A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 13 Octoiber 2026 - T for pagodas, the Ark Church, and chilli chocolate

 Hello lovely peeps,

I have a postcard with some gorgeous stamps for you and I would also like to show you a little more of my trip to Krakow. 

But let's start with a postcard. It's from Quanzhou in China:

It came to me via Postcrossing:

It is one of Quanzhou's most famous historic towers, the East and West Pagodas located inside Kaiyuan Temple.

Wikipedia writes:

Kaiyuan Temple is a Buddhist temple located in West Street, Quanzhou, China, and is considered as the largest Buddhist temple in Fujian province with an area of 78,000 square metres (840,000 ft²).

In 2021, the temple was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List along with other sites near Quanzhou because of its importance during the medieval global maritime trade based in Quanzhou and its testimony to the global exchange of ideas and cultures. The temple is also one of few in China to contain Hindu monuments, left there by traders from Southern India.

(Above photo from the Internet)

To me these two pagodas look alike but they were built in different eras. 

One of them is the Zhengou pagoda and the other one the Renshou pagoda. I don't know which one is featured on the card.

But one of the stamps on the card also features a pagoda:

And with Google translate I have been able to establish that this is the Zhengou pagoda.

Zhenguo Pagoda (镇国塔) or the Tower of Safeguarding the Nation, is a five-storey wooden pagoda first built in 865 in the Tang dynasty (618–907). It is the East pagoda to its West twin pagoda Renshou. But it was destroyed and rebuilt into stone pagoda in 1238 in the Song dynasty (960–1276). The 48.24-metre (158.3 ft) pagoda was octagonal with five storeys. Every storey is carved with sixteen reliefs with a total of 80 vivid human figures. (also from Wikipedia).

The card was sent to me by Chen Jianrong and he used lots of beautiful stamps:

I have been able to find out more about these stamps.

The top one shows monkeys, created  using cloned somatic cells (don't ask! I don't understand things like that).

The bottom one features a 500 metre aperture spherical radio telescope.

At the top you can see the Chang'e 4 probe and below that, the first quantum science experimental satellite.

Now for things that I liked in Krakow. We visited many museums and Wawel Castle. The Castle museum has so much to offer that we did one floor at a time. We saw beautiful works of art and artefacts with explanations of Poland's complicated history.(We were given an audio guide).

What I particularly liked, and want to show you, are the heating stoves in every room. They are covered with beautiful ceramic tiles:

Below, a detail:

They were all different but equally stunning.

One day when my friend's husband was not feeling very well, my friend and I went to visit the Ark Church.

It was something we had heard about and were keen to visit (although neither of us is Roman Catholic).

From the photo you can see it looks a bit like a boat (ark). The official name is the Church of Our Lady Queen of Poland but is generally known as the Ark of the Lord Church. It is located at 1 Obronców Krzyza Street in Nowa Huta, which seemed to me a pleasant suburb of Krakow.

Built between 1967 and 1977, it was the first new church to be built in Nowa Huta. The history is fascinating. Wikipedia writes:

As early as 1952 local residents formed a parish and started lobbying for permission to build a church but the Communist government would not grant building permits or allocate any land for the building. In 1956 residents delivered two petitions advocating for the building to local authorities and permission was granted. In 1957 they placed a wooden cross near Plac Teatralny (Theater Square) to mark the location of the future church. In October 1959 authorities withdrew the building permission and the land was taken back. This led to community protest by the residents of Nowa Huta and on April 27, 1960 when authorities came to remove the wooden cross, the 1960 Nowa Huta protests  broke out that were met with violence from the militia.

I love the  the 8-metre (26 ft) tall crucifix: a work of Bronisław Chromy.

In 1965 a new location was finally secured which is credited to the intervention of then metropolitan bishop, Karol Wojtyła (who would later become Pope John Paul II). The church was designed by architect Wojciech Pietrzyk in 1965, who used Le Corbusier’s chapel in Ronchamp for his model.  Construction began on the new building in 1967. Due to political restrictions construction was primarily carried out by volunteers, with no assistance from the government over 9 years.  The cornerstone (a fragment of St Peter’s tomb sent from Vatican) of the new church was laid by the then Bishop of Kraków, Karol Wojtyła. On May 15, 1977, Karol Wojtyła, by now a cardinal, consecrated the church, giving it the name of Our Lady Queen of Poland.

During the 1980s martial law period, the church became a focal point for anti-communist resistance. Monthly masses held there often turned into protests, and the site saw events like the death of Bogdan Włosik, a young protester shot by security forces in 1982. In 1992 a monument was erected on the site commemorating his death.

These are just my photos, but if you are interested in the architecture, look it up on the Internet.

Near the church there was a little street market going on. Many stalls had mushrooms:

Today I will link up with Elizabeth and Bluebeard for T stands for Tuesday. And I need a drink of course. Well, today it's not tea, but hot chocolate. Within the Wawel Castle grounds in Krakow there is a little place that serves hot chocolate (and ice cream and other chocolate products as Wawel chocolate is quite popular.) 

The building houses a tourist office and other admin offices. There are a few tables and chairs (plus parasols) outside.

My friend and I chose chilli chocolate:

Best hot chocolate I ever had! My friend and I liked it so much we returned there on the last day to have another chilli chocolate!

One last drink for the T-Party: 

One afternoon we decided to take advantage of 'happy hour' and have a cocktail. Cocktails are getting more popular in Europe especially among young people. But I am old so no experience at all. The day before I had asked a girl, what she was drinking as I was fascinated by what looked like a coffee in a stemmed glass. I was told it was an espresso martini. So that is what I ordered. And I loved it!

That is all from me today.

Happy T-Day!

Lisca