Italy: Bosco Verticale in Milan

On 6th May I got a postcard from Italy.

It shows Bosco Verticale in Milan. Bosco Verticale is a pair of tree-packed residential towers. The trees and other plants growing on the buildings are intended to improve the air quality, moderate the temperature in the buildings and lower the noise pollution, but are also expected to attract new bird and insect species to the city. The building itself is self-sufficient by using renewable energy from solar panels and filtered waste water to sustain the buildings' plant life. Designed by Boeri Studio and inaugurated in 2014, it is one of the biggest redevelopment projects in Europa.

Three stamps were used on the card. The stamp on the left is from the long-running tourist series. This particular one was issued on 4th April 2010 in a set of four and shows Courmayeur, a town at the foot of Mont Blanc in the Aosta Valley. This one really reminds me of the village in Tyrol, where I usually spend my summer holidays. The stamp in the middle is from a set of six about Italian Design (issued 09-03-2000) and the stamp on the right is from a set of seven about Italian Cultural Heritage (issued 27-05-2015). 

Thank You very much Marco!

USA: Charlie the Butcher

On 4th May I got a postcard from the USA.

It shows Charlie the Butcher. Charlie the Butcher, actually Charlie Roesch, is a popular restaurateur and media personality from Buffalo, New York. 

Four nice stamps were used on the card. On the left are two stamps from a set of four about Dragons (issued 09-08-2021). I have seen them multiple times on the Internet, but did not know how beautiful they are in real life with just a little bit of foil used on the right places. The other two stamps are about the Year of the Rabbit (issued 22-01-2011) and the Year of the Tiger (issued 14-01-2010). They are from the series of Chinese New Year stamps that ran from 2008 to 2019. With these two I now have all of them.

Thank You very much Audrey!

covers from the USA

On 4th May I got not only a postcard but also three covers from the USA.

On the first cover there are two stamps about famous US authors. Left is Jack London (issued 11-01-1986), a pioneer of commercial fiction famous for his adventure novels, and right is Henry James (issued 31-07-2016), a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism. The postmark shows a sledge dog, who also plays a big role in Jack London's The Call of the Wild.

The card in this cover shows a tranquil view of the Sierra Blanca, a range of volcanic mountains in New Mexico. 

Two stamps from a set of sixteen called Go Green (issued 14-04-2011) were used on the second cover. These two promote recycling and cycling. The special postmark is from Colesville, but suitably there is also an Earth Day machine cancellation. The third stamp on the cover is from a set of four about Pueblo Pottery (issued 13-04-1977). This one is particular shows a San Ildefonso Pot from the Denver Art Museum.

The card inside shows a more harsh environment, the Lava Beds in the El Malpais National Monument.

On the third cover there is another postmark about the Mayflower. The stamps are from a set of four about Winter Berries (issued 17-09-2019) and on the left one called Drafting the Articles of Confederation (issued 30-09-1977).

The last card shows another inhospitable area, the Red Rock Formations near Gallup in New Mexico.

Thank You very much Sam-Quito!

Japan: Gobyobashi Bridge

On 30th April I got two postcards: one from Japan and one from Austria.

The card from Japan shows the Gobyobashi Bridge on Mount Kōya. The Gobyobashi Bridge crosses the Tamagawa River and leads to the Okuno-in Temple, one of the largest cemeteries in Japan. Since 2004 is Mount Kōya as one of the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range on the UNESCO World Heritage List. 

A nice stamp was used on the card. It was issued on 20th April 2021 and is from a set of ten about the 150th anniversary of Japan's Modern Postal Service. I like those traditional works of art showing early traces of modernisation. 

Thank You very much Keiko!

Austria: Clarinets

On 30th April I got two postcards: one from Austria and one from Japan.

The card from Austria shows different types of Clarinets. Clarinets are woodwind instruments with a single-reed mouthpiece, a straight, cylindrical tube with an almost cylindrical bore and a flared bell. Invented around 1700, it has proved to be an exceptionally flexible instrument.

Used on the card was a matching stamp (issued 28-04-2021) from the series Music Land Austria, which was started last year with a stamp about the Double Bass. Again the stamp shows the instrument in front of a sheet of music and the composer is shown on the special postmark. I guess this man needs no introduction, but did you know that Mozart was not born in Austria? When he was born in 1756, Salzburg was the capital of an independent state within the Holy Roman Empire, the Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg, which is just a part of Austria since the early 19th century. 

Thank You very much Anita!

covers from the USA

On 30th April I got not only two postcards but also two covers from the USA.

The two stamps from a set of four called Holiday Window Views (issued 06-10-2016) on the first cover were cancelled with a very intriguing postmark, which reads "Will you Marry me?". I really wonder who sponsored this postmark. How great would it be to ask someone if she/he wants to marry you with an official special postmark?

In the cover was this impressive view of the Red Rock State Park in New Mexico, established in 1986 to preserve the riparian habitat along Oak Creek. Another imprint of the postmark was applied to the backside of the card.

The postmark on the second cover reads Game Day in Tampa Bay, apparently a note to the football team Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Used were two stamps from a set of five about Soda Fountain Favourites (issued 30-06-2016).

In this cover was a card about the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, the largest balloon festival in the World. 

Thank You very much Sam-Quito!

Germany: German Football Museum in Dortmund

On 27th April I got two postcards from Germany.

One of them shows the German Football Museum in Dortmund. The German Football Museum is Germany's national museum about football. The German Football Association DFB decided back in 2006 that the profits of the 2006 FIFA Football World Cup would be used to establish a museum about football. It was finally opened in 2015 and is located next to Dortmund's train station. Personally I never enjoyed football, but I guess for fans this might be a nice place to visit.

Sometimes mail takes strange routes. This card was posted on 27th March and took exactly a month to reach me. Not sure where it was so long. No traces of its journey can be seen on the card.

Thank You very much Marcel!

Germany: Garden

On 27th April I got two postcards from Germany.

One of them shows a beautiful garden illustration by Eva-Maria Ott-Heidmann, an illustrator from Berlin. I like this imaginative illustration with the children and dwarfs.

I bought this card online and used it to get this special postmark about the Federal Horticultural Exhibition in Erfurt. The thematic stamp was issued on 1st April 2021. 

In addition to the postmark above I also sent me a cover with the official First Day Special Postmark from Berlin. That one however already arrived on 10th April. 

cover from Austria with cards from the UAE

On 24th April I got a cover from Austria.

A nice stamp was used on the cover showing an artwork by Benedetto Gennari from the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It was issued on 24th February 2021.

In the cover were four postcards from the United Arab Emirates.

The first two cards show the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque was built between 1996 and 2007. With a capacity of over 40000 people, it is the largest mosque in the country and one of the largest in the World. 

The second card shows among others an aerial view of the Palm Jumeirah. Palm Jumeirah is one of multiple manmade archipelagos in Dubai. When completed, the series known as Palm Islands will increase Dubai's shoreline by 520 kilometers. As of 2016 more than 10000 people lived on Palm Jumeirah. 

The last card might be the most interesting, as the impressive building shown on it does not fully exists yet. It shows the Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi, which is a planned memorial museum for Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding father and first president of the United Arab Emirates. It will deal with the history, culture and economic transformation of the emirates and already has a partnership with the British Museum. No opening date was announced, but according to Wikipedia an opening was/is expected for 2021. 

Thank You very much Anita!

Australia: National Gallery of Victoria

On 22nd April I got a postcard from Australia. 

It shows a painting by William Turner from the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. The National Gallery of Victoria was founded in 1861. It is Australia's oldest, largest and most visited art museum and is ranked among the leading art museums in the World. Its encyclopedic art collection is housed at two locations in Melbourne.

The card was sent with three stamps, but only two survived the journey. They got cancelled in Melbourne's General Post Office.

Thank You very much Jingdan!

covers from the USA

On 22nd April I got not only a postcard but also two covers from the USA.

The first card was sent with a truely historic special postmark. It celebrates the successful landing of the rover Perseverance and the small helicopter Ingenuity on Mars on 18th February. The mission Mars 2020 is already the fifth Mars rover mission, but the first helicopter mission. The mission's aim is the search for evidence of the past possibility of life on Mars. Launched in July 2020, it is the third Mars mission started in that month. China and the United Arab Emirates also launched Mars mission a few days earlier. The two stamps on the right are from a set of four about Pickup Trucks (issued 15-07-2016).

The card inside shows a blue door, a "charming feature of the Southwest".

Two stamps from a set of four about Birds in Winter (issued 22-09-2018) were used on the second cover. The third stamp is from a set of four about Basket Design Quilts (issued 08-03-1978). The postmark celebrates the Bicentenary of Colesville, New York. 

In the cover was this card of Oatman. Oatman is a former gold mining town in the Black Mountains, Arizona. By the 1960s however, the town was abandoned by nearly all of its human inhabitants, who released their burros into the wild. The burros flourished and nowadays roam freely in the town, which in recent years also became a popular tourist destination. 

Thank You very much Sam-Quito!

Germany: Cologne Cathedral

On 21st April I got two postcards: one from Germany and one from Austria.

The card from Germany shows the Cologne Cathedral. The Cologne Cathedral is a Gothic cathedral and was built from 1248 to 1880. It is considered to be an architectural masterpiece. During World War II it was damaged, but already in 1956 the cathedral was opened again for believers and visitors. Today it is one of the most visited sights in Germany and the third highest church in the World. Since 1996 is the Cologne Cathedral on the UNESCO World Heritage List

A matching stamp of the Cologne Cathedral (issued 06-03-2003) was used on this card, which was sent from the new philatelic shop in Cologne. For sure their new pictorial postmark shows also the cathedral. It has to be noted that this card was not sent on 1st April. For some reason they do not change the date in the postmark. The shop here in Braunschweig does, the one in Dresden also does not. 

Thank You very much Heike!

Austria: Children and Tracht

On 21st April I got two postcards: one from Austria and one from Germany.

The card from Austria shows two children wearing their Tracht.

The stamp shows the Murbodner Tracht from Styria. It was issued on the 17th April 2021 and was cancelled with the First Day Special Postmark. 

Thank You very much Anita!