Switzerland

Ok, one more quick post for today, showing an idyllic view of a house somewhere in the countryside of Switzerland.

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The sender of the card says this is a photo he had taken - and I must say, WOW! Really WOW! Not just for the lovely vibrant image, but also the quality of the card...it is all just perfect. He says that this is somewhere near Bern...but where exactly, have no idea....and it doesn't really matter...it is simply a great postcard.

The stamp is from the set of 3 Flora stamps issued in 2012. Yeah, what you can spot are coffee stains. Yeah, my fault....you know I am clumsy....

Well, have a good rest of the weekend! Till next time...

Trains, Czech Republic

well, get ready for a longish post full of train cards from the Czech Republic, all coming with a whole variety of lovely Czech stamps....and you know, it was while selecting the cards for this post that I realized the huge number of Czech train cards I have received...my initial idea was like to post them all but that turned out absolutely inconvenient...so I decided to stick to a small part of it...

and first comes a card I received from Monika last year...
This illustration, showing the 220.1, the oldest locomotive in the Czech Republic, produced in 1858 and it was issued as a commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first train to Prague Masaryk Station.

the stamp on the left was issued in 1995 in a set of two 'Homeland' stamps, with this one showing the Panska Skala, also known as the Lord's Rock, while the other stamp was issued in 2013, commemorating th 400th Anniversary of the Bible of Kralice.



Next is a card I received from Katka in 2012...

The modern blue and white one is called Pendolino and is considered as the fastest train in the Czech Republic (well at least it was when this card was mailed). The other one is a regular train (and as Katka says, not very comfortable), bearing the logo of Poštovní spořitelna, one of the banks in the country...so it is something like an advertisement train...

both stamps here were issued in 2011....the one on the left was issued in 2011 for the Children's Day, showing the Little Witch, a feature film by Zdeněk Smetana...the other one is from the Young Animals series and shows the European Hamster.


The title of this one translates into "Full Steam ahead into the New Year"...I don't know if this was meant as a New Year greeting card or what, but I do like the correlation :)

sent by Radana for the Favourites Tag in 2013, this card shows the 354 195, CSD Steam locomotive, manufactured in 1925 by ČKD (Českomoravská Kolben-Daněk).

a beautiful car stamp showing the Mercedes Benz 540, manufactured in 1936. the stamp is from a set of 6 Classic Cars stamps issued in 2012.


This steam engine was sent by Milan on the very last day in 2010 for the Czecho-Slovakia meets the world tag...

it shows the U 46.001 Steam Engine train on one of the few narrow-gauge railways in the Czech Republic, near the town of Jindřichův Hradec in South Bohemia.

3 stamps here (don't be fooled by the big one which came with the...well, I dont know if this is the vignette or the selvage but it comes as a nice addition - the stamp in question was issued in 2010, and it is from a joint issue with Luxembourg, commemorating the 700th Anniversary of the Succession of Luxembourg to the Czech Throne.
The one on the right is from 2000 from the Zodiac series, representing the Virgo, while the flower stamp is from a set of two issued in 2007.
It's been a while since I've seen Milan around, I hope he is doing fine :)



One from Radim for the June-November RR in 2012...

the card shows the IC 141 "Detvan" Praha-Zvolen train, which has just left the Ústí nad Orlicí station on 14 September 2006.
The 151014-8  Locomotovie (the Prague depot) in the Czech Railways was the only locomotive of this series, which had the advertising painting of Poštovní spořitelna in of 2006. Five other locomotives of the series 362/363 propagated also this company, while other vehicles were then given advertising stickers of this financial institution.

a stamp issued for the Olympic Games in London in 2012.




And a train card which I often confuse with the one above since they like bear the same colours and I often get to confuse them, but just now I realized it is because of that famous Poštovní spořitelna that they are advertising...

Sent in 2014 from someone called Erika or something...on behalf of Goran...and now I cant recall if I have ever figured out which Goran was in question here, since I know two who could potentially be involved in such a surprise...so I dont know now if i had ever thanked the right Goran...shame on me =/

from the back of the card:
Six red yellow locomotives (advertising colors of Poštovní spořitelna) were seen in 2006 on the Czech rails. It was three locomotives of the series 362, two locomotives of the series 363 and a locomotive of the series 151. The color scheme came from the Konting advertising studio.
On 13 September 2006, the locomotive 362121-6  Locomotive (from the Brno depot) was seen at the front of the fast train R 878 Brno - Česká Třebová, Praha near the stop Tatce.

and a fantastic Mucha stamp issued in 2010 in a set of two, commemorating 150 years since his birth !!


now comes a card that I dont know what did it actually go through on its journey, to arrive in such a condition in the end..

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This express steam train dates back to 1917, which for that time was considered as the company's largest and most modern machine and had its last journey somewhere in the mid-60s.

at least the stamps didn't suffer some greater damage....three nice ones...starting from the left, issued in 2010, from the "For the Children" series, here we have a stamp commemorating Helena Zmatlíková, one of the leading Czech female illustrators of children's books.
In the middle there is a Chrysantemum stamp issued in 2011, and at the right we have the Christmas stamp from 2011.


Hope you are holding on, since there are three cards left....

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an official card, showing the CD 715 001 (T426 001) rack diesel locomotive.

a nice stamp issued in 2013 commemorating Franz Kafka on a stamp which portrays a realistic-looking beetle. As a symbol of relentless metamorphosis, not always for the better, the beetle is set in austere, even unsympathetic modules.



Another card from Radim...

...where again you can see the Pendolino...

...and two nice stamps on the back..the one on the left is from the EUROPA issue from 1999 on National Parks, and here you can see the Šumava National Park. The other stamp was issued in 2007 and comes from a fantastic sheet on which the White Carpathian Mountains and Orchid Meadows Unesco Biosphere Reservation. On this particular stamp you can see the Ophrys holosericea.



aaaand as promised few cards above, here comes the last one for today..

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an official card sent by the Raab Family, showing the 310 006 Locomotive..

...which came with three lovely stamps (in case you have followed this post from start till end, maybe you noticed that all the stamps shown were different, no repetitions or such :)).
Anyways, the first stamp is from a set of three Old Aeroplanes, issued in 1996. The middle one was issued in 2003, commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the First Electric Railroad Connection, while the last one is from 2000, showing a train from 1900 with a steam locomotive, service coach and carriages for passengers - it is from the set of two stamps for the Transport issue, comparing the Railway of 1900 and 2000.


so, no more trains for today, promise :D

Yuri Gagarin, Russia

well, apart from the Italian maxi card, some Russian cards of course...well a bunch of them actually....though I still have this feeling that I must have overlooked some :)

if you are not such a Gagarin fan, maybe you love Russian stamps....and this post has plenty of beautiful ones to show...
But before I get down to that, just wanted to show a picture of Yuri's night here in Skopje (it is an event organized throughout the world), and this time it was organized by the Russian Embassy here which I thought would be something spectacular, but was utterly boring but at least I got to meet some of my astronomy buddies and other friends....and at least pose for the picture with Gagarin....thanks to Iskra for the picture :)

and after the introduction lets get down to the cards....where for some I have NO idea how I have obtained them....yeah, blank cards....and the very first one is of such kind....

Found it in the 2010 pile, and it says it was issued by the State Institution of culture of Moscow, "The Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics".....other than that, it says "Yuri Gagarin - the first cosmonaut of the planet fulfilled the age-old dream of the Mankind about flight to space. On April 12th, 1961 spacecraft 'Vostok' with Yuri Gagarin on the board, made one Earth orbit and successfully landed. The era of manned space flight has begun.

well, as I said, it is blank, so no stamps nor any idea who sent it to me....


Now, when it comes to the next one, I have two copies of it, one received for the WOTM in 2012 from Alexandra, and the other one as part of a swap from Ekaterina in...unfortunately I cannot read the cancellation...

but both are written and stamped, so a few words about the stamps now...

on the first one we have one of the Russian Kremlins' stamps from 2009 (the Moscow Kremlin) and the other one is from a set of 4 stamps issued in 2011, for the Olympic Games in Sochi, showing Krasnaya Polyana, the only ski-resort at the Black Coast.

on the other card we have another of the Russian Kremlins' stamps  (the Rostov one) and three more - there are two stamps from the set of 5 issued in 2005, commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of A.I.Mikoyan...and the one on the right, issued in 2008 in a set of 4 stamps showing the Decorative-Aplied Arts of Dagestan.



next we have another blank card from 2010...with a smiling Yuri! ♥

now this one is not a maxi-card, even though at first glance it may seem so...

the sender, Natalia, had designed it herself, and she says this was her first designer's experience with a retro photo....well done Natalia!! And thank you for sending it to me! :

and she used nice stamps too....two more of the Russian Kremlins (haha, maybe by the end of the post I will have them all :P) - here you can see the Zarask Kremlin and the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, and also a fantastic stamp issued in 2010, showing the Curonian spit...and if you actually touch it, you can feel the rough sandy-surface!


Next is probably one of the most iconic Gagarin pictures, where he is holding a dove...but in general there is a trend of famous people being photographed with doves, promoting peace and all...

blank card unfortunately...



another one with this super-charming Gagarin smile :D

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received this one as an official from Elena in 2014 (I also have a blank copy, so if anyone is interested, let me know).

and among the three stamps here, we also have a matching one with Gagarin!!! Issued in 2009, for the 75th anniversary since his birth...we also have one of the 2008 definitives, and one from one of my favourite Russian cartoons with Karlson - it comes from a set of 4 cartoons' stamps issued in 2012.


Ok, i think we are like half-way through, and next comes a card dear Maria sent me in 2010

It was indeed issued to commemorate April 12th, and the world's first spaceman!



Next is probably one of my favourite Gagarin cards where you can see him in the company of Gina Lollobrigida at the Second Moscow International Movie Festival in 1961

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Received it from Polina in 2011, when Russia still had 6-digit IDs :)

On the stamp you can see another one of the Kremlins - the Ryazan Kremlin.


A card I received in 2012 from Anna for the wishlist-tag...

The English translation on the back of the card says "Long Live the Son of the Communist Party"!
I don't know how come the translation has the word 'communist' in it...or maybe it is understandable it refers to the communist party...but I do somewhat disagree with such wilful addition/omission of words..

anyways, the card comes with a nice stamp issued in 2011, showing the Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve.


this next card is from the same series as the one above...an official received last year, sent by Larisa and Anastasia...sisters I guess :)

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the English translation says, "We are creative and friendly and clever, we're making space to be peaceful forever"! 

which word means 'clever' in Russian here? 

one more Kremlin stamp :D it shows the Astrakhan Kremlin. There is also one from the 2008 defintivies and one Sochi stamp from the set of 15 issued in 2014, showing all the different disciplines.


The next-to-last....

...received from Irina for the (no-more-existing) Favourites RR.
I wonder what's going through Gagarin's pensive head here....

A gorgeous stamp with Orcinus Orca from the set of two whales' stamps issued in 2012....and another 2008 definitive.


And this last card for this post, and today came as a surprise from dear Katya in 2013

another pensive Gagarin-look....probably before take-off :)

Here you can again see the Moscow Kremlin and another beautiful stamp issued in 2013 in a set of 3 Contemporary Russian Art stamps.


Sorry Yuri for the delay in this post....but I hope it still counts :)

and wishing you all a nice weekend....yeah sorry, that would be all for today, but I just wanted to make one update dedicated to Gagarin...I will try to come back soon with a new regular kind of update...promise! :)

Minsk, Belarus

Next come a few cards from Minsk, Belarus's capital

I received this one recently as a swap with Marina - looking at the card gives me the impression of a city with very clean air (unlike here). And they do seem to have a lot of green areas all over too (again, unlike here).

Well, I've written about Minsk before, so won't get much into details this time...just that after this swap  I realized I had acquired a number of Minsk cards showing the city and the Svislach river, so I thought I'd show them altogether...

the stamp is part of a mini-sheet with 4 stamps issued in 2015, showing paintings of artists of the Paris School from Belarus. On this stamp you can see a painting from 1925 called "The Lake" by Ossip Zadkine.

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well the rest of the cards here are all official ones...Belarus has really climbed up the ladder in terms of Postcrossing sent cards and at the time of speaking holds the 6th place....quite surprising I must admit...
The card here shows the embankment of the Svislach river..it is 327 km long and has derived its name from the root -visl- 'flowing,' of Indo-European origin

here I decided to show the whole back of the card cos of the cute stickers...that duck one is especially adorable :)
as for the stamps, we two from the set of 12 Architectural Monuments issued in 2012 - the left one shows a church in Polatsk, while the right one, shows the Mirski castle.

Thanks to Yanina for this card

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Here we have a multiveiw card with the Svislach river in each of the pictures.

First we have a view of the Upper Town. Then below it, we can see some sport competitions.

In the middle you can see the Trinity Suburb, while on the right side, first you can again see the Svisloch embankment, while the bottom picture shows a man fishing in the centre of the city. 

The stamp is from a set of two Christmas stamps issued in 2012.
Thanks to Marianne for this card.

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Can you notice the drawings, or whatever they may be, on the two tall buildings? they look interesting.

Here in particular you can see the Housing of the Uskhod micro-district.

the stamp is from a set of 2 issued in 2012, showing Belorussian ornament.
Thanks to Dzimitry for this one.

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And one more Minsk card, showing a really beautiful aerial view of the city, in particular, the Trinity Suburb and the Svislach river embankment.

Again we have the two architectural stamps as above from 2012, showing the church in Polatsk and the Mirski castle.
Thanks to Victoria for this card.