Barbados

In honour of this blog's sixth birthday, a blast from the past! This card from the archives was sent to me by my Mum when my postcard collection was really in its infancy, just a handful of cards tacked up to my bedroom wall. My Mum, well-travelled lady that she is, has contributed considerably to my collection, and I can never thank her enough for taking time out of her holidays to track down stamps, cards and errant post offices to indulge my postcard folly. Merci bien, maman!

Card shows Harrismith Beach on the southeast coast of Barbados.

Stamp on the left commemorates the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Barbados Museum in 1933. Stamp on the right from the 1989 definitive set of 16 features Centrosema virginianum, or wild pea, a common vine throughout most of the Americas.

Turkey

Postcard showing Sultan Ahmed Mosque and the Sea of Marmara beyond. It was built between 1609 and 1619 by Sultan Ahmet I, who decided to build a large mosque in Istanbul to reassert Ottoman power following losses in Central Europe and Persia. It incorporates some Byzantine Christian elements of the neighboring Hagia Sophia with traditional Islamic architecture and is considered to be the last great mosque of the classical period. Part of the Historic Areas of Istanbul World Heritage site. Many thanks and teşekkürler to my Mum for sending this to me while on holiday.

Stamp on the left is the 1998 definitive of Kemal Atatürk, seen as the founder of modern Turkey (and a first-rate Dracula impersonator, by the looks of it). Stamp on the right is from a 2000 set of four about crocuses, and features the snow crocus, Crocus chrysanthus. It is native to Turkey and the Balkans and flowers very early in the spring, often pushing up through the snow.

Norway

Happy World Post Day! World Post Day is celebrated every year on 9 October, to commemorate the foundation of Universal Postal Union (UPU) in 1874 in the Swiss capital, Bern.

To celebrate, a postcard of Nærøyfjord, a branch of Sogne fjord, the largest fjord in Norway and the longest in the world. The fjord is quite narrow and picturesque – said to be the inspiration for Arendelle in Frozen. It is part of the West Norway Fjords World Heritage site. Tusen takk to my Mum for sending this card to me on her recent cruise of the Norwegian coast.

Permanent rate stamp from 2013 set of six featuring tourism activities. Pictured is whitewater rafting on the Sjoa River in Central Norway.

Peru

Postcard of a site that needs hardly and introduction, Machu Picchu. Built by the Inca around 1450 and abandoned around the time of the Spanish Conquest, it is now one of the New Seven Wonder of the World and a World Heritage site. Muchas gracias to my Mum for sending this to me while on holiday in South America.

The stamp, issued in 2009, commemorates the National Archaeology, Anthropology, and History Museum of Peru. Founded in 1826, it is the largest and oldest museum in Peru and covers the entire human history of the country.

Venezuela

Rather older postcard from my archives sent from a time when Venezuela actively promoted itself as a beach holiday destination. With the ongoing difficult political situation in the country, tourism has dropped off precipitously. There used to be direct flights from all over Canada to Margarita Island, pictured here, which have now long since stopped. Too bad, I'm told the country is a great travel destination.

Muchas gracias to my Mum for sending this to me on her holiday many moons ago.

Stamp from a 1996 set of two commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Venezuelan writer Mario Briceño-Iragorry. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948.

Slovenia

Postcard from the alpine resort of Bled, in northern Slovenia. In the centre of Lake Bled is a small island, home to the Assumption of Mary Pilgrimage Church. Human traces from prehistory have been found on the island and before the church was built there was a temple consecrated to Živa, the Slavic goddess of love and fertility.

Thank you and hvala to my Mum for sending this first Slovenia card in my collection when she was on holiday there.

Stamp is from a 2007 set of 17 on flowers of Slovenia. Pictured here is Cerastium dinaricum, a rare species of chickweed found only in one 50km² site in the Slovenian mountains.

Iceland

Postcard of Reykjavík's famous Hallgrímskirkja (Church of Hallgrímur). It is the largest church in Iceland and the sixth-tallest building in the country. The church was commissioned in 1937 and took 38 years to build, with construction beginning in 1945 and ending in 1986. Its design is meant to resemble the basalt lava flows of Iceland's landscape. Takk fyrir to my Mum who was on holiday in Iceland.

Stamp from a 2014 set of two featuring Icelandic landscapes. Pictured here is the Kvíárjökull glacier in eastern Iceland.

Canada – Newfoundland and Labrador II

Postcard of Gros Morne National Park, a world heritage site located on the west coast of Newfoundland. The park was established as a reserve in 1973 and made a national park in 2005. As an outlying range of the Appalachian Mountains, the park provides a rare example of the process of continental drift, where deep ocean crust and the rocks of the earth's mantle lie exposed. It is also notable for its glacier-carved fjords, one of which is pictured here.

Definitive, self-adhesive stamp of blue-flag irises from a 2004 series on flowers.

Canada – Yukon II

Postcard shows a man panning for Klondike gold. The Klondike Gold Rush of 1896–1898 was the last and most renowned of the world’s great nineteenth century gold rushes when upwards of 100,000 prospectors rushed to this inaccessible and very remote part of Canada. The rush was centred on Dawson City, which grew from a Native moose-hunting camp to a city of 40,000 people in the space of a few years. Plots of land cost millions of today's dollars, and one visitor likened the newly paved streets with their smartly dressed inhabitants to the Strand in London! Part of The Klondike site on Canada's Tentative World Heritage list.

Previously featured baby black bear stamp with a Dawson City postmark, though not the same one as on this card.

Canada – Northwest Territories II

Another card from my Mum's travels in the Canadian Arctic, this time from the small community of Tuktoyaktuk on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. Tuktoyaktuk is certainly one of the more iconic place names in Canada, and I learned  it was the first community in northern Canada to revert to its traditional Native name, having been known as "Fort Brabant" prior to 1950. 

Mum dipped her toe in the Arctic Ocean and reports that it wasn't really as cold as one would expect, probably because of record-breaking summer temperatures. My many thanks to her for sending me this card from the most northerly place in my collection, 69° 27′.

Previously featured baby black bear stamp featuring a Tuktoyaktuk postmark!

Canada – Yukon

Love this postcard; it goes straight to the top as one of my favs! Another card from my Mum on her trip in the Canadian Far North. Seen here are caribou, Rangifer tarandus, on the move during their autumn migration. The herd that typically crosses the Dempster Highway is one of the world's largest, numbering more than 100,000 animals. 

The Dempster Highway connects the Klondike gold rush town of Dawson with Inuvik, north of the Arctic Circle – the furthest place north one can drive in Canada. The highway was built in fits and starts from 1959 to 1979. It was recently announced that the road would be extended, as intended, a further 194 km to reach the community of Tuktoyaktuk on the shores of the Arctic Ocean.

Previously featured stamp of baby black bear, with a rather remarkable postmark quite unlike any other I've seen from Canada, which usually have black ink and are round (that is, when Canada Post uses a postmark at all, and not its typical, unlovely dot matrix laser scan).

Canada – Northwest Territories

Postcard sent by my Mum during her holiday in the Canadian Far North. Inuvik is a planned community that was designed to replace the regional centre of Aklavik, which was prone to flooding and lacked room to grow. Inuvik "opened for business" in 1960 and is now the most northerly place in Canada to which you can drive. Postcard is of the prairie crocus, Pulsatilla patens, said to be the first sign that summer has arrived when it blooms. Many thanks to Mum for this first postcard from the Northwest Territories in my collection!

Stamp from a set on baby animals, featured here the black bear, Ursus americanus. Also featured, a lovely, rare-for-Canada,  non-laser postmark. Always happy to get one of those! :-)

Canada – Ontario II

Postcard showing the a section of the Rideau Canal in downtown Ottawa, with Canadian Parliament Hill and Château Laurier in the background. The canal was opened in 1832 as a precaution against war with the United States leading to closure of the Saint Laurence River. Most of its original structures remain intact and it is the oldest continuously operated canal system in North America. In 2007, it was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. When it freezes over in winter, the canal becomes the world's longest skating rink and, since it goes right past many important government buildings, is used by many as a way to commute to work. 

International rate stamp issued this year commemorating the Year of the Dragon.

Spain II

Another postcard from the archives, this one rather special because it was sent by my mother when she was a hippy backbacking around Europe on $5 a day in 1968. The card was sent to my great-grandmother and great-aunt. It shows the Court of the Myrtles in the Alhambra Palace in Granada in southern Spain. The courtyard is in one of the oldest parts of the Palace and was used to receive ambassadors and distinguished guests at the Moorish Court. It is so named for the myrtle shrubs lining the pond. Part of the Alhambra, Generalife and Albayzín, Granada World Heritage site.

 

Left stamp features former dictator, Francisco Franco. Stamp on the right commemorates the 2,000th anniversary of the foundation of the city of Cáceres in Extremadura in western Spain.

Montenegro

Aerial view of the coastal town of Budva, the centre of Montenegro's tourism industry, and is well known for its sandy beaches, nightlife, and examples of Mediterranean architecture. Budva is 3,500 years old, making it one of the oldest settlements on the Adriatic sea coast, and was part of the Venetian Republic until 1797, fortified by powerful Venetian walls against Ottoman conquests.

Thanks to Ivana for swapping cards.

A rudimentary and rather bland postage label. Not generally my favourite thing to see on a beautiful postcard, though I understand that post offices or postal authorities sometimes don't even go to the "bother" of having real stamps any more. Pity. 

Botswana

The white rhinoceros consists of two subspecies, the southern white rhino, which is relatively common, and the northern white rhino, which is critically endangered and is thought to be extinct in the wild due to poaching, habitat loss and ongoing conflict in its central African habitat. I actually have some stamps of the northern white rhino on a postcard from Côte d'Ivoire from a while back.

My mum reported  that she did indeed see white rhinos on her safari, but missed out on snagging the "Big Five" during her safari due to overly-elusive leopards. Thanks again for the card!

Stamp commemorating Botswana's 2011 census. As you can see, Botswana's population has nearly tripled since the first census in 1964, and it has one of the youngest populations in Africa, with a median age of just 21!

South Africa II

The large milkwood tree in Mossel Bay has been used as a kind of post office since 1501. Portuguese sailors returning from a trade mission to India left messages in this tree for the next fleet of Portuguese ships scheduled to pass by en route to India. It has become a tradition for visitors to Mossel Bay to send cards from the Post Office Tree, which is now a national heritage site.

Mail sent from the old post office tree features a special cancellation stamp.

Zambia

Victoria Falls are among the most spectacular waterfalls in the world. The Zambezi River, which is more than 2km wide at this point, plunges noisily down a series of basalt gorges and raises an iridescent mist that can be seen more than 20km away. The indigenous name, Mosi-oa-Tunya, means "the Smoke that Thunders". 

It is a transnational World Heritage site together with Zimbabwe.

A common bird across sub-Saharan Africa, I was surprised to learn that the sacred ibis is extirpated in Egypt where it was venerated and often mummified by Ancient Egyptians as a symbol of the god Thoth.

South Africa

Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa form the official seat of the South African government and also house the offices of the President of South Africa. See here framed by flowering jacaranda trees in early Summer. The first postcard from my Mum's holiday to southern Africa. 

Ouranosaurus, meaning “brave lizard” lived during the early Cretaceous period about 110 million years ago in Africa. At first I thought there was a offset printing mistake with the stamp, as the colours don't line up, but it turns out this dinosaur set was issued in 3D, requiring special glasses to align the colours and bring out the depth of the image.

Swaziland

Young Swazi during initiation into regiment. The last postcard from my Mum's safari tour of southern Africa.

Fever trees were immortalized by Rudyard Kipling in one of his Just So Stories, "The Elephant's Child", wherein he repeatedly refers to "the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees."