Cracow

A map of the old city of Cracow or Kraków which, dating from the Stone Age, is one of the oldest cities in Poland.  The historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Autumn

The beautiful colours of autumn on the card please me so much that I have in fact posted it before (two years ago) but Sunday Stamps gives me the opportunity this time to show the stamp.  I'm showing the se-tenant strip because I think it's both attractive and clever.  All four seasons are shown, trees reflecting on water.  Not only that, the names SUOMI and FINLAND are shown in reflection on the two stamps and so too the denominations.

Other seasonal stamps I've found have been mainly mushrooms.

From Poland, the Mushrooms in Polish forests series, issued in August 2012

From Taiwan, the Wild Mushrooms series, issued in March 2010

One of  a set of 4 values showing Edible mushrooms, issued in September 2013

That made my mouth water so I had mushrooms for lunch, but they weren't wild.

This is a post for Sunday Stamps, now hosted by Violet Sky at "See it on a Postcard!"

A map of Cracow

The extent of the old city centre of Cracow or Krakow, shows very clearly on this map card.  It really is ancient - it dates back as far as the 7th century.  the entire town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has been since 1978.

The numbers refer to places of interest which are listed on the reverse of the card.

International Women's Day 2014

Again I struggled a little with the theme, apart from ones I've shown previously and the more obvious queens and heads of state.  In the nick of time, along came a lovely card from Poland with lovely stamps, one showing the author and activist Maria Konopnicka.

Maria Konopnicka (1842-1910) was a poet and novelist but also campaigned for women's rights and for Polish independence. Prussia, Russia and the Habsburgs had divided up Poland and it wasn't until after World War I that an independent republic was established.  She is very highly regarded in Poland for all her works.

This is a post for Sunday Stamps, now hosted by Violet Sky at "See it on a Postcard!"

Moments of Colour

Moments of Colour is a series of cards, 52 of them, produced by a Swiss company, ABC.  It doesn't tell you on the reverse of the card where this scene is though I'd guess it could part of the Canal du Midi in France.  I'm only going by "Brochettes" over a shop window so it's just a wild guess.  The card was sent from Poland.

The colour is added in an interesting way because it isn't just the effect you can achieve from a photo editing program.  the black and white portion of the card is matt but the colour is high gloss.  According to the ABC  (A Boss and Co) website, it's partly lacquered.  This series of postcards was one of the first to be produced to Forest Stewardship Council standards, in 2007.

Roztocze

UNESCO has described certain areas in the world as Biosphere Reserves, one being West Polesie which covers parts of Belarus, Ukraine and Poland.  Part of the area in Poland is the Roztocze National Park.  It shelters a large number of rare and endangered species.  50% of the area is agricultural land and over 30% is forested.

A selection of Santas

The two at the top hail from Russia, and the bottom one from Poland.  Which one will visit your house this Christmas Eve?  I rather fancy the gentleman in blue.

Not Rudolph

I hadn't realised that the post office in Finland issues postcards of their stamps, rather like the UK PHQ cards.  If it's something regular, I feel a new collecting theme coming on.

Of course, given the lack of a red nose, it can't be Rudolph.  I think it may be Dasher during a quiet moment.

I do have a number of other Christmas stamps, of course:

Also from Finland

And from Poland:

And Russia:

This is a post for Sunday Stamps, now hosted by Violet Sky at "See it on a Postcard!"

Some Polish history

I thought I would be struggling this week but along came this postcard from Poland just in time.  The card shows a detail from a painting by Canaletto, though this is the nephew of the Canaletto who painted so many pictures of Venice.  He is also known as Bernardo Bellotto and was court painter to King Stanislaw from 1764.  The building to the left of the church is used today for university classes.

The person who sent me the card pointed out the stamp and suggested I googled "Poland Isfahan" which I duly did otherwise I would have had no idea.  I also put "Isfahan - miasto dzieci polskich" through the translator and came up with Isfahan - city of Polish children.

And this is the story of the stamp: During the Second World War, Iran hosted 150,000 Polish refugees and Isfahan housed thousands of children, so leading to the name "City of Polish children".

This is a post for Sunday Stamps, now hosted by Violet Sky at "See it on a Postcard!"

Europe and Euro 2012

At the moment in Europe we are in the midst of the Euro 2012, the European football (soccer) championship.  This card couldn't have arrived at a better time so that I can identify exactly where each country is.  The championship is being hosted jointly by Ukraine and Poland, but the card came from the Netherlands.  (They've been knocked out, shhh.)

The Trumpeter of Kraków

St Mary's Basilica in Kraków is possibly the most famous of Poland's churches and has been used as the model for many others built in other countries around the world.  Originally built in the 13th century, it has been enlarged and changed over the years but it still has three stained glass windows from the 14th century.

It is probably best known for its wooden altarpiece, the largest Gothic altarpiece in the world, which was carved during the 15th century.  Just before the outbreak of WWII, it was dismantled and the parts hidden in different places.  However they were found and transported probably to Berlin. In 1946 it was found in the basement of Nuremberg Castle and returned to Kraków.

Every hour a trumpeter sounds the "Hejnał mariacki", "St Mary's Dawn", from the highest tower.  The tune stops suddenly to commemorate the 13th century trumpeter who was shot in the throat by an arrow, while sounding the alarm before the city was attacked.  It is broadcast on radio throughout Poland and around the world at midday.

Dwarves in Wrocław

To understand the presence of these dwarves in Wrocław,  we need to go back to the 1980s when the Orange alternative movement was active in Poland.  Their purpose was to use nonsensical ways of protesting, to poke fun instead of other more confrontational means.  They were a branch of Solidarity, Solidarność.

They started off by painting dwarves over the efforts by the police to cover over anti-government slogans.  Although they stopped being active in 1989, in 2001 they reactivated, and dwarves started to reappear on the streets of Wrocław, though this time they were small statues rather than graffiti.

Since their first appearance, their numbers have been growing steadily.  Although new ones appear each year, sadly some are disappearing.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted on Beth Niquette's blog The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

A Christmas card and some Christmas stamps

St Lucia 1975

Belarus 2010

Finland 2009

Finland 2010

Poland 2010

Latvia 2011

All the Christmas stamps I could find, and a Christmas card, to bring everyone all good wishes for the festive season!

This is a post for Sunday Stamps, now hosted by Violet Sky at "See it on a Postcard!"

The windmills of your mind

While my mind firmly associates windmills with the Netherlands, there are many other countries with their own windmill heritage.  I have no excuse really for this because I know I've sent several postcards of the windmills of Kent, and once upon a time I even lived at the French equivalent in "rue du Moulin à Vent".  Still, the picture of Dutch windmills remains fixed.

The top card comes from Poland and shows a windmill in the Upper Silesian Ethnogrpahic Park where wooden buildings have been collected in an open air museum preserving traditional rural architecture from the end of 18th century until first half of the 20th.

The lower card comes from Germany and shows one of the 42 mills which have been restored along the Westphalian Mills Route.  They are all under preservation orders and during the summer are open for demonstration to the public.

A mystery

This card arrived for me from Poland a few weeks ago - but - I don't know who sent it!  It isn't an official Postcrossing card but the sender mentions Postcrossing in the message.  There is a name and address so I've searched all my messages to see who it could be - nothing.  So, Pola from Toruń, if you see this, thank you very much, but please do get in touch.

The doll is wearing a traditional dress from Zywiec in the south of Poland.  I did some googling to see if the costume represents the traditional dress well, and it does, even down to the touch of tartan.  That is something I find really interesting and wonder why.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted on Beth Niquette's blog The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

Wrocław

I struggle to read or remember names if I can't pronounce them so I looked up Wrocław and Wikipedia tells me it's pronounced something like "vrotswaf".  Well, I never would have guessed.  I don't know any Polish whatsoever.

It's in the south west of Poland but over the years in history has been in Bohemia, Austria, Prussia and Germany.  It has suffered name changes too:  it is known, for example, as Breslau, Vratislav, and Breslavia in different countries.

This picture is of the Garrison Church, or St Elizabeth's Church, one of the oldest and tallest buildings in the Old town.

Sundial in Wlodawa

The sundial shown is carved on one side of a block of flats in Wlodawa, a small town in the east of Poland.  It shows summer time and winter time and local time.  The chart at the bottom gives the number of minutes to be added or subtracted each month.  It all sounds very accurate.  I wonder if it is.

Poznań

A very atmospheric picture of the cathedral of St Peter and St Paul in Poznań, Poland.  It was built in the late 10th century inside the fortified settlement which is now called Cathedral Island.  The bridge is Bishop Jordan's Bridge, named after the missionary bishop who arrived in the city in 966.  I thought the bridge looked remarkabky modern, and it is.  It was opened in 2007.

If you are as curious as I am, you might like to know that the accent over the final n in Poznań gives it a ny sound.

Greetings from Poland

Two cards from different sources arrived within days of each other.  they are both from resorts on the Baltic coast and both clearly from the same series of cards.

The first  reads "Greetings from the sea" and the second "Holiday greetings".  Google Translate is a wonderful thing.

Day and night, night and day

This is the first time I've seen this way of presenting a building with both day-time and night-time images side by side.  It's an attractive view.

It shows the High Gate (once known as the Upper Gate) in Olsztyn in Poland.  The gate dates from the 14th century but was extensively renovated in the 19th century when the stepped gables were added.  It has had many uses over the years after the original function of city gate.  It was once a prison, more recently the headquarters of a fire brigade, a police station, and a registration office.  I believe it is now used as a hotel.