Postcrossing Blog

We’ve just received another photo-filled report from the Little Mail Carriers, all the way from Galway! Read on their adventures in Ireland from their most recent host, ned44440, who did a wonderful job showing them around! :)

We arrived in Galway, Ireland on 20th May 2013 and settled in quite quickly. We enjoyed a few days rest and then got busy with our exploring. As our host works for the Post Office we got to meet some staff who were too shy to appear on camera. We saw how to prepare the payroll for such a large organisation but we can’t pass on any details as it is all confidential… It was exciting to see how it is done, though! During this first week we also saw some lovely green postboxes and some postal vehicles.

We were excited to learn that our host had planned a few trips for us! She first took us to County Roscommon with a lovely group known as TARA (or the Tirellan Active Retired Association). We travelled on a bus and visited the Strokestown House & Famine Museum, and then travelled on to the Dr. Douglas Hyde Interpretative Centre.

Strokestown House was both lovely and sad. It told the story of The Great Irish famine of the 1840′s which is now regarded as the single greatest social disaster of 19th century Europe. Between 1845 and 1850, when blight devastated the potato crop, in excess of two million people – almost one-quarter of the entire population – either died or emigrated.

Dr Douglas Hyde was the very first President of the Irish Republic!

Our next adventure was to visit Dublin to attend a Postcrossing Meet-Up and what a wonderful time we had. There were many postcards to be signed (and bought!!). One of the first things we did was visit the Postal History Museum in the General Post Office (GPO). Did you know that the GPO in Dublin played a significent role during the 1916 Rising which led to Irish independence? You can learn more at www.anpost.ie/heritage.

Our host said that while she always enjoys visiting the museum she is a little upset that a lot of the items in the museum are things she actually used during her earlier working life – makes her feel old. We saw a lot of the stamps issued by the Post Office down through the years, mail bags, sorting frames, telephone exchanges and many other interesting items.

At the meeting we met chrissybaby, fisherman, icspi and jr11577. We had a great day out in Dublin but were exhausted after it.

“Could this trip get any better?” we thought… and it did! Even though we were preparing for our onward trip we found two things we just had to stay put for. The first was a Post Office function… now, how could we resist that?

We discovered that one of our hosts colleagues, Marie, intends to drive a Post Office articulated truck in convoy with other Irish and British CWU members as part of the CWU (Communication Worker’s Union) Humanitarian Aid. Each year, members of the CWU both in Ireland and the UK fill trucks full of necessary items and drive the aid to exactly where it needs to go – a personal delivery with a difference. The trucks are filled with donations from many local businesses together with goods purchased with money gathered at fund-raising events. This year the trucks will head to Moldova. Marie is the first Irish female to drive one of the trucks. She held a table-quiz and raised a substantial amount of money. We had such fun but we didn’t win (truth be told, our quiz team-mates weren’t great but don’t say we said that!).

Here we are with Marie. Also in the pic are Jarlath, Geraldine, Brian and Damien.

Last (but definitely not) least, we found our way to the Titanic Centre in Belfast. What a truly awesome experience!! One definitely not to be missed if you ever get the chance. We first visited the Nomadic, which was the tender ship to the Titanic in Cherbourg. The harbour in Cherbourg was too shallow for the Titanic to berth at the docks so passengers were ferried out to her via the Nomadic. First and Second Class was opulent but Third Class (steerage)… not so opulent.

Here we are standing on the helm of the Nomadic with the Titanic Centre in the background.

And this is how the Nomadic looked like!

We then visited the magificent Titanic Centre. Here we learned the full story of the RMS Titanic from the day she was first thought of up to and including her discovery at the bottom of the sea, and also about the personal stories behind it.

Did you know that the Titanic was a Royal Mail Ship (hence the abbreviation RMS)? Her mail room had the capacity to carry 3,423 sacks of mail each containing up to 2,000 items of mail. Queenstown in County Cork in Ireland was Titanic’s last port of call before she set sail for America. It was called the saddest place as it was the main port of emigration from Ireland in south of the country. Most people who left Ireland in those days were never expected to return home again. It was never more true than on this occasion!

But it wasn’t until we visited Titanic’s Dock & Pump-House that we got a true measure of the size of the Titanic. We were able to descend right down to the bottom of the drydock.

We saw the keel blocks on which she sat while in the drydock being fitted out for her maiden voyage. We can but imagine what it was like for the workers who built the Titanic. This is an experience that will never leave us.

We travelled back to Galway on Tuesday and took Wednesday as our day of rest before our onward journey to our next big adventure. What an amazing world we live in!

Thank you ned44440 for taking them with you on these fantastic expeditions! On they go…

Some weeks ago, we took the Little Mail Carrier’s cousin along for a trip to the United Kingdom! It was his first time outside of Germany, and he loved going to all the touristic places and discovering the land of Her Majesty! On May 4th, there was a big meetup in Oxford, which we couldn’t miss, of course! Here’s his account of the day :)

Hi everyone!

The day started on the wrong foot… we left home in London with plenty of time to spare, but I got distracted riding this cute red cart…

… and just missed the bus to Oxford! Luckily, there were plenty more, and half an hour later we were zooming past the rolling hills of the English countryside. When we arrived in Oxford, postcrossers from all over Europe were having breakfast at a café near the bus station, already digging into their stashes of postcards – and they had brought sweets!

The day started with the obligatory trip to the post office, to stock on stamps. Did you know they have Doctor Who stamps here? They’re brilliant! They also had very neat posting boxes!

The day was beautiful, and we took the opportunity to stroll around the city center, to admire its history and architecture.

Oxford is known for its University, the oldest in the English-speaking world, dating back to the late 11th century! There were a lot of happy students zooming by in their graduation garments, and many proud parents as well – it almost made me want to go back to school, but for now a trip to the university’s shop would have to do. :)

We also visited the Alice in Wonderland shop for postcards…

… and many other stationery shops, including the delightful Paperchase!

During the tour, we had the opportunity to check out some British classics, like shortbread biscuits and all kinds of fun souvenirs!

After all the walking and postcard shopping, we had all worked up quite an appetite, and so it was time to sit down to eat, chat, swap presents…

… and write some postcards! There was much laughter and conversations in different languages between friends, old and new. :)

It was a lovely day, the kind that makes your cheeks hurt from so much smiling! A big thank you to Andy (aka Duplevista) for organising such a wonderful meetup! If you’re curious, check out more photos on some of the participant’s galleries: here, here, here or here.

What are you waiting to attend a meetup near you? Check this forum thread for updated dates and locations – and if there’s nothing near you, consider organising your own!

The last time we heard from the Little Mail Carriers, they were knee-high in snow in Siberia, but that was a long time ago… We were wondering what they were up to, when we received this exciting report from Chicago! Turns out, they’ve just spent some time with Heather at the fantastic Curt Teich Postcard Archives!

We’ve written about their Greetings from postcards before, so we were curious to see what Little Paulo & Ana would discover “behind the scenes”…

Hi everyone!

In April we traveled to Wauconda, Illinois, in the far northern suburbs of Chicago. There we visited the Lake County Discovery Museum’s Curt Teich Postcard Archives—the world’s largest public collection of postcards! Our first stop was the mailbox located at the end of the drive. It was quite roomy and gave us a chance to stretch after the trip.

First we saw the reading room and library, which is open to the public. We decided to do a little research. Postcards are sleeved before researchers handle them, and we were only given a few at a time to look at. Pencils only for note taking!

Next we were given a behind-the-scenes tour. The core of the archives is from Chicago printer Curt Teich & Co (1898–1978). The Teich Company specialized in printing postcards, and saved copies of everything they printed. During the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, it was the world’s largest volume producer of postcards. The archives literally holds millions of postcards from the Teich Company and other publishers.

The postcards are stored in archival boxes in cabinets. There are a lot of cabinets to hold all of the postcards. The archives also has production files that were used to create the postcards. Some contain original photos, notes, artwork and samples of wallpaper, carpet, or products. This client sent a carpet sample to get the colors and pattern just right.

When we were there, postcards from the Detroit Publishing Company were just being entered into the computer database.

Many of the postcards are digitized on a flatbed scanner at the archives and made available online at www.idaillinois.org. While visiting the digitizer, we made some new friends!

Later, we headed over to the museum building to tour the exhibits. We saw what the original off-set press looked like (that’s Curt Teich Sr., company founder, on the right).

We also discovered a “Top Secret” map! Did you know that during the Second World War, the Teich Company had a contract with the United States Army Map Service for printing maps?

There are lots of different types of postcards on exhibit.

It was great to meet the staff and see how the postcards are cared for at a postcard archive. They love postcards!

P.S. May 5–11, 2013 is National Postcard Week in the United States!

What a fantastic trip – sounds like postcard heaven to us! Thank you for showing them around, Heather! :)

Now they’re off to their next destination… the adventure continues!

Last weekend, we brought the Little Mail Carrier’s cousin along for a trip to Cologne, where the latest Postcrossing meetup took place. He was really excited about it – here is his account of the day! :)

Hi everyone! Last weekend, I travelled to Cologne (or Köln, as they say in German) to see the city and meet the local postcrossers… I didn’t know much about the city beforehand, so the first thing I noticed was their huge Gothic cathedral, right in front of the train station!

Whoa… look at that! It’s just… massive! Did you know it is a UNESCO World heritage site, and the most visited landmark in Germany? I couldn’t wait to get inside and have a closer look…

I could have spent hours there, just wandering around, admiring the stained glass windows, tiled floors and golden relics…

The Hohenzollern bridge that crosses the Rhine just in front of the cathedral was also quite impressive! All the fences were covered in love padlocks… how sweet!

But enough of culture and sightseeing – it was time for shopping! We hopped on Isagv's backpack and off we went!

Our first stop was at the Maus shop! You might have seen this orange mouse on German postcards before… he’s really famous around here! Maus stars in a beloved children’s cartoon called Die Sendung mit der Maus (The program with the mouse) which first aired in Germany in 1971. We hanged out for a bit, and I tried to get him to share the secret of his success, but he didn’t talk much…

After that, it was time for proper postcard shopping! Cologne has a neat postcard shop, the Walther Königs Postkartenladen. Inside, thousands of postcards awaited the eager hands of the many postcrossers…

When all our bags were filled with postcards and our bellies started to rumble, we headed down to the riverside for mealtime. The food was nice, but everyone was more interested in the postcards! As soon as the plates were cleared, we all started to write, sign and stamp the many many postcards…

… which were then sent on their way around the world, to the mailboxes of other eager postcrossers and friends!

When it was finally time to say good-bye and head off home, my cheeks were hurting from so much smiling and smiling! A big thank you to everyone who attended for this lovely experience – it was great to meet you all!

Group photo by Isagv on Flickr, where you can see more photos from this meetup.

Would you like to meet other postcrossers too? Check the forum for future meetups in your area – or if there are none, just start one!

Earlier in December last year, me, Paulo and a couple other postcrossers were invited on a special mission. We brought the Little Mail Carriers' cousin along for the ride, and he wrote this lively report:

Hallo from cold and snowy Lübeck, once capital of the Hanseatic league! You might have thought the reason we came all this way was to tour its UNESCO worthy architecture or try their worldwide famous marzipan… but you’d be wrong! We visited Lübeck because Schöning Verlag, one of Germany’s top makers of touristic postcards, has a factory here, and invited us to come see how postcards are made! Isn’t that exciting?!

Turns out, Bernd and Jana, two of Schöning’s employees (and our hosts in this visit), discovered Postcrossing not so long ago, and embraced it wholeheartedly! Look at the wall of postcards they’ve set up in their office:

Neat hum? How nice it must be, to do Postcrossing when you have literally thousands of postcards to chose from! :D

But how are they made? We’ve learnt that there are many steps involved in the process… and huge machinery!

Before printing, postcards must be designed, and Schöning has a team of designers in house to cover that task. Something we’ve discovered on our visit, is that a specific postcard is never printed by itself, but as a part of set postcards currently in demand. A technician groups these postcards together in a large sheet, and checks it for mistakes. After that, the fun begins!

Here is a picture of Paulo, holding an aluminium printing plate – you can see the outline of what they’re currently printing in there! Schöning has to make several of these plates for each set of postcards, one plate for each colour that their big machine prints in… here it is, the Heidelberg Speedmaster!

It is huge, filling up a whole section of their warehosue, and paper flashes through its several colour sections at an incredible speed! The sheets are constantly checked and adjusted, so that the colors have the right brightness and contrast every time. Then, they are fed to another machine, which gives them a shiny coating. Again, sheets whoosh past so fast that if you blink, you’ll miss them!

In the end, a technician cuts the individual postcards using a very sofisticated (and scary) cutting machine, and they’re wrapped in sets, which are then stored in Schöning’s huge warehouse. It was postcard-heaven!

They also have neat old machines, like this Heidelberg press, which at the time was being used to cut out heart-shapes on some postcards – cute!

In the end, there was still time to tour Lübeck’s Unesco historical center and drink some glühwein in the Christmas market with friendly postcrossers turtles and mondkind, who took the time to show us around.

And of course, no visit to Lübeck would ever be complete without a trip to Niederegger, the famous marzipan manufacturers! Delicious!

Coming back at the end of the day, we were all exhausted, but incredibly happy, and felt like we learned a lot in this exciting trip. Thank you Schöning for inviting us, and showing us the ropes! :)

PS – Schöning Verlag offered Postcrossing an advertising opportunity on their paperbags, and we’re asking members to vote on a design to print. Check out this forum thread for more information, and to cast your vote!