COVER N. 204 - SPAIN

Postmark:  no postmark 

Posted in ? January; Received on the 16th January 2023
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Another cover from Spain, and another philatelic mishap....

When I was a kid I was really happy when such a thing happened.... it meant un-cancelled stamps for the album (even if without glue on their backs...)

Nowadays it really annoys me. A circulated envelope without the postmark is unsettling to say the least, and it's not that it hasn't completed the journey for which it was stamped, nor the stamps are the less interesting, no. It's just that ... as if it misses a limb,... 

The postmark, is much more than ink and a graphic design. It is a sign, an evidence of purpose, of achievement, much like the old days (for us “Schengenites”) passport stamp....

So it really annoys me when I get a letter without it, like this one, (although I know that the sender is not to be faulted in any way:

Stamps, left to right:

- The Castle of Jadraque, a little  town in the  Castilla - la Mancha autonomous community, some 80 km from Madrid, as the bird flies, is the subject of the 0,45 € stamp, part of a set of 4  stamps, issued on 20APR2001, themed on castles.

This set is part of a series that was issued for a few years with beautifully engraved stamps dedicated to the many beautiful castles that dot Spain's interior.

- The 70th General Assembly of the United Nations designated 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for  Development.

Tourism being such an important sector for Spain (and its neighbour Portugal) Correos de España did not 

let such a relevant decision pass by without honouring it with a 2 stamp set (1,25 and 1,35 €) highlighting it, issued on 17JAN2017.

Both stamps on the set are designed around the same idea, being illustrated with the logo of the International year and photographs where you can only see foot prints on the sand, as if summoning up the famous phrase, "take nothing but photographs; leave nothing but footprints!"