My Favorite Postcards

International Postcard Week
October 6 - 12, 2019
Exposure - Landart Antony Gormley
Lelystad, The Netherlands

Hello,
In our province (Flevoland) at this moment there are 8 land arts.  I have visited 7 of them and this is my favorite one.  Locally it is called the pooping man.  There are wonderful sunsets by this sculpture.  There is a new one coming this month.

Greetings,
Brenda - From the Netherlands

The Loreley
by Heinrich Heine

I wonder why I am so weary,
What's making me so depressed,
It must be the tale old and dreary,
That's keeping my mind quite obsessed.

The air is cool, night is sinking,
And quietly's flowing the Rhine,
The tops of the mountains are blinking,
In purple-red sun-setting shine.

There's siting high up in the light
A maiden so beautiful, fair
Her jewels are glistening bright
She combs her gold shimmering hair.

Her comb is of most precious gold,
She's combing and singing so sweet
Bewitching young fishers and old
Their hearts start to quiver and beat.

There's a man in his boat on the river,
He cannot but listen and stare,
A longing is making him shiver,
Look out, the rocks' ledge, oh beware!

I fear there's a crash, the boat sinking,
The man will be swallowed and gone,
And that with melodious singing
The Loreley will have done.

The Rhine - The Loreley near St. Goarshausen

Der Mittelrhein erstreckt sich zwischen Bingen/Rüdesheim und Bonn.  Seit 2002 ist das obere Mitteiheintal von Bingen/Rüdesheim bis Koblenz UNESCO-Welterbe.

Translation:
The Middle Rhine extends between Bingen / Rüdesheim and Bonn.  Since 2002, the upper Mitteiheintal from Bingen / Rüdesheim to Koblenz is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This postcard was postmarked from Germany in 2017 with the signatures of 10 members of Postcrossing from a meet-up.

NPCW 2016
National Postcard Week

Elvis is often referred to as "the King of Rock and Roll." Since his officially documented death, August 16, 1977, Elvis has been spotted in many places.  I took these photos of a HUGE Elvis in Crystal River, Florida in the late 1980's.

Photos and Postcard Created By: Penny Andrea-Einmo

This card is unused. 

Philadelphia

Rocky
The character who represents the courageous spirit of th great City of Philadelphia and the Brotherhood of its People.

The Rocky Statue, sculpted by A. Thomas Schomberg, is titles "Thunder in the Heart" and found at the Spectrum in the heart of Philly's Sports Complexes.

This postcard is postmarked in 2015.

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Before the movie Rocky III, released on May 28, 1982, Stallone commissioned A. Thomas Schomberg to create a bronze statue of Rocky.  It was installed atop the steps for the filming of Rocky III and was ultimately relocated at the bottom of the steps.

Blackbeard's Castle
St. Thomas
U.S. Virgin Islands

Blackbeard's Castle, St. Thomas Skytsborg Tower (meaning sky tower), was built in 1679 by the Danes as a watchtower for the harbor of Charlotte Amalie.  It is located at the highest point on Skytsborg Tower Government Hill.  Danish Soldiers used Skytsborg as a vantage point to spot enemy ships and protect impressive Fort Christian from attacks.

Fort Christian is at sea level, which was ideal for warding off attackers with canon fire, but did not offer a good enough view of the incoming ships before they entered the harbor.  It is not known what year Skytsborg Tower took on the name of Blackbeard's Castle, but the infamous Edward Teach, commonly known as Blackbeard the Pirate, did sail the Caribbean waters in the early 1700s.

It has become part of the lore of the island that he used the Tower as a vantage point for his own treacherous purposes.  Blackbeard's Castle is one of four National Historic sites in the US Virgin Islands.

This postcard was postmarked in 2012.

Monument of the Discoveries in Belem, outside Lisbon, commemorates the 500th anniversary of Prince Henry the Navigator pioneer of maritime discovery.

This is a medical advertising postmarked mailed in 1961 to a doctor in West Virginia, USA.

On the back of the card these words are printed:

Dear Doctor:
Here in Portugal, our special stamp commemorates the life, 5 centuries ago, of Prince Henry the Navigator.  Today PENTOTHAL too has charted new worlds of progress.  You'll like its dependable, easily controlled intravenous anesthesia.  Use it soon.
Abbott

Septimus Severus
Leptismagna - Libya

This postcard is postmarked in 2009 from Libya.

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Septimius Severus (11 April 145 – 4 February 211), was the Roman emperor from 193 to 211.  As a young man he advanced through the cursus honorum—the customary succession of offices—under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Severus seized power after the death of Emperor Pertinax in 193 during the Year of the Five Emperors.

 In 208 he invaded Caledonia (modern Scotland), but his ambitions were cut short when he fell fatally ill in late 210.  Severus died in early 211 at Eboracum (today York, England), and was succeeded by his sons Caracalla and Geta.

Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway y El Floridita
Cuba

This is a 'fold open and close' postcard.  It is mailed from Cuba with two stamps in 2016.  The picture below shows you what the card looks like when it is open.

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El Floridita is a historic fish restaurant and cocktail bar in the older part of Havana (La Habana Vieja), Cuba.  It is famous for its daiquiris and for having been one of the favourite hangouts of Ernest Hemingway while he was in Havana.

Baltimore
Welcome to Oriole Park
Camden Yards

A monument to Babe Ruth, baseball's famous "Sulton of Swat."

This is a 'The Postcard Factory' postcard and it is postmarked in 2016.

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Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Home to the Baltimore Orioles, is a Major League Baseball ballpark located in Baltimore, Maryland. It was completed in 1992 to replace Memorial Stadium.

Afghanistan
Bamiyan

This postcard is postmarked in 2015 with a 'Free Military Post Office' ink-stamp on the back.

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Bamyan, also spelled Bamiyan and Bamian, is the capital of Bamyan Province in central Afghanistan.

Bamyan was the site of an early Hindu–Buddhist monastery from which Bamyan takes its name. Many statues of Buddha are carved into the sides of cliffs facing Bamyan city.

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This statue  was dynamited and destroyed in March 2001 by the Taliban as an idol. 

The World's Largest Walleye at the Entrance to Lake Kabetogama, Ray, Minnesota 

Photo-Chrome by W.A. Fisher Co., Virginia, Minnesota

This is an unused real photo postcard of a woman riding a walleye fish statue like a horse.  She even has her cowboy hat up in the air!

I have seen other images of people riding this statue, but none with floral reins. 

 Antwerpen

Brote Markt en Brabo
grand’PLace et Brabo
Marktplatz und Brabo
Market Place and Brabo

This postcard is postmarked in 2014 from Belgium.

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Silvius Brabo is a mythical Roman soldier who is said to have killed a giant, and by this would have created the name Brabant.

This story was used to explain the name Antwerp (meaning hand throwing). Brabo once killed a giant, called Druon Antigoon, who asked money from people who wanted to pass the bridge over the river Scheldt. When they didn't want to or couldn't pay, he cut off their hand and threw it in the river. Because of this Brabo also removed the hand of the giant, and threw it into the river.

As seen in this postcard, the legend is shown on the statue in front of the Antwerp City Hall.

Go ahead
Make My Day!

This postcard is unused, but has 1987 written on the back.

Monument to the Titanic engineer Officers, Southampton.

This real photo postcard is unused.

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The Titanic Engineers' Memorial is a memorial in East (Andrews) Park, Southampton, United Kingdom, to those who died in the RMS Titanic disaster on 15 April 1912. The bronze and granite memorial was originally unveiled on 22 April 1914.

It features a bronze statue of Nike, the Greek Winged Goddess of Victory and carvings which represent the engineer officers of the ship, who died in the disaster.

The inscription down the center of the monument:

GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN
THIS. THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS
LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS
ST. JOHN 15TH CH. 13TH V


TO THE MEMORY OF THE ENGINEER OFFICERS
OF THE R.M.S "TITANIC" WHO SHOWED
THEIR HIGH CONCEPTION OF DUTY AND THEIR
HEROISM BY REMAINING AT THEIR POSTS
15TH APRIL 1912.


ERECTED BY THEIR FELLOW ENGINEERS AND FRIENDS
THROUGHOUT THE WORLD

To the right is a list of the 35 engineer officers who died.

Bolivia
Sud America (South America)

Madre India
Santa Cruz
Foto: Federico Arispe R.

This statue / monument is to represent the courage and beauty of indigenous Bolivia.
It is unused and from 2013.