Coryton Cove, Dawlish

Postmarked Exeter and dated 28 May 1977.

Dawlish is a small town on the south coast of Devon, in England. It grew from a fishing port in the 18th century to become a well-known seaside resort.

Bremen

Postmarked Briefzentrum 50, dated 8 June 2008.
Clockwise from top left:
Town hall and cathedral
Bronze sculpture - the Town Musicians
Harbour
Windmill on the Wall
Schnoor district in the old town
Böttcherstrasse
Universum Science Centre
Statue of Roland
Bremen is one of two cities in the state of Bremen, the other being Bremerhaven. Its official name is Freie Hansestadt Bremen, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen.

Djemma el Fna

Postmarked Marrakech, dated 17 June 2008.

Jamaa El Fna (Djemaa el Fna)

The famous Marrakesh square, on UNESCO's list of Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage. "Only for expert negotiators ..." added my daughter-in-law on the card, and I've always thought she was one!

Marrakesh

Postmarked Marrakech, dated 17 June 2008.

Souvenir de Marrakech.

This shows a view of palm trees, the Djemaa el Fna which is one of the busiest squares in Africa, and at the bottom, the pavilion in the Menara Gardens with a view of the Atlas Mountains behind.

I'll give you the message on the card, written by my daughter-in-law, simply because I love the way she speaks English. Best read with a French accent!

Salam Alikum
Nor a place, nor a town, but truly a destination! Kiss and love, F & A

Koutoubia

Postmarked Marrakech, date 17 June 2008.
Koutoubia.
The first of three sent to me by my son and his French wife while they were on holiday recently. The Koutoubia Mosque is the largest in Marrakech, or Marrakesh. Its minaret has been used as the model for the Giralda mosque in Seville, Spain, which in turn has influenced the style of thousands of church towers and later buildings such as the Manhattan Municpal Building.

Repulse Bay, Hong Kong

Postmarked London, because it was sent via a ship, dated 10 September 1981.

212. Repulse Bay - a summer resort. Postcard from Hong Kong.

Another card from Repulse Bay, from a slightly different angle than the first. It looks as though the low red-roofed buildings on the left of the picture no longer exist.

This was sent to my father by someone working on a cargo ship. An interesting message:

"Arrived here yesterday and leave tonight for Singapore, should take 4 days. Weather's better now as have left the typhoon belt behind. Loading for Aqaba, ping pong balls and tyres from China."

Questembert

Never posted, bought 2/3 weeks ago.

Questembert 56230 Morbihan
The turret, the washhouse, the chapel of Saint-Jean de l'Hopital, and the covered market (1674).

We stayed 3 days in Questembert, in Brittany. It is a lovely small town with some interesting sights, but we chose it primarily because it was a good base for seeing various places around Brittany. The covered market is particularly impressive. It was being used for an exhibition of eco-building methods while we were there.

Helmbrechts in Frankenwald

Postmarked Briefzentrum 95, dated 18 June 2008.

95233 Helmbrechts.
Market view
Wave pool
Kirchbeg tower
The longest scarf in the world - Guinness Book of Records
Textile Museum
Outdoor swimming pool.

Helmbrechts is in Bavaria, Germany. It dates back to at least 1232. During World War II it was host to the Flossenbürg concentration camp.

Halle an der Saale

Postmarked Briefzentrum 06 (that still disappoints me!), dated 13 June 2008.

Halle an der Saale
1. Marketplace with Market Church and Red Tower.
2. Giebichenstein Castle.
3. Cathedral.
4. Market Street.

Halle an der Salle has been a centre of salt "harvesting" since the Bronze Age. Another fascinating piece of information is that it has a Beatles Museum. It must be one of the places where the Beatles performed before they were famous.

Conques village

Never posted, bought in Conques 2006.

One of "Le Plus Beaux Village de France".

As an added bonus, here is one of my own photos from a visit to Conques in 2006. It was a bitterly cold day and no-one was about. See also an earlier card from the same place.

South Dakota

Postmarked Redfield, SD, and dated 30 May 2008.
Enjoy the Hiking Trails in South Dakota.
#25067 The State of South Dakota has taken an old railroad corridor built in the early 1900s and made a 110 mile multi-use trail for hikers, bikers, and horseback riders. This old bridge is being remodelled to be part of the trail.
Photo courtesy of South Dakota Dept. of Tourism/Chad Coppess
I confess I knew nothing whatever about South Dakota until I received this card and then looked up the Wikipedia entry.

Stellenbosch

Postmark illegible, dated 31 March 2008.

Stellenbosch Winelands, South Africa.
Stellenbosch is home to some of the most beautiful and historic wine estates.

Stellenbosch is the second oldest European settlement in Western Cape Province, after Cape Town. It is the heart of the wine industry.

Delft tiles

Bought at Amsterdam Airport (Schipol) after a weekend trip in 2007.

I scanned this in just before posting it to Finland. I have a horrible feeling that, although I addressed it, I didn't fill in any message.

If you click on the image, I think it will be big enough to see that, though many of the tiles are traditional, there are several "jokey" ones with English words.

Loch Ness

Postmarked Grantown on Spey, Morayshire, and dated 18 May 1977.

Loch Ness from above Dores Village, Inverness-shire

Loch Ness is a large and deep lake in Scotland, best know for the legend of the Loch Ness Monster. They thankfully haven't succumbed to Disney-fying it and are in the process of applying for World Heritage status. The scenery around the area is superb.

Saint Petersburg Cathedral

No postmark or date, but probably 2004/05.
The Church of the Resurrection (the "Saviour-on-the-Spilt-Blood")
It's official name is the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ. It has had a 27 year restoration but it does not function as a place of worship.

Mount Rainier

Postmarked Everett WA and dated 29 July 2004.

No further information on the card apart from the photographer's name, Terry Eggers.

Mount Rainier is an active volcano in Pierce County, Washington. It and the surrounding area are protected in Mount Rainier National Park.

Dome of Jerusalem Rock

Postmarked London because sent from a ship, dated 5 May 1981 and sent from Aqaba.

The Dome of Jerusalem Rock.

The Dome of the Rock was built between 685 and 691 AD at the centre of the Temple Mount or the Haram al-Sharif.

The message reads:

"We are at Aqaba. We've been drifting up and down for a week as there are over 150 ships here. At last we are alongside another vessel unloading, so we hope to get away next week for Karachi. It will take 9 days."

Blythburgh Church

Postmarked Halesworth Suffolk, dated 25 August 1983.
Blythburgh Church by GW Miller.
Blythburgh is a village on the coast of Suffolk. It is best known for its church, also known as the Cathedral of the Marshes, pictured here.

An award

The Arte y Pico award - I am so honoured to receive this from My Bug Life, and not at all sure I deserve it.

The rules of this tag are as follows:

1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y Pico" blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award. http://arteypico.blogspot.com/. Make sure you visit the link above.

So, in my turn I tag:

Art Constellation
Magic & Moments at Dragonfly Cottage
Craft Therapy
Jean's Musings
Life's Little Wonders

All for very different reasons.

Iao Needle, Hawaii

Postmarked Honolulu HI, dated 8 November 2004.

Iao Needle, the symbol of Maui, is shown in early morning light next to the Iao Stream. This beautiful rainforest setting can be visited with a short drive from Wailuku into Iao Valley.

Ellora Caves, India

Another from the person who worked aboard ship, so postmarked London, dated 29 May 1981.
No. 141 Ellora Caves, Ellora. (India)

Ellora Caves are another UNESCO World Heritage site. They are actually rock-cut architecture excavated from the mountainside. The 12 Buddhist (caves 1-12), 17 Hindu (caves 13-29) and 5 Jain caves (caves 30-34), built in close together, demonstrate the religious harmony prevalent during this period of Indian history.

Again, I find the message on the card interesting:
"We are at anchor in Bombay harbour unloading into barges. Should leave here next week for Sri Lanka.We had a fire in No 2 hatch but not too serious. It will soon be monsoons around here, so hope we leave before it starts."

Conques

Never posted. Bought 2006.
Conques. L'Abbatiale de Sainte-Foy
The nave
Seven chapels opening on the the ambulatory give a pyramidal look to the exterior
View from the village
Details of exterior carving.
Conques is listed as one of the "Plus Beaux Villages de France". We came across it entirely by accident on our way south. The Abbey of Sainte Foy is a Unesco World heritage site because it was one of the stops on the route to Santiago de Compostela. In spite of all this, I had never heard of this gem of a place before. It seems to be every bit as worth visiting as Rocamadour or Mont St Michel, but much less well-known.

Helsinki Open Air Museum

Postmarked Helsinki, dated 29 May 2008.

Helsinki Seurasaari - Helsingfors Folison.
Ulkomuseo - Friluftsmuseum - Open Air Museum
Niemelä, savutupa - rökpörte - living room with a chimneyless stove (Konginkangas) - Middle Finland.

Sent to me just the other day via Postcrossing.

The Seurasaari Museum is on an island of the same name, very close to the centre of Helsinki. It shows the traditional Finnish way of life in cottages, farmsteads and manors, from the past 400 years, that have been relocated from all around Finland.

Tibet

Postmarked from Briefzentrum 24, dated 30 May 2008. With my limited knowledge of German, that means from the letter centre 24. Does that mean they are doing away with town names on postmarks in Germany? What a shame if so!

PAN 125 © Tushita/Alessandra Meniconzi/ Tibet Image Bank "Harvest".

The card is from the Tibet Image Bank, and produced by Tushita, an environmentally aware company in Germany.

Rustington, Sussex

Postmarked Sussex Coast, dated 15 October 1979.

V9106 Rustington, Sussex. The Street.

Rustington is a seaside resort on the south coast of England. I confess I had never heard of it before finding this card, but it even has a Wikipedia entry!

Illinois College, Jacksonville

Postmarked Springfield IL, dated 2004.

Sturtevant Hall, built in 1857 and remodeled in 1993, is the symbolic landmark of Illinois College in Jacksonville. Named for the College's second president, Julian Sturtevant, the historic building houses classrooms and offices for the Education, English and Sociology departments.

This card was sent to me on a postcard exchange arranged by a forerunner of Postcrossing.

Divisidero, Mexico

Never posted. Bought on holiday February 1998.

Hotel Divisidero Barrancas
El unico hotel en la orilla del Cañón del Cobre, Urique y Taraecua. En la estación de tren en Divisidero Barrancas.

The only hotel on the edge of the Copper, Urique and Taraecua Canyons. At the Divisidero Barrancas railway station.

We took a train ride along the Copper Canyon and stayed two nights at this hotel. The views from the hotel, perched on the edge of the canyon were totally breathtaking and no picture can ever do them true justice. We left the train very tired and very hungry, intending to rush into the hotel before too many of the other passengers did the same, but the views were so unbelievable we just stopped and stared.

St. Stephen's Green, Dublin

Postmarked Milton Keynes, dated 1982.

Dublin. St. Stephens Green. D 41.

It doesn't look especially remarkable, but during part of my childhood I lived near St Stephen's Green in Dublin and I spent a lot of time either in it or walking through it. It was at one time marshy common land on the outskirts of the city, but now it is one of the central parks.