Berlin, 30.05.17 Hallo Hilary! This is the Revival postcard from Berlin :)!! 30 years later I’m now able to walk through Brandenburg Gate – it’s still a marvel!! I hope we won’t start building new walls in the future! Love Claudia
A status update from earlier this year, in which Claudia refers to the other card she sent me, 37 years ago 🙂 Berlin is now much more of a tourist destination than it was in the 80’s
Claudia and I continue to exchange news and views 🙂
Hello Hilary! I send you many greetings from the danish island Møn. I stay here with 5 friends. We rent a house very near to the sea and the beach. The weather has been very good for the whole week and I got very brown. I’ll soon write more. Yours Claudia
This card from Møn is postmarked ‘STEGE 14.30 8 8 1981’ and carries a 1 krone 30 stamp commemorating the oldest Danish coin.
Claudia is enjoying some good weather in Denmark; she sent this card to me not long after I’d arrived in Norway.
There are now many cards posted here from Claudia – she continues to communicate regularly although these days it is usually via WhatsApp 🙂
Hello Hilary! Here is my postcard from Berlin. It is very nice here although the weather is quite cold. Yesterday evening we went on to the top platform of the sky-scraper which you can see on the card. From there we had a wonderful view over the whole city. But next time I’ll write more Many greetings Claudia
So here’s a card from 1980’s Berlin some 9 years before the wall came down. It carries a 50 pfennig stamp from the castles and palaces series. At the top of this stamp you can see that it was issued by the Federal Post Berlin.
‘sky-scraper’ is a phrase of the era! The building is known as the Europa-Center.
The card is postmarked ‘BERLIN 5.11.80’ and carries a second postmark, the rough translation of which is ‘keep connected with mail’ – a great sentiment!
Claudia is another prolific communicator who is also widely travelled 🙂
Dear Hilary! I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a lucky New Year 1980. I’m always totally stressed before Christmas, so I send you only this card with the hope that we can continue our correspondence also 1980. Anyway have a nice holiday, many Christmas presents and perhaps a party at Christmas Eve. Yours Claudia
This card features another Christmas Greeting from Germany – the cards are very similar and sent just a year apart. The German text roughly translates as ‘A merry Christmas and a happy new Year’.
The postmark is clearly visible and is dated ‘FALLINGBOSTEL 21.12.79’ There is another postmark promoting the town of Fallingbostel with its Kneipp Spa and Luftkurort.
Schloss Rheydt, featured on the 60 pfennig stamp, is a Renaissance palace in Rheydt, Mönchengladbach. The stamp is part of the definitive series issued in 1977 featuring strongholds and castles.
Another card from Claudia who was not ‘stressed’ at all when I met her in London on Sunday! Having not communicated for some 20 years we have now managed to meet up In Real Life twice within the space of twelve months! Happy Days 🙂
Dear Hilary & Simon! We’re spending our holiday on the dutch island Texel this year and had two weeks with a lot of sunshine at the North Sea – very relaxing! Hope everything is allright with you and we’ll hear from each other soon! Yours Paul & Claudia
There is a little sketch of a seagull at the top of this card, which at first glance looks printed on but is in fact drawn by Claudia – look even closer and you’ll see the seagull relieving himself, perhaps this is the only hazard to be found on the peaceful island of Texel?
The postmark reads ‘HAARLEM 31 V 95’ and carries 80 cents of stamps.
Claudia and I exchanged letters and cards between Germany and the UK for many years, losing touch some time in the 1990’s. Amazingly, in ‘parallel’ lives fashion, she recently found some old letters from me, did a quick internet search and got back in touch via this blog. Even more amazingly, Claudia had planned a visit to London last weekend, so we met for an afternoon and caught up the last 20 years. We got along very well, helped by her ability to speak fluent English; and as she pointed out, we already knew lots about each other as we’d always written long and detailed letters. I’m confident that we’ll continue to be good friends into the future 🙂 Happy Endings/Beginnings!
8.07.83 Hallo Hilary! I send you a lot of greetings from the Algarve. Portugal is a marvellous country with very friendly people and a great landscape, especially in the Atlantic coast. The Algarve isn’t that nice, (too many tourists) and so we leave Portugal tomorrow to spend some days in Spain. I hope you also had a nice holiday & lots of ☼ (sunshine) Best wishes! Claudia
A beautiful sunset over the cliffs of the Algarve which, despite the charms of the landscape, seems spoilt by tourists!
The postmark ‘11.07.83 Vila Real St Antonio‘ suggests that it was dropped in the post box just before Claudia and her companion crossed over the river to Spain. The stamps are from the 1978-1983 definitive set of twenty two, illustrating work tools.
As previously mentioned, Claudia and I exchanged letters and cards between Germany and the UK for many years; however, it is now a long time since I last heard from her.
fromsomewherewithlove 