The image above is a postcard from 1969 showing a postal coach from the 1880s (the coach belonging to the Post Museum; the card found in my dad’s desk).
In the 1880s, my great-grandfather was driving a postal coach, even if probably a less fancy one. And if he hadn’t, I would not be sitting here blogging, because that’s probably how he met my great-grandmother! Read more in Greetings from the Past: Postal Service in the Past (my contribution this week to Sepia Saturday).
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As for Postal Service in the Present, postcrossing postcards keep dropping in and making it quite exciting to go and check when I hear the post dropping through the letterbox in my door…
1. Worms, Germany 2. Ogrodzíeníec, Poland
3. Netherlands 4. Rózyanstok, Poland (sent from Russia)
5. Chișinău, Moldova
1. Český Šternberk Castle, Czech Republic
2. Odessa, Ukraine
3. Liberty, Kentucky
14 comments:
You are sharing some beauties here, and I especially love castles, and also the postal coach, as I am a fan of horses.
i can't beleive you got one from Kentucky, that is where i spent the happeiest years of my life... and that castle from poland is just fantastic, my favorite postcard though is the Ukraine... that is really a nice card.
These get better and better! This postal carriage looks beautiful but rather frail!
Postcrossing looks like a lot of fun! Thank you for sharing your new arrivals with us. Do you ever see the person (or persons) carrying your mail? I wonder whether they think about the people they deliver mail to; such as: "Oh, all of sudden a lot of postcards have started coming to this address. I wonder who the recipient is. Must be a very nice lady with so many friends all over the world."
Terra, I put castles and other historical buildings at the top of my wishlist in my pc-profile (with some more suggestions to follow). It's the kind of places I like to visit when touristing :-)
I'm enjoying it Meike. It's more fun than I imagined to try to find the right card to send to a stranger, too. Even before I used to buy cheap cards at markets etc and stock up a variety of them. Now I buy when I come across cards that seem especially well suited for postcrossing.
I have a friend in another city who used to sort and carry mail for many years. If they are long on the same district I think they do form an image of some of the people the deliver to. But I'm not sure how they are organized now, if maybe they shift districts more often in town. I only see them if they happen to come while I am coming or going myself, they never ring on the door. Things too big to push through the letterbox are withheld already at the sorting and we just get a note to pick it up (at the supermarket nowadays for me).
Beautiful postcards....you certainly are enjoying the spoils of your new hobby.
All i know about Worms is that where they held the Diet of Worms, something to do with Martin Luther and about the only little joke we enjoyed in that whole year of learning history!
But lovely cards - I might enjoy post crossing myself, I am thinking.
One side effect for me is that it improves my knowledge of geography - esp Eastern Europe so far. Back when I learned it in school it was USSR and Yugoslavia and whatnot... Now there are lots of countries and my lack of concept of what is where is embarrassing!
You have chosen two things which are of considerable interest to me too Monica. Castles is understandable given that I live in Britain which is full of them. As to why I have always loved pictures of stagecoaches I'm not sure. Perhaps it is the romance (rather than the reality!) of travel.
Britain is where I've seen most of old castles and manor houses too, GB. As for stagecoaches I'm sure you are right. In reality it must have been a very bumpy ride to travel any great distance in one, on the roads as they were back then. And still they seem to represent something of grandeur from the past.
I host a weekly link party called "Oh, the PLACES I've been!" The link goes up at 7pm EST on Thursday. I hope to see you then!
- The Tablescaper
I love that old postal coach (and thanks for sending me it). It was much appreciated.
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