A Postcard A Day - Friday 27 June 2025 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely peeps,

How are you all? Have you had something to make you smile this week? I have a postcard to show you that made me smile. It arrived yesterday:

It's entitled Briefkasten Schlange which means literally mailbox snake. I would say mailbox queue. It's a photo from 1926, nearly 100 years ago!

It was sent to me by Isabelle from Switzerland. She wrote that she was going to a gymnastics fest in Lausanne where gymnastic clubs from all over Switzerland come together to celebrate and compete agains each other. It is a once-every-six-years event.

I looked it up on the Internet:

From June 12 to 22, 2025, Lausanne will pulsate with the rhythm of gymnastics demonstrations and competitions, all free and open to the public. The 77th Swiss Federal Gymnastics Festival will showcase all facets of our sports. A unique opportunity for Swiss gymnasts and the public to celebrate the diversity of gymnastics together in a festive setting, in a spirit of respect and inclusion.

The stamp is lovely:

Isabelle mentions that the stamp features her favorite mountain, the Rigi.

The Rigi is a mountain massif of the Alps, located in Central Switzerland. The whole massif is almost entirely surrounded by the water of three different bodies of water: Lake Lucerne, Lake Zug and Lake Lauerz. Wikipedia

I have traveled through Switzerland many times by car and by train and it is beautiful. But to be honest, I have never stopped or stayed there. (It's expensive).

Now here in Spain life is not so expensive and I am enjoying life very much.

On Monday night we had a community night walk (start 21:15) through the village around all the wells/water sources. They call it the night of San Juan. 

Wikipedia writes: The Night of San Juan, celebrated in Andalusia, Spain, on June 23rd, is a magical and vibrant midsummer's eve festival. It blends ancient pagan rituals with Catholic traditions, with a focus on fire and water, symbolizing purification and renewal.

The photo was taken during the first part of the walk when it was still light. It doesn't get really dark until after 10 pm.

We didn't do the bonfire thing, as far as I know. It was more than 6 km, going up and down several hills and I was tired. I went straight home after the walk as the last bit of the walk comes past my house, so perhaps they did have a bonfire, but I didn't attend. (I did hear fireworks bang)

On Sunday I had a busy morning as our village was organizing an archery competition for the clubs in the area.

Here (above photo) are the ladies from my club.

Rebecca and Sylvia, two ladies from my group. I didn't participate as I had several other things on that Sunday.

The sports facilities in our village are very good. This complex has, apart from the soccer pitch, where we were doing the archery, there is also a swimming pool, tennis courts and padel courts:

That was early Sunday morning. I stayed an hour to watch and then I drove to Baza to have breakfast in this restaurant (round the corner from the church):

I had traditional Andalusian breakfast (toast with olive oil and tomatoes), an orange juice that they squeeze on the spot, and a coffee with ice:

The ice gets served separate, so I put sugar in my coffee and after stirring, I pour it in the glass with the ice cubes. A type of ice coffee.

After church there was a bring-and-share lunch with my prayer group in our village, but I'll leave that for another day.

So lots of smiles for me. Please join me at Annie's at A Stitch In Time .

I will put some funnies at the end.

Have a lovely weekend,

Lisca