United Buddy Bears and "Little Tiger & Little Bear" characters' stamp - a card from Germany

UNITED BUDDY BEARS

Country: Germany

Place: Bamberg
Received: 23/04/2013

Distance: 1 225 km
Travelled: 30 days

United Buddy Bears

Buddy Bears are big painted bear sculptures from Berlin, firstly created in 2001. The first activities were presented during the Buddy Bear Berlin Show, when the artists painted about 350 bears to decorate the streets of Berlin. The United Buddy Bears is an international project, which chooses artists from the individual countries and is a platform even for small and poor countries. On their global tour, the "United Buddy Bears" promote peace, love, tolerance and international understanding; the entry to the exhibitions is always free.

"Little Tiger and Little Bear" stamps

In February I received this great card with the "Little Tiger and Little Bear" characters. Now the senders, a wonderful couple from Germany, decided to make me happy and send a hand-made card with bears and also two special stamps with the same heroes, issued recently.

Cat and the window, Tagetes and Eurasian lynx - a card from Germany

CAT AND THE WINDOW

Country: Germany

Place: Kaiserslautern
Received: 30/03/2013

Distance: 1 450 km
Travelled: 20 days

Cat and the window

Kaiserslautern has the population of almost 99 500 people, and its historic center dates to the 9th century. Additionally, Kaiserslautern is a home for about 50 000 people from NATO military community. The early American military population had some difficulties with pronouncing the German name, and Kaiserslautern is also named as “K-town” for this reason.

Tagetes flower stamp

Eurasian lynx stamp

Lynx is widely used in heraldry, symbolizing visual acuity. Due to this, the constellation was named after the lynx by Johannes Hevelius in 1690. Hevelius commented his choice: “Only small stars are located in this part of the sky, and you are to have the lynx’s eyes to distinguish between them and recognize.”

Small Tortoiseshell and Élysée Treaty anniversary - a card from Germany

SMALL TORTOISESHELL 

Country: Germany

Place:  Montabaur
Received: 24/02/2013

Distance: 1 397 km
Travelled: 6 days

Small Tortoiseshell

The Small Tirtoiseshell (Aglais urticae L.) is a well-known colourful butterfly. It's scientific name, unticae, comes from the word "urtica" (nettle), because nettle is one of food plants for this species.

Élysée Treaty anniversary stamp

This joint stamp was issued by France and Germany to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty, the landmark agreement between the two former enemies.

Little Tiger and Little Bear, the German National Library's anniversary and Tagetes - a card from Germany

LITTLE TIGER AND LITTLE BEAR

Country: Germany

Place:  Bamberg

Received: 10/02/2013

Distance: 1 225 km

Travelled: 32 days

Little Tiger and Little Bear

Little Tiger and Little Bear on this postcard are the popular characters, created by Janosch (Horst Eckert), German writer and illustrator. They are very popular among both children and adults and appear in books and TV series.

The German National Library's 100th anniversary

The stamp commemorates The German National Library's 100th anniversary. The Library was founded in Leipzig in 1912, and all publications in German were systematically collected there starting from  January 1, 1913. Now the Library counts about 24.1 million items in total, located in Leipzig, Frankfurt am Main and  Berlin (wish I had all of them ;))

Tagetes flower

Tagetes is native to North and South America, but some species are naturalized around the world. The common English name, "marigold", comes from "Mary's Gold". 

Watercolor painting and the Brandenburg Gate - a card from Germany

WATERCOLOR PAINTING

Country: Germany

Place: Mannheim

Received: 9/01/2013

Distance: 1 390 km

Travelled: 36 days

Watercolor painting

Watercolor (aquarelle) painting appeared in China after the paper’s invention in the 2nd century. In the 12-13th centuries paper extended widely in Europe, first of all in Spain and Italy. 

Watercolor painting combines both painting (shapes and space are created by the use of color) and graphics (active role of paper) features. 

Watercolor paint consists of some principal ingredients including pigments, arabic gum (binder), some additives and solvent. 

In the beginning of the 19th century watercolor painters had buy the pigments and prepare the paint themselves. The earliest commercial paints looked like resinous blocks to be wetted and rubbed out in water. In 1781 William and Thomas Reeves invented the moist watercolor paint and were awarded the Silver Palette of the Society of Arts. 

To avoid confusions with different color names used by their producers, in 1990 the art material industry began to list the pigments on the paint packaging and use the common pigment name ("Copper Violet”) or proper identification code (PV for "Pigment Violet").

The Brandenburg Gate 

The Brandenburg Gate is the only remaining town gate of Berlin. The original name for the gate is the Gate of the World. The gate was built by Carl Gotthard Langhans in 1789-1791 with the facade originally painted in white.

The Gate consists of twelve Doric columns forming five passageways, but the citizens originally were allowed to use only two of them. Atop the gate is the Quadriga of four horses driven by Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory.