Netherlands – Terschelling Lighthouse

Terschelling is a municipality and an island in the northern Netherlands, one of the West Frisian Islands. Waddenislanders are known for their resourcefulness in using anything and everything that washes ashore. With few trees to use for timber, most of the farms and barns are built with masts recovered from shipwrecks. The islands are surrounded by shipwrecks, and even today many containers wash ashore that are blown off the decks of cargo ships in the North Sea. The main source of income on Terschelling is tourism. There is some agriculture, but a large part of the island has become a nature reserve.

The Dutch Wadden (or Frisian) islands are very popular as a holiday resort for over a century already, for the Dutch as well as for the people living in the neighboring countries. Of the five (inhabited) Wadden islands Terschelling is the second largest, after Texel. Why particularly this island is so popular with the tourists is because, Terschelling is endowed with the longest beach of all Wadden islands. On the north side of the island not less than 30 kilometers of splendid white sandy beach, in some places over one kilometer wide, are waiting to welcome the tourists. And on the south side there's the Wadden Sea, one of the most important nature reserves of northwest Europe. As a result of the island's elongated shape there's no place on Terschelling further from the sea than half an hour's walk. Terschelling has a favorable climate compared with the rest of the Netherlands. Its winters are milder and its summers cooler. Throughout the year it has twice as many hours of sunshine as the mainland, and significantly less rain. The island is an paradise for lovers of nature and peace. Yet there is also enough diversion and fun on Terschelling to make it a popular vacation place for young people. People interested in arts and cultural activities will have a great time at the yearly unique Oerol festival, about which more later on.

This card was sent to me by Anke, for whom Tershelling means a lot. She met her husband here, and they finally married in this very lighthouse. Very romantic indeed. Thank you Anke for this lovely card.

Belarus – Kobrin

Kobryn or Kobrin is a city in the Brest voblast of Belarus and the center of the Kobryn Raion. The city is located in the southwestern corner of Belarus where the Mukhavets River and Dnepr-Bug Canal meet. The city lies about 52 km east of the city of Brest.. It is at an altitude of 485 feet. It is a station on the Brest – Homiel railway line. As of 1995, the population was around 51,500. River transport is very common in Belarus. The picture on the card shows the river station at Kobrin City. This pretty card was sent to me by Alesia.

In prehistoric times it was inhabited by ancient Baltic Yotvingian tribe. After the Partition of Poland in 1795, the town was annexed by Imperial Russia. Occupied by Germany during the World War I, following the Polish-Bolshevik War it was handed to Poland under the terms of the Treaty of Riga and became a seat of a powiat within the Polesie Voivodship. During the Polish Defensive War of 1939 the town was the scene of heavy fighting between the Polish 60th Infantry Division of Colonel Adam Epler and the German XIX Panzer Corps of General Heinz Guderian. After three days of fighting the Poles withdrew southwards. Between 1939 and 1941 occupied by the Soviet Union, then until 1944 by Nazi Germany. During the latter period the majority of Jewish inhabitants were first amassed in a ghetto and then murdered by the Germans in their extermination camps. In 1945 the town was occupied once more by the USSR and attached to the Byelorussian SSR. Since 1991 it is a part of Belarus.

Cyprus - FIFA World Cup 1998

The 1998 FIFA World Cup, the 16th FIFA World Cup, was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. France was chosen as host nation by FIFA on 2 July 1992. The tournament was won by France, who beat Brazil 3-0 in the final. France won their first title, becoming the seventh nation to win a World Cup, and the sixth (after Uruguay, Italy, England, West Germany and Argentina) to win the tournament on home soil. This was the first in which 32 teams competed at the finals. The official match ball was the Adidas Tricolore. Merja sent me this maxi card.

Åland – Lighthouses of the Åland Islands

Åland, also called the Åland Islands, is an archipelago lying off the southwestern corner of Finland and stretching across the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia from the Baltic Sea. There is one large island, Fasta Åland, about 80 smaller inhabited islands, and more than 6000 islets and skerries. The great majority of the residents (more than 90%) are Swedish by language and heritage. In fact, the islands were part of Sweden until 1809, when Sweden was forced to cede them to the Russian Empire along with Finland. When Finland became independent from Russia in 1917, the Ålanders petitioned to secede from Finland. Finland declined, and ultimately the Åland question was referred to the League of Nations. In 1921 the League decided that Åland should remain under Finnish sovereignty, but that the islands should be autonomous, self-governing, and demilitarized. Åland has its own parliament and national flag, issues its own postage stamps, and has a distinct ISO country code (ALA) and Internet top-level domain (.ax). However, from the Finnish perspective Åland is an autonomous province of Finland governed under international treaties by a special Act of Autonomy. The Finnish name for Åland is Ahvenanmaa. Lighthouses in Åland, as in the rest of Finland, are maintained by the Finnish Maritime Administration (Merenkulkulaitos). The Finnish word for a lighthouse is majakka (plural majakat); the Swedish word is fyr (plural fyren). Since Swedish is the language of the islands, the names of the lighthouses are generally in that language.

Four Maxicards from Aland Islands in Finland, Issued 6th June 2008 are featured here depicting the lighthouses of Marhallan, Gustaf Dalen, Kokarsoren and Bogskar. These cards are courtesy my Dear friend Merja.

Birds on Stamps

Exotica... Upon hearing the word some immediately think of Amazon jungles, others see endless Sahara sands, and yet others imagine climbing in Nepal and Tibet. For many foreigners Belarus is an unknown land. And yet there is no need to go to the arctic shores or to Siberia in order to see thousands of birds, deer, or wild boars. You can see them all here, in Belarus. All that is needed is knowledge of places and enough patience to take good photographs.
Byelarus is home to an impressive number of species of birds that vary from residents, that stay all year around, to breeding birds, that spend a good part of the growing season in Belarus to raise their young, migrants who pass through Belarus with the seasons, to wintering birds who like to spend a good part of the winter in Belarus to escape colder conditions up north. While many species of birds are relatively common as they are part of the ecosystems of the state, it is always a thrill to stumble upon a rare bird or vagrant, that does not really form part of any the Belarus ecosystems. Maybe it got lost during its travels between its summer and winter residence or it got displaced by bad weather.
Among the species of the birds of Byelarus you can find waterfowl and wading birds, a large suite of song birds, raptors, game birds, swifts and nighthawks, etc., many of which occupy several ecosystems simultaneously, as they fly to and from forests, meadows, shorelines of waters, cities and and urban green spaces. Maria sent these two lovely maxicards. Both the stamps issued were in commemoration of Bird of the Year. In 2010 it was the Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus). In 2011 this unique honour went to the Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata).

Cyprus - Mushrooms

These two maxicards are samples of the variety of mushrooms that abound on the Island. My friend Merja sent these two cards to me.

Red sails in the sunset, way out on the sea

Thank you Maria for this lovely picture postcard which reminds me of, this nostalgic song immortalized by Nat King Cole. It was also performed beautifully by Fats Domino and admirably presented by The Beatles amongst many others.

{Red sails in the sunset, way out on the sea}
Oh, carry my loved one home safely to me
{She sailed at the dawning, all day I've been blue}
Red sails in the sunset, I'm trusting in you

Swift wings you must borrow
Make straight for the shore
We marry tomorrow
And she goes sailing no more

{Red sails in the sunset, way out on the sea}
Oh, carry my loved one home safely to me

Swift wings you must borrow
Make straight for the shore
We marry tomorrow
And she goes sailing no more

{Red sails in the sunset}
Way out on the sea (ooh-wee-ooh, wee-ooh)
Oh, carry my loved one
{Home safely to me}