A beautiful card from Christine from Montréal, but it is a photo from Québec City. The hotel atop the hill is the  Fairmont Le Château Frontenac. It has a beautiful view of the St. Lawrence River. I visited here several years ago and absolutely loved this part of  Québec City.  Château Frontenac was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1893. It is one of the most photographed hotels in North America, if not the world.  Below  Château Frontenac is Old  Québec. It feels like you are in Europe here with the cobblestone streets and stone buildings. South of the  Château Frontenac is the Plains of Abraham. It is here where an important battle took place between the French defenders of  Québec and the British during the Seven Years' War. General James Wolfe and General Montcalm squared off on the field with he British coming away with the victory and eventually the entire colony of New France. Both Wolfe and Montcalm died during the battle...

I love the Olympics so I was pretty happy to receive this card issued by Team Hong Kong for the 32nd Olympics in Tokyo. Hong Kong finished 49th on the medals tables with 1 gold, 2 silver, and 3 bronze. Their lone gold was in fencing (men's foil). Cheung Ka Long defeated Julien Mertine of France to win Hong Kong's first every Olympic gold medal. Siobhan Haughey won two silver medals in women's 200 m freestyle and women's 100 m freestyle swimming. Haughey's father is Irish and her mother a Hongkonger. She was born just after the handover of Hong Kong to China.  Doo Hoi Kem, Lee Ho Ching, and Minnie Soo Wai Yam took bronze in table tennis (women's team). Grace Lau took bronze in karate (women's kata). Lee Wai Sze took bronze in cycling (women's sprint). It was Hong Kong's best showing at any Olympics.  For the record, Canada finish 11th in the medal count with seven gold, six silver, and 11 bronze. The women's football team taking gold, especially a...

I'm not sure who did the painting on the front of the card. In the Gueiren District you will find the Taiwan High Speed Rail Station. This train can reach Taipei in 90 minutes. I don't think this train is a part of the high speed system.

Isehara  伊勢原市  is a city of 102 000 people about 50 km from Tokyo. A large part of the city is located within the Tanzawa-Ōyama Quasi-National Park   丹沢大山国定公園. The park includes the Tanzawa Mountains, Miyagase Dam, Hayato Great Falls, and Mount  Ōyama.  Isehara is considered a bedroom community for Yokohama and Tokyo, but is also the home of Amada Company, a machine tool manufacturer, and Maru-Chan, an instant noodle manufacturer.  

Julia sent a nice card entitled,  Kindergarten, 1958 , by Anatol Volkau. The portrait shows two adults, presumably the teachers, with 17-18 kindergarten students. They are in a line and look like they are collecting leaves somewhere off campus. It's a great painting.

Makiko describes the designs on the front as 'traditional Japanese designs" but didn't elaborate on what they mean. Makiko lives in Kumamoto on the island of Kyushu in southern Japan.  Kumamoto is the capital city of the Kumamoto Prefecture and has a population of 740 000 people. The metropolitan area, Great Kumamoto has 1.5 million people. Roasso Kumamoto plays in the J League (Japan Professional Football League). They won the J3 title in 2021 and will play in the J2 league for 2020. They were founded in 1969 and play at Egao Kenko Stadium. Their entire roster, except for two Brazilians, are Japanese. 

Mainz is the capital city of Rhineland-Palatinate and home to 218 000 people. It dates back to 13 BCE. The Roman's built a military fortress here as it was the northermost frontier of the empire and the provincial capital of Germania Superior. As part of the Holy Roman Empire in the 8 century, Mainz was the capital of the Electorate of Mainz and seat of the Archbishop-Elector of Mainz, the Primate of Germany.  Johannes Gutenberg was born in Mainz. He, of course, was the inventor of a moveable-type printing press. Gutenberg manufactured his first books here, including the Gutenberg Bible, in the early 1450s.  Mainz was heavily damaged during World War II. Allies carried out more than 30 air raids destroying about 80% of the city centre, including most of the historic buildings.  The card is an oversized, cartoonish picture of some of Essen's tourist attractions. Let's have a look at some of the attractions in Essen found on the card: Schloss Borbeck (Borbeck Castle)  ...

Hanover is the capital city of Lower Saxony and home to over 534 000 people. The Hanover Metropolitan Area has about 1.16 million people.  The H. C. Hannover Indians play in the Oberliga, the third tier of professional hockey in Germany. The team has been in existence since 1948. Hanover has two Canadians on the team - Parker Bowles from Kelowna, BC, and Jayden Schubert from Abbotsford, BC. 

Magdeburg is the capital city of Saxony-Anhalt. It was founded by Holy Roman Emperor Otto I. He was buried in the city's cathedral after his death.  Magdeburg has been destroyed twice. In 1631 the Catholic League sacked the city resulting in the death of 25 000 non-combatants during the Thirty Years War. Magdeburg was a Protestant city as most of the citizenry turned Protestant in 1524. Once the soldiers entered Magdeburg, they set fire to single houses to smoke out people. Wind fanned the flames and 1700 of the 1900 buildings were destroyed. Soldiers went out of control after the fire died down. They had not been paid and began looting the city. When people couldn't give the soldiers anything, they began to beat, skewer, and hang people, as well as gang rape minors and commit torture. Only 20% of residents survived. The bodies were dumped into the Elbe River so as to prevent disease.  Magdeburg was also heavily bombed by British and American forces in World War II. Magdeburg ...

Erfurt is a city of 213 000 people and is the capital city of the state of Thuringia. It's metropolitan area is called  Thüringer Städtekette (Thuringian city chain) and has a half a million people. The city was first mentioned in documents in 742, when St. Boniface founded the diocese. The University of Erfurt was founded in 1379 and was the first university founded in what is now Germany today. It closed in 1816, but was re-established in 1994. Martin Luther was a student here between 1501-1505.  Erfurt's old town is one of the best preserved medieval city centres in Germany. Some of the tourist attractions of old town include: The  Krämerbrücke is found here. It is one of the few remaining bridges that have inhabited buildings and has been inhabited for 500 years. It spans the Breistrom, which is a branch of the Gera River. The bridge connects two town squares - Benediktsplatz and Wenigemarkt. The bridge was built as a stone bridge in 1325. Houses were built on th...

Egelsbach is a town of about 11 000 people. It was first mentioned in documents in 1275. The town belonged to the Lords of Falkenstein. Once the Falkensteins died out (no male babies) the area was inherited by the Counts of Isenburg in 1486. With the advent of the Reformation, the Count of Isenburg sold the village to Landgraves of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1600. Egelsbach became a parish is 1705. Since 1832, Egelsbach has been a part of the Offenbach district. Near Egelsbach is the European Communications Research Center which is an American military facility. It's a relay location for the US Department of State's Diplomatic Telecommunications Service.   

Great card of a Banksy work. It shows a boy playing with a nurse doll like a superhero, and his superhero dolls (Batman and Spiderman) are in the trash. The nurse has a cape and is wearing a mask. 

This card has a picture of a Domovoy, or Russian Brownie, teasing a cat with catnip. Domovoy's are usually represented as an old, grey-haired man with flashing eyes. He can manifest into the form of an animal, or the master of the house, or of a dead ancestor of the family. The female version is named Domania. 

Another great card from the Soviet Union and this one isn't a reproduction. Anapa is a town on the Black Sea. It has a lot of hotels and sanatoria for tourists who travel here in the summer month. It receives a great deal of sunshine and blessed with sandy beaches. Anapa, however, is more of a Russian destination rather than attracting international guests. Apparently it is inconvenient to get from Europe and the infrastructure is modest. However, for Russians, it is an inexpensive resort. 

Stefan lives in the hamlet of  Hellbühl. He mentions that my last name "Moll" is a famous name in Switzerland because of the child's book called Papa Moll . Papa Moll was first published in 1952 by Edith Oppenheim-Jonas. It is a novel about the events in the life of a father, Papa Moll, and his family, Mama Moll, Willy Moll, Fritz Moll, and Evi Moll. There is also a dachshund named Tschips. Papa Moll is a charming, clumsy, kind father and husband. Because of these traits he is always getting into adventures and troubles.  There is also a live action movie called  Papa Moll und die Entführung des fliegenden Hundes (Papa Moll and the Abduction of the Flying Dog).  Edith Oppenheim-Jonas died in 2001 at the age of 93. 

Eurajoki is a small town of almost 10 000 found on the Eurajoki River. Two of Finland's nuclear reactors are on the island of Olkiluoto in Eurajoki, with a third one under construction.  Olkiluoto produces 22% of the country's electricity. The new reactor being built will produce 14% on its own. It will start producing electricty in June 2022. Spent nuclear fuel is sent to nearby Onkalo (5 km), which has a deep geological repository. It is in the granite bedrock of the Olkiluoto site. Studies indicate that the canisters, made of copper, to store the spent fuel will not significantly damage them after 100 000 years. 

Michelle sends a beautiful card of a lake and mountains, but it doesn't indicate where it is. I can only speculate those are the Ore Mountains in the background.  I've written about Frieberg before so I had a look at the notable people that lived there and the name Kunz von Kaufungen stuck out for me. He was a German knight and military commander that lived from 1410 -1455. He fought for Frederick II, Elector of Saxon against Frederick's brother Duke William III during the Saxon Fratricidal War He is known for kidnapping Frederick's two sons, Ernest and Albert, from the castle in Altenburg and called Prinzenraub (the stealing of the princes). It was revenge for Frederick not repaying von Kaufungen for the damages or the ransom that wasn't paid to him from losses during the Saxon Fratricidal War. Frederick argued he was a hired soldier and he wasn't bound to make good on von Kaufungen's losses.  Prince Albert was rescued the same night of the kidnapping, and ...

Kerava is a small town of just over 37 000 people. There are a couple of things that are of interest in Kerava. The Sinebrychoff Brewery is located here and was founded in 1819. As of 1999, it is a subsidiary of Carlsberg Breweries. The Koff brand and lager and porter is produced by Sinebrychoff, as well as the Karhu brand. It also owns the license for Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite, Bonaqua, Powerade, Schweppes, and Dr. Pepper for Finland. It also produces its own soft drinks - Muumi and Smurffi.  Keravan Vankila is also located here and is an open prison. An open prison is one in which prisoners are trusted to complete sentences with minimal supervision and perimeter security. Prisoners are not locked up in their prison cells. In some cases, prisoners are allowed to take up employment while serving their sentence. Most of the time, these prisoners are considered low risk to the public. The idea here, of course, is to rehabilitate prisoners rather than punish them. 

This is a reproduction of a Soviet era card. I'm not sure what the Cyrillic says on the front, but I think it has something to do with farmers sharing their crops with all Russians.  Sibay possesses the deepest open cast mine in Russia. The copper-zinc quarry is 2 km wide and 500 metres deep.   

Beesel is a town of about 1725 people and is found along the river Meuse and fairly close to the German border.  The Netherlands there is something called Dutch (Toer) Skating. The Royal Netherlands Skating Union organizes this. Skaters must follow marked routes on frozen canals and lakes, The Elfstedentocht is a long distance tour skating event on natural ice and is almost 200 km long. The event is both a speed skating event and a leisure tour event. It takes place in the province of Friesland and goes past all eleven historical cities of the province. It only takes place when the ice is at least 15 cm think and one time there was a 20 year gap between events. Often time the tour is announced and may start within 48 hours. The last Elfstedentocht was in 1997 and won by Henk Angenent in 6 hours and 49 minutes, while Klasina Seinstra was the ladies winner with a time of 7 hours and 49 minutes and 11 seconds..