Girona is the most northeasterly provincial capital of Spain. A bus or train from the centre of Barcelona takes you there in about 1:30 hour. Twelve kilometres from Girona is an international airport, primarily served by low-cost carriers and holiday charters.
The city appeared twice in the 'monumentos y paisajes' series of the 1960 that continued as 'turismo' series. The first stamp depicted a view of the city from the old stone bridge over the River Onyar with its typical houses with balconies hanging over the river. In the background appear the city's cathedral and the basilica of S. Feliu.
The Baroque main façade of the cathedral appears on a second stamp. Hidden behind this seventeenth-century is the early-Gothic church from the beginning of the fourteenth century with its even older Romanesque cloisters. Begun as a church with three naves, it was decided to make it a single-nave church. As a results, the cathedral has the widest mediaeval nave in the world and the second widest in all after the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican City.
The city's main post office stands a stone's-throw from the Onyar on the bank opposite the mediaeval walled town.
As this post office opens Monday to Friday during the whole day, I made use of the opportunity to add to my stock of stamps that I shall be using on postcards. With the 'D' tariff remaining unchanged and the prospect of returning to Spain before the next tariff change, I was content with buying € 2.10 stamps rather than those with the 'D' tariff indicator and save my non-value indicated stamps for a later date.
Finland, like other Scandinavian countries, is a country where you may struggle to find a post office. When I asked the receptionist at my hotel where I could buy stamps, she replied they were sold from all stores. I asked her whether that meant supermarkets and the 'Kioski' shops. I doubted a clothes store would sell them. I had seen a Postnord logo on the shop window of a Kioski shop in the main street of Turku. The receptionist confirmed I could buy them there.
Turku is the old capital of Finland. It is a harbour city in southwest Finland. Its Swedish name is Abo. An hourly intercity service runs between Helsinki and Turku. The service is only slightly less frequent on weekend days and holidays. The intercity takes just under two hours. Coming from Helsinki's airport, about thirty minutes from Helsinki by local train, change at the Pasila Station. Public transport announcements are in Finnish and Swedish. Stations have both a Finnish and Swedish name. English announcements are also made on the trains.
Near the harbour, on the bank of the Aura River stands Turku's 13th-century castle. It was extended with a bailey in the 16th century. Some 3½ kilometres upriver stands the cathedral from the early 14th century. The town centre is about a kilometre from the cathedral.
Although Postnord operates in Finland, letters are carried by Posti that issues stamps. Having bought a few postcards from the castle's souvenir shop, I went to the Kioski shop just off the main (market) square. I asked for international stamps. Finland has an inland and foreign letter rate. The latter covers all foreign countries. The shop attendant told me she had only few stamps left. These were the 'Echoes of Japan' stamps issued on 13 March 2019. It appears few people send letters or postcards abroad. These self-adhesive stamps come in cards of 10 stamps, five of each design. She had eight stamps left. I bought them all, using five and saving the other three for my colleague.
I also inquired about the inland stamps. She had a box with a roll of self-adhesive 'Landscapes of Finland' stamps issued 9 May 2023. These were printed by Dutch security printers Johan Enschedé. I thought there were five different stamps, but the shop attendant pointed out there were seven different stamps. I bought a strip of seven stamps.
As I had not seen any letter boxes, I asked the shop attendant where I could post my cards. She pointed me at a letter box next to the counter.
The old Phoenixville CT post office is about 3 miles from my house in Greenfield Village (Dearborn) MI. Build in the early 1800's this post office was discontinued in 1910. In 1928 Henry Ford purchased the building and moved it to his Village, and in 1929 letters were being postmarked again. It stopped being an active post office during covid, and I haven't seen it opened since.
On 14 March 1919, the Palacio de Comunicaciones was inaugurated. The neo-Plateresque building designed by architects Antonio Palacios and Joaquín Otamendi was conceived as a centre for all the country's communications services: i.e., post, telephone, and telegraphs. For many years, it housed the philatelic bureau.
The building stands on the Plaza de Cibeles, one of Madrid's most iconic squares. From 2007, the city council started to move into the underused building. In 2011, the city council convened in the Sala de la Batalla of the palace. It, no longer, is used by Correos and the philatelic bureau moved to other premises. During the COVID crisis, its staff worked from home. It, currently, is known as Palacio de Cibeles.
The number 203 express bus that connects terminals 1, 2/3, and 4 of Madrid's Adolfo Suárez Airport (Barajas), with the Atocha Station also calls at the Plaza de Cibeles on which the palace stands. During the night, the bus service terminates at the Plaza de Cibeles.
I took the picture of the palace in the evening of 3 June 2024 from the bus. I took the picture of the Cibeles Fountain in the Square sometime after midnight in November 2023, whilst waiting for a night bus (Buho) to my hotel.
In 2019 Correos issued a miniature sheet commemorating the centenary of the inauguration of the Palacio de Comunicaciones.
As the name suggests, this town is in the region of La Vera at the feet of the Gredos Mountains, in the province of Cáceres (Extremadura community). The region is famous for its peppers. Ground dried red peppers from the region come with a protected designation of origin.
Jarandilla de la Vera is served by two or three daily buses from Plasencia, where there is a train station served by Media Distancia trains from Madrid, taking three to four hours. Buses from Plasencia run along the main road passing through the region and take about an hour to get to Jarandilla de la Vera. There also is a daily Samar bus service from Madrid's Méndez Álvaro (Estación Sur) bus station (direct local train from the airport's terminal 4 and metro from all terminals with changes), and a weekly one from the Principe Pío Intercambiador (dito). The first service takes 3:45 hours and drives through the Gredos Mountains. The second takes just over 3:30 hours and calls at Talavera de la Reina, avoiding the narrow road through the mountains.
The town has a large parish church that still shows traces of its original purpose as a mediaeval castle. In the fifteenth century, the Counts of Oropesa had a new castle built in the town. They converted their old castle into a parish church.
When Holy German-Roman Emperor Charles V, who was born in the Low Countries (Ghent, now in Belgium) abdicated in favour of his son, he retired to a monastery in the La Vera region. In February 1557, he was hosted by the Counts of Oropesa at their (new) castle for three months awaiting the completion of his residence at the nearby monastery.
The castle appeared on one of the "Castillos de España" stamps issued in 1967 (Edifil no. 1810).
The castle stands on the main road through the region, circa 100 metres from the bus stop and the post office. At present, it houses the local Parador de Turismo, where you can follow in the footsteps of Charles V.
With this thread in mind, part of planning a trip to Spain is figuring out where the local post office is. But sometimes finding a post office is pure coincidence.
In the hills over Cuacos de Yuste, 2 kilometres from the town itself, stands the Hieronymite monastery of Yuste (Monasterio Real de San Jerónimo). It was this monastery to which Holy German-Roman Emperor Charles V (German Emperor, Lord of the Netherlands, and King Carlos I of Spain) retired after he abdicated.
There is a 12 kilometres' long trail from the castle of the Counts of Oropesa in Jarandilla de la Vera to the monastery has signs identifying this "Ruta del Emperador." After the completion of his residence at the monastery, Charles V undertook his final journey along the trail, accompanied by the Count of Oropesa who had hosted him at his castle during the preceding three months.
All buses mentioned in my previous post call at Cuacos de Yuste. The weekly one from Madrid's intercambiador de Principe Pío terminates at Cuacos de Yuste. Most weekdays (the monastery closes on Mondays, as usual in Spain) it should be possible to take a bus from Jarandilla de la Vera, where I was staying, to Cuacos de Yuste and have an opportunity to return. The first of these, however, passes early in the morning.
The Monastery's website – you might want to buy a ticket in advance during the high season, but it is not necessary off-season – stated that you could only stay inside the monastery for 40 minutes. Adding a half hour each way from the bus stop to the monastery, the bus timetables are somewhat inconvenient: you have five or six hours before there is a return service. I therefore took a taxi – that I had to share – to the monastery and was planning to catch the 13:45 service from the monastery. This, however, does not leave from the monastery, but from the bus stop in the town. With just ten minutes left to walk back, I missed the bus and had to wait until 17:50 CET.
Cuacos de Yuste is the administrative capital of the La Vera region. It has a monumental centre that is worth a visit. It, however, is a small town and it can be visited in an hour. After having a drink and a Caprese salad advertised as a tomato carpaccio, I decided to walk around the town to take a few pictures. Between 14:00 and 17:00 CET everything in town but for a restaurant on the main road and a café on the main square closes.
Having walked around and returning to the main square, I looked on my map and noticed there should be a Renaissance mansion just off the square. I had missed it on my first pass through this street. This time, I also noticed the town's post office in the same street.
On 15 November 1965, three stamps were issued showing Yuste Monastery (Edifil nos. 1686 – 1688). Charles V ordered the construction of a humble residence adjoining the monastery in the style of his birth house in Ghent.
Two hours by Media Distancia train from Madrid's Principe Pío Station (direct Cercanías service – line 10 – from terminal 1 of Madrid Adolfo Suárez, Barajas Airport) is the town of Arévalo. A local bus runs between Arévalo train station and the town that is some distance from the station. Alternatively, you can catch a bus from the Méndez Álvaro (Sur) bus station (same Cercanía from the airport) to the town. When going by train, you will have a view of the San Lorenzo Monastery at El Escorial and a spectacular view of the walled city of Ávila de los Caballeros.
Arévalo is a former royal town. The triangle Madrigal de las Altas Torres (birthplace), Arévalo (childhood), and Medina del Campo (place of death) is closely related to the life of Queen Isabel I "la Católica" of Castile. When the princess was three years old, she was brought to the royal palace in Arévalo (demolished with approval of local Philistine bureaucrats in the 1970s). She received her education in the town. She remained there with her younger brother until she was 10 years old. After becoming queen of Castile, she visited the town on at least a dozen occasions.
For many centuries, the town was ruled by five families (linajes) that descended from those that repopulated it after its Christian reconquest. In recent years, Arévalo has discovered its touristic potential. It, however, is not overrun by tourists and the mansions of the five families are in ruins. There are several churches of which that of Santo Domingo de Silos guarding the town's patron saint can be visited. Another church opens to the public as an exhibition centre. Most of the mediaeval town wall has been demolished over time, but one of its Mudéjar gates survives. Its fifteenth-century castle that was the first in Spain designed to withstand artillery has been restored at the middle of the last century to serve as a silo.
The main sight of the town is its Plaza de la Villa with its porticoed houses, the Mudéjar church of Santa María la Mayor – sadly not open to visitors -, the mediaeval church turned exposition hall. Also, on the square stands the local history museum (most information is translated into English). The man attending claimed it was the place where the Treaty of Tordesillas (7 June 1494 dividing the world into Portuguese and Castilian lands, in the wake of Colón's rediscovery of America) was ratified by the Catholic Kings. It appears likelier it was ratified at the royal palace.
One of the rooms of the museum is dedicated to the Trinitarian Brother Juan Gil who was born in Arévalo and entered the Trinitarian monastery of the town. He spent much of his life raising funds to pay ransoms for Christians held as hostages and whose families did not have the money to pay the ransom.
In 1572, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra had participated in the Battle of Lepanto, where the fleet of the Holy League defeated the Ottoman fleet. His services earned him letters of recommendation from the fleet's captain, Juan de Austria (illegitimate son of Emperor Charles V who had a house in the centre of Cuacos de Yuste). In 1575, on his way home from Naples the ship "Sol" on which he was travelling was captured by Ottoman pirates and Miguel and his brother were taken to Algiers as hostages. Seeing the letters of recommendation signed by Juan de Austria, the pirates took Miguel for a very important person and demanded a ransom his destitute family could not pay. It was Brother Juan Gil, whom he knew personally, who finally raised the funds to pay his ransom, in 1580.
Later, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra would draw on his experience as a hostage and mention Brother Juan Gil in his "Don Quijote." The post office is about 500 metres outside the mediaeval town, at a stone's throw from the ruins of the Trinitarian Monastery.
Bourg-en-Bresse is the administrative capital of the Ain department (01), that is part of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. It is situated ca. 60 kilometres north of Lyon, where there is an international airport connected by bus and RhôneExpress light railway to Lyon – Part Dieu train station (29 minutes). The airport has a TGV station. From Lyon – Part Dieu train station, there is a frequent direct train service to Bourg-en-Bresse (45 minutes – 1 hour). TGV trains connect the town with Paris.
Just off the road from the train station to the historic town centre and a few hundred metres outside that historic town centre stands the enormous post office of Bourg-en-Bresse.
I bought some stamps to put on postcards on Friday afternoon. French post offices, usually, have some issues on display. At the counter, they may have some other stamps. The staff were very friendly and helpful, as usual at French post offices. As the girls helping me showed me stamps, it took some effort to explain I would like some extra stamps for a colleague's brother-in-law. Before I paid for the stamps, the two young girls of similar age and remotely similar aspect asked me whether I thought they were sisters. I said I did not think they were. They were not.
The main sight in the city is the Brou Royal Monastery. In the early 15th century, Bourg-en-Bresse became the capital of the Dukes of the Savoy. At the beginning of the 16th century, Margeret of Austria, daughter of Holy German-Roman Emperor Maximilian I founded a monastery at Brou. The church was built in Flamboyant Gothic style. Its choir guards the monumental royal tombs of Duchess Margaret of Bourbon, Duke Philibert the Handsome and Duchess Margaret of Austria.
It had been the wish of Duchess Margaret of Bourbon to have a monastery built on the site. She, however, died before she could put her plans to practice. In 1501, Margeret of Austria married Philibert the Handsome. He died in 1504. Margaret of Austria ordered the construction of the monastery to become the final resting place of Philibert.
Margeret of Austria was the older sister of Philips the Handsome, sovereign Lord of the Netherlands. Before marrying Philibert, she had married Juan, the heir to the thrones of Castile and Aragón. This was part of a double marriage between Maximilian I's children and those of the Catholic Kings of Castile and Aragón. Soon after the marriage, Prince Juan died. Consequently, not Margaret but her younger brother Philips the Handsome who had married Juana of Castile and Aragón became heir to the Spanish thrones.
After the death of Isabel I "the Catholic," Philips the Handsome and Juana left for Spain. Upon his death, Maximilian I named the widowed Margeret governor of the low Countries and guardian of Charles of Habsburg – the later Emperor Charles V who retired to the Yuste Monastery posted above - who, now, was the new sovereign of the Low Countries. For this reason, she was sent back from the Savoy to the Low Countries, where she and her brother had been born. In 1519, Charles V named her governor for life. When she died in 1530, she was buried at her Brou Monastery.
In the historic centre of Bourg-en-Bresse remain several half-timber houses from the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The oldest house in the city is thought to date to the early fifteenth century. Timber from the house has been dated to the late fourteenth century.
Walking around the old part of the city to take some pictures, I came across a small post office in the Rue Bernard.
And not far from the wine heaven of Macon. I liked the Agnes Varda stamp. I had the privilege of hearing her introduce a series of her short films at the French Institute in London, a couple of years before she died. Utterly charming and unaffected.
There is a direct bus service from the (main) station in Bourg-en-Bresse to Macôn. From Lyon - Part Dieu, take the TER to Dijon, shortly before buying some mustard, you can pick up a few bottles of wine. Have a chicken dinner (not for me, I don't eat meat or poultry) in Bourg-en-Bresse.
I only spent a night in Prague. I visited the city in 1990. In 2019, I was there for a seminar. At that time, already, it had become too touristy. As beautiful as the city is, mass tourism makes this a place I want to get out of as soon as possible. I took a late-afternoon flight to Prague and had booked a hotel room near the main station that turned out to be on Wenceslas Square. Looking for a place off Wenceslas Square to have dinner, I noticed a sign pointing at the main post office.
Only 100 metres from the square, I found a restaurant that serves excellent food - the delicious smell of the gazpacho made me believe I was in Andalucia – at a reasonable price. After dinner, I walked to the main post office to take a picture. The impressive building stands 200 metres off Wenceslas Square in the opposite direction from the restaurant.
The neo-Renaissance building by Antonin Brandner was built between 1871 and 1874 on the site of a former monastery. The central hall once was used by the carriages that carried the post. It once housed the Czech Post and Telegraph companies. Currently, the Post Office uses only the covered central hall and offices on the second floor.
Inside the central hall, the walls show decorations by Karel Vitezslav Masek from 1895.
It was almost 22:00 h, and to my surprise, the post office still opened. So, I decided to have a look inside and buy some stamps. I was hell-bent on sending my girlfriend a postcard from Prague and I would be looking for postcards to send from other towns. So, having some stamps in stock would come in handy.
The basic tariffs are for inland (B), European (E), and Rest of World (Z) post.
At one of the entrances, there is a pillar advertising the philatelic counters 29 and 30. These did not open at that late time.
Nor did the area open where you could have personalised stamps printed as advertised on the floor at the same entrance.
I did find a postcard. The next morning, I walked to the main station and got out of Prague.
Kromeriz, spelled is a small town in the Zlínský Kraj (region of Moravia). Regular long-distance trains from Prague Hlavni Nadrazi (main station) take just under three hours to get to Hulín, if they do not break down at Prerov. During the day, there is an hourly all-station service between Hulín and Kojetín that calls at Kromeriz. Kojetín is the station where you can change for or from an hourly regiojet service that calls at Czechia's second city, Brno (one hour). The ride to Kromeriz take-s about 15 minutes from either station.
About fifteen minutes on foot from Kromeriz train and nearby bus stations is the old town of Kromeriz. This old town is not much more than a large square surrounded by buildings that show their Gothic origin. On one corner of the square stands the historic town hall that had its second floor added in the nineteenth century.
Just off the (diagonally) opposite corner of the square stands the Baroque manor (castle) that is the summer residence of the Archbishop of Olomouc. The chateau arises on the site of an older castle where Bishop Stanislav I Thurzo had a late Gothic castle built. In 1664, a bishop from the Lichtenstein – Kastelkorn family commissioned Filiberto Lucchese to transform the castle into a Baroque chateau. Adjoining the manor is the only remaining town gate.
Below the castle are its large Baroque gardens that, now, are a public park where you will find peacocks and, if you are lucky, a red squirrel.
A kilometre and a half away from the Archbishop's Castle are the Archbishop's Baroque flower gardens with disappointingly few flowers. The castle, its gardens, and the flower gardens were listed by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites, in 1998. The castle or its gardens have been used in several movies. The castle was used to represent the Vienna Hofburg in the 1984 movie 'Amadeus.'
The town's post office stands on a major road junction at the end of a pedestrian zone to the side of the town hall. The 'UNESCO World Heritage' footpath connecting the castle with the flower gardens that is indicated by signs in the pavement passes across the road junction from the post office.
My request for stamps caused a panic with the man behind the counter. His English was rudimentary and he did not speak German. He had to call in the help of a colleague. I noticed the inland 'B' stamp and asked for one for a colleague's brother-in-law, who is happy to add any stamp to his collection.
Brno is the second-largest city in the Czech Republic. It has just under 400,000 inhabitants. There are plenty long-distance trains from Prague's (Hlavni Nadrazi) main train station that take about 2:30 hours to get there. Some connect the two cities with Vienna, Graz, or Bratislava. Opposite Brno's (Hlavni Nadrazi) main train station is the old town.
The old town is quite lively and appears to attract quite a few – often young - tourists. The architecture is 'Viennese.' Most buildings were built in Viennese Classicist or Historicising style in the 1800s or early 1900s. And if they were not, they were remodelled in that period.
The main sights are the Cathedral and Spilberk Castle. The functionalist Villa Tugendhat built (outside the old town) between 1928 and 1930 is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Cathedral of Saint Peter and Paul dates to the late Middle Ages but was extensively altered in later centuries. The two towers that dominate the city's skyline and the main façade are neo-Gothic additions from the early twentieth century.
The picture – yes, some hotel rooms have stunning views - shows Zelný Trh (Vegetable Market). As the name suggests, this was a mediaeval marketplace. In the later Middle Ages, it specialised as a vegetable market. There, still, is a small daily vegetable and fruits market in the square. In the background is the St. Peter and Paul Cathedral. In front of the cathedral stands the residence of Cardinal Franz von Dietrichstein from the early seventeenth century. It once was the largest civil building in Brno. Just to the left of the picture is the Reduta Theatre from 1607. It is the oldest theatre in Central Europe. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart performed at the theatre when he was 11 years old. Just off the square stands the late Gothic town hall to which a couple of local legends are attached.
On a hill just outside the old town sits Spilberk Castle. It was constructed in the thirteenth century by Premyslid kings and completed by King Ottokar II of Bohemia. In the Middle Ages, it was the seat of Bohemian kings and Moravian margraves. Later, it became a Baroque citadel that would become one of the most notorious prisons in the Austrian Empire.
Opposite the main train station is a small shopping mall. On its fourth floor is the post office.
I went there to replenish my stock of stamps to put on postcards (difficult to find other than at Spilberk Castle's souvenir shop). I was served by a moody woman who, quite clearly, had been waiting for the end of the workday the moment she arrived at work. Speaking English did not help to improve her mood. Luckily, there was a very helpful colleague. I managed to get hold of some stamps I had not got earlier.
Based on the tourist guide I got from the tourist office, the main post office (although derelict the guide still suggested it was in use) used to be next to the train station.
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Posted 02/12/2024 11:42 am
(Main Post Office)
is a small town in the Zlínský Kraj (region of Moravia). Regular long-distance trains from Prague Hlavni Nadrazi (main station) take just under three hours to get to Hulín, if they do not break down at Prerov. During the day, there is an hourly all-station service between Hulín and Kojetín that calls at Kromeriz. Kojetín is the station where you can change for or from an hourly regiojet service that calls at Czechia's second city, Brno (one hour). The ride to Kromeriz take-s about 15 minutes from either station.
