Swallow's Nest, Ukraine

The Swallow's Nest is a "decorative castle" on the Crimean coast of Ukraine. The Baltic German Baron von Steingel had it constructed in 1911. It served various purposes over the next several years, including housing a restaurant, a reading club, and simply being a tourist attraction. Then in 1927, the cliff it stands on was seriously damaged in an earthquake, and the Swallow's Nest was closed for the next forty years. In 1968 the cliff was reinforced with concrete and the castle was renovated and reopened.

I got this card from helen_orlova for one of my vacation RR groups.

The stamp is a 2007 definitive showing an inkpot.

Kotovasiya In Space

I used to not like cats; now I do. I used to not like cat cards; then I discovered Kotovasiya.
I love this as much as Krtek!

Awesome stamps!!

The little one on the left is second in a set of two on Coats of Arms issued in 2010, this one being that of the Yaroslavl region: a bear rampant with a halberd on his shoulder. Legend has it that the original inhabitants loosed a bear on Yaroslavl the Wise, trying to drive him away. Instead, he killed the bear and founded the city.

Top right is, of course, Belka and Strelka, the Russian canine cosmonauts, the first living creatures to come back from outer space alive. This stamp was issued last October to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their voyage.

Bottom right is a stamp from 2000. This predates the info on the UPU website, but I think this is from the series "International Co-operation in Space," here the "sea take-off point" international space project. Judging by the flags on the top of the stamp, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Japan, Norway, USA, Netherlands, France, UK, Russia, Switzerland, Canada, Italy, Sweden, and Germany were the countries involved.


This card and stamps totally made my day. Actually, my week. Huge thanks to Peregrina on the forum, for the favorites tag. :D

Pura Besakih, Indonesia

I got this from a friend traveling to Indonesia. Thank you Caitlin! It shows Bali's largest Hindu temple, Pura Besakih, on Mt. Agung, which is the principal volcano of Bali. Mt. Agung erupted in 1963, killing over 1500 people, but missing this temple by meters. This was taken as a signal from the gods that they wanted to demonstrate their power, but not destroy the monument the faithful Balinese had erected. It was nominated as a UNESCO site in 1995 but hasn't been given world heritage status. Whoever decides these things ought to read this guy, who's been there:

By then, I had enough of Pura Besakih. Divine intervention had me that I was not up for it. When the guide offered to bring me to a pura devoted to Dewa Iswara (or God of Lightning), I politely refused and insisted on returning down to the parking lot. Enraged the God of Lightning probably was that it rained cats and dogs as soon as I stepped out of the Besakih complex. I got myself drenched and had only my indifference to blame.


"Ucapan Selamat" means "greetings," but I can't find any information on this particular stamp. Unfortunately Indonesian cancellations always seem to be so hard that they often damage the card on the other side! It's not too bad on this card - but even though you can see the imprint of the cancellation on the picture side of the card, you can't really see the ink of the cancellation on the stamp!

Holland Images

It's been ages since I posted a card from the Netherlands, which is weird since I have tons of them! This is from José for the June Jubilee RR 2010. He writes, "The only things missing are the tulips and the clogs." I wonder how typical this is for modern day Netherlanders. Surely most of them live in cities and have washing machines? :P

The stamp on the right is apparently from 1984?! Showing the black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa). In the middle we have William of Orange, also known as William the Silent, who led the Dutch revolt against the Spanish in 1568. Finally, on the left is Martin Luther, famous for the Protestant Reformation. All great stamps, and a welcome change from the heart-earth definitive!

Algarve, Portugal

I got this card from Isacle in one of my vacation RR groups from when I went to Yachats. Algarve, as you can see from this card, is the southern coast of Portugal. The name comes from Arabic for "the west". Algarve is divided into 16 municipalities, each represented with a small picture on the card. I'll just talk about a couple of them.

Loule (middle) is represented by the Castelo de Loulé, part of the medieval city walls of the town, now housing an archaelogical museum and city library.

Vila do Bispo (lower left) lays claim to the Cape St. Vincent lighthouse. This cape is named for a martyred priest of the 4th century, whose remains are supposed to have been brought or washed ashore here. There is a chapel marking the site of his grave. Legend has it that ten ravens watched over the temple, and when in the 12th century St. Vincent's remains were exhumed and taken to Lisbon to avoid desecration by the Muslims, the ravens followed and kept vigil from the rigging of the ship. The lighthouse was built in 1846, is the second most powerful in Europe, and oversees one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

A stamp from a set of four issued in September 2010 celebrating circuses.

Child With Book

In a similar vein to yesterday's post, today, because this week I have been reading a lot, I am posting a card of somebody reading. This is an official from Taiwan. Look in the comments for yipinwai's translation (thanks!).

Looking very closely at the book he's reading, I *think* it's Harry Potter in French. Pretty sure it's Harry Potter, anyway, because "Hermione" is one of the words.

The stamp on the left is from a 1993 issue of Chinese stone lions. This particular one is the stone lion of Taipei New Park. Still not sure about the stamp on the right.

Tall Ship

I just finished reading "The Sea Wolf" by Jack London. It's about this guy who is just going on a ferry ride across San Francisco Bay, but it gets caught in a storm and he goes overboard. He gets picked up by the Ghost, a seal-hunting ship run by a totally unscrupulous captain who has just killed his first mate. The captain is now short a crewmember, and impresses the man to join the crew, and on they continue, bound for Japan and the herds of seals on the way there. It's a great story, and I could hardly put it down since I started reading it a couple of days ago. So now I'm posting a card of a tall ship... not the Ghost, though. This one, according to the back of the card, is called "Sigyn," which is a Norse female given name. Apparently a fairly common one for tall ships, if you can judge by the results for a google image search of that name. Anyway, the painting is by Håkan Sjöström, who I believe is a Swedish artist, but the card is from Finland. I got it in one of the favorites tags from Kata, who writes:

I love it!

A stamp from a 2009 series of 6 on Finnish Art, this one of a piece by Tuomas von Boehm.