From Otto to Siegfried - Würzburg, Germany

It appears that Otto was practicing his English on this card to Siegfried, who was spending his Summer vacation of 1905 at a spa resort. Bad Elgersburg is a scenic area known for its curative baths. The artist Edvard Munch came to Bad Elgersburg later the same year to recover from various ailments.

The message reads:

Dear Siegfried!

Thanks for your postal. I have sent the letter, if you have not got it, it was stolen from the person who opened it! Who was that? If this person publishes it in an amerikan tiding or journal he may get much money for this  art "Kunstwerk." I shall tell you more, when we meet again. Herzl. Gruss your friend Otto   Beg for answer! rapidly!

The front of the postcard shows the Käppele, a small Baroque/Rococo chapel by Balthasar Neumann in Würzburg, Germany. You can still visit it today. The City of Würzburg is still very beautiful despite the fact that it was bombed more completely than even Dresden at the end of World War II. On March 16, 1945 an estimated 90% of the city was destroyed by British bombers. Thousands of residents died and the medieval town center was destroyed. The fact that Würzburg still looks so beautiful today is due in large part to the painstaking efforts of survivors who sifted through the rubble and reconstructed buildings over the following twenty years.

A House Bargain For You!

Here we have one of the first houses to go up in the Valley of the Estancia Ranchettes. Haven't you always wanted to be a rancher, I mean...ranchetter?

What would you say if I told you you could get a house like this for less than the price advertised on this old postcard? Yes, I hear that there were some shenanigans and some real estate people ended up in jail over this project. I also understand that water is a little hard to come by in this area outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and if you drill a well you may find that it fills with saltwater. Just remember the saying: If life gives you saltwater, make saltwater taffy.

Anyway, I'm not suggesting you live in the house. No, this is a movie set, a movie set with great potential for unlimited sequels. You could get rich!

I know you can come up with better movie ideas than I can, but here are a few to get you started:
1. Murder at the Estancia Ranchette
2. Valley of the Estancia Ranchette Dolls
3. Day of the Estancia Triffids
4. Alien Invasion in Estancia
5. Tumbleweeds Ate My Cat

Postcard to Kolozsvár

 

This wonderful postcard consists of a collage of German-language advertisements and announcements.  At first I thought the postcard might be Czech. In any case, it is addressed to someone in Kolozsvár (the Hungarian spelling of the Romanian City of Cluj), the informal capital of the province of Transylvania.