Sunday Stamps: tall ships

This Sunday Stamps' theme is 'tall ships'.

For mail lovers of course this tall ship is a favourite one, as this ship was meant and used for mail transport:



The word 'tall ship' (in Dutch also in English) I heard for the very first time just two years ago, when the event Sail Amsterdam took place. I didn't have time to visit the event, but friends who did, told me they were impressed by the amazing tall ships, and they showed me beautiful photos. So hopefully I can take a look next time, in 2020 that will be.

This stamp sheet, Dutch PostNL issued in honour of the Maritime Museum in Rotterdam, shows one - tiny! - tall ship, see bottom right:



A similar old tall ship has been pictured on this recent stamp, part of a six stamps sheet connecting the Netherlands and Australia:



A tall ship (in Dutch also 'zeilreus', 'sail giant') is a large, traditionally-rigged sailing ship. I though it always has more than one mast. So I am not sure if the following, modern, vessel will belong to this Sunday's theme. At least she sails over the oceans, and is underways for a very long time, an amazing journey. On this stamp sheet, issued by PostNL in 2015, you can see the vessels and sailors in action:



See more stamps on this interesting theme at and via Sunday Stamps.

Postcards for the weekend: Love

The following postcard I happened to have received recently. It matches so well to this weekend's Postcards for the Weekend theme!

Rio and I exchange a postcard every now and then. She happened to have a serie of postcards of her hometown Venezia, and randomly chose this one to send to me. Voilá, this is clearly the theme, Love.



Two people, many hearts, and sharing a pizza.

On the back side Rio added pretty stamps. I imagine that the couple of the front side of this postcard, after finishing the pizza, will visit the museum on the left, and subsequently will enjoy a great evening at the theater on the right.



Thank you very much, Rio, grazie mille!

See more postcards on this theme at and via Maria's blog of this weekend.

Postcards for the weekend: Trains / trams

This weekend's Postcards for the weekend's theme is dear to me, too: trains and trams. In the past I've sent and received several postcards (and stamps) on this subject, see trams, and trains (and of course the corresponding subject: railway stations).

This postcard I got at the Railway Museum in Utrecht (which happens to celebrate its 90th anniversary tomorrow).
Some years ago we visited this nice museum and that day there was an additional theme: safety on and besides the railways:



I must say that I prefer the present (electric) trains to the older (steam) ones. The main reason is the fact that these modern electric trains remind me of my trips to and with my late grandparents in the seventies.



An other reason is of course that the old, steam engined, trains produced a lot of smoke.
Nevertheless I was very happy to receive these postcards:

From John, from the United Kingdom:



On the back he added this matching stamp:



From Nomi, from Sri Lanka:



From Ravindra, also from Sri Lanka:



Be sure to check Ravindra's train blog, he collects postcards of trains and trams and has received many, from all-over the world!



And here a modern Japanese high speed train, I received from Hana, who designed this maxi/postcard by herself:





Finally a few trams:

From Natalie, a double deck tram sent from Hong Kong:



From John, also a double deck tram:



And this horse power driven tram:



The following postcard is Dutch and has been sent by me to Ravindra. It shows three historical trams. These - and other historical trams - still ride in summer between Amsterdam and Amstelveen, thanks to the people from the Tramway Museum:



See more trams and trains on Maria's Postcards for the Weekend blog and follow the links mentioned there.

Sunday Stamps: Science

This Sunday Stamps theme is 'Science'. I hardly dare to say it, because I've mentioned so many favourites already, but 'science' is a theme dear to me, too.

This stamp has been issued by Italian post last year for the San Marino-Italia Techno Science Park:



This is an older stamp from Germany, which shows a portrait of Philippus von Hohenheim, better known as Paracelsus. I am not sure why he isn't looking happy on this stamp, as he has achieved several things, among these he has been credited as the founder of toxicology and for giving zinc its name: 'zincum'.



Finally a stamp sheet issued by Dutch PostNL a year ago (20th July 2015) in honour of the Nemo Science Museum in Amsterdam.
Alas I don't have the complete sheet anymore, however I found this image on the internet to show you:



Both the museum and the stamp sheet have a big similarity: they make 'science' attractive for a large public, by having people learn in a playful and interactive way.

See more stamps to the theme 'Science' at today's Sunday Stamps and follow the links mentioned there.

In: from Morocco

This building is the former railway station of Tétouan, Morocco.
Nowadays there aren't any trains anymore in Tétouan. In 2012 the building has been restored and since then it is the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Sent (and written, thanks to Eva I know about the above mentioned :-) ) by Eva from Tétouan.



Update:
Also from Morocco, a few weeks later I received this postcard, showing the railway station of the city of Nador, in the north of Morocco.
The railway station is rather young: it was opened only seven years ago, in July 2009.



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

Sunday stamps: Chairs

This Sunday's theme of Viridian's Sunday Stamps is 'Anything you wish'.
There are so many themes so I always think it hard to choose one. Fortunately, thanks to Micu from Mail a Smile, I received some interesting stamps from Hungary.
They attracted my attention because of the fact that I hardly see this theme on stamps. Is that weird? Yes, it is, because many of us are spending a lot of time on this object (especially while writing letters and postcards): the chair!



Among Dutch stamps I found the chair you see below, called 'zigzagstoel', 'zigzag chair'. It has been designed in 1932 by Gerrit Rietveld. Rietveld has designed more chairs which were very unusual in his time. Eight years before this 'zigzag chair' he designed the Rietveld-Schröder house, which now is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
This stamp is part of a ten stamps sheet, issued in 2012 because of the re-opening, after a long-term renovation, of the Stedelijk Museum ('Municipal Museum') of Modern Art in Amsterdam.



An other chair, in which we fortunately don't sit too often and which we like to avoid as much as possible, is the dentist's chair. Every time I visit the dentist I must think of how Mr. Bean treated the dentist's chair, which alleviates such visits a bit. So does this stamp (I love comics on stamps).
This stamp has been issued in 1984 as part of a 'children's welfare stamps' sheet. The design is by Dutch illustrator Joost Swarte.



And there are some more chairs to been seen on the terrace, in this famous painting by Vincent van Gogh:

Sunday stamps: Automobiles

This Sunday Stamps theme is 'Automobiles and motor transport'.
The stamp above is the last one from a stamp sheet on sustainability. This happened to be a car stamp; 'auto delen' means 'car sharing' or 'car pooling'.
The stamp sheet was issued in 2009, when national mail postage still was € 0.44 (for international mail within Europe € 0.77 and outside Europe € 0.95).

Only five years later we have to pay € 0.64 for national mail and € 1.05 for all international mail. However, one cannot see that anymore, because the postage stamps are marked with '1' now, as you see on the stamp sheet below.

This stamp sheet has been issued in January 2014, themed an automobile museum, the Louwman Museum in Den Haag (The Hague) in the Netherlands.
I already have used the upper two for my mail to Ravindra in Sri Lanka, who collects car stamps and postcards. On Ravindra's blog you can see many car stamps from all-over the world!

Below you see the eight remaining stamps; the complete stamp sheet fortunately is visible on the Postzegelblog. The text is in Dutch, but interesting: the author and some people who react are criticizing the commercial purposes of the Dutch post executives, who seem to be interested more in making money than in issuing good stamp designs, as these pictures have been taken straight from the museum's catalogue.
But for car fans they will be o.k., I suppose. And also I like the simple and clear stamp design.



By the way, the Spyker (previously: Spijker) has been honoured with postage stamps before, in 2004. See this link, and this one.

In: from Sri Lanka, out: to Sri Lanka

Ontvangen uit Sri Lanka, deze mooie kaart met theeplukkende dames in een prachtig landschap. En zie de kleurrijke postzegels op de achterkant.
Ik ontving deze van Ravindra uit Sri Lanka, als bedankkaart voor deze tram (een van de historische trams van de museumtramlijn).

Received from Sri Lanka, this beautiful postcard showing tea-plucking ladies in an amazing landscape. And see the colourful stamps on the backside.
Sent by Ravindra as a reply to this tram, which you also can see here.



Ook ik heb iets met treinen en trams. Op mijn beurt vond ik dan ook deze kaart in het Haarlemmermeerstation (beginpunt van genoemde museumtramlijn), met meer historische trams: een Leidse (naar Oegstgeest), een tram uit Rotterdam en een uit Amsterdam.

Also I like trains and trams a lot, and to send in return I found this other card of historical trams, in the Haarlemeermeerstation, the starting point of the Museum Tram Line. From left to right: a tram to Oegstgeest (from Leiden, the Netherlands), a tram from Rotterdam and a tram to Amsterdam central station.
More 'museumtram' pictures I discovered here.

In: from the USA

'n Grappig effect: hij lijkt scheef, maar is toch echt recht ingescand!
Ontvangen van PostMuse, deze kaart uit het National Postal Museum in Washington DC.
Deze kaart is ontworpen door Melissa Esposito, die ook co-host was van een BriefSchrijf- en PostKunst-bijeenkomst in dit Smithsonian museum. Zie de foto's... Om van te smullen! Welke postliefhebber had dáár niet graag bij willen zijn?!..

Funny: this card looks crooked / leaning, but really has been scanned straight/right!
Received from PostMuse, this postcard from the National Postal Museum in Washington DC.
This postcard was designed by Melissa Esposito, who also was co-hosting a LetterWriting and MailArtMaking event in this Smithsonian museum. See these pictures - it must be great to join such a wonderful postal event!

Thank you very much, PostMuse!