POSTCARD N.125 - GERMANY

Postcard sent on the 27th November; received on the 6th December 2023

Postcard image: The Christmas market at Marienplatz, Munich
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Christmas time....that time of the year when you can't go out on the street without having to hear somewhere a loudspeaker filling the air with songs that register in your mind and will then accompany you for days..... how I.... yes, let me be frank... Hate it! I can't stand Wham's "Last Christmas" or Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas..." or any of the other hits of the Season....

Thankfully there's always Bach and the Christmas Oratorio.... just the trumpets in the first Choral of the first Cantata are enough to wear away the conversation about someone giving his heart  and the very next day getting it back....good for him or her, living without a heart is such a nuisance....

Anyway call me Scrooge as my daughters dis, but Christmas and I have a long difficult relation....

Still, Thanks a lot Alex, for the nice Munich Xmas market postcard. Be it as it may, Marienplatz is such a great place.

The most recent edition of the  Special Olympics World Games took place in Berlin between 17 and 25 June, 2023.

During the eight days of the Games, 6500 Athletes with intellectual disabilities competed in 26 different sport disciplines, Germany, the host, being also the country who collected more medals, with a total of 247, (79 gold; 72 Silver; 96 Bronze). China and the UK (119 and 103, total, respectively) came second and third in the final ranking.

As I understand it, the host for the next edition, to be held in 2027, is still not chosen, with two candidates still on the run for it: Jakarta (Indonesia) and Santiago (Chile).

On the occasion of the 2023 Games, Deutsche Post issued a the 0,95€ stamp Alex used, illustrated with the logo of the games, the bear, symbol of the city, present on its coat of arms, and the unmistakable silhouette of Berlin's Television Tower.

The stamp is obliterated with a nice pictorial postmark  of the Münchner Christkind Market - Munich's Christmas Market - and a regular Munich Post Office day mark is also present in the card.