Postcrossing Blog

andrea209 (aka Andrea) lives in Bielefeld, and is a regular at the Postcrossing Bielefeld meetups. It was there that she first introduced us to her curious hobby: bottle-cap collecting! Her massive collection is now in the tens of thousands specimens, from 147 different countries… very impressive!!

Here is what she had to say:

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

It was a family-meeting around Christmas when my sister and her kids told me about postcrossing. And my sister showed me her first postcards from countries I never expected to get postcards from. So when we come home (it was around midnight) I started my computer and signed up right away.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

My husband and I have a very crazy hobby – we collect bottle-caps. Yes, your are right; these little things you find on beer-bottles, soda, pop or something else. You want to know more? Feel free to look at www.asippel.de. As other Postcrosser support our collection we now have bottle caps from Iran and North Korea.

And I love to paint. More than 100 of my sent postcards are painted ones and I’m very happy about every postcrossing-profile which asks for handmade cards.

Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

After being a member for some time I find out that I love very colorful cards or paintings by some special artists, like Leonid Afremov (I’m still waiting for my first card) or Victoria Kirdiy. And I love lighthouses and teddy bears. As I received so many gorgeous cards it’s hard to say which one I like most…….

My husband gave me this rack as a birthday present – the perfect place to keep and show my received cards.

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman or your postoffice!

This is my favorite mailbox. Just next to the shop where I buy all my stamps.

Have you met any other members in real life?

Oh yes, I have met a lot of other postcrossers and every time it was wonderful. I’ve attended all four International meetups in Bielefeld (the meeting-point is just 2 km from my home), also meetups in Cologne, Münster and Soltau.

Last year I also organized the first meetup for postcrossers from Bielefeld and surroundings. And since we had so much fun we will meet again next spring!

Have you inspired anyone else to join Postcrossing or start collections of their own?

Yes, I have, up to now 4 people. My sister-in-law and her sister and also two ladies I met when I stayed at a rehab in 2010. And 3 of them are still active postcrossers!

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!

Some months ago, while touring an underground bunker in Berlin, I was treated to a rare sight: a mini-demonstration of Berlin’s old pneumatic dispatch system! And that got me thinking… were there other pneumatic mail delivery systems in the world? What could we find out about them? If you’re curious too, keep reading!

The story of pneumatic tubes starts with William Murdoch, a Scottish engineer, who invented them in the 19th century. Developed later by the London Pneumatic Despatch Company, these tubes used pressurised air to propel cylindrical containers throughout systems set up in certain buildings or sometimes, entire cities. During the second half of the 19th century, the pneumatic post system was implemented in post offices and telegraph offices of several large cities to quickly deliver letters and telegrams between themselves, banks, stock exchanges, and ministries. This method was found to be much more convenient and quicker than transporting letters in horse-drawn carriages or depending on human messengers.

Control Panel of Prague’s Pneumatic Post system

In 1853 the first system was built, linking the London Stock Exchange to the city’s main telegraph station; in 1861 it transported mail from the Euston railway station to the General Post Office and Holborn; in 1865 the Rohrpost was developed in Berlin, spanning 400km; in 1866 Paris created their system, a total length of 467km. Other cities like Vienna, Prague, New York City, Munich, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Hamburg, Naples, Rome, Milan, Melbourne, Marseilles, Philadelphia, Boston, St. Louis, and Chicago soon followed.

Some systems became rather complex and effective, but were eventually surpassed by more modern methods of communication and transport, and were mostly abandoned during the 20th century. The Paris network was in use until 1984, finally replaced by computers and fax machines. One lasting pneumatic post network still exists in the Czech Republic, known as the Old Lady of Czech telecommunications. Prague’s network of tubes extends 55km and was still used for delivering letters and parcels until 2002, when a flood rendered it inoperative. The current owner is gradually repairing and preserving the system, in hopes of using it as an educational experience and tourist attraction. Today, hospitals, banks, nuclear reactors, and some airports still have uses for these systems, and have updated and refined its technological ability.

Check out the blog pneumaticpost.blogspot.com to learn more interesting facts about these tubes and about the subculture of “steampunks” who cherish it so. The blog also features a many tube maps, like this one of Prague.

Nicole (aka Mondkind), from Hamburg, is a regular at the yearly Postcrossing meetings in Bielefeld. She has a fondness for small knitting and crochet projects… and big books! Here is what she had to say to our interview questions:

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

While reading another blog I was aware of Bookcrossing and after looking around for a while, I discovered the Postcrossing website. I was fascinated by the thought of getting mail from all corners of the world and to see places that I did not even know existed. I signed up immediately, and the next day I sent the first five postcards.

When I received my first postcard and read the very kind message, I instantly took a new address and from this moment I knew… I wanted to receive a lot more postcards. I was infected with the Postcrossing virus!

Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

One of my favorite postcards is my first one, which came from Riga with kind words on it.

Here are some other postcards I like:

KG-564 is one of the postcards with the smallest postcard ID I have ever received.

RO-30290 shows the famous Dracula castle! I love many other postcards, like for instance JM-722 or ZA-13315.

Have you been surprised by any place that you have received a postcard from or sent a postcard to?

Any postcard is a surprise for me. When I open my mailbox, I never know what is inside, how many cards are there, where are they from, who was picked to write me. But it is always a special surprise when a card comes from a far away country or a country from which I hadn’t received a card so far!

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

This is my mailbox.

This is an album I’ve made for very nice postcards and stamps.

And here’s my postbox, and a wine box where I store my postcards to send!

Have you inspired anyone else to join Postcrossing or start collections of their own?

Yes, my son Loris joined Postcrossing, too. I think it’s a good way to improve his English and he likes to get nice postcards.

And perhaps the owner of a lovely small shop – he was surprised because I bought so much of his very nice postcards… I told him about Postcrossing and he was very excited and curious. And perhaps he is now already one of us… :)

Have you met any other members in real life?

Yes, of course. I’ve attended the international Postcrossing meeting in Bielefeld twice, and several other meetups in Germany. Some here in Hamburg, two times in Berlin… I’ve even organised a mini-meeting in my house!

I am happy because I’ve developed some really great friendships developed through Postcrossing.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I love to read historical novels and detective stories. I have a weakness for thick books. Rebecca Gablé is one of my favourite authors. I enjoy knitting and to crocheting small things. I am too impatient for large projects!

Hi! We’re the Little Mail Carriers, Little Paulo and Little Ana! In the last months, we’ve been busy cruising the world in the hands of postcrossers, but we’ve recently came back to the office for an impromptu visit… You see, we’ve heard rumours that there was going to be a huge Postcrossing meeting in Germany, and we didn’t want to miss out!

We’ve been to a few meetings before, but nothing compared to this one! There were almost 60 people in attendance from a dozen different countries (including Australia!), all staying in the same house… we knew it was going to be a blast! :)

Let us show you what we did there:

On Friday, we took a day trip to Münster, the “bicycle capital of Germany”. We did the tourist tour through all the main sites with a big group of postcrossers and visited a few Christmas markets. We loved the gingerbread hearts, and the giant nutcracker!

Postcard shopping was, of course, an important part of the trip. This little shop was crowded with all the postcrossers ooh’ing and aaaah’ing over the cute postcards!

While we were waiting for everyone to finish their postcard shopping, we spotted a postman on his bike! We asked him if we could take a ride, which he graciously allowed!

Back at the Einschlingen Guest house, there was much to be done! Have you ever received a postcard from a meetup? They’re usually filled with signatures from all the participants. In a meeting this big, it takes a long time to sign all the cards… We chose a few, and made sure that Paulo didn’t miss a card. Then, we gave it a go as well!

All the postcrossers seemed to have brought something sweet from their country, and the tables were piled up with deliciousness!

And oh! There was a huge pile of presents for the Christmas lottery! Everyone’s names were entered on a bowl, and norbaer helped people draw out names and presents! In the end, all postcrossers had received something cute or funny :)

On Saturday morning, there was an article on the local newspaper about the meeting! We didn’t understand all the words, but it sure looked good.

On Saturday, we also wandered on the streets of Bielefeld. We visited a famous postcard shop, met a few local postcrossers, saw the Christmas market … and a crepes stand which had soooo much Nutella! :)

We were almost the last ones to leave on Sunday afternoon, and we were quite sad to go… We loved meeting so many people that share in common a passion for postcards and Postcrossing. Old and new, from near or far… we had a lot of fun in the days we spent together! Perhaps we’ll see you there next year?

PS – Can you guess how many postcards were signed on this meetup? Answer on the forum in this thread for a chance to win some prizes! :)