This is the Moorish Revival southern façade of the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka (Crimea, Ukraine). Built from 1828 through 1848 -- which you can tell by its Romantic architecture: remember Lednice's Minaret? -- for Prince Vorontsov for use as his personal summer residence. This Romantic palace was designed in the English Tudor style, although it encompass elements of Scottish Baronial, Moorish Revival and Gothic Revival styles. It still manages to incorporate Classical style architectural elements. There are a total of 150 rooms.

The Vorontsov Palace is part of a national historical preserve along with the 40 hectares park, including the Massandra Palace in neighbouring townlet Massandra.

The stamp doesn't match the card (you cannot have it always). But for a penmanship lover like me, it couldn't be more valuable. An old inkpot! ♪

Guess what my favourite animal is? ♥

Hint: is furry and brown. Note: sometimes it can be white or black-patched. Answer: you can see it above.

Bear cubs are really cute! I love bears above all animals, they have appealled to me since I was a little child. My best friend was a (teddy) white bear cub that I still have. In Spain, brown bears are endangered species and nowadays can be only found in National Parks in the Cantabrian Mountains. This little one however lives freely and happily in the Estonian forests.

Now the stamps. Plenty of them and variegated!

♪ On the left there is Estonian writer and playwright Oskar Luts (1887-1953), a 0.45€ stamp issued in 2012, Luts' 125th birth anniversary. At just 25 years old Oskar Luts, who had earlier penned only a few lines of poetry, authored Spring, a book that made him famous all over the country overnight.

* More info about this stamp can be found on the Eesti Post website.

♪ The little green one is a silhouette of a post horn, which seems to be the symbol of the postal service worldwide -- I like that!

♪ And last, another fauna beauty: a watercolour of a roe deer (capreolus capreolus).

This week theme is poets and poetry.

This little beauty came to my letter-box not long ago. Tiina is an 11 years-old girl who enjoys postcrossing thanks to her mum, who thinks this project is a great idea for her daughter to learn English -- agree. I was lucky enough to be sent this gorgeous greeting card with a matching stamp. Spring has sprung! ♪

We don't celebrate Easter in Spain* and I have never sent or received this kind of cards before. Needless to say, I love it.

* although we do celebrate Holy Week & Resurrection Sunday, those holidays have nothing to do with eggs, bunnies or spring, but they are a religious celebration.

The stamp also put a big smile on my face: bunny and chick painting the easter egg together! It is a design by illustrator Janne Harju released in March 2012. Ten points to the Finnish postal service!

This postcard's theme: Easter (obvious).

Lednice's Minaret

Any scan or photo wouldn't make this postcard justice. It is a lenticular card or 3D. My first! I didn't even know there were postcards like this. This minaret is actually an observation tower located in the middle of Lednice's Gardens.

The Lednice - Valtice Area in South Moravia is the largest artificially created landscape in Europe. Created by the dukes of Liechtenstein on their Moravian domain in the 18th and 19th centuries, it features several chateaus, large parks and various monuments spread around the landscape fashioned in the Romantic and Classical styles.

The minaret is a Moorish Revival structure (62 m high) in the Lednice Castle garden. The construction of the minaret began in 1797 and ended in 1804. The centre of the building is a tower in whose upper gallery 302 stairs lead. Three other ring-like roofed galleries encircle the tower. The first floor of the minaret is formed by eight halls, where the owners kept their collection of oriental items. Floors are made of stone mosaic, the ceiling and walls are decorated with Moorish handwriting. It is one of the typical buildings of the Romantic period when the Orient strongly influenced art and park architecture in Europe.

Lednice was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site together with the twin manor of Valtice in 1996.

Pind'a (left) & Pat and Mat (right)

A multiview from Germany. These are my identified landmarks -- feel free to comment and correct me or add another:

The stamp is for my UNESCO World Heritage collection! It shows Ratisbon's Cathedral in the Old City. Its face value is 0.75€ and was issued in 2011. The special postmark features a graduation tower (Gradierbau), part of Bad Dürkheim's spa facilities. My first special postmark! ♥
Another themed postcard: German landmarks.

Not longer before this beauty came to my letter-box, the sender contacted me very worried because she had sent this postcard to me and I hadn't received yet. I had to explain to her that Spain-Russia post takes longer than expected. A few days after I had assure the lady her postcard will arrive in here, I had it in my box. Oh how beautiful! ♥

That would be just one of my love-hate stories with postcards and Russia... I don't know why does it happen. I suppose it's a language issue, Latin and Cyrillic alphabets and so. It happens with China too. (Funny enough, no problem till today with Greece or Japan). 

I was amazed at this building and its colours. In Spain, we have the colours of nature surrounding us all year around so our buildings are plain stone, sober or intrincate, but bare. On the contrary, Northern countries have to mitigate many months of snow and cold with warm and richly coloured architecture.

Built between 1883 and 1907, it never served as a place of worship. It was closed by the Soviet government in 1930 (after it had been badly damaged and looted during the Revolution) and reopened in August 1997, after 27 years of restoration. Nowadays it is a Museum of Mosaics.

On the flip side, there was this 30 R stamp from 2011 commemorating Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games. My first Olympics related stamp! According to the stamps sheet, 

Volkonskiy Dolmen is a unique megalithic landmark located in Lazarevskoye forestry of the Sochi National Park. It is the only surviving monolithic dolmen in the Caucasus and it is protected by the state.

I have this friend named Toni. He was born and raised in France from Spanish parents and came back home when he was a teenager. We sometimes have fun on him calling him Antoine (which is how he is called by his French friends). He is a very special person, different, traveller, a dreamer. We share our love for interesting and uncommon subjects, art, cinema,...  He and I remain single in a group of friends full of couples with children. Maybe because of all of this, we stay closer and keep in touch more often than we do with other friends. We also share a soft spot for artsy and representative postcards from any place we visit. He is the only one of those friends who always remembers to send me a few words on a card instead of calling me on the phone. Thanks to him, I started getting my first postcards from foreign lands a few years ago.

However, as a true bohemian artist (a photographer) Toni often forgets to sign his cards and never writes the date. I don't worry too much about that because his handwriting is so bad that I cannot mistake his postcards for another's. If I ever have to host a lottery or giveaway, scanning one of his texts and asking for a transcription would be the contest. Everytime I get a card from him I have a lot of fun. I sometimes need about 15 mins to understand what is written! It is part of the ritual.

He is not the tidiest person: his car is often full of all kinds of garbage, or what I think it should be garbage but it turns out to be useful stuff for something, his backpack contains many papers, notebooks, pens and -- well, you understand what I mean. I am afraid this pretty little postcard came so damaged not because of the post service but because it had been stored among his things for a while before he sent it. This is his most recent card -- I received it today. That tells me he is currently living in Madrid.

Viva Madrid

This is a tasca, a tavern located in the centre of Madrid. Viva Madrid is its name and they offer Wines (top left) and Meals (top right).  Above the doors we can read Jesus, this is delicious! (left) and The best in the world (right). The façade is decorated with 18th century style tiles, with the city's coat of arms and a view of Cibeles fountain on the central panel.

Viva Madrid

C/ Manuel Fernández y González, 7

28014 Madrid

Puerta de Alcalá

The stamp is a class A (our "Forever") stamp showing the Puerta de Alcalá, a Neo-classical monumental gate in Madrid, matching the postcard theme: 18th century Madrid.

Back in the old times, before internet, there was snailmail spam too. Chain letters, letters to beg for money, all kind of weird stuff came to my letterbox. Sometimes I could recognize my classmates' writing, sometimes it came from an exotic and very foreign country.

This one came from India in 2003. It was a missionary asking for a donation. Who knows where did they get my address? However this letter was special. It was the first time I received anything from India so these stamps were totally new for me. And it was also the first time a letter came by Sea Mail! I mean, it has a Sea Mail mark on it! I still think it is awesome and keep the letter carefully folded away from damage. :-)

This week's theme is flowers or spring.

From time to time, there is someone who prefers receiving handmade cards and I really enjoy doodling a bit. I had this piece of good quality paper with a sample print of a design from my University years. It's good to relax drawing meaningless abstract flowers... ♪

My teacher used to say he could spot one of my works at first sight because they had elegant mix of colours. Back them, yellow and gray was one of my favourites -- I still think it is.

Not long after H.M. Queen Elizabeth II I had another royal visit, this time from the Netherlands: the Dutch Royal couple at the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria & Daniel Westling in Stockholm, June 19th 2010. I don't really like the gown she was wearing that day (she looks so stuffed in it that reminds me of a sausage!) but I am delighted at their visit because of their bright smiles. Now that the Dutch Royal family is having such a hard time looking at them so happy brings me a hint of hope.

I received this card on their 10th wedding anniversary. I still remember that day clearly -- I coulnd't attend their wedding on TV because a classmate was getting married on that day too. It was sunny and warm, spring just around the corner. May you live happily for another 100 years!

Postcard from: The Hague, the Netherlands.

Received: February 2012.

Language: English.

Envelope: no.

Stamps: one Europa 1. Geeft groen. Licht stamp from 2011.

Thank you, Chantal!
{NL-1021452}

"All with Lorca" are five commemorative stamps issued in 2012 to raise the awareness and attrack tourism to help the reconstruction of this old city and its many cultural heritage buildings damaged by the 2011 Lorca earthquake, just two months after 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

♪ Top left: Palacio de Guevara. Guevara's palace.

♪ Top right: Colegiata de San Patricio. Saint Patrick collegiate church.

♪ Bottom left: Santuario de la Virgen de las Huertas. Virgin of Huertas sanctuary.

♪ Bottom right: Castillo de Lorca. Castle.

As I said before, these stamps mean a lot to me as some members of my family were affected by May 11th 2011 earthquake. They live just a few km away from Lorca but some of them work in the city. Thankfully they didn't get hit by the falling walls and roofs but the earthquake affected their jobs and properties.

Miraculously as well, this TV reporter who was filming the damages done by the foreshock went unharmed when the main shock ocurred. I remember watching it live and being appalled.

Today I was surprised by my postman with this wonderful postcard by Alfons Mucha. He made this litograph in 1911 for the Moravian Teachers' Choir (Pěvecké sdružení moravských učitelů). There is little information about this piece, which isn't as wide known as many of his other works. The Moravian Teachers' Choir performed many types of song, including folk music by Moravian composer Janáček. The girl in the poster wears a folk costume from Kyjov, Moravia (Czech Republic).

This is a design by Balenciaga -- the original belongs to the Fashion Museum in Madrid, Spain (Museo del Traje). It's part of a sheet of four stamps entitled Moda Española. The sheet is illustrated by clothes worn according to different hours of the day, and so the 0.39€ stamp reproduces a cocktail chantilly lace dress over transparent ivory taffeta, with tight waistline and full skirt. It was made in Paris between 1948-1950.

The other three stamps show a two-piece suit (0.42 €), a morning dress and matching coat (0.58 €) and a casual shirt dress (0.78 €).

Needless to say, I am mesmerized by this beautiful little piece of art. ♪

An aurora is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere. They illuminate the northern horizon as a greenish glow or sometimes a faint red, as if the sun were rising from an unusual direction. Discrete aurorae often display magnetic field lines or curtain-like structures, and can change within seconds or glow unchanging for hours, most often in fluorescent green.

I asked my penpal if the northern lights can be seen from his home in Nuuk and he sent me this as an answer. I cannot say anything else about this card but that I love it. The image says everything itself. Isn't our world wonderful enough to give us such amazing phenomena?