Samarkand - crossroads of cultures

Samarkand always seems such an exotic name, conjuring up pictures in my mind of ancient legends and fairy tales merging into history - Sheherazade, Ghengis Khan, Alexander the Great.  Yet, until this card arrived, it didn't seem a real place and I couldn't in all honesty say where it was.

Samarkand is the second largest city in Uzbekistan.  It is on the Silk Road, a network of trade routes connecting eat and west, and it's 2,750 years old.  It is a centre for Islamic scholarly study.

The picture shows the Sher-Dor Madrasah (Lions Gate), part of the ancient centre of the city.

Two from Macedonia

I have had some incredible cards from unusual places so I consider myself doubly fortunate to have two from Macedonia.  If your geography is as poor as mine is, you may like to know that it is a country in south east Europe formed when Yugoslavia broke up.  Its capital is Skopje.

The first card shows the Monastery of St Naum on the Lake Ohrid, very close to the border with Albania and did in fact lie within Albania from 1912 to 1925.  The monastery was established in 912 and is a very popular with tourists because of its wonderful situation overlooking the lake.  It contains some impressive frescoes.

It was my first card from Macedonia and sent to me by Ana of My World of Postcards.

Ohrid and the lake are together a UNESCO World Heritage Site.The city is one of the oldest settlements in Europe and has or had 365 churches, one for every day of the year.

The second card arrived much more recently through Postcrossing and shows the interior of a church belonging to another monastery, this time in Skopje, the Markov Monastery.  These frescoes date from the end of the 14th century and many are highly unique.  They are something I would dearly love to see for myself.

The ANZAC Bridge

The Anzac Bridge in Sydney is the longest span cable-stayed bridge in Australia and among the longest in the world.   When it was officially opened in 1995 it was the replacement Glebe Island Bridge (that was a swing bridge, now permanently open) but was renamed Anzac Bridge on Remembrance Day 1998.  On Anzac Day 2000, a memorial to soldiers of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who served in World War I.

A horse-drawn mailvan

Horse Drawn Mailvan circa 1940, at Broadhembury Post Office.
The mailvan was "rediscovered" in Exeter Head Post Office area and subsequently restored to ful working condition.
'Duke' courtesy of the Heavy Horse Centre, Cricket St Thomas.

This card was produced by the Post Office in 1982, as one of a series for the south west postal region.  Broadhembury is in Devon and the post office there still looks exactly the same minus, I suppose, the horse drawn van.

A post for Weekend Mailbox run at Gemma's Greyscale Territory. If you have any mail related post, do go on over and join in.

A Ukrainian house

A recently received card showing what I take to be a typical country house in the Ukraine.  Thatch seems to be a universal roofing material!  You could almost mistake it for an Irish cottage, though the pots hanging outside would probably stop that particular assumption.

L'Hirondelle in the port of Monaco

I have several vintage cards from Monaco, most of them in a booklet of cards which has never been used, and this one of the yacht L'Hirondelle is one of them.  A total contrast to my previous one.

It's fairly easy to date the card.  It has a divided back so it must be after 1905.  The yacht is L'Hirondelle.  Prince Albert I of Monaco had two yachts called L'Hirondelle.  The first dated from 1873 but was replaced in 1891 by the first Princesse Alice.  L'Hirondelle II was built in 1911 and in 1923, after Albert I died in 1922, it was sold in England, so I think the date must be roughly during that time, even allowing for old pictures being used.

The Hirondelle was used extensively in oceanographic expeditions but after it was sold to William Randolph Hearst in 1923 it lay idle in New York.  It changed hands several times and there are conflicting reports as to where it ended up, one saying that it ended up as a pontoon in the Panama Canal.

Of course the skyline of Monaco would give another way of dating the card if you knew the place well.  All I know is that it's completely different from the modern Monaco, easily seen when you contrast it with the modern card I posted last year showing Monaco at night.

This is a post for Postcard Friday, which is hosted by Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

Monte Carlo Grand Prix

A relatively unusual card from Monte Carlo where, to my way of thinking, many of the postcards leave something to be desired.  The vintage ones are much more attractive and less glitzy.  This one was sent by my son after many threats of excommunication.  The Grand Prix doesn't interest me in the least but I did want a card.

Amish Country

From the back of the card:

This typical Amish room is without electricity and is generally bare of any floor covering.  The Amish home is not cluttered, since only the necessities are allowed, but never curtains.

I must say that the uncluttered look has great appeal, and so too a more simple life, but I just can't envisage having no telephone or computer because of the prohibition of electricity.

Mailboat

British Railways Mailboat, Dun Laoghaire Harbour, Co. Dublin, Ireland.

An unused card, but where it came from I don't know.

DUN LAOGHAIRE.  Though now almost connected with the city of Dublin (8 miles away) Dun Laoghaire still retains a strong civic individuality, and has one of the prettiest waterfronts in Ireland.  The Mailboat from Holyhead provides the fastest and one of the most comfortable sea routes between Britain and Ireland.  Thus for many visitors, Dun Laoghaire is their first sight of the country, and though for the majority it is a place of transit, there are others who regard it as one of Ireland's best equipped seaside resorts.

Dun Laoghaire, pronounced more or less Dunleary which was how it was spelled for a time, means the fort of Laoghaire who was an ancient king from before the days of the Vikings.  The fort was demolished to make way for a Martello tower which in turn was demolished to make way for the first suburban railway in the world (1834).

The mailboat service continued until the mid-1970s.

Summer solstice

I was trying to find a card suitable to mark the longest day, and what better than one that shows the sea.  It comes from Finland and to my eye conveys summer perfectly.

The summer solstice is often defined as the longest day of the year.  I've always thought that odd because days are always 24 hours long.  They should say the day which has the longest daylight hours.  Fortunately our weather has just improved enough for us to notice.  Still cold, but at least sunny.

I suppose a card of Stonehenge might have been as appropriate because of the celebrations that happen there each year at this time - but I don't have any!  This in spite of having driven past the place every day for a year.  It's a shame I never thought to buy a card for myself but at the time it didn't seem at all special.  I've never even visited, and now I live a considerable distance away.  It has taught me that I should send myself something from everywhere I go.  Buying the cards isn't enough - I end up sending them to other people - I must address them and send them.

Hill of Crosses

I've heard of this amazing sight (or is that site?), now a UNESCO World Heritage Site so I'm delighted to have received a card showing the Hill of Crosses in northern Lithuania.

Its precise origins are a little obscure but it seems that people started putting crosses on a hill after an uprising in 1831.  the numbers of them have grown from about 130 in 1900 to an estimated 100,000 in 2006.  This is in spite of repeated bulldozing during the Soviet era.  There are now not only the crosses, but also crucifixes, statues, carvings and rosaries.

Thrift

An unusual and lovely card showing an illustration of a plant I know as thrift but more properly Armeria vulgaris.  In German it is Sand-Grasnelke, sand thrift, which ties in with its other name, Armeria maritima.  It is found along the sea coasts.  It was therefore no great surprise to read the information on the back which says it's rarely found in Frankfurt.

The new cathedral at Linz

In spite of it's appearance, this really is a relatively new cathedral which is in Linz, in the north of Austria.  The building was started in 1855 and the finished cathedral was consecrated in 1924.  It can hold 20,000 people and is the largest cathedral in Austria.  It would have had a higher spire but when it was under construction, no building could be higher than the cathedral in Vienna.  It is therefore 2 metres shorter.

Technical hitch

I have been without any way of scanning my cards for the last three days (and perish the thought that I would have planned ahead and had some ready).

To cut a long story short, if ever you have the message "USB device not recognized" in Windows, you should first try to power off your computer AND REMOVE THE PLUG FROM THE POWER SUPPLY.  Leave it for 10 seconds and start up again.  It took me a while to find this information.  It worked for me.

Now I'm playing catch up.

Rural house in central France

A typical house from the rural centre of France.  The Brenne, known as the Land of 1000 lakes, is a regional nature park with exceptional wildlife, most especially renowned for migrating birds.  It is a land where nature has always maintained its rights, but on the whole a forgotten area, rushed past by tourists as they seek the sun in the south.

Whimsy

This delightful little card (I don't know why I say little, it's the same size as all the others) arrived for me from the Netherlands.  The girl is dressed in a lily of the valley costume.  I don't know whether that's of any significance, but the card was sent to me in May when traditionally French people offer bunches of lily of the valley (muguet des bois), a tradition started by King Charles IX in 1561.  According to custom, ladies receiving the flowers are supposed to offer a kiss in return.  Lily of the valley is one of my favourite flowers, so pretty and it has such a beautiful scent.

Chinese plate

This card was sent to me from Shanghai with no explanation at all, so I'm afraid I can offer none. It is, though, a beautiful piece of art.

Madame Pontalba's Buildings

Pontalba Apartments
French Quarter, Louisiana
Catch a buggy ride near the Pontalba buildings flanking Jackson Square.  America's first apartments, built in 1848, house museums, shops and apartments.

Baroness Pontalba returned to New Orleans from France and had these apartment buildings built to her design, a unique blend of French, American and Creole style.  It seems to me even the horses have a unique style with their woolly hats!

24 hour books

This is the interior of the biggest bookshop in Taiwan, Eslite.  Not only does it offer a pleasant and hospitable environment, but it encourages people to stay and read the books, AND it stays open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  They offer space for reading clubs, stage lectures and exhibitions.  They offer a "complete experience" in this and their 40+ stores throughout the country.

What a wonderful place that must be!  The sad thing is, I can't imagine it being a success in the UK.  It seems hard enough for any book store to make a go of it and in many places only the big chains survive.  The question is, would they do better if they offered the same experience?

Frederiksborg

I've been very fortunate to have been sent cards from a number of unusual places (in Postcrossing terms) recently, all of them firsts for me: Croatia, Georgia, Israel, Macau, Puerto Rica, Romania.  So I was a little startled to find that this card from Denmark was among those firsts.

It shows Frederiksborg Palace built nearly 400 years ago by Christian IV in the Renaissance style, the largest in Scandinavia.  It is built on three islands on the site of a previous castle built by Frederik II.  It had to be restored by Christian V after being plundered in 1659.  All Danish monarchs between  1671 and 1840 were crowned there though in that time it was rarely used as a residence.  Nowadays it is a museum, the National History Museum, and houses an important collection of paintings.

The card doesn't give a name to the gentleman on the left. My guess is Christian IV.

Oscar Wilde and Eduard Vilde

Appearances can be deceptive.  In spite of having a sculpture showing them in conversation, the two writers, Oscar Wilde from Ireland and Eduard Vilde from Estonia, never met.  It would have been quite possible, they were of roughly the same age.

In 1999 the sculpture was placed outside the Wilde Irish Pub in Tartu themed around literature in general and these two writers in particular.  The pub occupies part of a building, a former printing house, along with a book shop.  From what I can understand though, the pub has changed hands and in the process lost its Irish flavour.

In 2004, as a gesture of friendship in the new Europe, Estonia presented Galway with a life size replica of this statue.  Whether it figures in postcards, I don't know.  It would be lovely to have both, if so!

This is a post for Postcard Friday, which is hosted by Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

Geiranger Fjord

The waterfall called "The Bride's Veil" in the Geiranger Fjord.

This fjord along with Nærøyfjord is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.  They are among the longest and deepest fjords in the world and outstandingly beautiful.  Cards rarely do justice to the subject they show so I can only imagine what this place must be like in real life.  It's yet another of the places I'd really love to see for myself.

It makes a refreshing change to see a natural site listed in this way.

House Museum

The House Museum in Taipa, Macau, is a popular site for couples to have their pictures taken on their wedding day, and you can see why.

It consists of five houses from the Portuguese colonial era.  They were built in 1920 for prosperous families who lived in Macau at the time.  They were restored in 1999 and contain all the furniture, decorations and possessions likely to have been found there originally.

Twins

A French card, Provence apparently, but sent to me recently from the Netherlands.  Another delight for my "specials" wall.

Rural teachers

This piece of art is a beautiful painting in its own right, but the story behind it adds another dimension.  It was painted by the Canadian Robert Harris after he met and heard the story of a teacher in one of the rural schools of Canada.  Here all ages of children were taught together in a single room, often poorly equipped and without any of the supplies we might think essential.

The story, set in Prince Edward Island, tells of a meeting of the school trustees who were questioning the teacher's methods.  She overcomes their objections by explaining that the son of one of the trustees can read from the Bible, something the trustee himself couldn't do.  The painting featured as one Canada's stamps in 1980.  It also featured as one of Canada's Heritage minutes, short films depicting some Canadian history.  It's very good to hear of history and heritage being highlighted in this way.

There is an audioguide to the painting to be found on Cybermuse.

Charles Dickens in Bordeaux

Everything about this card intrigues and entertains me.  It was sent to me by a Russian student studying in Bordeaux who apparently often goes to the pub to practise speaking English (rather than anything else I can think of).  I haven't come across an English pub in France before, though plenty of Irish ones for some reason.  And why name it Charles Dickens, I wonder?  That isn't a very typical pub name.  And the illustration is of London and not Bordeaux.  All in all, a card to ponder idly.

Trenta Valley, Slovenia

Beautiful countryside and traditional houses in the Julian Alps, Slovenia.  The postmark shows it was sent from Vipava, a small town in western Slovenia.