540 - Chicago

Card no 540 – Karen 

The Chicago Skyline 

Country Card Sent From: Canada 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Winnipeg 

Date Received: 7th May 2013 

Distance Travelled: 3,741 miles 

Time Taken: 9 days 

The Chicago skyline showing the Hancock Building and the lake shore. 

Some pretty, delicate flower stamps.  They are Magnolias - Eskimo and Yellow Bird.

and a black cat...

This is one of five 'Adopt a pet' stamps (2 dogs, 2 cats, a parrot).  Did you notice the little mouse on the bird table?

536 – A medieval walled village

Card no 536 - Maylis et Jean-Pierre 

The village of Vence, France

Country Card Sent From: France 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Nice 

Date Received: 4th May 2013 

Distance Travelled: 805 miles 

Time Taken: 4 days 

Postcrossing id – FR-282890  

The medieval walled village of Vence is set in the hills of the Alpes Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in south-eastern France between Nice and Antibes. Vence is famous for its spring water, which can be collected from numerous fountains in the town.

The stamps shows the church at Aulnay, a busy little town famous for this 12th Century church on the pilgrimage route to the shrine of St James of Compostela. There is a delightful market in the town square on Sunday and Thursday mornings.

In medieval times, the Via Turonensis (Way of Tours) was the most westerly of the four traditional pilgrim routes. It was a fairly movable feast, with several strands running roughly parallel in a southerly direction. It catered for pilgrims from the Low Countries, Paris and Britain, and converged with two of the others at Saint-Palais in the Pyrénées, before crossing into Spain for the final push to Compostella. 

521 – Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo, Brazil

Card no 521 - Amanda 

Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo, Brazil 

Country Card Sent From: Brazil

Place that Card Sender Lives: São Paulo

Date Received: 27th April 2013 

Distance Travelled: 1,176 miles 

Time Taken: 10 days 

 Postcrossing i/d - BR-255254

Ibirapuera Park is a major urban park in São Paulo, Brazil. It has a large area for leisure, jogging and walking, as well as a convention center. Its importance to São Paulo is comparable to that of the Central Park to New York City. The Ibirapuera is one of Latin America largest city parks, together with Chapultepec Park, in Mexico City and Simón Bolívar Park in Bogota.

The Obelisk of São Paulo, in the centre of the park is a symbol of the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932.

Ibirapuera Park was inaugurated in 1954 for the 400th anniversary of the city, with buildings de-signed by famous architect Oscar Niemeyer and landscape by designer Roberto Burle Marx.

516-8 – Bulgarian cities, monasteries, and the Etar museum

Card no 516 - 518 – Irina 

Bulgaria 

Country Card Sent From: Bulgaria 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Sofia 

Date Received: 25th April 2013 

Distance Travelled: 1,414 miles 

Time Taken: 13 days 

These are three wonderful cards from Irina – all shaped rather than rectangular. The ones of Bulgarian Monasteries and Etar are the shape of the country of Bulgaria.

And what a wonderful stamp sheet Irina put on the envelope.

510 – Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, Minsk

Card no 510 – Olga 

A view of Minsk 

Country Card Sent From: Belarus 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Minsk 

Date Received: 25th April 2013 

Distance Travelled: 1,246 miles 

Time Taken: 9 days 

Postcrossing id – BY-856648 

The Cathedral of the Holy Spirit is one of the most visible churches in Minsk, with its central location overlooking the Svisloch river in the historic Upper Town. The Cathedral is the most important Russian Orthodox church in the city. Its origins date back to the 17th century (1633-1642) when the building served as a Catholic Bernardine monastery. After several devastating fires and a conversion to Orthodoxy, the church was expanded and renovated, though the monastery was closed in 1922. The church's holiest icon is the image of the Mother of God, which is said to have been found by Minsk residents in 1500.

507 – Views of Old Sofia

Card no 507 - Irina 

Old Sofia 

Country Card Sent From: Bulgaria 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Sofia 

Date Received: 22nd April 2013 

Distance Travelled: 1,414 miles 

Time Taken: 12 days 

I love cards like this with pictures of old towns showing the street life as it was around 100 years ago.

506 – Targu Mures, Romania

Card no 506 - Andras 

The centre of Targu Mures, Romania 

Country Card Sent From: Romania 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Targu Mures 

Date Received: 20th April 2013 

Distance Travelled: 1,308 miles 

Time Taken: 7 days 

The buildings shown here in the centre of Targu Mures are the old city hall (with the tower) and the Palace of Culture.

This is my first card from Romania.

Its stamp…

498 - Shanghai – the Tea House, Nanking Road, c 1900

Card no 498 - Peng 

Shanghai – the Tea House, Nanking Road, c 1900 

Country Card Sent From: China 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Changsha 

Date Received: 16th April 2013 

Distance Travelled: 5,634 miles 

Time Taken: 1 day

 This post-card, a direct swap with Peng, is a reproduction of a post-card of around 1900 and shows the tea house in Nanking Road (Nanjing Lu), Shanghai.  The postcard closely resembles a black and white photo of 1899 in the Bristol University ánd the Chinese Imperial Post stamp con-firms that it is from that period. Tea houses were – and still are – a traditional meeting place for adults of all ages.

Shanghai is the largest city by population in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the largest city proper by population in the world.  It is one of the four province-level municipali-ties of the PRC, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010.  It is a global city, with influence in commerce, culture, finance, media, fashion, technology, and transport.  It is a ma-jor financial centre and the busiest container port in the world.

Peng lives in Changsha, the capital city of Hunan, in south-central China.

Some of the stamps tell a fascinating story.

1999 - Change of Centuries: Entering a New Millennium - Review of the 20th Century (a series of 8 stamps) This one represents the May 4th Movement of 1919

1999  Stone Carvings of Han Dynasty
Goddess Chang'e Flew to the Moon

1999 - 10th Anniversary of the Implementation of Project Hope

Project Hope, a public welfare undertaking initiated and sponsored by China Youth Devel-opment Foundation, was launched on October 30,1989 with the aim of helping school drop-outs in poverty-stricken regions resume schooling and improving te education conditions in villages. Over the past decade since its implementation, Project Hope has enlisted generous support and extensive participation of all walks of life from home and abroad. By June 30, 1999, Project Hope raised a total fund of 1.78 billion yuan, which was used to aid more than 2 million poor drop-outs to return to the school, provide financial support to building over 7,500 Hope Primary Schools, donate 10,000 Hope Mini-libraries to the Hope Primary Schools with more than 2,000 sets of Movie Collections. Project Hope has met with hearty and generous responses from millions of people. It not only brought about profound and positive changes to the lives of drop-outs but also gave new momentum to the development of primary education in China's rural areas.

199 - Beauty of Putuo Mountain(a series of 6 lovely stamps)
Fanyin Cave

 And my favourite stamp –
1999 - Lushan Mountain

497 - Preston Spires, Lancashire, England

Card no 497 - Eileen 

Preston Spires, Lancashire, England 

Country Card Sent From: England 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Preston 

Date Received: 16th April 2013 

Distance Travelled: 33 miles 

Time Taken: 1 day 

I saw this in Eileen’s swaps and asked if she would swap with me but she refused – she simply gave me the card. How kind is that? There are some lovely people in Postcrossing.

Eileen is a Preston native through and through. Her Mum lived at no1; her parents married at no 20; she was born at no 25; and she was christened at no 20….

It seemed strange to receive one of the stamps I’ve been using to send to people. It is from the set Fashion, issued in May 2012.

496 - Old Stone Mill, Canada

Card no 496 - Jazz 

Old Stone Mill in Delta Ontario 

Country Card Sent From: Canada 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Saskatoon 

Date Received: 16th April 2013 

Distance Travelled: 3,949 miles 

Time Taken: 8 days 

(54 days – i.e. requested from postcrossing 54 days ago but posted 8 days ago!) 

Postcrossing id – CA-320349 

 "Unquestionably the best building of its kind in Upper Canada" - Statistical Account of Upper Canada, 1817.

The Old Stone Mill in Delta Ontario is a National Historic Site showcasing milling technology and 1800s industrial heritage. The mill was built in 1810 and is one of the finest examples of early industrial architecture in the region.

492- Jardin des amoureux, Tetouan, Morocco

Card no 492 - Eva 

Cajigas gardens, Tetouan 

Country Card Sent From: Morocco 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Tetouan 

Date Received: 13th April 2013 

Distance Travelled: 1,234 miles 

Time Taken: 17 days 

Built in 1929 these gardens were closed for many years but then restored and opened to the public again around 5 or 6 years ago. Eva says it’s always crowded, especially in the summer and is known as ‘Lovers’ Garden’.

 Tetouan (from the Berber Tiṭṭawin, Arabic: تطوان, Spanish: Tetuán, French: Tétouan) is a city in northern Morocco. The Berber name means literally "the eyes" and figuratively "the water springs". Tetouan is one of the two major ports of Morocco on the Mediterranean Sea. It lies a few miles south of the Strait of Gibraltar, and about 40 mi (60 km) E.S.E. of Tangier. In 2004 the city had 320,539 inhabitants (census figure).

Arabic is the official language but it is not used for everyday dialogue. The city has its own dialect. However, Jebli Arabic is predominant since people from the neighboring rural areas settled in the city during the 20th century. The use of Spanish and French is still widespread especially by the businessmen and intellectual elites. Its main religion is Islam. A small Christian minority lives in the city.

The city is situated about 60 km east of the city of Tangier and 40 km south of the Spanish exclave of Ceuta (Sebta) and the Strait of Gibraltar. It is in the far north of the Rif Mountains. To the south and west of the city there are mountains.

This is my first card from Morocco and takes my list of countries to  41

The stamp shows Mohammed VI (Arabic: محمد السادس‎, born 21 August 1963) is the current King of Morocco. He acceded to the throne on 23 July 1999 upon the death of his father, King Hassan II.

478 – Kawakawa public toilets, New Zealand

Cards no 478 - GB 

Kawakawa public toilets, New Zealand 

Country Card Sent From: New Zealand 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Napier 

Date Received: 5th April 2013 

Distance Travelled: 11,493 miles 

 Time Taken: 8 days 

 There's not much more one can add to that!

454 – A Fountain at Saratov

Card no 454 - Larisa 

The Fountain near the Brothers Nikitin Circus, Saratov

Country Card Sent From: Russia 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Saratov 

Date Received: 26th March 2013 

Distance Travelled: 2,033 miles 

Time Taken: 15 days 

This beautiful fountain is in Kryty Square, Saratov, and the postcard, being twice normal size, shows it to its full advantage.

 Saratov traces its history to the reign of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, who constructed several settlements along the Volga River in order to secure the southeastern boundary of his state. During the summer of 1586, the fortress of Samara was founded, followed by Tsaritsyn in 1589 and finally Saratov, located midway between Samara and Tsaritsyn, in 1590. The future town's buildings were first constructed in the upper reaches of the Volga, a full year prior to the in situ foundation of Saratov. In the spring of 1590, workers disassembled the con-structions, marked each log, and delivered the "town" to its destination via the river. This method allowed the buildings to be rapidly erected in just a few weeks.

During the Nineteenth Century, Saratov, with a population of 240,000, was the third-largest city in Russia.

During World War II, Saratov was a station on the North-South Volzhskaya Rokada, a specially designated military railroad providing troops, ammunition and supplies to Stalingrad. Until the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, Saratov was designated a "closed city", that is, strictly off limits to all foreigners due to its military importance. This was due to the presence of a vital military aircraft manufacturing facility in the city.

Saratov has moderately continental climate with warm and dry summers and an abundance of sunny days. The warmest month is July with daily mean temperature near +23 °C (73 °F); the coldest is February, at −8 °C (18 °F). Summers are hot and dry in Saratov. Daytime temperatures of +30 °C (86 °F) or higher are commonplace. Snow and ice are dominant during the winter season. Saratov receives about 92 centimeters (36 in) of snowfall annually. Days well above freezing and nights below −25 °C (−13 °F) both occur in the winter.

The city has a population iof around 838,000 and in addition to ethnic Russians, it also has many Tatar, Ukrainian, Jewish, and German residents.

This was the stamp – 

452 - Cathedral of Saint Virgin Mary, Minsk

Card no 452 - Mish 

Cathedral of Saint Virgin Mary, Minsk 

Country Card Sent From: Belarus 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Minsk 

Date Received: 21st March 2013 

Distance Travelled: 1,154 miles 

Time Taken: 12 days 

The Cathedral of Saint Virgin Mary, (The Cathedral of the Holy Name of Mary) is a Roman Catholic baroque cathedral in Minsk. It was built in 1710 as a church of the Jesuit monastery. In 1793, after Russia took over Belarus, the Jesuit order was banned and the church became the local cathedral. The Cathedral was heavily damaged in a fire in 1797, but was later fully renewed.

The Soviet authorities closed the cathedral down in 1934.   During the Second World War, the Germans allowed the cathedral to function again, but after the war it was again closed down by the Soviets. In 1951, the cathedral's bell towers were intentionally destroyed by Soviet artillery and the building itself was given to the Spartak sports society.

 In the beginning of the 1990s, religious services started again. In 1993, the building was given back to the Roman Catholics; by 1997 it was renewed. During 2000s, the frescoes created in 18th century were also restored. An in 2005, the church was gifted a new organ manufactured in Austria.

Mish mentions Saint Sophia's Cathedral in Polotsk has an organ as well and its sound is amazing.

The Gooseberry stamp is lovely - 

450 - Arundel Castle, West Sussex, England

Card no 450 - Pat 

Arundel Castle and the River Arun 

Country Card Sent From: England 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Outer Hebrides 

Date Received: 19h March 2013 

Distance Travelled: 203 miles 

Time Taken: 1 day 

Arundel Castle in Arundel, West Sussex, England is a restored medieval castle. It was founded by Roger de Montgomery on Christmas Day 1067. Roger became the first to hold the earldom of Arundel by the graces of William the Conqueror. The castle was damaged in the English Civil War and then restored in the 18th and 19th centuries.

From the 11th century onward, the castle has served as a hereditary stately home and has been in the family of the Duke of Norfolk for over 400 years. It is still the principal seat of the Norfolk family. It is a Grade I listed building.

445 – Saint Walpurga's church, Zutphen

Card no 445 - Helmut & Gerda (NL-1754075) 

Zutphen 

Country Card Sent From: Netherlands 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Zutphen 

Date Received: 14h March 2013 

Distance Travelled: 389 miles 

Time Taken: 3 days 

This card was homemade but you could not have told. Zutphen is a city in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. It lies some 30 km north-east of Arnhem, on the Eastern bank of the river IJssel at the point where it is joined by the Berkel. The name Zutphen (first mentioned in the eleventh century) appears to mean 'zuid-veen', or in English, south-fen.

St. Walburgis' (Saint Walpurga's) church is the largest and oldest church of the city. It originally dates from the eleventh century. The present Gothic building contains monuments of the former counts of Zutphen, a fourteenth century candelabrum, an elaborate copper font (1527), and a monument to the Van Heeckeren family (1700). The chapter-house of library ("Librije") contains a pre-Reformation library which includes some valuable manuscripts and incunabula. It is considered one of only 5 remaining medieval libraries in Europe (the other 4 being in England and Italy). The old books are still chained to their ancient wooden desk, a habit of centuries ago, dating from the times when the library was a "public library" and the chains prevented the books from being stolen. I have seen chained books in Durham Cathedral and they are fascinating.

One of the stamps features the beautiful Hyacinthj Macaw. They have a pair at Chester Zoo but they are shy and elusive birds and have a large space with much foliage in which to hide so I have yet to get a decent photo.

436 – Trinity Suburb, Minsk

Card no 436 –  Kate (BY-795163)

A view of Minsk

Country Card Sent From: Belarus

Place that Card Sender Lives:  Minsk

Date Received: 8^th March 2013

Distance Travelled: 1,154 miles

Time Taken: 7 days

A panorama of the Trinity Suburb and the Svisloch river embankment.   Minsk’s old town, more commonly known as Troitskoe Predmestye (Trinity Suburb, or just Trinity) after the former Trinity Church that once stood in the area, is a slight misnomer in that it dates from just three decades ago. Built between 1982 and 1985 on the site of a former settlement dating from the 12th century, Trinity is a contrast to the concrete of the city centre. The birthplace of the Belarusian poet and journalist Maxim Bogdanovich, the area boasts a number of decent restaurants and bars, making it worth having a look round, especially during the summer.

The Svisloch river is 327km long and is the romantic heart of the city and the setting for many a picture postcard. In summer, a stroll along its banks, particulaly near the Old Town or opposite, is almost a legal requirement for starry-eyed couples. In winter, after the dubious ducks flee and the surface freezes, locals poke holes through the ice and pull out fish if they are lucky.

A Dutch Farmhouse

Card no 430 – Frank (NL-1735940)

 Helden, Netherlands

Country Card Sent From: The Netherlands

Place that Card Sender Lives: Helden

Date Received: 5^th March 2013

Distance Travelled: 399 miles

Time Taken: 6 days 

 Helden: The Schrames family farmhouse

This postcard is part of a series of 12 photographs of characteristic spots, two of each parish of the municipality of Helden. Published by the Municipality of Helden to celebrate the creation of the new municipality Peel en Maas on 01-01-2010.    Peel en Maas is situated in the province of Limburg, SE Netherlands. The municipality is formed by the former towns of Helden, Kessel, Maasbree, and Meijel.

Late afternoon in Seattle

Card no 428 – Carol

Seattle

Country Card Sent From: USA

Place that Card Sender Lives:  Seattle

Date Received: 5^th March 2013

Distance Travelled: 4,605 miles

Time Taken: 6 days

These were the stamps.  I have featrured them before but they are among my favourite US stamps.