Netherlands - Black & White Movie Scene

 Arrived August 25, 2026

Yulia send this card from The Netherlands where she has been living for 7 years. She has visited Japan, but probably not up in my area. She noted on the back that she loves Roman Holiday a lot!

It's a great card and Audrey Hepburn is very popular here in Japan, so thank you!

Yulia also used some cool stamps on the back, so here you are....

Germany - Picnic Food

Arrived August 18, 2026

Hubert sent this amusing card from Germany. He wrote that he likes walking in the countryside with his children, grandchildren and friends.  

The stamps that Hubert used were great!  I used to watch The Flintstones when I was younger so I liked that stamp!

Spain - View Card

 July 17, 2026

Nuria sent this card of the Canary Islands. She put a soccer player sticker on the back, which didn't leave much room for her to write a message. 

She just said, " Tomorrow we play against Portugal and he [indicating the sticker of Nico Williams] is a really good player!"

This is the stamp she used .....

Spain - Mallorca

July 8, 2026

This card arrived from Lisa. She said she's from Germany but was on vacation in Mallorca. She visited a city with her family as a child and then showed her boyfriend around yesterday. She sent her best regards.

These are the stamps that Lisa used on the card. I like them!

 

Netherlands - Transportation

 July 8, 2026

Martijn sent this colourful train card from The Netherlands. He said that he was reading Les Misérables by Victor Hugo and a comic at the moment.

He used an interesting stamp on the card too, although it is a little hard to see through the postmark!

Books - Netherlands and Germany

July 6, 2026

Leah sent this card from Germany. She wrote about her town and her favourite movie [The Blind Side] as she loves the message and how loyalty and love is portrayed.

I've read about 5 of these novels, how about you?

She also asked me what my favourite Jason Statham movie was....I have a few, I like Spy as he's hilarious in it and I also like The Transporter because the action is very cool. 

July 8, 2026

Anneke sent this from the Netherlands and mentions that she lives near the Belgian border. She notes that the stamps show writers from the Netherlands.

 

France -Crown Jewels

 July 3, 2026

Mik sent me this card from France....I believe that the crown on the front is part of the British Crown Jewels. 

He said that he had an aunt with the same first name as me, and wished me the best with a Japanese man. [What does that even mean? We've been together for almost 25 years.] And then mentioned that his son nearly married a Japanese woman! (Shades of Bridget Jones' Diary?)

He sends his best!

St. Edward's Crown with which the Sovereign is crowned.

The stamps he used were rather interesting as well. Apologies for putting it on sideways, I just wanted to show off the stamp more!

Austria - Book

Received April 30, 2026

I got this pretty card from Karin in Austria. She basically just sent greetings and translated the phrase on the front of the card for me. 

The card says, "No poet gives a finished heaven, he only sets up the ladder to heaven from beautiful earth." It was written by Joseph von Eichendorff.  It's an interesting thought!

 

I haven't seen these stamps before. The big one on the right is an old vehicle.  The yellow stamp on the left shows a Bodensee Radhaube, a hat made out of gold and silver lamé threads. It's an almost lost art to make these hats and it is made by hand. 

Books - USA

 This card arrived recently from the US. Liz wrote that she lives in Florida and travelled to Japan a few years ago.  

Generic Books, but definitely something I like!

She put some cool stamps on the back of the postcard. I rather like them. 

Thanks Liz!

Black & White Actress Card

Received April 22, 2026

This is my favourite type of card!  It's a black and white card of an actress that I have never heard of before, causing me to do a bit of research on IMDb to find out more information. Yay!

Naveen wrote that this card shows Keerthy Suresh in the movie Mahanati (2018). It's a film biopic of the legendary actress Savitri. I haven't seen this film of course, but the actress whose life it was based on was an interesting person!

Keerthy Suresh as Savitri

He also used some cool stamps on the card that I haven't seen before. 

Thanks for a cool postcard!

The Netherlands

Arrived April 22, 2026

This card came to me from Liesbeth in the Netherlands. She used a few stickers and a lot of stamps on the back . It's a beautiful looking place.

     

These are very cool stamps!  

Thanks Liesbeth!

Russia

January 28, 2020

This card came from Fedor in Russia.  He wrote in English on the back which was nice for me!

He wrote,
"Hello!

My name is Fedor, I live in Kemerova, Russia. I speak German and some English.
I like reading and traveling. Last time I was in Vladivostok near Japan.
This is very beautiful!
Good luck!"

Metro station <Mayakovskaya> 1938

Great Britain

September 17, 2019

This lovely card arrived in my mail slot with a friendly note on the back. It came from Iago in Britain.

He wrote:

"8th September 2019
Hi Helen!

I hope you are well. I am a Spanish medical writer living in London. I have recently visited the Cotswolds, an area of outstanding beauty in Oxfordshire.

I will visit Japan in December, so any recommendations around your area would be very welcome!

Best regards, Iago"

Cottage garden in Woodstock, Oxfordshire.

An interesting stamp...

Netherlands

June 21, 2018

This card came from Johanna in the Netherlands.  She wrote a friendly message about getting around in her area.  It's quite different than in my part of the world!

Johanna wrote;

Hi Helen,

The famous Kinderdijk mills are about 10 km away from where I live.  The area always is very crowded with tourists.

If I should like to go there it is possible to travel by waterbus over the river: no parking problems, and the bicycle has free transport.

Happy Postcrossing,
Johanna

Werelderfgoed Kinderdijk

 These stamps are in one strip, the margins are just as interesting as the stamps themselves!

Ukraine

June 20, 2018

This interesting little card came from Tania in the Ukraine.  She wrote a friendly fun note on the back and used interesting stamps, so this was a good Postcrossing.

Tania wrote;

Hi, Helen!

I have chosen this card as I Bet you haven't seen Gapchinska's angels. And it reminded me of Japan. This spring I have watched full season of a travel show "World Upside Down" filmed in Japan.  It was sooo interesting!!

I work as a teacher and this week I asked my students to watch "The Iron Lady" and "The King's Speech" for the test.  Have you watched them?

Best wishes,
Tania

06/07/18

Seven Goldfish

These are the stamps that were on the back of the card.  Interesting!

Russia - Bond Black and White Card

June 18, 2018

A little Weekend Bonus for you here as I have received quite a few great cards recently and haven't had much time to post them.  It's a long weekend here and I'm off on a little trip.

Irina sent this great card to me from Moscow with her friendly note.  I love Bond Cards!

Irina wrote:

Hello!
My name is Irina. I'm from Moscow. My hobbies are reading good books, weaving, knitting and cross-stitching.

Best Wishes!

007 Donald Pleasence as Ernst Stavro Blofeld in
You Only Live Twice (1967)

I'm not sure what the stamps are about, but the first one is something to do with surgery and medicine I think.

Belarus

January 29, 2018

Irina sent this card from Belarus with a little info about her city and a trolleybus ticket pasted on the card.  I can't say I've ever had that before, but I quite liked it.  We don't have anything quite the same here!

She wrote,
"Hello Helen!
My name is Irina.  I'm from Belarus. I live in the city of Gomel.  Gomel is the second city in Belarus. I send you a trolleybus ticket from my city.  On the postcard you can see the chapel tomb of Princes Paskevich. this is one of the attractions of Gomel.

Have a good mood! Irina"

This is a coat of arms for Rahachow, a Belarus town.

France

December 25, 2017

This pretty card arrived on Christmas day all the way from France.  It was sent by Sylvie and she wrote a nice and friendly note on the back of the card.

She said,

"Hello, Bonjour, greetings from France where I live in a little town just about one hour from Paris where I work.

Have a good day!! Bye, au revoir,

Sylvie"

This interesting stamp was on the card too.  I like the black and white and gold colours of it.

Thanks Sylvie!

Algeria - Yarn Related

November 8, 2017

This card surprised me when it arrived in our mail slot.  It is from Algeria!  I've never had a card from Algeria before, so it was a lovely treat.

The sender had a friendly note on the back, and even wrote a little something in Arabic that unfortunately I can't read, so it was an interesting and cool card.

He wrote,

Hello Helen!

I hope you're fine and hope you'll like this card showing a typical Algerian girl knitting a traditional carpet.

[Arabic writing]

Warmest greetings from Algeria!

All the best.

Kader"

To be honest, I don't think the girl is knitting.  It looks to me like she is winding wool.  I believe these carpets are woven, but I may be mistaken.  If anyone knows, please let me know.

 A very interesting stamp with different kinds of energy being featured.

Czech Republic

April 28, 2017


This great card came from the Czech Republic and was sent by Tomas.   He wrote a nice, long message on the back of his card, which pleased me to no end.

He wrote,

Hi Helen,

My name's Tomas. I'm 34 y.o. man

from the Czech Republic. With my  

family living in small village

named Tlucna near of Pla[can't read the rest], centre

of the Western Bohemia.  I working 

in Prague, capital of the CZ. I'm

police officer.  My favorite hobbies are 

history, genealogy, sport and books.

I love famous novels of Franz

Kafka.  This card is about his

word in his novels.  I hope you'll like it.

Happy PC :-)

Tomas

The stamps are interesting too.  I've seen the flower one before, but I don't think I've see the other one.  It's too bad that one of them is torn.  

This is the last Postcrossing card that I will receive for a while as I still haven't re-activated my account.  I have been buying postcards recently though, and I am hoping to start sending them out soon!