Some time ago my friend Dai Woosnam suggested that posts about travel would be enhanced by the addition of some maps so I started a collection of map postcards and these are from my travels in 2013. Unfortunately I didn’t get one for my visit to Siguenza in Castila-La Mancha but I will be going back this year so will put this right!
Have Bag, Will Travel 
Great idea!
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I have my nose pressed against the computer screen looking at the Cantabria and Asturias cards having cycled there wondering if I can spot familiar stops. ( Likely I just need stronger reading glasses). At any rate I love this idea!
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The Spanish postcards are my favourites so I am annoyed that I didn’t start collecting earlier. Perhaps I will just have to go back to all of the places that I enjoyed just for the maps!
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As one who is always looking for excuses to travel I think the postcard collecting idea is a solid reason. 🙂
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Thanks Andrew for giving me the credit here.
But it takes two to tango: and you possess the great quality of always being susceptible to new ideas.
Perhaps I could sum up my thinking on this matter as follows:
1. From a purely AESTHETIC point of view, postcard maps look so darned good on your site. Forget their content for the moment: their very presence juxtaposed with your words, seem to give those words that vital imprimatur.
2. They are handy on a practical level: it saves me reaching for my atlas as I read your words.
3. It is always great to know where one town is in relation to another. The problem for the GPS generation, is that it is all very well having the convenience of getting to an address in the pitch dark in a rabbit warren of inner city streets in a foreign land, but they will never know the joy of us members of Mercator’s Army, in knowing where one town lies in relation to another by reading a map, even if some of us occasionally need to turn it upside down!
Dai Woosnam
daigress@hotmail.com
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Thanks Dai
Kim is a great map turner. Entrusted with navigation I always know that I am in trouble when the map starts to rotate. Once in Austria she explained how she had carefully plotted a course to avoid places that the map helpfully pointed out as ‘worth a detour’. Kim had interpreted this information as ‘worth avoiding’ when of course it actually meant ‘worth going out of your way to take a look’.
But I shouldn’t criticise – after all I can’t read a knitting pattern and she can!
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Love the maps very much. Had to grin at Dai’s comment: “even if some of us occasionally need to turn it upside down!” Been there, done that!
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Thanks Gunta – I have just replied to Dai on that very point!
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Andrew, I LOVE your travel map postcards. You’re inspiring me to search for these in my own travels. Wonderful. 🙂
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Outstanding idea about the maps. It’s handy to finger trace while reading your posts. I look forward to postcards. Must remember to collect both when next I travel. 😛
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I am looking to start a trend here!
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I look forward to the New Year on your blog, Andrew. 😉
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Great post Andrew, and what a wonderful idea! We’re map lovers and have an old one from when we lived in Sudan – but that’s all changed a bit by now. We featured your post in our Best of 2013 post. Wishing you a very Happy New Year. ~Terri & James
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Thanks Both & Happy New Year
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