COVER N. 756 - SPAIN 

Postmark: Castillo de Peníscola/Peñíscola - Oficina Posta de Peníscola/Peñiscola 12.08.2026

Posted on the 12th August;  Received on the 14th August

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Upon returning home, with the impressive image of the solar eclipse still quite vivid in my memory bank I was greeted by a somewhat generous week's mail in the letterbox, which had been rather neglected by Mr. Postman during the previous two weeks.

Among the nice letters and postcards I received, one immediately grabbed my attention not only for the uncommon format of the envelope, but also for the beautiful souvenir sheet on it, cancelled with one of those absolutely lovely pictorial postmarks that Correos de España has created for several Spanish cities and places of interest.

But that was not all. When was the last time that you have received a letter addressed on a manual typewriter?

All in all, a totally unexpected and totally welcomed letter and what's more the opportunity to keep in tune with the last post in my blog.

Moltes gràcies, Eva. M'ha encantat la sorpresa i espero que també hagis tingut l'oportunitat de gaudir de la bellesa de l'eclipsi.

My wife and I really enjoyed watching the eclipse from a good location with full unimpeded view  in Vinhais, District of Bragança, in the Trás-os-Montes region, in the northeastern tip of Portugal.

Unfortunately, we were not in the totality path (although very close to it: > 99.5%) what does make a huge difference, I had the opportunity to learn, since the corona was not visible.

Still,  we had no traffic jams, had plenty of space for ourselves and could even seat on a stone bench for the duration of the event. 

All in all we had a great time, safe for the heat we had to endure, for the day temperature was running on the very high 30s centigrade, 39, maybe? In fact, the way the temperature dropped as the eclipse reached its climax was  one of the things I was most happy with... 😀

I won't go in more detail here since I just finished a post on my other blog with a couple of elucubrations about it all, which you are welcome to check , should you feel so inclined  (I have a "translate" buton, on the side of the pages).

Anyway, back to Eva's lovely letter.

The souvenir sheet with a 4 € stamp Eva used to post the letter was issued on 23JUL2026. 

The stamp itself features  a photo composition with all the phases of a total solar eclipse on its top third with the logo for Trio de Eclipses, the Website that the Spanish Ministry of Science through the National Geographic Institute has created to provide information regarding the three solar eclipses that will be able to be watched  from locations in Spain in 2026, 2027 and 2028.

Below it, a satellite image of the Iberian Peninsula and another smaller picture of the Canary Islands, with the totality path for the 2026 eclipsed indicated on it.

The rest of the sheet is occupied with an enlarged part of the photo composition on the stamp, the aforementioned logo for the Trio de Eclipses platform and the legend Ciência, Eclipse solar total, España 12 de agosto 2026. The Correos logo is also present on the top left corner of the sheet.

The beautiful pictorial postmark, which has the particularity of being dated of the day of the eclipse, features the castle of Peníscola, a town on the edge of the Mediterranean sea in the province of Castelló, in the Autonomous Community of Valencia, with a population of about 8,000, which was under the path of totality for the 12th August event. Some people have all the luck.... 😉

Eva's letter was written in a most beautiful postcard featuring an image I was not able to watch: an artist's rendition of the totality moment. I absolutely love the colours and the composition.