Czech Stamps with a Canadian Connection

This is from the Czech town of Břeclav. The stamp on the left from 2015 features Bob and Bobek playing hockey. They were characters from a popular childrens TV series but were made IIHF mascots when Czechia hosted the IIHF World Championship in 2015. The Canadian team won that championship. And the stamp on the right celebrates the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver, Canada. Czech speed skater Martina Sáblíková won a pair of gold medals at those games.

There are other things happening on this cover. The buildings to the left of the stamps depict Břeclav castle. The line drawing bottom left is the Mariánský most (a cable-stayed bridge) that crosses the Elbe river in Ústí nad Labem. And the little guy top left is a long-legged elf, also from Ústí nad Labem. Dlouhonohých skřítků is a geocaching game created by, I believe, the Ústí nad Labem tourist office. And I'm guessing the handstamp is something you get as part of following or completing a trail or rally related to that.

The End of 2022 at Prague Castle

End of 2022 postmark from Prague Castle. The clock face in the postmark represents the clock on the south tower of Prague's St. Vitus Cathedral. The 2010 stamp on the left is the painting "Paris and Helena" by Czech portrait painter Karel Škréta. On the right is a 2022 Christmas stamp.

Prague, Czech Republic

A small padded envelope from the Czech Republic that came to me with a few coins in it. I am pretty sure that from what I can make out of postal code on the postmark, it came through Prague. The stamp from 2010 shows the famous Alphonse Mucha "Zodiac" print, distributed by the French magazine La Plume in 1897.

Pardubice, Czechia

Postmarked in the Czech city of Pardubice with a postmark that commemorates 100 years of organized philately. The stamp on the right I've seen on another recent cover. It show the Vlčí jámy ravine and is the bottom half of a souvenir sheet that features beautiful sites in the Czech Republic found in the Ore Mountain region. On the left is a Lily of the Valley definitive stamp from 2018. And in the middle is a Red Chateau in Lhota stamp from 2014.

Horní Jiřetín, Czechia

The postmark from the town of Horní Jiřetín, Czechia, commemorates the third anniversary of the Ore Mountains being recognized by UNESCO. The center of the postmark is an image of Jezeří Castle. This ties in with the stamp on the right showing the Vlčí jámy ravine. That stamp is the bottom half of a souvenir sheet that features beautiful sites in the Czech Republic found in the Ore Mountain region and the top half of that sheet (not on this cover) is a stamp with an image of Jezeří Castle.

The other stamps are a 2014 commemorative showing the paper mill in Velké Losiny. It is one of the oldest handmade paper mills in Europe. Below that stamp is a 2012 definitive an old homestead in the village in Bušanovice.

Mladějov na Moravě, Czechia

The postmark commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Mladějov na Moravě post office. And the stamp commemorates Czech artist Ota Janeček.

Prague, Czech Rebpublic

The artwork on these stamps featuring Prague castle was designed by Alphonse Mucha and used on the first Czechoslovakian postage stamps in 1918. And the postmarks commemorates the 133th anniversary of the Czech Tourists' Club.

Mushrooms from the Czech Republic

 

Prague, Czech Republic

Czech actor Miroslav Horníček on the left and politician František Ladislav Rieger on the right.

Czech Geological Survey 100th Anniversary

Třebechovice pod Orebem, Czech Republic

From the Czech town of Třebechovice pod Orebem. The stamp on the right is an old paddle steamer: the Vltava. At first I thought the engraved stamps next to it was an older stamp but it's not that old. 2012. It is an image of the Baťa Canal. I wish more stamps were made this way.

Czech Antarctic Station

I came across this website the other day: http://www.antarcticfoundation.cz/en/postcard/. The Czech Republic, specifically Masaryk University, operate a small research base off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula on James Ross Island. The base is the Gregor Johann Mendel Polar Station and can house up to 20 during the summer. To generate a bit of income, or perhaps just to promote the base, they offer postcards for sale with an option to have them mailed from the base. Unfortunately they only accept payment through bank transfer.

Almost seven years ago I contacted someone at the University who was involved with research at the base and I asked if he could send something back to me during his next expedition. He was happy to accommodate my strange request. I had to supply two covers: one with Chilean stamps and another with Argentine. Sometimes they had contact with the Argentine base Marambio, but usually it was the Chilean navy. Both covers came back trough Chile but only the Chilean cover (this one) had a postmark. I had forgotten about this cover until I saw that website with the postcards.

I think if someone were to send a cover with Czech postage on it to the Czech Antarctic Foundation, they might be willing to send it back with the base stamp on it. But I`m not sure if they would be willing to carry it down to the Antarctic. Not if they`re selling postcards mailed from the base. I might have gotten lucky with my request.

Břeclav, Czech Rebpublic

Lanškroun, Czech Republic

Břeclav, Czech Republic

Břeclav is a city of 25000 in the south of the Czech Republic. It is an important transportation hub, being at a point on the Czech southern border where it forms a T with the borders of Austria and Slovakia. 

Czech Republic - Historical Means of Transportation

The stamps on this cover are from the Czech Republic's "Historical Means of Transportation" series and they commemorate some rather unique Czech designed vehicles. The Čechie 33 - Böhmerland is a motorcycle that can seat 3 people. And the Tatra 13/30 is a rail car that had the ability to rotate itself 180 degrees without leaving the railway tracks so it could be driven in both directions on the same track.

Tracking Down "Poles and Glaciers"

I've decided to hunt down more "Preserve the Polar Regions and Glacier Issues". My list of participants is now at 39: Aland, Algeria, Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Faroe Islands, France, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Moldova, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, Slovenia, South Africa, Switzerland, Ukraine, and Uruguay.



I picked up this beautiful sheet from the Czech Republic on EBay. Couldn't find any information about it on the Czech Post website until I went into the Czech version of the site (instead of English). I have to say I'm really impressed with Google's language tools. The list of languages it can translate keeps growing and growing and it doesn't appear to suck as much as it used to