In August and September, I took a trip to Germany and Austria with my husband Tim.
I was surprised to see a row of food stalls along the street near the Museum for Communication. I learned that every year, on the last weekend of August, the Museum Embankment Festival is held, with as many as 400 stalls lining both banks of the Main River.
There were extra staff members at the museum for the event. Toby, a member of the staff, showed me the postal exhibits. He told me that postal workers used to carry a cane for protection and put letters into a tube before delivering them. Their job was to carry the letters without reading them. They were expected to keep the contents of the letters secret. I don’t think I could do that!
Around 1910, horses were being used for deliveries. By around 1922, cars had taken over, although horses played an important role again during wartime.
Tim explained each exhibit to me.
I especially liked a video showing a Postbus traveling through the mountains. I heard that some Postbuses were noisy and not popular, so I decided to buy a model Postbus out of sympathy. There was only a display model on the shelf. I said I didn’t mind if it didn’t have a box, but a clerk asked one of the staff members to look for a model Postbus. He eventually found one in a box for me!
In Denmark, I had bought stamps at a 7-Eleven. So when I saw a convenience store with a post horn logo near our hotel with a DHL electric delivery van parked outside, I thought I could buy stamps there. However, the shop didn’t have any stamps. I asked the delivery driver if he had any, but he said he only handled parcels.
