POSTCARD N.14 - Germany
Postcrossing postcard posted on the 21st July; received on the 26th July
Potscard image: A guest house at Bosau, Plöner See, in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
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I'm not really a fan of publicity postcards, but this one besides being the obvious publicity vector for a guesthouse, had the plus of introducing me to an area of Germany that I was totally unware of and regarding which I became pretty curious, after reading the description article in wikipedia (where else?) . Natural parks, plenty of bird and fish life, bathing sites.... worth making  note of it.. maybe one day,.. who knows? Thank you Marc-André!

The stamps, on the other hand had me rejoycing because of the large 0,80€ Beethoven Stamp, commemorative of the 250th anniversary of his birth, issued on 02JAN2020. This lovely stamp was issued in a pair with another with the high facial value of 2,70€, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of sculptor Ernst Barlach, a name, I confess, tottaly unknown to me. Again Wikipedia came to the rescue...

Ludwig van Beethoven on the other hand is, of course,  no stranger to me,  neither to all Portuguese children who now learn to play his most famous composition on a recorder while on elementary school. Ode to Joy it is and Ode to peace should we all make it, we, Europeans, united under a common theme song... who can deny the power of music? 

The two other stamps used on this card are a  0,10€ stamp issued on 08JUN2017 with a photo of a Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis), part of definitive "flowers" series, started in 2005. 

The 5 cent stamp with a photo of a Phlox is also part of the same series, and it was issued on 13APR2017.

The machine applied cancelation tells us that the card was mailed from Briefzentrum 10, corresponding to Berlin-Zentrum. Once again the postmark includes the  vignette   "Gemeinsam Gegen Corona sich selbst und andere Scützen..." (Together against Corona, protect yourself and the others...) which began to be machine applied on correspondence in Germany on the 1st June 2021.

image credit: Deutsche Post