A beautiful card of the night skyline of Nagasaki. The sender is from Mishima  三島市 , a city of about 110 000 people located in eastern Shizuoka.  Mishima is a major industrial centre in Shizuoka and located in the foothills of Mount Fuji. One of its famous local attractions in Mishima Taisha  三嶋大社. This is a Shinto shrine. The main festival of the shrine is held on August 16 and features Yabusame  流鏑馬  - mounted archery. Yabusame features a an archer on a running horse and they shoot three special "turnip-headed" arrows in succession at three wooden targets. 

Pantone 13-1107 - Whisper Pink. Of course the Pantone is a set of cards with different Pantone colours. I think I have about a dozen of them that have been sent to me, and I have send out a couple dozen myself. The sender is from Belleville, which is a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. It has a population of almost 4000 people.  Belleville is home to the National Strawberry Festival. It's been held in Belleville since 1977. It takes place over three days in mid June. Events are geared for people of all ages!

A nice card from Manosankar. I think he's into butterflies. Butterflies are the second most celebrated insects in the world. India is home to over 1300 species of butterflies with major populations in the north east of India. This A-Z card represents few butterflies from the Western Gnats of India which is habitat to over 340 species. 

I might have mentioned this once or twenty times, but I love these vintage travel poster cards. This one is from around the 1920's or 30's.  Portland is home to the Portland Thorns FC, who play in the National Women's Soccer League. They are affiliated with the Portland Timbers of Major League Soccer. The Thorns were established in 2011. The Thorns are interesting to me because Canada's greatest footballer, Christine Sinclair, plays in Portland. Sinclair has played with the Thorns since 2013 and as of this posting, is their all time leader in games played, goals scored, and third in all time assists. Her Thorns have won the National Women's Soccer League three times - 2013, 2017, and 2022. For Canada, Sinclair has 331 caps for the senior team and has scored 190 times (the all time international leader - men or women). She also has participated in six FIFA Women's World Cups and four Olympic Football Tournaments (bronze in 2012 & 2016 and gold in 2020). Sincl

Lehre became Lehre on 10 June 888 and it consists of eight surrounding villages - Beienrode, Essehof, Essenrode, Flechtorf,  Groß Brunsrode, Klein Brunsrode, Wendehausen, and Lehre.  Of interest to me is August Hermann, who was born in Lehre. Hermann was a German physical education instructor. It was he and Konrad Koch who introduced association football to Germany from England in 1874. In Germany he is also known a Braunschweig (Father of Physical Education).  Hermann became a school teacher in Dresden. He was a big proponent of exercise and physical education. He began inter school football competitions. He also brought cricket to Germany, and, when he found out about basketball, introduced it as well. It took a couple of more decades for basketball to catch on. Hermann also invented a number of sports and set up a gymnastics training school in  Wolfenbüttel.  Hermann died in Braunschweig on 20 February 1906 at the age of 70.

Lempäälä is a small city located just south of Tampere. It is located on an isthmus between the lakes of Vanajavesi and Pyhäjärvi. Lempäälä was first mentioned in documents in 1430. Saint Birgitta, a medieval church, is the oldest building of Lempäälä. Today there are about 25 000 people living in Lempäälä. 

Pensacola is old by North American standards. It was first settled by the Spanish in 1559 when conquistador and explorer, Tristán de Luna y Arellano , landed here with about 1500 on 11 ships. They had come from Veracruz, Mexico to establish an outpost. Later that year a hurricane decimated the outpost and killed a number of sailor and colonists, sank six ships, and ruined supplies.  Today Pensacola has a population of about 55 000 people, but are a part of the Pensacola Metropolitan Area which has about 500 000 people.  Pensacola is nicknamed The City of Five Flags  because five different governments have ruled it: Spain, France, Great Britain, the United States, and the Confederate State of America. It also has the nickname of The World's Whitest Beaches  because the sand of this area of Florida is white.  Pensacola Beach, from where this card is from, is an unincorporated community on Santa Rosa Island, just south of Pensacola. It has about 2750 residents. 

A great tourist card that shows the Old City and it's clearly marked borders in Neumarkt in der Oberfalz. The area has had settlements as far back at the Neolithic period. The town itself is said to have been established in the 6th or 7th century by the Bavarii. The first mention of Neumarkt is assumed to be from the 12th century, but the first mention of the city in documents is from 1135.  Today the city has about 41 000 citizens and is located in south east Germany.

A great tourist card of the famous American highway, Route 66. U.S. Highway 66 was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. The route became one of the most famous roads in the United States. It ran from Chicago to Santa Monica, California and covered almost 4000 km.  Bobby Troup wrote a song about the highway, (Get Your Kicks on) Route 66 , and there was even a television series called Route 66  that ran from 1960 to 1964. The series was about two men travelling the United States in a Chevrolet Corvette convertible, and the events and consequences surrounding their journeys. Martin Milner and Buz Murdock starred, with Murdock leaving during season 3 due to illness and Clenn Corbett replaced him.  Route 66 is featured in Disney/Pixar's film Cars. John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath  features the famous highway. In the bock, the highway symbolizes escape, loss, and the hope for a new beginning.  The highway underwent many improvements and

Loče is a small community of about 540 people found in eastern Slovenia. The Dravinja River is found on the left bank. This card comes from nearby Sitarjevec. A lead mine was found on Sitarjevec Hill. The mine is now a museum and visitors centre. 

Pacifica is a small city of about 37 000 located about 10 minutes south of San Francisco. It is a popular outdoor recreational area. Surfing, mountain biking, skateboarding, hiking, fishing, golf are among the many outdoor activities why people either choose to make it their home or come from other communities.  Comedian Rob Schneider grew up in Pacifica. He started the Rob Schneider Music Foundation to support school music programs and has contributed about $2 million of his own money to the foundation. 

A great official 2008 summer Olympics card photo of the 'Bird's Nest" 鸟巢.  The Bird's Nest, or the National Stadium  国家体育场  was built with seating for 91 000 and was completed in June 2008. It was also used for the 2022 Winter Olympics, too.  The stadium hosts sporting events. However, it does not have a team that uses it as their home stadium. Beijing Guo'an FC was going to play at the stadium, but they usually only draw about 10 000 spectators for games and thought it would be embarrassing to play in a venue that would only be 15% full.  Despite the lack of a home team, the stadium does host various international and national events and concerts. It also draws 20 000 to 30 000 people a day at 50 yuan (about CDN$9.25) to sightsee. It is a very profitable venue. 

Anytime I get a bird card I send a photo to my brother-in-law, who is a birder. He always loves the photos or portraits of birds I send him.  This is a Yellow-breasted bunting and are common in northern China, North Korea, and Kuril Islands. The species is considered Critically Endangered by the International  Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In China the birds are caught and sold for consumption. There are laws in China but that has made the birds more valuable. 

This card was picked up on vacation from a lady in Ohio. What a beautiful photo of the Cassidy Arch in Utah. Cassidy Arch is a large natural arch in Capital Reef National Park in Utah. It was named after famous railroad bandit Butch Cassidy (Robert LeRoy Parker) who is said to have had a hideout nearby when he was on the run. 

Zlín is a city of about 74 000 people in eastern Czech Republic. It was known as Gottwaldov from 1949 to 1989; named after the first communist president of Czechoslovakia, Klement Gottwald. It was officially changed back to  Zlín on 1 January 1990.  Zlín is first mentioned in records in 1322 when it was acquired by Queen Elizabeth Richeza. She was a Polish princess and Queen consort by her two marriages.  Zlín is home to PSG Berani Zlin who plays in the Czech 1.liga, the second highest level of professional hockey in the Czech Republic. They won the Czech Extraliga twice in 2003-04 and 2013-14, and were runners up 4 times. They are also the current defending champions of the Czech 1.Liga. Their current roster is made up of all Czech players except for one Canadian, Alexandre Mallet, from Amqui, Quebec. Mallet was drafted by the Vancouver Canucks (2nd round, 57th overall) in the 2012 NHL entry draft. The Canucks traded his rights to the New York Islanders in 2014 for Andrey Pedan. After

Lieksa is a town of 10 300 people. Olympic bronze medalist Mira Jalosuo hails from Lieksa. Jalosuo won bronze with the Finnish women's hockey team at the Pyeongchang, South Korea Olympics in 2018. She also has five bronze medals at the IIHF World Championships.  Jalosuo attended the University of Minnesota and played with the Golden Gophers. As a professional player she played with SKIF Nizhny Novgorod of the Russian Women's Hockey League, Luleå HF/MSSK of the Swedish Riksserien,    Oulun Kärpät Naiset  of the Finnish Naisten Liiga, and the Minnesota Whitecaps of the Western Women's Hockey League. Today she is an assistant coach of PWHL Minnesota of the Professional Women's Hockey League.

Goggle translator says that this card reads  Hello dear viewing tube children, have a sunny day! The card comes from Ede, in central Netherlands. It has a population of almost 120 000. In the last week of August, Ede hosts Heideweek (Week of the Heather). Traditional Dutch and local festivities take place. The town elects a Queen of the Heather and a Princess of the Heather and they get to represent Ede at various events throughout the year. 

A rare repeat card for me (that's not a Postcard Day card). The other sender of the card is also from the Los Angeles area (small world).  Pasadena in located in Los Angeles County and 18 km north east of Los Angeles. Its population was almost 139 000 people at the last census (2020).  Pasadena is home to California Institute of Technology, or Caltech. All the male leads, and one of the female leads, all work at Caltech in the television sitcom The Big Bang Theory .  Padadena is also the home of the Rose Bowl, where the UCLA Bruins football team play. It's also hosted five Super Bowls. It was used in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics for soccer; hosted the final game of the 1994 FIFA World Cup; and the final game of the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup. 

I love old photos of athletes. This is a photo of Edd Roush (1893 - 1988). He was an American baseball player and coach. He played centre field from 1913 to 1931. Most of his time was with the Cincinnati Reds, but also played for the New York Giants and Chicago White Sox. His batting average in his 18 year career is .323. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.  Roush was the World Series champion with the Reds in 1919. This world series is famous for the Black Sox Scandal. Several members of the White Sox conspired with gablers to throw the World Series games. Eight members of the White Sox were banned from organized baseball in 1921, despite being acquitted of their criminal charges. The banned players were: Arnold "Chick" Gandil, Eddie Cicotte, Oscar "Happy" Felsch, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, Fred McMullin, Charles "Swede" Risbert, George "Buck" Weaver, Claude "Lefty" Williams. Joe Gedeon of the St. Louis

Veendam was established in 1648 as a peat colony by Adriaan Geerts Wildervanck (1605 - 1661). He founded the Muntendammer company to exploit a peat colony. Wildervank was also established at the same time. Today the town has a population of almost 28 000 people.  Near Veendam is the town of Westerdiepsterdallen. It is considered the smallest town in the Netherlands. For years it had only one resident and this was noted in the Guinness Book of Records in 1984. Today, there are five people. 

A great card from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (which ran in 2021...COVID). The card says Harmony of Tradition and Modernity . It is also a card that includes postage on it.  Matsuyama  松山市  is the capital city of Ehime Prefecture  愛媛県  and has about 505 000 people. It is located on the island of Shikou  四国.  Ehime FC  愛媛フットボールクラブ  is Matsuyama's representative in the J League. They compete in the third division, or J3 League. In 2023, they finished first in the league and will play in J2 in 2024. The club was formed in 1970 as the Matsuyama Soccer Club. It was renamed Ehime FC in 1995. For years they competed at the regional and prefecture level as there was already another Matsuyama team competing in the J League. The club was promoted to the J League in 2003, playing in the Japan Football League, the fourth tier of Japanese football. They won the JFL in 2005 and then spent the next 16 seasons in the J2 league. They were relegated in 2021, but, as I mentioned above, are back in J2 for

This card was made by the sender's 12 year old son and it is titled Axolotl . They live in Magdeburg, in eastern Germany. I've noticed that a lot of the card I receive from Germany come from the former West Germany - there aren't a lot that come from the former East Germany. I'm not sure why that is.  Magdeburg is the capital city of Saxony-Anhalt and sports a population of 240 000 people. The city was established in 805 by Charlemagne. Madgeburg means big or mighty fortress.  In 1207 a fire burned down a large part of the city, including the Ottoman Cathedral. In 1631, the Catholic League sacked the city and killed about 25 000 people. This was during the Thirty Years' War. During World War II, the city was bombed by the Allies in 1945 and destroyed much of the city.  Since German reunification, man new construction projects have been implemented and many old buildings are being restored.  In 2005, Magdeburg celebrated its 1200th anniversary. 

Koblenz was established as a Roman military post in 8 BCE. The city celebrated 2000 years in 1992. There are 114 000 people that live the banks of the Rhine and Moselle.  In Koblenz you will find the  Kurfürstliches Schloss (Electoral Palace). It was the residence of the last Archbishop and Elector of Trier, Clemens Wenceslaus of Saxony (1739-1812). It was built in the mid 1700s. Today it houses several office of the federal government.   

A great card of the Weserstadion in Bremen. The Weserstadion was first built in 1947 and has been renovated four times - 1963-65; 1989, 2005, 2008-12. It used to have an oval for track and field, but it was removed in the last renovation. For league matches, the stadium can hold 42 100 people, but when it hosts international games, attendance is limited to 37 441.  Weserstadion is home to Werder Bremen who play in the Bundesliga. Werder Bremen was founded in 1899. Werder Bremen has been the German champions four times, the DFB-Pokal (German Cup) six times, and the DFL-Supercup (winner of the Bundesliga vs the winner of the DFB-Pokal) once. They also won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1991-92, and were the runner-up in the 2008-09 UEFA Cup.  The current squad has players from Czech Republic, Belgium, Denmark, Poland, Serbia, Guinea, Colombia, Austria, and, of course, about half of the team is from Germany.  

This card is a photo of Sigiriya, Sri Lanka. The writer says that he and his wife will be travelling to Sri Lanka in the winter of 2024-2025. They are from  Ibbenbüren, a city of just over 50 000 people in north west Germany.  Ibbenbüren is first mentioned in documents in 1146. A document from 1348 mentions the establishment of a church here in 799, but  Ibbenbüren considers 1146 as its birth year.  Sigiriya is an ancient rock fortress located in central Sri Lanka. it was built for King Kashyapa of Sri Lanka during his reign (CE 477-495). After the king died, the royal palace was abandoned. Buddhists used it as a monastery until the 14th century. Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the best examples of ancient urban planning. About 1 million people visit the site each year. 

Neuss is a city on the west bank of the Rhine opposite Düsseldorf. It is famous for its historic Roman sites. In fact, Neuss, along with Trier, share the title of "Germany's Oldest City." In 1984, Neuss celebrated the 2000th anniversary of its founding in 16 BCE.  The writer is a retired high school teacher and mentions he played basketball in Germany and England. I thought that Neuss might have a professional or semi-professional basketball team, but they apparently don't. Düsseldorf does, though. The SG ART Giants Düsseldorf are a professional basketball club and play in the second tier of German basketball, ProA. The Giants were created when ART Düsseldorf and the Giants Düsseldorf merged. The current teams consists of seven Germans, a Swede, four Americans, and a Croatian. The team mascot is a gorilla. This card is from the nearby town of Kempen. This photo is of Alstadt (old town) in Kempen. Kempen was first mentioned in documents in 1186.   

A great card from Ajax, Ontario. I love these old advertisement posters promoting that newcomers to Canada should move out to the Canadian prairies. The pictures always show a bumper crop in the fields and an idyllic life. However, as a Canadian history teacher, I know that a lot of the free land (well, $10) that was given away by the Canadian government was given up by many early homesteaders. Most had to live in sod houses for several years as lumber was scarce. Getting started wasn't as easy as the government tried to promote. Some families left and tried their luck in the new cities and towns that were springing up on the prairies. 

This card is from Fort Worth, Texas depicting the Fort Worth Stockyards Historic District. It opened in 1890 and covered 83.4 hectares. Eventually more stockyards opened and then were bought out forming the Fort Worth Stock Yards Company. By 1907, the stockyards sold a million cattle a year. Cattle, sheep, and hogs could be bought, sold, and slaughtered here. By the 1950s, business suffered as livestock auctions were held closer to where the livestock were orginally produced.  Today the Fort Worth Stockyards consists of mainly entertainment and shopping venues that capitalize on the Cowtown image of Fort Worth. 

Cologne is home to  FC Köln and they play in the Bundesliga. In 2022-23, they finished in 11th place in the 18 team league.  FC Köln was formed in 1948 with a merger of two Cologne clubs. They won the German championship in 1962 and the Bundesliga twice - 1963-64 and 1977-78. They play at the RheinEnergieStadion in front of 50 000 spectators.  The club nickname is  Die Geißböcke (the Billy Goats). They have a male goat named Hennes who is their live mascot. Currently the team is using Hennes IX at games.  FC Köln has long-standing rivalries with    Borussia Mönchengladbach ,  Fortuna Düsseldorf , and  Bayer Leverkusen .   The current squad has players from Austria, Kosovo, Denmark, Greece, and Luxembourg on the team made up of mostly German players. The first-team assistant manager is Calgary born Kevin McKenna. McKenna played with  FC Köln between 2007-2012. Internationally, McKenna has 63 caps and eleven goals. With  FC Köln he played 141 matches and scored 11 times. 

Cagliari is found in the southern part of Sardinia. There are about 150 000 people who live there, and 420 000 in the metropolitan area. It's an ancient city and it is estimated there has been a city on this site for 5000 years.  Cagliari was the capital city of the Kingdom of Sardinia from 1324 to 1848. Today it is cultural, educational, political, and artistic centre. It's also Sardinia's economic and industrial hub. The port of Cagliari is one of the biggest in the Mediterranean. The University of Cagliari was founded in 1607, and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cagliari has been in existence since the 5th century CE. Cagliari is home to Cagliari Calcio football club. They won the Italian League back in 1970. Cagliari Calcio has bounced around the Italian leagues several times due to regulation, or because they qualified to move up. In 2022-23, Cagliari won the Serie B playoffs and will play in Serie A for 2023-24. 

Chomutov is a city of abour 47 000 people in north west Czech Republic. The sender's card features a Harley-Davidson FLSTC Heritage Softail Classic. He also writes he loves hockey and is a off-ice referee for HC  Piráti  Chomutov. The team plays in the 2nd Czech Republic Hockey League. They were established in 1945 as  ČSK Chomutov. They have played in the Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League from 1950-51 to 1963-64, and again for a season in 1967-68.  In 2012-13 the team was promoted to the Czech Extraliga after winning the First National Hockey League championship. However, they were only there for a season and were relagated again. However, they won the FNHL championship again in 2014-15 and promoted again.  In 2023-24 they are playing in the 2nd Czech Republic Hockey League. The current roster has no international players.

Strambino is a small comune of about 6200 about 40 km from Turin. In fact the card comes from Turin and depicts the Mole Antonelliana. The Mole Antonelliana is a major landmark building in Turin. A mole in Italian is a building of monumental proportions. Antonelliana is the name of its architect, Alessandro Antonelli.  Construction began in 1863 and was completed in 1889. Today it houses the Museo del Cinema (National Museum of Cinema), and is unofficially the tallest museum in the world. 

A beautiful card from Kyiv. There is a poem on the back, but it is in Ukrainian, and the illustrator is also Ukrainian.  I am going to copy and paste the first couple of paragraphs from the sender's biography: My name is Valeriya. I live in Ukraine in Kyiv. Surely you have heard about Ukraine because there is a war going on here. We live by these terrible events, living here. Sometimes we hide in basements from bombings, sometimes we don't even react to the sounds of rockets. In Kyiv, life goes on, and restaurants and cafes work all kinds of services. Of course, everything is not like in peacetime, we have a curfew, and every day they turn off the electricity for several hours. It happens that after a rocket attack, there is no electricity for several days. So in Kyiv. But of course not in all of Ukraine, because some cities have been wiped off the face of the earth. My family was in no way touched by the horrors of loss. God bless. But many of my friends and acquaintances suff

  Peace

The sender is a huge pop art fan and their card shows it. This is Finger Pointing (1973) by Roy Lichtenstein. Lichtenstein was an American pop artist and was one of the leading figures in the new art movement in the 1960s. He defined pop art through parody.  His most expensive work is Masterpiece  and is was sold for $165 million (USD) in 2017. Masterpience was created in 1962 and is a parady of a comic strip. The female character in the work says, "Why, Brad darling, this painting is a MASTERPIECE! My, soon you'll have all of NEW YORK clamoring for your work!" Steven A. Cohen purchased the work and is in his private collection. The previous owner, Agnes Gund, sold it and the proceeds of the sale were used to start a fund for criminal justice reform called the Art for Justice fund.  Lichtenstein died of pneumonia in 1997 in New York City.

Saitama  さいたま市  is a city of 1.324 million people located just outside of Tokyo. This card is a Shinto shrine found on Mount Inari. This photo shows some of the 10 000 torii (an archway to a Shinto shrine) dedicated by devotees. This shrine is called the Fushimi Inari-taisha  伏見稲荷大社  and is the head shrine of the kami (diety) Inari. Inari is the kami of rice and agriculture, but merchants also considered him the patron of business.

A great card with great postage stamps on it. I think the card is celebrating a century of Dutch football. Culemborg is a city of about 30 000 people found in the middle of the Netherlands. It received city rights in 1318. City rights are a feature of medieval history of the Low Countries. A liege lord, count, or duke granted a town or village he owned certain town privileges that places without city rights did not have. 

The sender is from Vienna (Wien), but the card is from Salzburg. It's a multiview card and the view that caught my attention was the Stubnerkogel Bad Gastein - a big, long suspension pedestrian bridge.  Bad Hofgastein is a market town and a spa town. There is a large ski resort near by. The Gastein Valley has four large ski areas with over 200 km of downhill slopes. Bad Hofgastein is located under the Schlossalm-Angertal-Stubnerkogal ski area. There is even a ski lift that will take you directly from Bad Hofgastein to the Schlossalm summit. There are also a large number of luxury hotels. The area is frequented mostly by Austrians, but there are also a large number of Italian and Russian tourists who flock to the area. 

Beijing has hosted many international and national sporting events, including two Olympic Games. 2008 Summer Olympics & Paralympics 2022 Winter Olympics & Paralympics 2001 Summer Universiade 1990 Asian Games Beijing Marathon (annually since 1981) China Open of Tennis (annually since 2004) ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Cup of China ('03,'04,'05,'08,'09,'10) World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association China Open for Snooker (annually since 2005) Union Cycliste Internationale Tour of Beijing (since 2011) 1961 World Table Tennis Championships 1987 IBF Badminton World Championships 2004 AFC Asian Cup Barclays Asia Trophy 2015 IAAF World Championships in Athletics 2019 FIFA Basketball World Cup Chinese National Games (1914, 1959,1965,1975, 1979) 1988 National Peasants' Games 1999National Minority Games 

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.

Ridderkerk is a town in western Netherlands of about 47 000 people. The elevation of the town is an average of 1 meter above sea level. 

North Syracuse is a village of about 6800 people in upstate New York. The first plank road in the United States was opened in North Syracuse in 1846. It was built to transport salt. The road was 26.55 km long and planked the entire length. Four tollgates were set up about 6.4 km apart. The company used the tolls to maintain the road, which, because of horse shoes, had a gang of men constantly repairing the road. The tolls was: 1 cent/per head of cattle, 5 cents for a single horse, and 25 cents for a horse and wagon. The  road had a planked side and a dirt side. The planked side, planked with lumber that was 7.6 cm thick and 2.44 meters long. Loaded wagons had the right of way on the planked side. The dirt side was used for empty wagons, single horses, and for passing. Bicycles also used the planked side for racing on Sundays.