Vermeer Exhibition in Dublin

Europe-Ireland-Dublin It is not often I put postcards up here featuring Paintings. But in June I visited a marvellous  exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland It featured works by Vermeer the famous Dutch Painter from 1632-1675. This one is one of the most famous "The Love Letter " circa 1669-70.

These stamps feature Royal sites in Ireland. From a time when we had Kings of Ireland. The one of the left "Hill of Tara" , I can even remember from my school days. 

Europe-Ireland-Dublin  Here is another and perhaps my favourite from the Exhibition. " Woman writing a letter with her Maid " circa 1670. You will note that both feature letter writing well before we had postage stamps as we know them.

Some more Royal Sites. The more famous one on the right is the Rock of Cashel which is very impressive . You can visit here on the way to County Cork 

Benidorm Spain

Europe-Spain-Benidorm My first time here for a few days break . Lovely beach and lots of nearby restaurants. Got lucky with great weather for this time of year. 

The Post office only sold stamps in packs . These came in a pack of 5. Limited choice. Single stamps were only available as labels 

Tokyo Japan

Asia-Japan-Tokyo Had a stopover at Narita Airport in Tokyo on my way from Hokkaido. So could not resist sending this card from the airport . Tokyo a city I visited previously and really enjoyed it. 

This card has a Kamata postmark . Love those stamps . In Japan looks like a lot of cards are handstamped which is great to see. 

Kuching Sarawak

Asia-Malaysia-Sarawak State  Here you can see the famous river in Kuching. If you stay in the Hilton Hotel you can just walk outside to hear and hop on a small boat to get to the other side. Kuching is full of charm with loads of old type Chinese stores. 

As you can see this has many stamps from the State of Sarawak. These were the only ones still on sale at the GPO in Kuching. Sending cards from here has been a bit of a rare problem for me. I never received two I had previously sent. So I especially went back to Kuching on my way to KL . I met the head Postmaster and explained that I really needed my postcards to make it home. I posted one in a post box and one I gave personally to the Postmaster. Well the one I put in the post box is the one that arrived home. No sign of the other. The Postal service is very poor . The Postcard took 2 months to make it here. This is the final card in the Malaysian State set. 

World Heritage Site - Erbil Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Middle East-Kurdistan-Erbil This is the main area in Erbil as seen from the Citadel. On the left hand side there are many shops . 

These cards took nearly three months to get here, so I had sort of given up on them. The stamps are all large size and bring me to the point that I never write the address and details until I have attached the stamps. 

Middle East-Kurdistan-Eribl This is a good photo of the Citadel. It is a World Heritage Site. I got these cards printed in India by my good post collector Jinesh. The local selection of cards available were pretty poor. 

Would love to know what the postmark says. Either way a clear date of July 23. I helped stamped many of the cards myself as I had a lot to mail for friends. 

World Heritage Site - Shiretoko

Asia-Japan-Hokkaido-Shiretoko Another view from the sea to the mountains. This is the sort of view I had on the cruise. A nice calm day at the World Heritage Site. 

These are beautiful Japanese stamps and very hard to see here. I bought them in the Central Post Office in Sapporo in Hokkaido. 

Shiretoko World Heritage Site - Hokkaido

Asia-Japan-Hokkaido-Shiretoko This is the World Heritage Site at the top of Hokkaido. This is a view of the sightseeing boat that I took from the cliffs .  It was a very enjoyable easy 4 hour trip .

These again are the prefecture stamps of Hokkaido . Cancelled in the local post office near Shiretoko. In fact it is right beside the hotel I stayed in . This was the Post office that they would not let me take photos when I discovered they in fact had Hokkaido Prefecture stamps on sale.