Legends

2013: Tour de France 100th edition

The 100th edition of the Tour de France was celebrated by Luxembourg with this commemorative sheet by the Belgian graphic designer and Luxembourg resident Jean-Philippe Janus. He has chosen two images for the stamp which sports fans always look forward to, the mountains of the Pyrenees and the finish in Paris after all those long grueling kilometres using the international shorthand for Paris - the Arch de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower.  The portraits of the riders are constructed from the letters of their names.  They are, from left to right - Francois Faber (1887-1915) who was the first foreign winner of the tour in 1909 although really he was a dual national as his father was a Luxembourger and his mother French. As you might guess from his dates he died fighting for France in World War One at Arras.  Our next winner had a much longer life, Nicolas Frantz (1899-1985), who was one of the elite band who have worn the yellow jersey from the first to last day which he achieved in 1928 despite his bike frame breaking at one point and having to borrow a woman's small bike. Next is Charly Gaul (1932-2005) called 'the angel of the mountains' who was at his best riding in cold wet weather. Lastly we come to the modern era with Andy Schleck whose win was bitter sweet as he was awarded it retrospectively after Contador was disqualified for doping so did not get his day on the podium in 2010. He had to retire in 2014 due to a knee problem and now runs a bike shop in a renovated barn in in Itzig, just outside Luxembourg City.

1927: Definitive provisional stamp

Another legend but this time of a tree, the Cedar of Lebanon, which I will show from different eras, mainly because I only have four stamps in total from Lebanon. The stamps of the Ottoman Empire were used in Lebanon and then after the war French stamps but this is one of the provisional independent stamps of Lebanon overprinted with 'Republic Libernaise' and with the 'Grand Liban' crossed out.

1937: Definitive

 The cedar is of course Lebanon's symbol and appears on their flag so it occurs a lot on the stamps too but I especially like this one.

1961: Definitive

Lastly here is a whole grove of trees, 'Les Cedres'  which look quite idyllic. In the 1940s Lebanon reverted back to the French word for the country (Liban) on their stamps.

At this point I was running out of country Ls but as a last resort turned to my father's old 'Everyland Postage Stamp Album' from his youth, yes that is where I inherited my stamp addition from.

1919: Liberation of Courland

Here we have a warrior fighting a legendary beast, a dragon.  Latvia was much fought over in World War 1 and after the conflict Courland or Kurzeme became one of the five provinces of the newly formed country of Latvia.  The country's infrastructure and resources were mostly destroyed so paper to print stamps was in short supply however they came up with an inventive solution.  They did have lots of maps and occupation currency left behind by the German army so that is what they used. Some stamps have the maps on the reverse however this particular set of stamps were issued on woven paper in December 1919 but it exhausted the supply.  The story of "The Money Stamps" can be found here

Sunday Stamps II prompt is the Letter L - here for Luxembourg, Lebanon, Latvia, Legends and Liberation - leap to See It On A Postcard for more.

Struve's Arc

I think this must be my favourite miniature sheet; it portrays scientific endeavour but in the stunning setting of the forests and lakes of Finland. I love all the activity going on, including sitting down.   The sheet contains 2 se-tenant stamps with the marvellous Finnish philatelic imagination of one consisting of the large circle surrounding the map and the other the map itself. (the circle does not show up too well on this scan but you can see the two denominations)   But back to the scene and the horizon curving in the distance which is appropriate for this is a commemoration of the measuring of the Struve Geodic Arc. An internationally organised meridian arc survey which influenced the future development of science and helped establish the precise shape and size of the Earth.  The 2,822 kilometre arc stretches from the Arctic coast in Norway to the mouth of the River Danube at the Black Sea.  The measurements were carried out from 1816-1855 under the leadership of the astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve from the Dorpat (Tartu) University in present day Estonia.  Today the line passes through 10 countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine).  Just imagine all that triangulation measurement, there were 258 main triangles with 265 main station points.

Latvia's miniature sheet features the measuring instrument as well as a portrait of Struve, part of the large endeavour can be imagined by the tower on the left of the sheet. The other stamp is a concrete marker post which I think must be a nod to 2005 when the measurement chain was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site with 34 commemorative plaques or built obelisks out of the original 265 main station points which are marked by drilled holes in rocks, iron crosses, cairns etc. 

When Eeva sent me the Finnish miniature sheet she also enclosed a postcard of one of the

Struve points with the Finland map stamp. Start walking now?


 An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps

Riga

The cable stayed Vansu Bridge (Vansu Tilts) or Shroud Bridge in English is over a kilometre long and one of five bridges in Riga crossing the Daugava River.  Opened in 1981 and originally called Gorky Bridge (Gorky Tilts) but guess because of his Bolshevik links the name had to go as Latvia reinstated its independence in the 1990s.

The shiny skyscraper is Saules Akmens or Stone of Sun built in 2004 for the Hansa Bank. Originally this was going to be 15 story high but was increased to the present 27 floors and became the tallest building in Latvia, and part of the plan to expand the centre of Riga to the west side of the river.  My card gives the address as 1a Balasta Dam and the date 2004, which I would guess is when this photo was taken because Hansa Bank, which had a presence in all the Baltic countries, was fully bought by Swedbank and the building rebranded at the end of 2008. A turbulent year for all the worlds banking companies.

So far so Latvian, but my card came with a Danish stamp, the sender is studying in Denmark, but missing her city of  Riga.

The stamp is one of two from photographs by Steen Larsen. This one is of Aarhus, Denmark's largest container port, and depicts the crane grab of a quayside crane unloading animal feed from the tall grain-house, the grey building on the left used to be a salt store but is now a general warehouse.

The postal services of the Nordic countries are issuing a three part stamp series entitled 'Nordic Coastline'.  All eight countries will be issuing stamps in this series in 2010, 2012 and 2014.  The theme of the first part is 'Life by the Coast'.  Living by a coast, so slightly obsessed, I was hoping someone from one of the eight countries would use one of these series. Only seven to go now!

Thank you Kristine for showing me your world. The card travelled 549 miles (883k) and took 3 days.