Monday, November 29, 2021

Germany: Hagen Monument in Worms

On 30th October I got two postcards: one from Germany and one from France.

The card from Germany shows the Hagen Monument in Worms. Hagen is a character in the legend of the Nibelungs where he is the murderer of Siegfried and who later drowns the treasure of the Nibelungs in the Rhine. This statue of him was erected in 1905 and is an early example of the revived interest in the Nibelungs at the beginning of the 20th century.

The stamp shows Siegfried and the Dragon and comes from the series Sagenhaftes Deutschland (issued 07-10-2021). The postmark I got here shows a dragon holding Worms' coat of arms.


Thank You very much Marcel for sending me the card in an envelope!

France: Pau

On 30th October I got two postcards: one from France and one from Germany.

The card from France shows various views of Pau. Pau is a commune overlooking the Pyrenees in the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. From 1464 until the end of its independence in 1620, Pau was the capital of the sovereign principality of Béarn. Under the reign of Henry d'Albret it was a leading political and intellectual centre.

The card was cancelled in the philatelic shop in Pau. The stamp is from the series about handicrafts and deals with the production of objects with feathers. Issued on 27th September, the stamp is printed with a special treatment to evoke the look of a real feather. 


Thank You very much William!

Italy: Museo del Novecento

On 28th October I got a postcard from Italy.

It shows a painting by Italian Futurist artist Furtunato Depero from the collection of the Museo del Novecento in Milan. The Museo del Novecento is a museum about the art the 20th century. The biggest part of the collection comes from Italian artists and Futurist artists in particular, but there are also works of foreign artists in the museum. It was opened in 2010. 

The left stamp shows an artistic depiction of the Winged Victory Statue in Brescia (issued 21-11-2020). The stamp was issued to celebrate a finished restauration of the statue. The other stamp was issued for the Centenary of the Congress of Livorno (issued 21-01-2021), the founding event of the Communist Party of Italy. 


Thank You very much Marco!

Sunday, November 28, 2021

Japan: Pikachu and Eeevee

On 27th October I got two postcards: one from Japan and one from Germany.

The card from Japan shows Pikachu and Eevee. Eevee is a Pokemon of the first generation and is known for having the most evolutions of all Pokemon. Already in the first generation it was possible to evolve Eevee into Flareon, Jolteon and Vaporeon, Espeon and Umbreon followed in the second generation, Glaceon and Leafeon in the fourth and Sylveon in the sixth. With the games Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee Eevee was positioned as second mascot of the franchise beside Pikachu, although it was already popular before that.

Another Pokemon stamp (issued 07-07-2021) was used here. This one shows the backside of a Japanese trading card. Here in Germany the backside however looks slightly different.



Thank You very much Yuka!

Germany: Schloss Dyck

On 27th October I got two postcards: one from Germany and one from Japan.

The card from Germany shows Schloss Dyck. Schloss Dyck is a moated castle in the Rhineland dating back to the 11th century. It was once the seat of the small county Salm-Reifferscheid-Dyck of the Holy Roman Empire

The stamp shows the Lighthouse of Tinsdal (issued 01-07-2021).


Thank You very much Marcel!

Germany: Siegfried and the Dragon

On 26th October I got two postcards: one from Germany and one from the USA.

The card from Germany shows a model of Siegfried killing the Dragon from the Legend of the Nibelungs. The Legend of the Nibelungs is a heroic tale from the Germanic and Scandinavian area. It was told for centuries in different versions before being written down by different authors in the 13th century. The card is from the Nibelungen[h]ort in Xanten, a museum about the legend.

I used a stamp showing the same scene as the card from the series Sagenhaftes Deutschland (issued 07-10-2021) and a postmark of Siegfried forging his sword.


Thank You very much Marcel for sending me the card in an envelope!

USA: Seattle Great Wheel

On 26th October I got two postcards: one from the USA and one from Germany.

The card from the USA shows the Great Wheel at the Seattle Waterfront. The Seattle Great Wheel was inaugurated in 2012. Back then it was the tallest Ferris wheel on the West Coast of the USA.

One of four Jack O'Lantern stamps (issued 29-09-2016) was used twice on the card. They arrived right in time for Halloween.


Thank You very much Michelle!

covers from Germany

On 26th October I got not only two postcards but also three covers from Germany.

On the first cover I got a new special postmark about Mother Hulda and the other two covers got postmarks of the 1st October, World Postcard Day, one about flights from Munich to Dubai and the other about the 1000th anniversary of the Merseburg Cathedral.



Germany: Heinzelmännchen

On 25th October I got two postcards from Germany.

One of them shows Heinzelmännchen. Heinzelmännchen are small people from Cologne who came out at night to work, but who disappered forever after they were once seen by a human. 

I sent this card with a matching stamp from the series Sagenhaftes Deutschland (issued 07-10-2021). The series was started in 2020, but next year it will not be continued anymore.


Thank You very much Anita for sending me the card in an envelope!

Germany: Forest

On 25th October I got two postcards from Germany.

One of them shows the illustration of a forest by Eva-Maria Ott-Heidmann, an illustrator from Berlin. I bought this card earlier this year on the Internet.

It is said that the Germans have a special connection to the forest. So when a stamp called Forest is Climate Change was included in the German stamp programme for 2021, I was expecting something special. This stamp issued on 7th October however is a very big disappointment. How unimaginative! And even worse someone unfamiliar with German will not even get the important message.

covers from Germany

On 25th October I got not only two postcards but also three covers from Germany.

The three covers are the typical covers I send to myself to get special postmarks. The first two covers both got First Day Special Postmarks for recent stamps and on the third cover I got a postmark about Stamp Day.



cover from Austria

On 23rd October I got a cover from Austria.

Four definitives and a personalised stamp of a card were used here.

In the cover was this stamp from Austria's annual series of technical innovations. This one was issued on 25th October and is printed on tennis ball material. In real life the colour is much mor vibrant, but as the stamp is rather thick, my scanner did not got the colour right. Shown on the stamp is Dominic Thiem, the third Austrian tennis player in the World's Top Ten.


Thank You very much Anita!

USA: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge

EDIT: I just realised that this is the 4000th post on my blog. Thank You very much to everyone who has visited over the years and to those sending me many nice cards and covers!

On 22nd October I got two postcards: one from the USA and one from Austria.

The card from the USA shows Sandhill Cranes at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. The Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1939. It is a safe harbour for a varied wildlife and one of the most diverse areas for bird species in the USA. This card was printed for the 6th Southwestern Postcrossing Meet-up.

The card was cancelled with a special postmark created for this meet-up. As you can see, it was held to celebrate International Postcard Week, World Post Day and World Postcard Day, which are all in early October.


Thank You very much Sam-Quito!

Austria: Burgtheater

On 22nd October I got two postcards: one from Austria and one from the USA.

The card from Austria shows the Burgtheater in Vienna. The Burgtheater was originally created by Maria Theresa in 1741 next to her palace and in 1888 it moved to its current location at the Ringstraße. It is the most important German-language theater and one of the most important theatres in the World.

The stamp honours Arthur Schnitzler's Reigen (issued 20-10-2021). Written in 1897 and printed in 1900, it was not publicly performed until its premiere in Berlin in 1920 and in Vienna in 1921, where both it provoked strong reactions. It scrutinizes the sexual morality and class ideology of its day through successive encounters between pairs of characters, who just engaged or will soon engage in sexual activities across social classes. 


Thank You very much Anita!

Friday, November 26, 2021

France: Lourdes

On 21st October I got two postcards: one from France and one from Germany.

The card from France shows various views of Lourdes. Lourdes is a town in the Haute-Pyrénées Department. It is one of the most famous and popular Catholic pilgrimage sites in the World due to a claimed Marian apparition in 1858. 

The stamp is from a set of two about Mailboxes (issued 09-10-2021). It is a joint issue with Japan and just a few days before this card I also got one of the Japanese stamps on a card (see here).


Thank You very much William!

Germany: Witten

On 21st October I got two postcards: one from Germany and one from France.

The card from Germany shows various views of Witten. Witten is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was once a big city, but lost the status in 2007 due to a decreasing population.

One of my favourite stamps of 2019 was used on this card. It is from a set of two marking the beginning of the new stamp series called Heroes of the Childhood (issued 05-12-2019) and shows Heidi. The third set in this series will be issued next week. More about those new stamps later on.


Thank You very much Marcel!

Austria: Franz Schubert

On 20th October I got a postcard from Austria.

It shows a portrait of Franz Schubert. Franz Schubert was an Austrian composer who despite his early death at the age of 31 left a big and diverse oeuvre. During his life the appreciation for his music was limited, but later musicians discovered his work and he is now considered to be among the greatest composers of Western Classical music and especialy of the early Romantic era. 

A personalised stamp and a special postmark about the Bicentenary of Schubert's time in Sankt Pölten were used here. Schubert was invited to the town by the local bishop and there he composed parts of his opera Alfonso und Estrella.


Thank You very much Anita!

My Trips to Hildesheim

The museums in Hildesheim are once again showing some interesting exhibitions I wanted to visit. However this time I took enough time and actually came twice.

The first trip was on 20th October. During this trip I only visited the Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum, which currently shows a big special exhibition about the cultural history of plagues. In different sections you can see how humans have dealt with various diseases throughout history and although Covid-19 is one of the themes and the reason why the exhibition had to be postponed, it is not the reason why the exhibition was created. The planning began long before the current pandemic, which however gives it a bigger public interest. Like so often no cards for the exhibition were available, but I bought these four of the Ancient Egyptian collection, which is among the 30 largest in the World. 


I returned a week later on 26th October to visit the Cathedral Museum. Their current exhibition is called Frauenwelten (Women's Worlds) and shows the connection of exhibits from the museum's collection to two female convents in the region and thus gives insight into the life of Medieval women. I bought six cards in the museum. The first two show interior views and the other four show exhibits, the first three of them are actually part of the current exhibition.



I have been in Hildesheim multiple times in the last years, but usually I just go straight from train station to museum and back. As the weather on this day was so good, I actually went on a walk and used the scenic route back to the train station.

This card shows Saint Godehard. It is a basilica minor and its Romanesque architecture remained nearly unaltered and undamaged through the centuries. Godehard was an influential bishop of Hildesheim in the 11th century. This church was began right after his canonization in 1133. 

The next card shows the Kehrwiederturm, the last remaining tower of Hildesheim's city walls.

After my walk I still had more time and visited the City Museum in the Knochenhaueramtshaus. I stood in front of this building, which is said to be the most beautiful timber-framed house in the World, a few times, but I have never before visited the museum inside. It gives a good overview of Hildesheim's history from pre-Roman times to the present. A focus of the first floor is the Hildesheim Treasure. Unearthed in 1868, it is the largest collection of Roman silver found outside imperial frontiers. The museum however only shows replicas of the pieces, as the originals are kept in Berlin.





The last card I bought in the tourist information and it is a nice addition for my growing collection of train stations. This however is not how Hildesheim's train station looks today. Although this version was not badly damaged in World War II, it was demolished in 1959 and replaced by a more modern building.