Costa Brava

Jordi sent me this pretty card of The Costa Brava, a coastal region of northeastern Catalonia, Spain. Costa is the Catalan and Spanish word for 'coast', and Brava means 'rugged' or 'wild'. The Costa Brava stretches from Blanes, 60 km (37 mi) northeast of Barcelona, to the French border.

In the 1950s, the Costa Brava was identified by the Spanish government and local entrepreneurs as being suitable for substantial development as a holiday destination, mainly for package holiday tourists from Northern Europe and especially, the United Kingdom and France. The combination of a very good summer climate, nature, excellent beaches and a favourable foreign exchange rate was exploited by the construction of large numbers of hotels and apartments in such seaside resorts as Blanes, Tossa de Mar, and Lloret de Mar. Tourism rapidly took over from fishing as the principal business of the area.

While part of the Costa Brava coastline lent itself to tourist developments on a very large scale, other parts have retained a more traditional look and have become "hidden gems" for visitors who want a little more than sun, sand and sangria. Small towns like Cadaqués, which is close to the French border and close to the foothills of the Pyrenees, have attracted artists, such as Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso. The Dalí Theatre and Museum in Figueres is one of the most important and visited museums in Catalonia. One can also visit Dalí's House-Museum in Port Lligat, near Cadaqués and the Castle of Púbol in Púbol. The coast between Roses and Tossa de Mar has many delightful small coastal towns.

Vintage cars in Åland

The stamps on the maximum cards given to me by my dear friend Merja were issued on 04 March 2005. The cars represent four different decades: the 1920’s, 1930’s, 1950’s and 1960’s. First out on the road was an Oakland Sport Convertible from 1928. The following car model is a shining black Ford V8 from 1939. The second youngest of the cars is a Buick Super 4D HT, a classic red-and-white American car. The beige Volkswagen 1200 from 1964 is the youngest of the featured vintage cars. This car is still a very popular model all over the world. All four cars are registered in Aland.
The car stamps are inserted in a booklet with a brief informative text about each car. The booklet cover shows a detail of the right rear wing of the Volkswagen. The denomination of the stamps is 1st class each.

Show jumping

Show jumping, also known as "stadium jumping," "open jumping," or "jumpers," is a member of a family of English riding equestrian events that also includes dressage, eventing, hunters, and equitation. Jumping classes commonly are seen at horse shows throughout the world, including the Olympics. Sometimes shows are limited exclusively to jumpers, sometimes jumper classes are offered in conjunction with other English-style events, and sometimes show jumping is but one division of very large, all-breed competitions that include a very wide variety of disciplines. Jumping classes may be governed by various national horse show sanctioning organizations, such as the United States Equestrian Federation in the USA. International competitions are governed by the rules of the Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI). This lovely card was sent to me by inet.

The stamps on this card are also worth a mention. The birds shown on the stamps are the Grutto or The Black-tailed Godwit, Limosa limosa, is a large, long-legged, long-billed shorebird first described by Carolus Linnaeus in 1758. It is a member of the Limosa genus, the godwits. There are three subspecies, all with orange head, neck and chest in breeding plumage and dull grey-brown winter coloration, and distinctive black and white wingbar at all times. Its breeding range stretches from Iceland through Europe and areas of central Asia. Black-tailed Godwits spend winter in areas as diverse as Australia, western Europe and west Africa. The species breeds in fens, lake edges, damp meadows, moorlands and bogs and uses estuaries, swamps and floods in winter; it is more likely to be found inland and on freshwater than the similar Bar-tailed Godwit. The world population is estimated to be 634,000 to 805,000 birds and is classified as Near Threatened.

2004 Summer Olympics

Cyprus issued the stamps on these three maxi cards. The stamps are part of a set of four. Unfortunately, I don’t have the fourth. These wonderful maxicards were given to me by Merja.

A brief description about the three cards wont be out of place. These pictures are a representation from an ancient Greek pot (courtesy the British Museum). Track events such as the 100m race, the marathon, javelin throw, shot Put, discus throwing and a few others are normally the highlights of any Olympic Games.

The next card (lower left) depicts Equestrian Events. The horse was used in athletic competition for the first time in Ancient Greece in 68o BC in chariot races and in 684BC in horse races.The Modern day Olympics feature Show Jumping, Dressage and Eventing. And finally the card at lower right depicts boxing.This was one of the most spectacular Olympic events in Ancient Olympia.

The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team officials from 201 countries. There were 301 medal events in 28 different sports. Athens 2004 marked the first time since the 1996 Summer Olympics that all countries with a National Olympic Committee were in attendance. It was also the first time since 1896 (other than the since-downgraded 1906 Intercalated Games) that the Olympics were held in Greece.

A new medal obverse was introduced at these Games, replacing the design by Giuseppe Cassioli that had been used since the 1928 Games. This rectified the long lasting mistake of using a depiction of the Roman Colosseum rather than a Greek venue. The new design features the Panathinaiko Stadium.

Famous Sailing ships of Finland

The Jacobstads Wapen is a modern replica of an 18th century galeas built in Jakobstad, Finland between 1988-1994. She is built according to blueprints by the Swedish warship architect Fredrik Henrik af Chapman (1720-1808) dating from 1755, the oldest vessel blueprints found in Finland. She is classified by the Finnish national board of navigation as a passenger, special-purpose vessel. The 18th century galleon Jacobstads Wapen was sold off in Amsterdam. She has been used as a symbol for Jakobstad but as of late has had financial problems. She participated in the festivities at the 300 year anniversary of St. Petersburg, Russia in 2003. In 2005 it was discovered that some of the woodwork had deteriorated and is currently awaiting renovations. The galeas is a small type of trade ship, which was common in the Baltic Sea and North Sea from the 17th to the early 20th centuries. The characteristics of the ships depend somewhat from where the ship originated. Swedish (and Finnish) versions had two masts and were rigged as ketchs, sometimes as schooners. The galeas was developed from the Dutch galliot, which was rigged in a similar way, but was equipped with a rounded stern. The Swedish galliot was sometimes called "Dutch hoy" or "English dogger". The galeas has a galliot's rig, but a square stern.

Sigyn, built in Göteborg 1887, now museum ship in Turku, is the last remaining wooden barque used for trade across the oceans. At the time she was built there were thousands of similar vessels, but she was one of the last ones built. She was quite small even for her time, considering she was built for long-distance trade, but well built and considered fast and beautiful. The SigynSigyn is the only remaining vessel of that kind. represents a type of vessel that during the second half of the 19th century was the most common type of deep-water cargo-carrier, the three-masted wooden barque.

Famous Rune Singers of Finland

Before the advent of the written word, storytellers had to use creative methods to ensure that their stories were not forgotten. That is why they introduced alliteration, rhythm, hymns and repetitions. The verses would be sang or repeated in the kind of droning voices that monks use to remember long texts. This is how the Edda, the Iliad, Beowulf and Ramayana survived until the stories could be written down. This is also the story of Finland's national epic, the Kalevala. All over Finland "rune songs" with different stories were sung from 1000 B.C until the 1500's when the Lutheran Church following the Reformation, banned them as being pagan. Although the tradition soon disappeared from the western parts of Finland, there was a foothold of the songs and singers in Karelia and in Archangel's Karelia on the Russian side. A few of these songs were recorded in the 1600's, but it is thanks to Elias Lönnrot and his eleven trips to the region that we have the Kalevala with the rune songs from the last generation of singers. A Finnish family may not be intimately familiar with the Kalevala but it is constantly reminded of it through hundreds of names, - even a harvester and an icebreaker, all bearing names relating to Kalevala. The maxi cards displayed commemorate two of the greatest rune singers of Finland.

Pedri Semeikka (1821 or 1825 – 1915) was a famous rune singer in the border regions of Karelia. Besides his poems, he was famous for his impressive incantations.

Larin Paraske (December 27, 1833 – January 3, 1904) was an Izhorian oral poet. She was the foremost rune singer and legend teller of Finland. She is considered a key figure in Finnish folk poetry and has been called the "Finnish Mnemosyne”. Paraske is also one of the people on stamps of Finland.

These stamps on the maximum cards were issued on the occasion of The 150th Anniversary of the Kalevala. These important maxi cards in Finnish culture were given to me by my dear friend Merja.

The Pancyprian Gymnasium

The Pancyprian Gymnasium was founded in 1812 by Archbishop Kyprianos at a time when Cyprus was still under Ottoman occupation. It was originally called the Hellenic School (Ελληνική Σχολή) and is the oldest high school still in operation on the island. The school was expanded in 1893 to incorporate a lyceum when Cyprus was under British occupation and changed its name to its current one in 1896. In tribute to the school's contribution to education the Cyprus Post office issued a commemorative stamp in 1993.

It is located opposite the archbishopric within the walls of the old city of Nicosia. The original building was destroyed in a fire in 1920 and parts of the school were completely rebuilt in neoclassical style. Of particular historical interest is the crypt of the school located beneath the main entrance. This is where Archbishop Kyprianos was said to have held secret meetings with representatives of the Philiki Etairia in the early 19th century. The school also incorporates a substantial collection of artifacts, art and books. The Severios Library which opened in 1949 holds over 60,000 manuscripts.

The stamp depicts the portal to the institute. The owl on the postmark signifies perfection in learning. It also brings back nostalgic memomories of my days at the Defence Services Staff College at Wellington, which also had an owl as its logo. Thank you dear Merja for this nice maximum card.

Through benevolent donations the school has become very wealthy. On an educational level it is highly regarded and considered a model school. Many influential figures have studied and taught here.