[Sunday Stamps] Childhood Memories

Today is Sunday. Time for showing some interesting stamps. Today is a free choice and I would like to show you my all time favorite stamps. 

This is a yellow rose and was released for the international fair of roses in the GDR 1972. This stamp is a very special stamp for me. This stamp is the beginning of my collection and my love for stamps. I was a child of 10 years when I saw it. Between all the other old stamps of my grandfather, showing boring history or architecture (in the eyes of a child), this stamp caught immediately my attention. Colorful and bright- I was impressed of the beautiful flower. As my mother is a florist, the love for nature is natural in our family. As a child I visited also some fairs with her. 

Austria has had different common stamps of really beautiful plants. I like the most the 4 Cent stamp of a dandelion. It is my favorite stamp ever. Every little piece of this plant is shown in great detail -almost perfect. The artist arranged photos of real plants. It shows the fragile beauty of a very simple and lovely plant. Also this plant is connected with some beautiful memories of childhood. Like a lot of other children, I loved to play with this flower in the wind.

[Postcrossing] German Stilt Houses

I found this amazing card in my letterbox. Another UNESCO whs, I am always happy to find one of these cultural and historical gems in the postbox. These are the prehistoric stilt houses in Germany.  It is always a little bit strange to imagine how the life could have been in this time. It was constructed around 4000 B.C. The same architecture can be found in different places and different countrys around the alps. 

Also some pretty stamps. One of the common flower issue and the Nuremberg castle. It was constructed about 1000 years ago. The municipal buildings are now used as a youth hostel. I would like to spend a night there. That would be great. Living in a castle- every little girl's dream.

[Sunday stamps] Mammals

I have chosen some stamps from Russia and the German Democratic Republic. I have also a stamp from Austria, with a panda...but there are no pandas in Austria, just in the zoo. But the zoo is famous for their pandas and so it happened that Austria has a stamp of a panda. I will show it another day. I like it more, when there are shown animals which you can really find in the country.  

As you can see on the postmark, the Russian stamps are very little. I like little stamps for postcards because you can put many on the card. The Austrian stamps are always very big, there is no chance to stick more than 1 or 2 on the card. 

I love the stamp with the squirrels. They are my favorite animals. I know a special place in the forest where are a lot of cute squirrels and they are not shy! I take always some nuts with me when I visit them. They are so friendly and sometimes a brave squirrel climb up to my knees to get the nuts in my hands. I am so in love with them. 

It is not a big mammal, but it has the biggest place in my heart.

[Postcrossing] Finland official

Another card from Finland. I love this card because I like to collect cards of special plants with a connection to the country.  The plant is called Yarrow and was the finnish plant of the year in 2012. But you can find it nearly all over the world (Amazing fact). I liked so much that Gunnel wrote about the usage of this plant. I saw this plant sometimes in Austria, but I never thought about it. After receiving the card, I collected some of these plants. A few weeks later, after pressing in a big old book (Don Quixote), it looks like this:

[Sunday Stamps] Automobiles

Here we go. First time, that I participate with the Sunday Stamps. I thought that it would be very easy to find some stamps about automobiles. I found a lot of trains, ships and airplanes, but very rare automobiles. 

This stamp is a new 2014 stamp from Austria. It shows the Austro Daimler  ADR 22/70 automobile which was produced till 1931 in Austria. It was a high class automobile and was sold very expensive all over the world. The maximum speed was about 105 km/h.

When I went to the post office, I asked for some special and pretty stamps. Here in Austria normally you get automatically the common stamps from the edition of the year- cheap in production and high in circulation. Nearly always the same picture.
So the man who worked at the post office said, that there is one special stamp left. What? One big post office has only one special issue stamp? And that doesn't mean, that there is only one type of stamps, no, really there was only one stamp in general. It was this stamp.
In the end I was feeling a little bit disappointed about the post office. Happy, that I get one finally, but also sad, that the time, when you can go to the post office and choose a pretty stamp, has come to an end.

I found also a very interesting stamp between my little collection of the German Democratic Republic. As my origin is there, I love the stamps of the GDR.  This one shows an ambulance in 1963. The stamp was a special issue for the centenary of the international medical aid organisation Red Cross,

[Postcrossing] Tunisia official

I was so happy when I found this card from Tunisia. I really really love arabian culture, but still there are not many postcrossers. So I never thought that I would receive such a wonderful arabian card in the beginning as there are so many other country that it is really luck to get one of Tunisia. 

Here you can see the city of Kairouan and the Mosque Okba. I love the calligraphy in the mosque and also on the stamp.

[Postcrossing] Official Italy

This card was send by a young russian girl who was on her vacation trip to Italy. What is this stamp? I am curious about the stamp. Seems to be a GPS video message. But I was not able to figure out how it works. I tried the code at the website, but nothing happened. I am not sure if there is a massage in general. If anybody knows more about this postal service, let me know. It seems to be a nice idea to connect media and postcards.

I like the card. It shows the famous UNESCO world heritage site "The Colosseum" in Rome. I am even more happy about it, because I was there. It was an amazing trip. Italy is amazing if you like historical heritage sites. I can highly recommend a trip.

[Postcrossing] Japan official

A card with a beautiful waterfall from Japan. It has some cute stamps on it. I like the round stamp. 

The waterfall is near to the city Sendai. It is written on the card, that Sendai is called "the forest city". I think I would love this place. It looks very calm and natural. But also it reminds us that peace and beauty are not for eternity. Sendai suffered from the earthquake and tsunami in 2011. The woman who send this cards, wrote in her profile that she is now working as a social worker to help the people who were or still are suffering from this catastrophe. She is my hero! 

And that's a wonderful thing about postcrossing, to get to know amazing people  all over the world.

[Postcrossing] Netherlands official

I got mail from the Netherlands. A beautiful vintage card with two lovely kids. This card reminds me a little bit of some old photos of my grandparents. 

The stamp has a priority sticker included,  I never saw this before. It shows the king Willem- Alexander of Netherland. 

[Postcrossing] Belarus official

I received this beautiful card from Belarus. What I love the most about the card, is that on the stamp is the same flower like on the card. Also the stamp is very clean and pretty.
It is the first time, that I received a card with a stamp on the front. Seems to be a little bit unusual for me but looks very nice.
You can find these flowers in the central gardens of Belarus.  This kind of rose is called Rosa Peace.