3185 - Tampere, Pirkanmaa, Finland

Tampere is the home to two Liiga hockey teams - Tappara and Ilves.

Tappara has won 18 Finnish league titles, the first being 1959 and the last in 2022. On this year's squad there are two Canadians - Geoff Platt and Ben Thomas.

Platt is from Toronto. Before playing in Europe he played in the National Hockey League with the Anaheim Ducks and the Columbus Blue Jackets. He then spend five years in the Kontinental Hockey League with Dinamo Minsk, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, and CSKA Moscow. While playing in Minsk, he accepted Belarusian citizenship. He first played for Belarus in international play in 2014. He played for Ilves, the Växjö Lakers, and now Tappara.

Ben Thomas was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2014. he played five seasons in the American Hockey League before finally getting 5 games with Tampa Bay. He moved to Sweden in 2021 to play for Leksands IF, Växjö Lakers, and now Tappara.

Ilves has won 16 Finnish league championships, the first being 1936 and the last in 1985. They have one Canadian on the roster - Barrett Hayton from Kitchener.

Hayton was drafted 5th overal in the 2018 draft by Arizona. He played 20 games in the National Hockey League in 2019-20. He started with Ilves in 2020-21, but returned to Arizona to play 14 games with the Coyotes, and 26 with Arizon's farm team, Tucson. In 2021-22 he played 60 games with Arizona picking up 10 goals and 14 assists.

3227 - Mölln, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

Mölln is a small city of about 20 000 located in northern Germany. The Elbe-Lübeck Canal flows through the town, and there are eight small lakes that surround the city. It was founded in the 12th century and was a part of the Old Salt Route. Salt that was produced in the salt mines of Lower-Saxony was shipped to the Baltic Sea. Till Eulenspiegel, a legendary trickster known for exposing vices and provoking thought, is said to have lived in Mölln the last year of his life. He apparently died of the plague in 1350, but his existence has never been proven. Mölln has several monuments dedicated to him.

3322 - Hamburg, Germany

Happy birthday to me! What a lovely handmade card from the sender. Beautiful penmanship. Am Rothenbaum is the site of the main court of the German Open Tennis Championships. The International German Open has been played at the Rothernbaum since 1892, making it Germany's longest running tennis tournament. The current stadium was built in 1999 and can hold 13 200 people.

3232 - Manitowoc, Wisconsin, United States of America

The Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal North Pierhead Light was built in 1882. There were nine keepers of the light until 1897. It was redesigned in 1903 and is 12 meters high. The Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal was started in 1872 and wasn't opened for large-scale watercraft until 1890. The canal is 2.1 kilometers long that goes from Sturgeon Bay in Lake Michigan to Green Bay. There are no locks on this canal. The canal was sold to the United States government in 1893 and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintains the canal.

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