hello and welcome to my blog , all about postcards and stamps. Before I get to today`s postcards , I just want to show a number of stamps that have been issued lately in support of Ukraine. These I have now added to my stamp collection and I hope there will be other countries jumping on the bandwagon. 

LUXEMBOURG

LATVIA

SPAIN

MOLDOVA

CANADA

AUSTRIA

LITHUANIA

CROATIA

POLAND

FRANCE

Here are two GO F... Yourself Stamps from Ukraine . Take that Russia. 

Now it`s on to a few postcards, since that`s why you are here. My first card is the latest in my Postcards of Newfoundland Towns, sent from a Newfoundland town.. This time it`s Bell Island. Located off the Avalon Peninsula, in  Conception Bay , the island was the site of large iron ore mines from the 1890s to 1966. 

The card shows the 1991 mural called The Miner. It shows miner Billy Parsons , who worked in the Bell Island mines for 51 years. There are a series of murals throughout the town commemorating Bell Island`s Heritage. The iron ore mines at Bell Island were once the largest in the British Empire, extending more than 5 kilometres under Conception Bay. You can take a tour of the abandoned Number 2 Mine if you are in the area. 

Here`s an interesting fact  -- During the Second World War, the anchorage for bulk carriers shipping iron ore was attacked by German U-boats in two attacks on 5 September and 2 November 1942, by U-513 and U-518. Four ships were sunk and 70 merchant mariners lost their lives .In addition to the four cargo ships, an errant German torpedo also struck the DOSCO iron ore loading dock on shore. Bell Island was one of the very few locations in North America to see enemy action during the war, and the Only location in North America to be subject to direct attack by German forces during World War II (due to the errant torpedo hitting land).

This card was sent by my son Stephen and his family - Sara, Evan and Ryann. They just returned from nine days on Newfoundland island visiting friends and family and a lot of interesting spots. The stamp is 1 of 8 in the 2020 From Far & Wide set showing must see places in Canada.

Thanks guys. Now sticking with Bell Island for a couple of minutes, we have this .

There is a great picture of a sea stack near Bell Island that I would like to show. It`s outstanding. 

Isn`t that just a great picture, a Canadian Forces helicopter landing on a sea stack, near Bell Island. 

Today`s second card is another from a family member, My Lovely Teena. She always sends me a card from where ever we visit. Well a week or so ago we visited the town of Okotoks, located about 70 km south of Airdrie. The town's name is derived from "ohkotok", the Blackfoot First Nation word for "rock". The name may refer to Big Rock, the largest glacial erratic in the Foothills Erratics Train, situated about 7 km west of the town. It was moved by the glacier from Jasper National Park, between 450 and 580 km, sometime between 10,000 and 12,500 years ago. It is the world`s largest known erratic, measuring 41m by 18m by 9 m and weighs around 16,500 metric tons. 

 Teena`s card is a wooden card showing an elk. 

Teena used one of the Vintage Travel Posters set of 5 stamps release on June 9th., and got a nice , clear cancellation from Okotoks. 

Just for your info - here is a picture of the Okotoks Erratic. I know it`s just a rock, but it`s a big one and it took a glacier`s movement to deposit it at Okotoks. And I don`t see it moving away anytime soon. 

Take care. Thanks for today`s card go out to Stephen,Sara,Evan and Ryann and to My Lovely Teena. Thanks everyone, Love you all. 

A Swissair Caravelle, A Sarcophagus Lid, The Beatles and Cuba Cards

BLOG # 1587 --- Day 878 of the Pandemic --- Day 163 of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

                                                           GLORY TO UKRAINE

Hey there postcard people.  Here we go again with a few postcards to look at. First up is a card from France. It's a view of Niederbronn-les-Bains, a commune in north Alsace, in north-eastern France, close to the German frontier. It was founded in 48 BC when the Romans discovered the healing proprties of the local water. 

Dominique used a recent stamp from May. It was issued to commemorate the 500th Anniversary of the Death of Anne of France, or as I like to say , the 561st anniversary of Anne's birth. 

My second card today is a dream card if you collect aircraft on postcards. Eleven aircraft on the front of the card.  Wow !!  It can't get much better . The aircraft in the foreground is a Swissair Sud Aviation Caravelle. The Caravelle was a French jet airliner produced in the early 1950s. It had it's first flight in May 1955. A total of 282 Caravelles were produced. The last flight of a Caravelle was in 2005. That's 50 years of Caravelle flight. On a personal note -- I flew on a Caravelle between Lisbon and Faro , Portugal many years ago, 

Meelis used a number of stamps on this card. The small Yellow stamp on the left is from 2017. It is 1 of 3 Post Horn definitives issued with the 2017 date. The large middle stamp shows local Fauna - the Black Rat. The right stamp , from 2021, also features Fauna - the Stoat. 

Today's third card is from Belgium. It shows the sarcophagus lid of the coffin of Khonsutefnacht. It dates from the 4th century BC and can be seen at the Royal Museum of Art and History in Brussels. Of note are the large eyes and reddish brown color of the skin. 

Johan used a stamp, matching the card,  issued in June. It is 1 of 5 in a set celebrating Jean Capart and Egyptology in Belgium. 

These next two cards are the last for this time. I'm sure you heard the expression "better late than never". That is certainly the case here.  My Lovely Teena and I visited Varadero, Cuba in March. With the help of Roxana, a young lady working at the hotel we were staying at, I posted, actually,  Roxana took the cards to Matanzas and posted the cards at the post office in her hometown. Well months past and there was no sign of the cards. Then about 2 months or so after posting a few cards started to show up , the first in Spain, then Germany. Later cards arrived in France, Belgium, Netherlands, Ireland, Philippines  and Sri Lanka. Of course the last cards to arrive were those to Canada - 4.5 months after posting. Obviously , the fact that Canada is closest of all those countries to Cuba never played any part in the disposition of the cards. My guess is that they were all dispatched to Spain and then dispersed from there back across the pond. Anyway I'm glad they finally arrived. Again , they say " anything worth having is worth waiting for " .  

The first of these two cards show Ringo, John, George and Paul standing in from of  The Beatles Bar and Restaurant in Varadero. 

The stamp on this one is actually a one stamp souvenir sheet. It was issued in 2010 to mark the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, China. The sheet itself shows a Cubana Vickers Viscount. The stamp shows a Handley Page 42E, of which only 8 were built. They flew from 1931 to 1940. 

The second Cuba card shows a few of the old buildings in Havana , with a big old American car from the 1950s or 60s. You can see lots of these old cars in Cuba. 

An interesting set of stamps arrived on this card. Well , 4 of the set of 6 at least. They were issued in 1991 to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the First Man in Space, Yuri Gagarin. Gagarin is shown on the left stamp. 

All of this is wonderful of course, but you know me, I always find something to complain about. It's great that the Cuba cards arrived, Lord knows I waited long enough for them. It would have been perfect if the lady in the Matanzas Post Office had seen fit to postmark / cancel the stamps. I would have even taken a pen cancel over no cancel. But I guess you can't have everything ! 

 Big thanks for todays fine cards go out to Dominique, Meelis, Johan, My Lovely Teena and Roxana for her help in Cuba. 

Thank you all.