The sender is from  Seinäjoki, but recently attended a Postcrossing Meetup in  Åland.  Åland is an autonomous demilitarized region of Finland. It received its autonomy by a 1920 decision of the League of Nations. Just over 30 000 people live here. 

I like these info cards. Zunyi  遵义 is a prefecture-level city in China. In China, a prefecture is an administrative division below a province, but above a county. There are 2.4 million people in the metropolitan area, but the prefecture, including 14 county-level areas, has about 6.6 million people.  Zunyi is situated between Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou Province, and Chongqing, and borders Sichuan. It is one of the most important cities of the province! Zunyi was were the Zunyi Conference took place in 1935. Mao Zedong was first elected to the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party here during the Long March. 

A neat card entitled, Danger Signals, 1960.  The sender is from San Diego.  The Battle of San Pasqual took place near what is now San Diego. It took place during the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). This battle took place on 6-7 December 1946 and it was between American forces led by Brigadier General Stephen Kearny, a veteran of the War of 1812, and Mexican forces led by Major  Andrés Pico.  Kearny led 150 members of the U.S. Army of the West, and a small detachment of the California Battalion. They engaged Pico and his 75 Californios and Presidial Lancers Los Galgos. In the end, the Americans lost 18 men, while 13 were wounded, including Kearny. Picos had 12 men wounded and one take captive.  General Kearny wrote that the American achieved victory since the Californios had fled. The Californios saw they engagement as their victory.  Kearny had retained the battle area, the ability to operate and maneuver, and also the initiative, though his loses were si...

A creepy card. However, Oldies Burger is a legitimate restaurant in Taichung. 

We just talked about the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association in the United States so lets move the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) of Germany and the Rockets. The Rockets are based in Gotha, but play their home games in Erfurt at the Turnhalle KGS Gotha, capacity 500 people. The Rockets were founded in 1998 as the Oettinger Rockets and started in the Bezirksliga - the fifth tier of German basketball.  The Rockets dropped the Oettinger moniker after the main sponsor, Oettinger Brauerei, left. They were just known as the Rockets since then.  The Rockets won the ProB title in 2011-12 season. Their only championship in any league as of now.  The Rockets made the BBL in 2017-18, but finished in 17th place and was relegated back to the ProA League.  Their current roster includes an all German team with an American - Robert Franklin - and a Slovak - Peter Kancir.

San Antonio is the seventh largest city in the United States with 1.5 million people. It is also the oldest municipality in Texas. It celebrated it's 300th anniversary in 2018. It has been a part of five different countries. It started out in the Spanish Empire until 1821. It belonged to Mexico until 1945. It became a part of the Republic of Texas until 1845. Joined the United States until 1861 when it joined the Confederate States of America. After the American Civil War was over, it went back to the United States.  The San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association is the only major professional sport here. They were founded as the Dallas Chaparrals in the defunct American Basketball Association from 1967 to 1973. The franchise moved to San Antonio in 1973. In 1976, the Spurs were one of four ABA teams to merge with the NBA, the others being Denver, Indiana, and New York Nets.  The Spurs have been NBA champions five times - 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2014. They have o...

A beautiful photo of Kiyosato Heights in the Southern Alps (Akaishi Mountains  赤石山脈)  in Japan.  They go from central Honshu, near Nagano and joins with the Hida Mountains (Northern Alps) and Kiso Mountains (Central Alps) to form the Japanese Alps.  Mount Hōō  ( 鳳凰山) is the first mountain at the southern most part of the Southern Alps.  Mount Kita  ( 北岳) is the highest at 3193 m. 

Remember the Mr. Men books by Roger Hargreaves? My sisters had most of them and they loved reading them. Mr. Bump was the sixth book of the series. He is a blue man who can't help having accidents. Anytime he tried to do a job, he would fall, get stuck, break things, or hurt himself. On vacation he would fall into holes, fall in the water while boating. At the end of the book he found his perfect job: bumping into trees in Mr. Barley's apple orchard, making the apples fall off the trees. 

I nice card wish "Summer Greetings" from Nurse Toshiko! She is from Tsuruga  敦賀市, a small city (by Japanese standards) of 66 000 people. Found in Tsuruga is the Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum  人道の港 敦賀ムゼウム. It displays the history of Tsuruga Port and emphasizes Chiune Sigu hara  杉原 千畝. Sigihara was the vice-consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunaus, Lithuania. During World War II, he helped thousands of Jews flee Europe by issuing transit visas to them so they could travel through Japanese territory. Most of the Jews he helped were from German-occupied Western Poland and Soviet-occupied Easter Poland, as well as residents of Lithuania. Sugihara risked his career and the lives of his family in doing so.  In 1985, Israel honoured Sugihara as one of the Righteous Among the Nations  for his actions. He is the only Japanese national so honoured. In 2020, Lithuania declared it the Year of Chiune Sugihara. It is estimated that 100 000 people alive today are descendants...

The sender was in Las Vegas recently and bought this card from The Mob Museum. The Mob Museum, officially known as the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, is located in downtown Las Vegas. It open in 2012. It features artifacts, stories, and the history of organized crime in the United States, but also the actions and initiatives by law enforcement to prevent such crimes.  The museum is found at the former Las Vegas Post Office and Courthouse, which was built in 1933.  The quote on this card was from John Gotti. John Gotti (1940-2002) was the mafioso and boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. After ordering the killing of Gambino boss Paul Catellano in 1985, he took over the family and led what was the United States' most powerful crime syndicate. He was known as The Teflon Don  after three high profile trials in the 1980s resulted in acquittals. Later it was revealed that the trials had been tainted by jury tampering, juror misconduct, and...

Xi'ning  西宁市 is the capitol city of Qinghai Province. It was a commercial hub along the Northern Silk Road's Hexi Corridor for over 2000 years. It was also used as a stronghold of the Han, Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties' resistance against nomadic attacks from the west.  Xi'ning hold several site of religious significance to Muslims (Donnguan Mosque) and Buddhists (Ta'er Monastery).  The World Health Organization listed Xi'ning as having the second worst air quality among eleven western Chinese cities, including Beijing (2011).

 

Tainan is the oldest city on the island. It was the capital city of Taiwan under Dutch rule (called Fort Zeelandia), the Kingdom of Tungning, and the Qing Dynasty until 1887. Tainan has a history of comebacks, redefinitions, and renewals which inspired its nickname Phoenix City . Today there are about 1.9 million people living here.  Tainan is famous for its diversity and density of temples and shrines. Some of them are the only ones of their kind on the island. 

Huangcun is a town found in the northwest corner of the Baxing District in Beijing. It is home to about 180 000 people. It is actually three separate regions that are disconnected from one another. It got its name after the region was flooded during the Yuan Dynasty. When the water receded, it formed a large desert landscape. Huangcun translates to Deserted Village . 

The Great Wall of China is one of China's biggest tourist attractions. Most of the tourists visit the Great Wall at Badaling. It is located about 80 I'm north west of Beijing. The portion of the Great Wall at Badaling was built in 1504, during the Ming Dynasty. The highest point of the wall here gets to just over 1000 meters above sea level.  This section of the wall underwent restoration  and was the first part of the wall to open to tourism in 1957. Millions of visitors  come to Badaling, which has seen significant development in the tourism sector. 

A lawn bowls card! I was so happy to receive this vintage lawn bowls card showing the club in Mirror Lake Park in St. Petersburg, Florida. Lawn bowls is my sport! Go Medicine Hat Lawn Bowling Club! Walkerton is a town of about 2200 people northern Indiana. It is infamous for having the first known Indiana business that would not cater a same-sex wedding after the passing of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Memories Pizza's owners refused to cater the event. The Act was signed into law on 26 March 2015. Former Vice-President Mike Pence was the governor of Indiana at the time. 

Beijing, of course, is the capital city and largest city in the People's Republic of China.  The Kunlun Red Star, a professional hockey team that plays in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), started in 2016. The International ice Hockey Federation was excited for this opportunity to bring China's ice hockey to a higher level since they were hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics.  Red Star's won their first league game with a 2-1 win over Amur Khabarovsk. Sean Collins, born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, scored the Red Star's first goal at the 14:00 minute mark of the first period. Collins was drafted 187th overall by the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League in 2008. He played parts of three seasons with Columbus and one with the Washington Capitals recording 3 assists in 21 NHL games. He currently plays for Black Wings Linz of the ICE Hockey League (a central European professional league).  On 27 October 2016, the first Red Star player of Chinese descent, Zach Y...

Thornton is a small, unincorporated place near Barrie, Ontario, and about 75 km north or Toronto. There are almost 1000 people living here. Originally it was named Henrysville, or Henry's Corners, an early settler and the first teacher. Due to confusion at the postal level, it was changed to Thornton in 1854, named after Henry Thornton, who owned a grist mill, saw mill, and planning mill. 

 

 

What a great photo of a baby orangutan. I love monkeys, apes, and gorillas. I could spend all day at the zoo watching them. Veenendaal is located in central Netherlands and has a population of about 69 000 people. It was founded in the mid 1500s as a peat colony. Veen  is the Dutch word for fed and daal  is Dale.  Veenendaal as adapted to cycling and has a vast network on cycling paths which makes it very convenient for people to get around. Twice - in 2000 and 2020 - Veenendaal was chosen as Fietsstad of the Year - an award that recognizes the top city for cycling in the Netherlands. 

The sender say she and her husband enjoy canoeing at the Adirondack Mountains. However, it is a five hour drive from their home. In New York, there is the Forest Preserve that comprises 40% of  the Adirondack Park region. Adirondack Park was established in 1892 for the free use of all the people for their health and pleasure.  At 6.1 million acres, it is the largest park in the United States (excluding Hawai'i and Alaska).  There are 46 High Peaks, 2800 lakes and ponds, 48 000 km of rivers and streams, and 81 000 hectares of old-growth forest. There are also 105 towns and villages and 130 000 permanent residents, which balloons to 330 000 in the summer months. An estimated 12.4 million people visit the park annually. 

Great photo of the Oberbaum Bridge ( Oberbaumbrücke). It spans the River Spree and is considered a city landmark. It is a double-decker and links Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg. Both of these boroughs were seperated by the Berlin Wall so the bridge is also an important symbol of unity. The top of the bridge has rail lines, while the bottom part is a roadway. The bridge as it is was built in 1896 after two years of construction. The two towers of the bridge were inspired by the Middle Gate Tower in Prenzlau. They are cosmetic only and serve as a reminder that the site was once Berlin's river gateway.  When the bridge acted as a border between the East and West, it was used as a place to swap spies or prisoners (in fiction). 

I was thrilled to receive this card. The sender is from Ucluelet, which is on the west coast of Vancouver Island. I lived there for five years when I was a boy. Ucluelet is south of the Pacific Rim National Park, and about 30 minutes south of its more well known cousin, Tofino. Tofino is the village that gets all the attention between the two places.  Ucluelet is an anglicized version of  Yuułuʔił , which means "people of the safe harbour in Nuu-chah-nulth language and is the homeland of the  Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ  people. When I lived there in the late 70's and early 80's, logging and fishing were the main industries in town. Today, Ucluelet has transitioned to a year-round tourism based economy. About 90 000 visitors come to Pacific Rim National Park, Ucluelet, and Tofino every year. Tofino is a favourite vacation spot for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who will surf at Long Beach. The card the sender sent me is from Princeton, British Columbia. She bought in on a road trip...

I get so many cards from Germany and the United States, it is a thrill to receive one from a country with a small number of Postcrossers. The United Arab Emirates has about 300 Postcrossers. The sender is an expat of (I think) the United States. This is a great card because it is commemorating the Special Olympics World Games in 2019. The sender said she volunteered at this event. About a dozen or so cards back, I received a card from Germany with a Special Olympics World Games stamp on it. It was the latest SOWG.  I have worked with Special Olympics athletes in the past and I always enjoy spending time with many of them. Although they are competing against one another, they are always encouraging one another and are happy when someone does well.  At our lawn bowls club, we have the local Special Olympics Bocce players come on Mondays. There is always laughing and joy. They are also hosting a regional tournament this summer. Members of the club are looking forward to volunteer...

This is one of my favourite athletic photos. This took place at the Summer Olympics in 1968 in Mexico City. Tommie Smith took the gold medal in the men's 200 m sprint, with Australian Peter Norman taking the silver, and American John Carlos took the bronze. Of course, 1968 in the United States was the peak of the American civil rights movement for African-Americans. Smith and Carlos decided to raised their gloved hands and hang their heads during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner as a form of protest. They also went up the podium barefoot to protest poverty in the United States. They wore beads to protest lynchings that were still happening in the American south. They also wore buttons of the OPHR - Olympic Project for Human Rights.  The crowd booed the two athletes after the anthem was over.  Prior to the Olympics, Smith advocated the boycott of the 1968 Games unless four conditions were met: Both South Africa and Rhodesia needed to be uninvited to the games; Muhammad A...

The sender is from the town of  Königswinter,but the card comes from Bonn. However,  Königswinter   has a legend about a dragon and that caught my attention. Königswinter is on the bank of the Rhine, across from Bad Godesberg. The Drachenfels is a hill between the two towns with the ruins of a 12th century castle, built by the Archbishop of Cologne. There is a cave in the hill that local folklore says housed a dragon. The dragon was slain by Siegfried, another figure is Germanic lore. 

Bakhmach is locarted in northern Ukraine. I'm taking this next paragraph straight out of Wikipedia: During the  Russian invasion of Ukraine  on February 26, 2022, at least 65 units of Russian military equipment moved through Bakhmach, with about a hundred more on the outskirts. Local residents tried to stop the convoy on their own by blocking tank tracks with makeshift objects and convincing Russian soldiers not to move towards  Kyiv . One man attempted to climb onto a tank and block the road with his body (he was not hurt). However, the military equipment continued to move, and Russian forces fired several shots into the air. Слава Україні!

I think this is an EA Sports ad card. There is an EA Sports logo in the corner. The German on the card translates to: Heroes Wanted! Oberhausen in located between Duisburg and Essen. In 1954 they began hosting the International Short Film Festival and is one of the oldest short film festivals in the world. Short films are 40 minutes or less.  Five hundred films out of about 7000 submissions are chosen each year to be shown at the festival. 

A wonderful message on this card that translates to to those wh o can wait, everything comes with time.

A bigger than average card of the Post Tower - the headquarters of Deutsche Post DHL Group. Deutsche Post is the traditional method of posting mail. The DHL Group is for businesses that no longer use traditional mail services.  As one they handle mail communication, press services, retail outlets, and dialogue marketing.  The Post Tower is found in Bonn (of which Niederkassel is a part of their metropolitan area). It is a 162.5 m, 41 storey office tower. Construction started in 2000 and finished in 2002 and cost €78 million. Niederkassel is located on the right bank of the Rhine and has a population of 37 000. Bonn is 10 km south-west, and Cologne is 15 km north-west.

Spring is an extraterritorial jurisdiction of Houston. I'm not sure if that means Spring is a suburb, a separate town, or they contract essential services through Houston. It has about 63 000 people and is located in Harris County, north of Houston.  The card is one of those modern photos, with a smaller older photo in front of some of the photo to show a 'what is looked like before and now.' This one is of George Washington's homestead and (in the old photo) shows ladies of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association - the United States' first national historic preservation organization. They worked to save George Washington's homestead. Today, it is a non-profit organization that continues to preserve and maintain the Mount Vernon estate of George Washington.  The organization raised USD$200 000 (USD$4.1 million in 2003 dollars) to buy the Mount Vernon estate. They opened on 22 February 1860 as a museum. The organization founded in 1853 by Ann Pamela Cunningham o...

There are a couple of things I would like to highlight on this card. Firstly, this is a night shot of the Brandenburg Gate. It is, of course, one of Berlin's best known landmarks. It was built between 1788 to 1791 under orders of King Frederick William II of Prussia. It is the former city gate and it marked the start of the road from Berlin to Brandenburg an der Havel, which was the capital city of Margraviate of Brandenburg. During the Cold War, the gate marked the division between West Berlin and East Berlin. Today, it is considered a symbol of unity and peace in Europe. Secondly, the postage stamp commemorates the Special Olympics World Games, which were held in Berlin in 2023. At my lawn bowling club, we actually held a regional bocce tournament for teams from Medicine Hat, Calgary, Edmonton, and Whitehorse. One bocce player from this tournament was going to be chosen to represent Canada at the games in Berlin. I wish I could report it was a local bocce player. I'm not sure...

Cute card from a university student in Japan. They want to be a junior high history teacher. Best job ever! Naruto  鳴門市 is found on Shikoku island and has a population of 55 000 people - small when one thinks of the Japanese mega-cities. The Naruto University of Education  鳴門教育大学  is found here. Perhaps that is where the sender is studying to become a history teacher! Naruto is home to the Tokushima Indigo Socks  徳島インディゴソックス, who play in the Shikoku Island League Plus. It is an independent professional baseball league of four teams found on Shikoku. The league was founded in 2005 by for Nippon Professional Baseball star Hiromichi Ishige. In 2015, an all-star team of Shikoku Island League traveled to North America and played every team in the Can-Am League in North America. The all-stars went 6 wins against 10 losses. They did it again in 2016 and finished at 8 wins to 12 losses.  The league has four teams - the Ehime Mandarin Pirates, the Kagawa Olive Guyners, t...

A great photo of a Giant Pacific Octopus. It is found in the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The great thing about the photo is you can't tell which way is up. Giant Pacific octopus - enteroctopus dofleini  - is found along most of the coast of the Pacific Ocean, in both North America and Asia. They do well in cold, oxygen enriched ecosystems. It can grow up to 15 kg and have an arm span of 4.3 m. They generally eat shrimp, crabs, scallops, abalones, cockles, snails, clams, lobsters, fish, squid, and even other octopuses.  Most octopus species have a life span of a year, Giant Pacifics can live 3-5 years. They reach sexual maturation at 1-2 years of age. They can lay between 120 000 to 400 000 eggs. The females will continuously blow water over the spawn and grooms them to remove algae and other growths. Mothers will stay with their spans, even foregoing eating. The mother usually dies shortly after the swarm have hatched. Hatchlings are about the size of rice and very few survive to ...