A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 30 October 2018 - T for books, canyons and breakfast

Hello everyone! How are you all? Are you ready for the T-Party? Elizabeth and Bluebeard at Altered Book Lover are waiting to read any blog post with a beverage in it. 

I will jump right in with this fascinating stamp. It is from Ireland as you can see and it has the image of a very old looking bowl. I looked it up and this is what I found (Wikipedia):

The Keshcarrigan Bowl is an Iron age bronze bowl discovered to the north of Keshcarrigan, county Leitrim, Ireland, in the 19th century. It was perhaps a ceremonial drinking cup.The bowl would have been a prestigious item in the 1st century Ireland, the bird-shaped handle outstandingly designed and skillfully executed. The Keshcarrigan Bowl is preserved and displayed at the archaeology branch of the National museum of Ireland.

The stamp was on this card:

It was sent to me by Tina, who is from Finland, but was on holiday in Galway, Ireland. The book on the card is Spanish. That is all I can decipher as there is an 'airmail' sticker on the description. I tried unsuccessfully to pull it off. As the postcard has 'Uppsala universitets bibliotek' written on it (Uppsala  (Sweden) university library), I assume the book is part of their collection.

The next card was sent to me by a lovely lady in Holland. She had read that I like old travel posters and has sent me this one from Bryce Canyon National Park.  Elizabeth will love the colours, as she likes rust. I remember visiting Bryce Canyon in 2001. An exhilerating experience. Beautiful.

This is the info on the back of the card:

"Works Progress Administration (WPA),                             Artists: Doug Leen - Brian Maebius

Between 1935 and 1943, the WPA's Federal Art Project printed over two million posters in 35,000 different designs to stir the public's imagination for education, theater, health, safelty, and travel. Due to their fragile nature only two thousand posters have survived. This contemporary design illustrates many of the WPA era posters, including those of our National Parks."

The stamps are from the Netherlands. The stamp on the right was issued on the 24th of Septenber 2012 to celebrate the re-opening of the Stedelijk Museum (City Museum) in Amsterdam. This particular one features the zigzag chair (version 1) designed by Gerrit Rietveld in 1932.  The stamp on the left people have paid a little bit more for to support the children's charities in the Netherlands.

I also would like to share a few more photos of our trip to the UK last month. We travelled from the very south of Spain to the very north to catch a direct ferry to Portsmouth in the UK. Here we are in the port of Bilbao, waiting to drive onto the ferry.

The journey took a day and a half. We would arrive at 8:30 pm. Our first destination was 4 hours drive away, so we had decided to spend the night in a hotel. This is the one I booked. And very nice it was too.

It was called Lodge at Solent. The Solent being the strait that seperates the Isle of White with mainland England. Our room was the first one on the ground floor (behind the red car).

We slept well and in the morning enjoyed an excellent breakfast:

In the foyer of the hotel we found this fun arty structure. Of course I had to sit on it straight away and pretend the sun was shining!

That was it from me today. As you have seen, there are lots of drinks references. 

Wishing you all a very happy T-Day,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 26 Oct 2018 - Friday Smiles

Hello Friday gals! 

Here I am again with some postcards, something about our life in Spain and of course some funnies. Please join me at Annie's A Stitch In Time with your smiles, or tell us about your week at Virginia's Rocking Your World Friday.

First off some cards. This one comes from Germany. It was sent by 35 year old Andreas, who likes soccer and model trains (apart from postcards of course):

Here is some info about the town copied from Wikipedia: 

Quedlinburg  is a town situated just north of the Harz mountains, (in the former DDR) Germany. It became part of the state of Saxony-Anhalt upon German reunification in 1990.

It was first mentioned as a town in 922 as part of a donation by King Henry the Fowler (Heinrich der Vogler). 

According to legend, Henry had been offered the German crown at Quedlinburg in 919 by Franconian nobles, giving rise to the town being called the "cradle of the German Reich".

After Henry's death in 936, his widow Saint Matilda founded a religious community for women (Frauenstift) on the castle hill, where daughters of the higher nobility were educated. The main task of this collegiate foundation, Quedlinburg Abbey, was to pray for the memory of King Henry and the rulers who came after him. 

During the Nazi regime, the memory of Henry I became a sort of cult, as Heinrich Himmler saw himself as the reincarnation of the "most German of all German" rulers. The collegiate church and castle were to be turned into a shrine for Nazi Germany. The Nazi Party tried to create a new religion. The cathedral was closed from 1938 and during the war.  Liberation in 1945 brought back the Protestant bishop and the church bells, and the Nazi-style eagle was taken down from the tower.

 In 1994, the castle, church and old town were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

This was the stamp on the card, a nice view of the Mosel river.

The second card is from the USA. It shows majestic redwood trees. I find it a bit of a mystery as it has these beautiful flowers on it, but I can't find any info on flowering redwoods, if they indeed flower. Has anyone got any idea? 

Sunday I was away with our local photoclub for a day in Granada. The Granada photoclub was celebrating its 25th anniversary and they had organised several exhibitions and other events to do with photography. 

The weather was lovely and walking from one venue to the next gave lots of photo opportunities. Here is one of my favorite subjects: beautiful doors.

Here is another door. This is in the Moorish style:

That is it from me this morning. I wish you all a really nice weekend and I leave you with the last of the American funnies. (I hope I haven't showed you these before, I've lost count)

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 23 October 2018 - T for turtles, milk and a bit of wisdom....

Hello lovely people,

It's time for the T-Party! More of that in a minute.

First off is some postcards: this one was sent to me from the USA. It is a turtle, my favorite animal. (together with the tortoises). I don't know what fascinates me about them. Perhaps it is the fact that the get to become so old or perhaps it is the fact they look so pre-historic. I like all the different patterns on their shells and I like the fact they carry their house with them and can retreat inside. Sometimes I'd like to do that too.

 These stamps are from this card or the next one. I can't remember now. They feature bioluminescent life. Very intereting...

 The next card comes from North Carolina. (obviously). As you know I love map cards. This one has the additional information of the flag, the seal, the state flower (Dogwood), the state bird (Cardinal) and the state animal (Grey Squirrel). 

Because it is T for Tuesday, hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard at Altered Book Lover, I decided to find out if there was such a thing as a state drink. And sure enough there is:

North Carolina's state beverage is....Milk! Although many may expect North Carolina's official state drink to be sweet tea, the North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation in 1987 that made milk the official state beverage.

As I use my own name on this blog, not many of you will now that my online name is Olddutch.  The name is apt as I am Dutch and not so young any more. It really comes from a restaurant that I could see out of our window when I was small. The restaurant was called Olddutch.

We used to live on the top floor of the block of flats on the right and I would look upon the restaurant. After the war there was no housing (Rotterdam was bombed almost completely) and people were told to take in lodgers. The flats on the right are really duplos. The downstairs people had the ground floor and the floor above that as bedrooms and bathroom. Above that was a similar set-up, so the top floor (which had a balcony) was the bedroom floor of the flat below. My mum had an improvised kitchen in the bathroom. Planks were put over the bath and that did as a kitchen. Luckily the toilet was separate. We all (mum, dad and me and my sister) lived in those few rooms. Every time my mum wanted to go out, she had to carry us plus a pram down three steep flights of stairs. How is that for logistics when the children are so small you can't leave one downstairs to go get the other one! No wonder my mum had a breakdown when my sister was a baby, and she had just suffered two mis carriages...

The restaurant still exists. This is what it looks like today:

 Sunday I went to our provincial capital city, Granada. I went with the photo club of our village to celebrate a 25th anniversary of the photoclub in Granada. The poster in the middle features a photo taken by the guy who stands behind it. His name is Antonio and he is a police man in our village. We are very proud that of all the clubs in the province, a photo from our club was chosen for the poster, which is all over Granada and the province.

Because of this anniversary, Granada is doing lots of events and exhibitions to do with photography. There are 6 totally different exhibitions that we visited on Sunday. Then of course there was a wonderful lunch with all the gang (all the representatives of all the clubs in the province). Our village is well represented as you can see in the above picture. A good time was had by all.

I will leave you with some wise words that I came across and that rang true with me.

Happy T-Day all!
Hugs,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 19 October 2018 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely ladies!, Are you sitting comfortably? What's more: are you smiling? I hope you are because I am going to link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time with her blog Friday Smiles.

My mailbox was happy this week (and I too of course) as it received several postcards. I will show you two today.

The first one comes from Belgium and features a 19th century painting by C.C.Stanfield. It is the Belgian town of Dinant. Dinant is in the French speaking part of Belgium (Wallonia) in the south of the country. We have driven through Dinant several times (which is a nightmare). But the town itself is well worth a visit if you ever are in the area. 

The bridge on the painting is no more. Neither is that building on the right, but the church in the middle is still there.

In place of the old bridge is the main Charles de Gaulle Bridge. You might remember he was president of France. I seem to remember the bridge was named after him because he was the first soldier to be wounded on the bridge in the battle of Dinant (WWI). De Gaulle was a lieutenant then.

  Fun fact – Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone, is from Dinant. That’s why the entire main bridge is lined with saxophones in this post’s first photo! Each saxophone is meant to represent an EU country. The giant, life-sized saxophones aren’t just on the bridge – they’re also located all around the city. A really awesome tribute to Adolphe Sax!

And here is the stamp:

 My next card comes from Germany (Yes, I know it says Greece on the card). It was sent by Mascha. She had read that I love doors and windows and she had found this card when she was on holiday in Greece.

And the stamp is a floral one. You might recognise the flower as being St John's Wort.

I'm sorry the scan seems to be out of focus.

Upwards and onwards. While on the theme of the door, I'd like to share a few photos of a door in Alfaro (see Tuesday's blog). This first one was inside the church of Michael the Archangel.

 Look at this amazing ironwork. Strangely they have also added a piddly little bolt with a small padlock. (For such a huge door? I ask you!)

 This door was a private house in a normal street. The house was new(ish) and I am sure the door is modern, made in the old style. Nice quality piece. There are some very clever carpenters around.

That is it from me today. As usual I shall leave you with some funnies I have picked up from the internet. They made me smile. The last one should have the notice added:"No animals were harmed in the making of this photo"

Have a great weekend,

Keep smiling,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 16 October 2018 - T for storks, cathedral and postcards

Hello lovely girls, oh my, it's Tuesday again! Time for the T-Party. Elizabeth and Bluebeard invite anyone to the T-Party with a blogpost that has a beverage in it. 

Let me confess: I have forgotten my beverage. I'm not sure Elizabeth will let me in. But she is a nice person, so I'm sure if I smile sweetly she will let me stay...

Let me start with my postcards. I haven't received any this week, but I have sent two the other day.

This first one is winging its way to China, to a young lady called Sun. Sun likes all things fantasy, so I have sent her a fantasy image. No, don't ask me. I don't know who or what the image represents, but she is wearing a dodo on her head so it must be very fantasmagorical!

The second one is going to the USA. This lady has made it known that she is a lover of art, so I am sending her a painting by a Spanish artist Salvador Dali. His work is very unique and sometimes disturbing, but always downright weird! I love it though. Always have. I remember queueing up for a Dali exhibition in my home town when I was 12 years old. My parents deemed me too young to go but after much 'convincing' I was allowed to go and my dad came with me. 

I forgot what this one is called.

I'd like to share some photos from our recent trip. Also art but of a different kind. Traveling through Spain, we stopped in a town called Alfaro. Alfaro is a town and municipality in La Rioja, (Wow! Here is my beverage reference! Elizabeth, does this count?) northern Spain. Its population in January 2009 was 9,883 inhabitants, and its area is 194.23 km². It is known for the annual return and nesting of the 'Storks of Alfaro.' According to the tourist blurb there are 600 odd storks nesting on the buildings in Alfaro. Most storks nest on the church of Michael the archangel. Here you can see some of the nests:

Unfortunately all the nests were empty. The storks had already migrated to warmer climes. They are fascinating birds. Did you know they mate for life?

We went inside the church and I must say it was most impressive.

Outside the church, the square was busy with children playing and mums chatting away. It was 7 pm in the evening. A lovely atmosphere.

Here are a few more of the interior:

I will leave you with an interesting 'factoid' about the smell of books.

That was my post for today. I hope Elizabeth will forgive me for having a squeued (I have no idea how to spell this) beverage reference.

Have a good week all of you. Toodeloo, see you soon,

Hugs,

Lisca