New 'Castles of Europe' series introduced

As usual, no announcement came

...from the peeps at the SLOWLY team HQ. Sadly, as they are missing big time on promoting the app, the services, the merchandise which supports the free service which most people use.

Their leadership of the project chose to run the company this way. A social media and communications manager is not a part of their staff, and therefore, prime opportunities like this are wasted. 😕🙄

What is 'Castles of Europe' then?

An interesting new development. A total of 18 new stamps at the moment, covering a number (but NOT ALL) European countries.

Surprisingly major EU nations like France did not get any stamps yet – but I imagine this is temporary, and they have something in the works for them.

As well as for Portugal, Spain, which appear to not have any yet either.

A sign of imbalance whe have noticed in other situations is the fact that Great Britain (GB) has 4 new stamps, which will please the 4 nations that constitute their United Kingdom. Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England each got one.

The French likely will not be amused, lol. 😜😀

'Castles of Europe' also marks a whole NEW model

As these are Location stamps in nature – showing monuments like many others. Being country specific and exclusive. And finally, unlike normal Location stamps, being PREMIUM stamps selling on their original markets for 50 Coins each.

At 18 new stamps on this first batch (there might be more, and in fact I would expect them to do so), getting all of these is a 900 Coins outlay. Circa 18 Canadian Dollars at the going rate of conversion.

How can one get these stamps?

Good question, and there are two ways. First is to be in one of the countries which has a new castle stamp issued. The stamp will appear on their stamp store, at 50 Coins.

Another way is to use a new 'random sale mechanism' which Slowly team developed and is in place now.

Similar to World Explorer and Time Machine, it allows you to put some coins in and purchase a Random stamp from the Castle series.

You will now know which. It will not sell you something you already own. But it's not cheap, so some users might be contended to simply collecting these via receiving letters from penpals in the EU countries.

'Castles of Europe' only shows in your Stamp store

...if you are in one of the issue countries though. On my Web Client I can see this as I am visiting Romania :

And if you click and expand the Castles, you see the full list of stamps (18 currently).

The listing has the stamps in small size, and if you select to buy one (via the button at the top left corner), you can buy it for yourself.

If you are on one of the countries which has Castle stamps, that also shows in their Country specific list. And from there, it can be purchased as a Gift to a pen pal friend. (this option is NOT available in any of the random sale mechanisms, like Time Machine or World Explorer)

Full list and images, in alphabetical Country order

Hohensalzburg Fortress, Austria

Mir Castle, Belarus

Chillon Castle, Switzerland

Prague Castle, Czechia

Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany

Windsor Castle, England

Buda Castle, Hungary

Kilkenny Castle, Ireland

Carrickfergus Castle, Northern Ireland

De Haar Castle, Netherlands

Akershus Castle. Norway

Malbork Castle, Poland

Bran Castle, Romania

Edinburgh Castle, Scotland

Ljubljana Castle, Slovenia

Bratislava Castle, Slovakia

Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle, Ukraine

Caernarfon Castle, Wales

The Missing Castles?

As we have not seen any stamps for France, Spain or Portugal, there could be more of them in the development phase.

WE would hope so, as there are many examples in each of those countries, and they are magnificent.

I wrote a letter to a good pen pal friend 3 years ago – in my first month using Slowly in fact. I composed it fully on my mobile screen, the app was new to me and fascinating, but there was no other way to do it – the Web Client only appeared in mid September, 2019. (although it had been requested by users since the very beginning of the Slowly project, in February 2017)

This letter to a new pen pal, who was a fan of Castles and history as well, was full of personal experiences.

You can read it in a Blog post version here: Iberia – Castles and peoples, letter to a Friend

Yann's suggestion for a Castles series

I posted the original idea for the Castles of Europe series in a Feedback site topic – from someone who in early May, 2022, proposed a stamp for one Castle.

Super well developed proposal, well done Lufox! I love castles too, and they have such cultural significance and visual impact with their presence in the landscape.

I think Slowly should consider a series of Castles of Europe stamps, there are so many nice ones. I will be visiting Portugal soon, and will be sure to visit some of my favourites again.”

This was a reply to Lufox, who proposed the very first Castle stamp idea on the site.

Sadly, the indiscriminate 'Merging' of topics by the site moderator has destroyed the context of most topics – into a hodge podge without any coherence.

This is one of the aspects of the Feedback site I have been critical of – that and the lack of active monitoring and content moderation.

Which has resulted in insulting commentary being posted and left on the site, and alienated active contributors like myself and others, who as a result have stopped participating there all together.

Sintra National Palace, Sintra, Portugal

A list of suggestions for Portuguese Castles

I have visited many parts of Portugal, a frequent destination for me. And can easily list some of my favourites, which in some cases I would find more significant and representative of the Castle as a stronghold, a fortress, a military position – than some of the ones already included in the issued series.

So here's a suggestions list.

Some of those are mentioned and shown in images on my blog post as well.

Famous Last Words

Special thank you to all the folks behind the SLOWLY app.

Letters we share, with pen pals all over the world. A modern day take in the traditional penpal experience. Come and join us, using SLOWLY.

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@friends-near-and-afar-letters-we-share@wordsmith.social

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