POSTCARD N.246 - SPAIN

Postcard dated of 19 August; received on the  27th August 2026

Postcard image: Sant Mateu (Castellon) - Ermita de la Mare de Deu dels Angels

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Eva sends me a postcard with a view of  the Ermita de la Mare de Deu dels Angels (Hermitage of Our Lady of the Angels), in Sant Mateu, province of Castellón. Moltes Graciès, Eva. It is always a pleasure to get to know new places and landmarks in our Peninsula.

To say that traditional touristic postcards can be windows to the world  around us, echoes of a lapalissade, still I think it is worth mentioning it for the humble photo on a 10x15 rectangle has done a lot to preserve the memory of places, locals, buildings, infrastructures... you name it.

In the days before cameras in telephones and instant messaging, they were the physical counterpart to what we now do “matterlessly” through whatsapp or any email app.

And  they were ubiquitous. At every village or town, or city, in every quiosk, newsstand, stationery store, side by side with the newspaper racks, there would be a rotating postcard display stand, with images of the local landmarks, or local views,  humble as they might be.

It is in the physical nature that lays their utmost importance.

Some time ago I was visiting an exhibition in the museum of the city where I live. Part of it was dedicated to the evolution of a small fishing village that integrates the city's municipal area, which I know quite well, as it stands today.

A century ago, it was quite different, of course, and yet, I could see how it evolved into what it is today, thanks to several postcards, issued in the course of that same century, that provided the perfect registry of the changes that the village went through.

Yes, today is so easy: you take a photo, you send it right away, but..........

no one puts the message in a shoebox anymore, no one cares about it, once it is sent and received, no one files it, classifies it, cares for it, collects it....

In a hundred years time, paradoxically, I wouldn't be surprised if  it may prove to more difficult to organise an exhibition documenting the evolution through time of a specific place (if that place is not a major city or landmark) than in the days of the paper backed photography...

That's why postcards are also important. Cheap yet affective time capsules, they are... 

There should be an international Postcard resurgence movement.. Eva (and I) and many others contribute to it.. hope it grows :-)

Wikipedia tells me that the Ermida de Sant Mateu sits atop the mountain of the same name in the Vale d'Angel mountain range, in the Province of Castellon, in the Valencian Community.

The story of this church goes back to the final years of the 16th century when Sebastian, a Portuguese hermit living in the then existing  hermitage dedicated to Saint Anthony the Abbot and Saint Paul the Hermit is said to have seen in his dreams an image of the Virgin appear and disappear under the altar table.

After securing permission from the ecclesiastical authorities, Sebastian and a group of believers who were aware of his dream, found the image and placed it on the altar. The existing hermitage was from then on expanded to become what is now the Sant Mateu Hermitage.

Today, the Hermitage is  the destination of an annual pilgrimage that happens on the second Saturday after Easter, originating in the Archpriest Church of Sant Mateu, in the town of the same name, two to three kilometres away

Stamps (left to right) 

- Felipe VI became the King of Spain on 19 June 2014. The first definitive series featuring his portrait was issued on 19JAN2015, and the 0,04 € stamp on the cover is part of that issue which comprised 6 values (0,01; 0,04; 0,10; 1;L 2; 5 €), the stamps being all equal but printed in different colours.

- The United Nations Assembly General of 2011 proclaimed the 30th July as the International Friendship Day.

This fact notwithstanding, this day  is also unofficially celebrated in Spain and in some of the Spanish speaking countries of Latin America and in Brazil slightly earlier, on the 20th July, the day when Neil Armstrong first set a human foot on the moon.

This year, to highlight the date, Correos de España issued on  20JUL2026, the 1€ self-adhesive stamp on the postcard, illustrated  with  a suggestive and self-explaining image and the legend Dia de la Amistad (Frierndship Day).   

The Tariff A (domestic, 20g) stamp illustrated with two ladies (one presumably older than the other, as indicated by her gray hair) hugging each other and the legend Soledad no Deseada (Undesired Solitude), was issued on 28APR2026 as is part of a series designated Salud y Bienestar (Health and Wellbeing). It aims at raising awareness for one of the silent epidemics of current times: unwanted loneliness.

The mechanical Postmark is illegible as to the place of application

COVER N. 761 - SPAIN

Postmark: Base Antártica Española Juan Carlos IIsla Livingston Correos 20.03.2026

Posted on 20 March;  Received on the 18th August 2026

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Another uncommon visitor to my mailbox, again thanks to the help of the restless wanderer, my Phantom friend. Danke sehr, Alex!

You'd expect mail coming from the Antarctic to travel through stormy weather.... what I would not expect was to have it delivered totally unscathed to my letterbox only to get it soaked by some rainwater from a summer tempest in my letterbox, while I was away from home for a few days :-( Luckily it only affected the bottom third of the envelope, so the beautiful blue cachet and black postmark were not smudged.

The Base Antártica Juan Carlos I is one of the two research stations that Spain maintains in the South Shetland Islands, one of the emerging bodies of land delimiting the infamous Drake Passage that links the Pacific to the Atlantic in the southern latitudes, the other being, of course, the no less  renowned Chilean Cape Horn. (The other Spanish base is  Base Antártica Gabriel de Castilla, in Deception Island).

Located in the  Hurd Peninsula, in Livingston Island, it was established in 1988, being given the name of the then Head of the Spanish state, King Juan Carlos I, and it is seasonally occupied, from November to March.

In can accomodate up to 50 people, its staff being functionally divided mostly into researchers and logistics personnel. The research therein conducted is carried out in the fields of:

Glaciology and Permafrost: Monitoring glacier mass balance, ice dynamics, and the degradation of permanently frozen ground to understand climate change impacts. 

Atmospheric Studies and Meteorology: Collecting continuous climate data, tracking aerosol movements, measuring ultraviolet radiation, and monitoring the ozone layer. 

Geomagnetism and Ionosphere Physics: Studying the Earth’s magnetic field and upper atmosphere variations, which are critical for satellite communications and global navigation systems. 

Biology and Ecology: Investigating polar ecosystems, including lichen physiology, vegetation adaptations to extreme cold, and the impacts of human footprints on local fauna. 

Geology and Geophysics: Analyzing the structural evolution of the South Shetland Islands, local volcanic activity, and tectonic movements.

Physical Oceanography: Examining marine currents, sea temperatures, and coastal salinity variations in coordination with the Spanish research vessel Hespérides.   

The stamp used on the cover is the Spanish Europa Issue of 2022, on the common theme of Myths and Legends.

It was issued on Europe's day 2022 - 09MAY2022 - and it is illustrated with an image evocative of Sa Dragonera island, located southwest of  Mallorca Island in the ballearic Archipelago.

The Island itself has the shape of a dragon , and legend has it that the island was home to one such mythical beast that protected Mallorca from undeserved invaders.

The pictorial postmark of the base is illustrated with the base's logo image, which I think is a skua, but I am not sure about this. 

COVER N. 763 - DJIBOUTI

Postmark: Djibouti Principal Rep. Djibouti 13.08.2026

Posted on 13th August;  Received on the 18th August 2026

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Nothing short of amazing. Nochmals danke sehr, Alex! 

Thanks to you I am able to tick another box in the countries list, something which fills me up with joy every time it happens. 

Also I would never think that a letter from Djibouti to Portugal would travel so fast. Excellent!

We don't hear much about Djibouti and I confess that excepting the fact of it being an eastern Africa country located in the horn of Africa, I knew nothing about it. So, I turned to the usual sources to find out that it was a former French colony up until 1977, the year when the Republic of Djibouti was officially established, and that it shares borders with Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, its shores being at the confluence of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

I also learned that Djibouti has been led by the same party since its independence and the adoption of a constitution, which only occurred 15 years after the separation from France, in 1992, which consagrates multipartidarism and that  the current President was recently elected for a sixth term by 97.8% of the votes...

Djibouti ranks as 152 in the list of 195 countries and territories  included in the "Freedom in the World" Index of the European Commission. 

For postage, Alex used two stamps of a mini-sheet of 6 x 120 Djiboutian franc issued on 28APR2000 themed on trains.

The trains in the illustrations are the French TGV (left) and the Italian ETR 450 (right).

Postmark from the central Post Office at Djibouti city, the capital.

COVER N. 762 - BENIN

Postmark: Comè 14.0?.2026

Posted on 14th ?;  Received on the 18th August 2026

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Getting mail in one's letterbox from such uncommon origins as Benin is always a motive for great joy, this being only the second time this Western Africa country is featured on the blog. 

A basketful of heartfelt Mercis goes out to Roland, who made sure I was included in such a great circuit and also to fellow member of the LCC, Marie-José, and to her kind friend who made it all possible.

The stamp on the cover is a curious one because it seems to have been originally issued as a Postage Due stamp in 1978, when the country was still named République Populaire du Benin, as part of a two stamp set, illustrated with images highlighting mail distribution services in the country by bicycle (60 Franc) and by river canoe (80f).

In 1990 it would again be issued with the new official name of the country - République du Benin - overprinted in black.

Somewhere in time, the stamp was again re-issued,  with the legend "Timbre Taxe"  and the face value of 60 franc blocked in black and a  surcharge for the new face value, which is now 600 Franc, this being the version used on the cover.

The stamps on this set are very much "French" in design, being bi-colour and recess printed. Pretty beautiful stamps if I may say so. Pity the overprinting hiding so much detail...

Postmark from Comé, a town in the south-west of tyhe country.

COVER N. 759 - CHINA

POSTCARD N.244
Postcard image: Longmen Ancient Town

Postmark: ? 23.07.2024

Posted on 23rd July;  Received on the 14th August 2026

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Another Postcrossing postcard received in a large envelope from China. 谢谢, mfx.

Mfx wrote that the village in the photo on the nice blue hour photo on the card was more than a 1000 years old. I did a bit of research and with the help of Google translator I managed to identify the town as the  Longmen Ancient Town, in the city of Hangzhou, province of Zhejiang.

The pre-stamped envelope features an illustration of an old lake side village  with a legend that Google translated as "18th letter writing contest for the youth". 

On the back, 2009 is also printed, so I presume that the envelope dates from that year. The pre-printed 2.40 Yuan stamp shows a child holding on to a carp.

Postage was competed with:

- a 1.20 Yuan stamp from a set of seven (0,80; 5 x1.20; 1.50 Yuan) issued on  21JUN2014, illustrated with images evoking "The Dream of the Red Chamber" a novel written in the 18th-century by Cao Xueqin, considered to be one of the great classics of Chinese literature.

- a 40 fen stamp from a set of four (40 fen; 1; 2; 4.20 Yuan), issued on 12MAY2016, from the series Beautiful China. It is illustrated with a photo of Mu Dan Jiang (Snow Town), in the province of Heilongjiang, famous for its mushroom shaped houses, which can be seen on the photograph, all covered in snow.

POSTCARD N.245 - SOUTH KOREA

Postcrossing postcard dated of 24 July; received on the 18th August 2026

Postcard image: Sea of Mukho

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A minimalist photo of a rather solitary off shore lighthouse in a calm sea, in Mukho, Donghae, South Korea. 감사합니다 ,Yerin!

I don't know why - maybe it's just the shape of the lighthouse - but I feel there is almost a Sci-Fi look in this simple yet effective shot, that I find quite attractive.

Yerin tells me that the stamp features a character from Princess Catch! Teenieping, a very popular 

South Korean animated children's television series. I tried to identify the character in the stamp, but there are so many of them (and to my untrained eye, some look so similar to one another) that I simply gave up...

The postmark hails from Nowon, one of the 25 districts of Seoul, South Korea's Capital.

COVER N. 760 - INDONESIA

Postmark Kantor Filateli Jakarta

Posted on 7th July;  Received on the 18th August 2026

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This has to mean something.... maybe I should buy a lottery ticket...

Typewriters are now the sort of device that fills the exhibition shelves of museums alongside other once ubiquitous  artefacts like audio cassettes or desk telephones.

And yet, in the space of 4 days I received two letters addressed with a mechanical typewriter,  from places so distant one from the other as Spain and Indonesia. 

Terima kasih banyak Virna, I really liked to see the care you put in composing the envelope and I am also glad to see that there are  some typewriters that refuse to go mute...

As far as I could investigate, the Four Nations Stamp Show is a philatelic event that takes place every 4 years in one of the participating countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

The first exhibition took place in Bandung, Indonesia, between   27  May and 1 June 2014 - and it marked the celebration of the 150th anniversary of first Indonesian stamp.

On the occasion of the Stamp show,  Pos Indonesia issued, on 27May2014, a souvenir sheet with four 5000 Rupiah stamps illustrated with images of the Javan Leopard (Panthera pardus melas), a  species endemic to Java which is now categorised by IUCN as endangered. The stamps also included the World Wildlife Fund logo.

Printed alongside the stamps, the sheet included the event logo and the legend "Four Nations Stamp Show Bandung 2014 - 27 may - 1 June 2014".

Virna used an imperforated version of the souvenir sheet, without the show logo,  which I suppose must have been issued on the same date.

Postmark from the Philatelic Bureau of Jakarta, Indonesia's Capital.