Willem's Planet

January 24, 2025January 31, 2025

Friday/ a dry January 🏜️

Happy Friday.
We will have our first 5 pm sunset for the year here in Seattle tomorrow.
It’s been frosty in the mornings and cold by day every day since I’ve been back. And no rain.

Report and graphics from the Seattle Times.

January 23, 2025January 31, 2025

Thursday/ the camera has landed 📷

I left my camera behind in my hotel room in Cape Town on Monday of last week. I had it picked up at the hotel, and shipped back to me.
(Thanks for the help, Chris!)

I think this was the last straw: this camera stays home next time I go on an overseas trip.
I need a light, compact travel camera that can go into my backpack.

Here it is, the big camera with a big, heavy lens on, to boot. (Not shown in the picture is the padded camera bag that the camera was shipped in, bubble-wrapped inside the bag.
I checked the route that the camera took to get to me from Cape Town, and it looks like this:
Picked up in **Cape Town, South Africa**.
Arrived at DHL Sort Facility in **Amsterdam, The Netherlands**.
Arrived at DHL Sort Facility in **Leipzig, Germany**.
Arrived at DHL Facility **East Midlands, UK**.
Arrived at DHL Facility, **London-Heathrow, UK**.
Arrived at DHL Sort Facility, **Los Angeles Gateway, CA**.
Arrived at DHL Sort Facility, **Seattle, WA**.
Landed on **Willem’s porch**. (Landed in my hands, that is. I had to sign for it).

January 22, 2025January 31, 2025

Wednesday/ additions to my album 📖

Is a stamp collection— any collection— ever complete?
One can always add objects that are ever-so-slightly different than the ones already in there.

Check out these additions to my South African stamp album, which is already a complete collection of all the issues by the South African post office*.

*The years 1910 to 2020, when the last postage stamps were issued.
Iceland stopped producing postage stamps in 2020 as well, and Finland has indicated it may soon follow suit.

I don’t carry whole stamp booklets in my stamp album, but these cute “razor blade” booklets with the art deco-ish fonts on their covers fit into the narrow plastic pockets that normally carry stamps, and voila! they are now part of my collection.
“Post your letters during the lunch hour” instructs the booklet on the back. Cute— but in 2025 we don’t really have lunch hours and definitely no letters to put in the mail anymore; a time now long gone😔

I modeled this page on a preprinted page I found online, of German stamp album producer Leuchtturm (hence the German descriptions for the colors, which I kept as-is, just for fun).

For an unknown reason, this is the only stamp in the series with a “hatched up” version of the text on the stamp (the “RSA 4c”, made up of stripes that go up from left to right), as well as a “hatched down” version.
Are they really different stamps? Of course they are.

One more example of a slight variation in one of the issues.
The 30c stamp in this series was printed on phosphorescent as well as non-phosphorescent paper, and therefore the two versions are also different stamps!
(I only had a pair of these stamps— no singles— and I don’t break up pairs, so the pair goes into the album as-is).
All other stamps in the series were printed on phosphorescent paper only.
One needs a UV-light to see the difference.

January 21, 2025January 31, 2025

Tueday/ go Ben! 🎾

It was a disappointing day for Carlos Alcaraz fans (me): he lost his quarterfinal match against Novak Djokovic.

Ben Shelton (22, 🇺🇸 ) is playing against Lorenzo Sonego (29, 🇮🇹 ) tonight— Wednesday in Australia— in another quarterfinal match. He is up by one set to none, and should win. Go, Ben!

Ben Shelton checking in with the chair umpire at the changeover, probably asking ‘Are you OK?’ Shelton’s return from Sonego’s serve hit the side of the umpire’s chair. (You don’t want to get hit by a tennis ball from these pros. Shelton delivered 144 mph serves, and can blast back a ground shot at 90 mph. )

January 20, 2025January 31, 2025

Monday/ watching tennis 🎾

It was Martin Luther King Day here in the United States.
Also, I heard that a new— old— president of the United States was inaugurated today.

My TV remained switched off though .. and I will only turn it on for Netflix and Australian Open tennis the rest of the week.

**Happening right now:** American Tommy Paul (27) is battling* Alexander (Sacha) Zverev (27, 🇩🇪) in the first of the four quarterfinal matches. Paul lost the first two sets 6-7 and 6-7, but is up 2-1 in the third set.
*Paul’s outfit makes me think of a GI Joe action figure!

January 19, 2025January 31, 2025

Sunday ☀️

I made it to Volunteer Park today, all bundled up.
It felt colder than the 42 °F (5 °C) reported on my phone’s weather app.

Volunteer Park with its Victorian-style greenhouse structure in the distance, modeled on London’s Crystal Palace.

January 18, 2025January 31, 2025

Saturday/ from South Africa to Seattle ✉

The mailman delivered all my mail that they had held while I was gone, today.
There were the usual pieces of junk mail, and a few items I had purchased on Ebay just before I left.

Check out this envelope that was sent from South Africa to Seattle in 1929.
As a rule, I don’t collect envelopes— just stamps— but this one was too interesting to pass up.

The sender from South Africa put a single 1927 one-penny stamp on the envelope that was bound for Seattle. We can make out that the mail was sent in 1929, but the postage due stamps hide from where in South Africa the envelope was mailed.
Upon its arrival on U.S. shores in New York City, US Postal Services levied 4c of additional postage on the piece of mail (the two red stamps on the left).
I imagine that Mrs. Nightingale received her mail in Seattle some time later, after paying the 4c postage that was due.

P.S. As of today, the cost of a standard “First-Class Mail” letter (up to 1 ounce) is $0.73 with a Forever stamp. **The 73c is almost exactly what 4c from 1929 would came to, with inflation figured into it.**

And here is the destination of that piece of mail: the University National Bank building located in the University District at 4502 University Way NE.
This neo-classical building was completed in 1912. Wells Fargo used to occupy the building, but closed its branch there in 2018.
The building was sold to Hunters Capital in fall of 2020.
The main space inside the building has since been turned into a gym dedicated to indoor climbing (a so-called bouldering gym).
[Photo from seattle.gov, and taken around 1925]

January 17, 2025January 31, 2025

Friday afternoon/ east, west, home best 🏡

The world traveler is home.

**Departure at Munich International Airport.**
We were bused out to the Airbus 350-900 sitting on the tarmac, so that we could clamber aboard with the stairs. Let me just stipulate that the guys wearing t-shirts may create the impression that we had summer weather out there. We did not— it was freezing!

A last look at the fuselage before I step into the warm airplane.

Making the turn onto the runway for take-off.

Halfway into the 10-hour flight, and we are over the north of the giant slab of ice called Greenland.

Somewhere over Canada, with about two hours to go to Seattle.

**Arrival at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.**
We were international arrivals, and so we walked across the skybridge to the baggage claim and passport control, which is where I stopped to take this picture.
Our flight waited a little bit for our luggage, and then found it on the baggage claim carousel next to ours, for the flight from Frankfurt that arrived about the same time as ours. Then it was on to the Global Entry kiosk for me. There the was **no line**, and it took literally a few seconds for the face-recognition system to greenlight my entry into the United States. This way out, said an official, and that was it. So no passport stamp needed, no passport, no nothing. (Registering for Global Entry does cost $120 for a five-year membership.)

January 17, 2025January 18, 2025

Friday morning/ at the flughafen 🛫

I am at Munich International Airport, and will be heading home in just an hour or so.

It’s a 45-min train ride from central Munich to the airport. Cost €16.
I could have taken a taxi or an Uber (for €100), but the train is more fun. Our train was split in two at Neufarn station and the front part went to Freising and the back part to the airport (I was in the right part of the train!). There is a split in the train track.

Checking for my departure at the arrivals hall for train passengers .. 11h40 to Seattle, out of Terminal 2.

The view from the 6-th floor public observation deck.

January 16, 2025

It was my last day in Munich, and I ran out to Marienplatz one more time with the streetcar.
It was just about noon, and the glockenspiel* on the townhall’s clock tower played to a smattering of on-lookers that risked getting frostbite on their fingertips as they held up their phones to record a video of it. (I was one of them).
From Marienplatz I went to a few beautiful U-bahn stations on the U1 line to take pictures.

*The Rathaus-Glockenspiel is a large mechanical clock located in Marienplatz square, in old town Munich. Famous for its life-size characters, the clock twice daily re-enacts scenes from Munich’s history.

Here is a jousting scene depicted by the glockenspiel. One of the knights was mortally injured, and falls backward on the horse.

These enormous and dramatic lamp scones are at Westfriedhof on the U1 line.

And I made this yellow one appear to sit on top of the SOS pillar.

On the far end of the U1 line is the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum station. There are huge metal studs that line the wall, creating a spaceship-futuristic look.

Nearby, and also on the U1 line, is Oberwiesenfeld station with a black and white tile pattern on the one side ..

Candidplatz on the south end of the U1 line is painted in the colors of the rainbow.

January 15, 2025January 18, 2025

Wednesday/ snow on the ground 🌨️

It started snowing at around 8 am this morning here in Munich, but it could not have been more than an inch an or so, from what I could tell.

I used the Line 19 streetcar again to get Hauptbahnhof (the main train station), and from there, ran out to Odeonsplatz and a comic book store on Fraunhoferstrasse.

The view from my hotel room (using my phone’s 5x zoom to zoom in on the Deutsche Bahn train maintenance station) at 8 this morning.

Here comes the Line 18 streetcar, at Am Lok-schuppen station.

At **Sendlinger Tor station**, I stepped off the streetcar and went underground to the U-bahn.
(The sidewalk surfaces were treacherous with the snow and ice, and there were no pedestrian crossings to speak of. Then I realized that is the other use of any U-bahn station: it’s an under passage for pedestrians to get from one side of an intersection to the other).

Here is **Odeonsplatz**, named for the former concert hall, the Odeon, on its northwestern side. The church is the Theatine Church of St. Cajetan and Adelaide (German: Theatinerkirche St. Kajetan und Adelheid)— a Roman Catholic church. It was consecrated 11 July, 1675.

Taking a closer look at the heraldic elements in the center (the lions and the white-and-blue checkered pattern is taken from the coat of arms of Bavaria).

Here is the nearby Hofgarten (Eng. ‘Courtyard garden’), established in 1613.

Back inside the **Sendlinger Tor** U-bahn station. I love the giant white saucer-shaped light fixtures.

This is a comic book store called **Comic Company** near Fraunhoferstrasse station.
I bought used three comic books for all of Є8.40. More books to weigh down my luggage but hey, I was still 10+ pounds under the weight limit with both my suitcases when I checked them in at Cape Town.

By the time I hopped off the Line 18 streetcar close to my hotel, the snow had started to melt.

January 14, 2025January 14, 2025

Tuesday/ a cold day in Munich 🥶

I put on full kit and kaboodle this morning, before venturing out in the frigid weather. I limited my excursions outside to Hauptbahnhof and Marienplatz.
(The day started at -7 °C and the high briefly reached 0°C.)

The **Line 19** street car stops almost in front of my hotel, at **Am Lok-schuppen station**.
I used it to run out the **Hauptbahnhof** (main station), and to Marienplatz. There is a ticket machine on the street car– very convenient, and only €11,10 for a Zone 3 day ticket.
There is not much of the Hauptbahnhof buildings visible from the street, because of a major construction-refurbishment project that is underway.

**Marienplatz** and its ‘new’ town hall. New is a relative term here. Marienplatz has been the city’s main square since 1158. I took this picture from inside the Hugendubel bookstore on the square.

Taking a closer look at the clock tower of the town hall.

Inside the U-bahn station by Marienplatz. This track serves the trains running on the U3 and U6 lines.

Here are the platforms at the **Münchner Freiheit** U-bahn station.

Now I’m back at Marienplatz, and the sunlight that had added a few degrees to the chilly temperatures is fading fast. So it is getting really cold again.

The iconic town towers of the **Frauenkirche** nearby Marienplatz. This church was constructed from 1468–1488.

Volt Germany is a social-liberal pro-European, eurofederalist political party in Germany.
A federal election will be held in Germany on 23 February 2025 to elect the 630 members of the 21st Bundestag.
Check out this poster.
**LET’S TAKE BACK THE FUTURE— with a strong Europe against Trump and Putin.**

Sunset here is at 4.48 pm. I have just stepped off the street car at Am Lok-schuppen station for the 3 minute walk to my hotel.

January 14, 2025January 14, 2025

Monday night/ arrival in Munich 🛬

All went well with my 11-hr flight to Munich.
It is just frightfully cold here (-5°C/ 20°F) and it made for a rough 12-minute walk from the train station to the hotel.

Stepping on board the **Airbus A350-900** Lufthansa bird at Cape Town International airport’s Terminal A.

We are about to leave the African continent that lies 41,000 ft below us— 9 hours into the 11-hour flight to Munich.

This is the **Hirschgarten** S-Bahn (regional) railway station.
I had just stepped off the train from Munich airport, a 40 minute train ride.

January 13, 2025January 14, 2025

Monday morning/ Munich bound ✈️

It was time on Monday morning to squeeze everything into my suitcases and backpack, and head for Cape Town International Airport to catch the Lufthansa flight to Munich.

Two views from my hotel room window: from sunset Sunday night, and from early Monday morning.
In the distance, the mountains are from left to right: Table Mountain, Lion’s Head and Signal Hill.

January 13, 2025January 14, 2025

Sunday/ in Stellenbosch 🍇

My brother and I ran out to Stellenbosch University (our alma mater) on Sunday.
We stopped at the Faculty of Engineering, at Dagbreek Men’s Residence and at the Neelsie Student Centre.

A major remodeling of the main wing of the Faculty of Engineering is underway.

The buildings for the individual departments of the Faculty of Engineering look a little different from 40 years ago, with lettering and new windows. The engineering library is now called the ‘knowledge center’ (Afr. kennissentrum). Hmm.

A little house remodeled into offices, across from the Faculty of Engineering.

Here’s Victoria Street in summer time, with the trees a neon green, and the sky azure blue. The historic dormitories of Stellenbosch University as well as administrative buildings are found here.

The tennis courts where I had spent countless hours playing on as a student, are still there, as is **Helshoogte Men’s Residence**, and **Simonsberg mountain** in the distance.

The **Neelsie Student Centre** is quiet now, but will be abuzz with students come February when the new academic year gets underway.

**Red Square*** (Afr. Rooiplein) with its sun dial.
*Officially, it is the Jan Marais Square. A long time ago, though, students jokingly started calling the Administration Building nearby the ‘Kremlin’ because the notice boards (where exam results and class marks were pinned up) would declare their fate as a students. So this is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the main city square in Moscow that is the real Red Square.

January 12, 2025January 12, 2025

Saturday/ around Mossel Bay 🏖️

It was time to drive back from Plettenberg Bay to Cape Town on Saturday.
I stopped at my uncle and aunt in Mossel Bay, and took a few pictures around downtown and the beaches.

The town of **Mossel Bay** lies on a outcrop called The Point, about 2 hours’ drive west from Plettenberg Bay. This is where Portuguese mariner and becoming the first European navigator to round the southern tip of Africa.
In recent years it has become a very popular destination for retirees and for younger people moving from South Africa’s northern provinces to the Western Cape province.

Here’s the sands and calm waters of **Santos Beach** that has just a hint of surf.

The boat and water sport enthusiasts hang out on the other end of the beach, where there is a **launch ramp** for fishing boats and other craft.

The ‘**Stone Church**‘ (Afr. Klipkerk) of the Dutch Reformed Church on Church St in downtown.
The cornerstone was laid in 1878 and the church was consecrated in 1880.

Further down on **Church Street** the blue water of the bay come into view.

The **Prince Vintcent Building** on Bland Street dates back to 1901. It hosts architects offices, cafes, bakeries and studios.

The St Blaize Terrace building from 1909 is on Marsh Street near The Point.

Nearby is this beautiful building for **the old The Point High School** (which now houses **Milkwood Primary School**).
Keating & Co did the construction, also in 1909. The stones were quarried in the hills and transported with cocopans on the rails to the school. Different stones were used: dark pink stones contrasts with the sandstone around the windows.

This tide pool is across from **The Point Caravan Park**.

January 10, 2025January 10, 2025

Friday/ Jukani wildlife sanctuary 🦁

These pictures are from our visit to Jukani wildlife sanctuary this morning.

The encampments are reasonably large, and in almost all cases the animals are from zoos or from situations where they will no longer survive in the wild.

Animals in the pictures: Burchell’s zebra, springbok, lion, mountain lion, Siberian tiger, caracal, brown hyena.