Sunday 30 June 2013

Arctic Travel

This year's Europa theme is " The Postman's Van" so we are being treated to stamp views of parcels being delivered across Europe.  I think the Greenland perspective is the most romantic. The postcard shows a dog sled skimming over the snow and ice in West Greenland 
and on the stamp delivering parcels at high speed. The stamps were designed by Christian Fleischer Rex who was born in Denmark but brought up in Greenland's capital, Nuuk, where he now runs his own business. Qualified in animation he has worked on several films and also illustrated novels, children's books and created his own graphic novels, one of which is about the Greenland legend Kaassassuk (The Orphan).   This story was featured on the last of the 'Greenland Comics' series in 2011, which he also designed.
For barrelling along the roads of Greenland here are the vans loaded up and delivering, it must be summer as there is only snow in the gullies of the mountain behind the scene. I like the little scooter parked on the grass.
The Maximum Card shows "Postie at work in Ilulissat, West Greenland", a coastal town 120 miles north of the Arctic Circle (the direct translation of the name is "Icebergs" ) the towns  motto is "The town by the Ice-fjord", the fjord is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. That sounds like a great postal round, I'd like to jump in that van with her, looks like it could be fun.  Tele Post is the telecommunications, postal and emergency radio service for Greenland. The message on the side seems to translate as "Download and bring - lets make it easy for youRead more at www.post.gl"

An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps

11 comments:

Little Nell said...

The stamps do match the pictures well. Is that usual to have them on the same side, instead of the reverse? The hall of fame has some great examples. Thank you for showing us these.

Maria said...

So nice to see how postal service works in the arctic. I just so love those sleigh dogs and how efficient they are!

Bob Scotney said...

It would be difficult for the UK to show such postal deliveries now as their little red vans are boring to say the least. I'd take the dog sledge team.

agi said...

love the postmark with the happy springy pooch <3

viridian said...

Driving the postal van in the winter would be difficult! Thank you for sharing a view of Greenland that we would not see otherwise.

Lisa B said...

I wasn't aware of Europa themes until reading Sunday stamps :)

Postcardy said...

That is one of my favorite stamp themes. I especially like the combination of the stamp and card.

Scriptor Senex said...

What a super maxi-card.

Mail Adventures said...

Wow, really interesting. The stamps are great, I like the illustrator very much.

Sheila @ A Postcard a Day said...

The first card and stamp are a really attractive combination. I haven't seen any from the Royal Mail so I assume they won't be doing any, which is a shame if so.

Joy said...

Thank you for all your lovely comments.
Little Nell - Yes all Maximum Cards do this, the idea is to theme a stamp to a different card scene and significant postmark. Win win for the postcard and stamp collector.
Viridian - too funny, doh, I hadn't thought of winter driving conditions.
Sheila - Yes royal mail Europa stamp is issued in August as part of their Auto Legends set but as what seems to be a trend are hiding it away on the miniature sheet of working vehicles.