A nice little Christmas card from Combs-la-Ville, a commune in the south-eastern suburbs of Paris. There are almost 23 000 people living here. 

Echternach is in eastern Luxembourg near the border with Germany. It is the oldest town in Luxembourg, dating back to 698 CE. There are about 6000 people living here.  The town grew around the Abbey of Echtermach, which was founded by St. Willibrord (c658-739), an English monk from Ripon, Northumbria (North Yorkshire). He became the first bishop of Utrecht and worked to Christianize the Frisians. In St. Willibrord's honour the Dancing Procession of Echternach takes place annually on Whit Tuesday (the day after Pentacost Monday).  The dance attracts many thousands of visitors and pilgrims to Echternach. It is listed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The card is part of a series entitled The Art of Urban Sketching . The particular card is a sketch of Roofs and Clouds, Naples, Italy by Simonetta Capecohi. A few weeks ago I learned there was a group here in Medicine Hat of urban painters. They choose a house, park, or other object wit...

The sender has been going to the Braunschweig Weihnachtsmarkt ( Christmas Market ) for nine years and loves going!

 

You can find Celle on the banks of the river Aller. There are about 71 000 people who live in Celle. Schloss Celle (Celle Castle) is here. It was built in the Renaissance and Baroque styles.  It was one of the residences of the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg. Celle Castle is based on a fortified wall tower (Wehrturm) and it guarded the ford of the Aller. The first fortification here was built around 980 CE. Another forerunner of the castle was founded in 1292 by Otto the Strict (c1266-1330), Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. The cellar vault and the lower stories of the watch tower have survived to the present day and its ruins lie underneath the castle theatre. The first recorded mention of Celle Castle was in 1315.  Today the castle has a variety of rooms and halls that date back to different periods. There are guided tours of the historic castle rooms and castle chapel, which were restored between 1978-1981. 

The sender says the Slender West Lake (Shouzihu)  瘦西湖  is famous in Yangzhou. It was developed from the city moats of the Tang Era. During the Qing dynasty, the banks were the site of numerous estates for the areas wealthy officials and salt merchants. The lake and some of its attractions have been restored as a national park and AAAAA tourist attraction - the highest level in the rating categories used by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in China. There are 359 tourist attractions in China given a AAAAA status. The lake is only open from 0700 - 1800 and there is an admission cost.  The lake runs for 3.4 kilometres and covers about 30 hectares. The park itself covers 120 hectares. 

This is the Umpherston Sinkhole (Balumbul) in Mount Gambier, near where the sender is from. This sinkhole looks like it was transformed into an outdoor theatre. Other sinkholes in the area attract cave divers from around the world. 

This is one of my favourite cards as the sender drew the picture on the card. And its lawn bowls!

On the cover are comb ferns  Schizaeaceae.  They are mainly distributed in the topics, but several are found in temperate regions in North America, South Africa, Australasia, and Northeast Asia.  This card comes from a series of postcards called Botanicum . 

 

A great Year of the Snake first day cover. The Year of the Snake  蛇  is the sixth of the twelve-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac. Snakes have a long and complicated place in Chinese mythology and culture.  In Chinese symbology, snakes are regarded as intelligent, with a tendency to lack scruples. 

The sender recommends to go kayaking at Three Sisters Springs, located on the Crystal River. Its found within the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge. There are three spring areas will many sand boils and vents. The springs are a winter refuge for manatees as the water stays at  23°C year round. Boats are not allowed in the water during this time but swimmers are. 

The sender lives 10 minutes from the Rose Bowl. He used his 1939 typewriter to type out the message on the back. Tom Hanks, American actor, is a collector of old typewriters. The Rose Bowl opened in October 1922 and is recognized as a National Historic Landmark and a California Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. The Rose Bowl is the best known as a college American football venue and hosts the annual Rose Bowl Game, first played in 1902. The first game featured the University of Michigan Wolverines against Stanford University. Michigan crushed Stanford 49-0. Because the game was so lopsided, the Tournament of Roses officials ran chariot races, ostrich races, and other various events instead of football. It wasn't until 1916 when the second Rose Bowl game was played. State College of Washington (Washing State University) defeated Brown University 14-0 in what would become an annual tradition ever since.  The Rose Bowl has been used for many other events. There have been five Super...

On the back of this card has the Arabic phrase Eid Mubarak , which means "blessed feast or festival." It is usually used by Muslims as a greeting to celebrate Eid al-Fitr (the end of Ramadan) and Eid al-Adha (which is in the month of Dhu al-Hijjah). It is a cultural tradition and not part of any religious obligation. 

Heilbronn is a city of 130 000 people. It was an important trading centre during the late Middle Ages. At the start of the 1800s, it became one of the early centres for industrialization in Württemberg. Air raids during World War II almost completly destroyed Heilbronn's old town, but it was rebuilt in the 1950s. It has a thriving wine industry nicknamed  Käthchenstadt. In October 2025, it was named the European Green Capital for 2027 by the European Commission. To receive a European Green Capital Award, a city has to  have a consistent record of achieving high environment standards; is committed to ongoing and ambitious goals for further environmental improvement and sustainable development; and can act as a role model to inspire other cities and promote best practices to all other European cities. 

This is a card from the School of Education at Ruhr University Bochum (RUB). RUB is a public research university and was founded in 1962, the first new public university in Germany after World War II. The School of Education is a part of the Faculty of Social Science. Today RUB has almost 43 000 students and employs about 5600 staff (411 professors)

The sender is a grade one bilingual teacher and she writes that her class is currently learning about organisms.  Berwyn is a suburb in the Chicago metropolitan area. Almost 60 000 people call it home and the population denstiy is almost 2100 people per square kilometre.  According to The Five Ton Life , Berwyn residents are able to live a low carbon footprint lifestyle. The neighbourhoods are walkable and have easy access to grocery stores. 

The back of the card reads - Weihnachten in Berlin , which translates to Christmas in Berlin.

Lucerne is a city of 82 000 people located in central Switzerland on the shores of Lake Lucerne ( Vierwaldstättersee). It is a nexus of economics, transport, culture, and media in the region. German is the official language but a locale varient of German, Lucerne German, is mostly used.  In 1993 the  Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge) caught fire. It was originally built in 1365. It is a covered bridge and was a part of Lucerne's fortifications. On 18 August 1993, the bridge caught fire. About two-thirds of its interior paintings, daiting back to the 17th century, were destroyed. Forty-seven damaged paintings were recovered, but only 30 were able to be restored.  Many of the paintings were created during the Counter-Reformation and featured scenes of the Catholic Church. An explanation of each painting was printed below each one. They also explained the life and death of St. Leger, Lucerne's patron saint. 

A photo of Fenway Park, home of the dreaded Boston Red Sox. Fenway Park opened on 20 April 1912. It has been renovated three times - 1988, 2002-2011, and 2017 - and expanded five times - 1934, 1946, 2002-2011, 2017, and 2022. It's been the home field for the Boston Red Sox since it opened. However, it has also been home to the Boston Braves (now the Atlanta Braves) (1914-15), the Boston Bulldogs of the American Football League (1926), the Boston Redskins of the National Football League (1933-36), the Boston Shamrocks of the American Football League (1936-37), the Boston Yanks of the National Football League (1944-48), the Boston Patriots of the American Football League (1963-68), and the Boston Patriots of the North American Soccer League (1968) Fenway is famous for the Green Monster, a 11.329 m wall in the left field of the park. The scoreboard at the Green Monster is manually updated throughout the game.  Fenway Park is named for being in the Fenway-Kenmore neighbourhood in Bosto...

Yiwu  义乌  is home to the Yiwu International Trade City  义乌国际商贸城 , or the Yiwu Market. It is the world's largest wholesale market for small commodities. It is a vital node in global supply chains.  The market itself is huge and can take days to explore. There are five districts: District 1 - opened in 2002 and covers 340 000 square meters with over 8000 booths. It mainly sells toys, plush and inflatable items, jewelry, hair and flower accessories, festival and wedding crafts, porcelain, crystals, and photo frames. About 70% of the items are exported. District 2 - opened in 2004 and covers over 600 000 square meters and over 8000 booths. It specializes in bags, suitcases, unbrellas, hardware, kitchenware, electronics, auto parts, and telecommunication equipment. District 3 - opened in 2005 and covers 460 000 square meters and 8000 booths. It sells buttons, zippers, cosmetics, glasses, pens, paper, office supplies, sporting goods, and arts.  District 4 - covers 1 0...

The sender is from Bandung, which is the capital city of the province of West Java. It is the third largest city in Indonesia with 11 million people in the metropolitan area. The Netherlands established the Dutch East Indies Company was responsible for starting a city here as it surrounded by volcanic mountains that provided a natural defence system. 

This card was sent from Japan while the sender was on vacation there. She writes that she is on a solo trip. 

On the back of the card it reads:: Robert Eagle's Heart Prairie Chief in typical Cheyenne attire living in Western Oklahoma in Clinton. The majority of the Oklahoma Cheyennes are still found in this area today. This card comes from a librarian in Tulsa. She found this card at a flea market. She mentions the Trail of Tears. The Trail of Tears was a forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of about 60 000 peoples of the "Five Civilized Tribes" and their black slaves between 1830 and 1950 by the United States Government.  Cherokee ( Aniyvwiya) , Muscogee ( Mvskoke) , Seminole, Chicksaw ( Chikashsha),  and Choctaw ( Chahta)  nations were forcibly moved to the new designated Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River as a result of the Indian Removal Act in 1830. The relocated people suffered from exposure, disease, and starvation while en route to their destinations or shortly thereafter. 

Nantong  南通市  is located on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, near the river mouth. It is an important centre for the textile industry and important port city.  On Langshan  狼山  ("Wolf Hill") is the site of a Buddhist temple dedicated to a Song dynasty monk. The monk had legendary powers over water demons, so sailors pray to him for protection on their voyages. 

The headdress on the front is from the Malaysian Indigenous people called the Kenyah. This translates to 'upriver people.' The Kenyah were traditionally swidden agriculturalists. This means they would cut and burn an area to cultivate for crops. The downed vegetation is left to dry, usually right before the rainy season. The biomass is then burned, resulting in a nutrient rich layer of ash which increases soil fertility and temporarily eliminates weeds and pests. In a few years, the soil wouldn't be able to support crops anymore so then a new area would be cut and burned, allowing the first area to grow over again. Kenyah people lived in longhouses of small communities. Each longhouse would choose their own leader.  It is estimated there are about 100 000 Kenyah people living in Malaysia and Indonesia.  

Among the many UNESCO World Heritage List's places found in Berlin, there is the Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery). It was built between 1862-1876 on the order of King Frederick William IV of Prussia. There is a memorial on the outside stair to King Frederick William IV. The Alte Nationalgalerie is home to paintings and sculptures of the 19th century.

This is a detail from Hieronymus Bosch's painting Triptych of the Temptation of St. Anthony (c1501).  On the left panel portrays the legendary flight and the fall of St. Anthony. The centre panel exemplifies St. the temptation of St. Anthony. On the right panel it depicts the Contemplation of St. Anthony. The two figures portrayed on the postcard obtained the ability to fly by the Devil in order to partake in  Witches' Sabbaths. 

This card comes from Gifhorn, with a population of 42 000. It sounds like it is a bedroom community to the larger industrial and commercial cities of Brunswick and Wolfsburg. It is a part of the Hanover-Brunswick-Göttingen-Wolfsburg Metropolitan Region.  The sender is a big football supporter and supports  Borussia Mönchengladbach. They play in the Bundesliga and finished in 10th place in the 2024-25 season. They were founded in August 1900. They are five time Bundesliga champions, two time UEFA Cup champions, and reached the European Cup final in 1977. The stadium, Borussia Park, seats almost 55 000. 

Merry Christmas from China. The sender is from Qingyuan, which is home to the Feilai Temple  飞来寺. It is a Buddhist temple located on the bank of the Bei River, It was originally built in CE 520, but because of natural disasters has been rebuilt several times. The current version was completed in June 2004.  Chan master Zhenjun  贞俊禅师  and Ling'ai  灵霭禅师  first built the temple in the first year of Period Putong in the Liang Dynasty. Bodhidharma preached dharma at the temple when he visited.  On 8 May 1997, Feilai Temple was destroyed along with eleven monks and nuns, and two workers, by floods and mudslides. The current temple began rebuilding in December of the same year. 

One of Frankfurt's monikers is "The City of the Euro" in 1998. The European Central Bank ( Europäische Zentralbank) is found in the Ostand District in Frankfurt. The bank has a balance sheet of  €7 trillion. The Seat of the European Central Bank is housed in the former  Großmarkthalle and a newly built (2014) 185 meter skyscraper. Up to 2300 European Central Bank employees can be housed here. 

A French movie poster postcard (?). I think this is from a film festival. 

Pulheim is home to Pulheimer SC - a sports club founded in 1966. There are sections for the following sports: Football Handball Baseball, Hockey Basketball Inline Hockey Volleyball Badminton Tennis Table Tennis Budo Fencing Track & Field Cycling Swimming Dancing Chess The Pulheim Gophers play in the baseball and softball section of the club and were founded in 1989.  Did you know there was a Baseball-Bundesliga (now called Deutsche Baseball Liga) in Germany? It was founded in 1984 and there are 11 teams in the top tier. Just like other sports in Europe, teams can be promoted or regulated to higher or lower leagues. Deutsche Baseball Liga is the highest tier of German baseball.  The Gophers played in the Deutsche Baseball Liga in 2009 and 2010 and finished 7th and 5th respectively. Today they play in the Baseball-Bundesliga Nord

Ratenice is a small village of about 700 people located in the Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic.  The sender's card is a Christmas card for 2024.

Stuttgart has become a widely cited case study in urban climatology for its use of ventilation corridors to mitigate the effects of heat and air pollution. Owing to its location in a basin surrounded by hills, the city is prone to stagnant air masses and elevated summer temperatures. To address these challenges, municipal planners developed a detailed Climate Atlas (Klimaanalyse) beginning in the late 20th century, which maps local wind patterns, cold-air drainage flows, and areas of heat accumulation. The atlas has informed zoning regulations that preserve open spaces and prohibit construction in designated corridors, allowing cooler night-time air from surrounding forests and vineyards to flow into the urban core. These corridors also function as green belts, providing ecological and recreational benefits in addition to climate regulation. Studies in urban climatology have highlighted Stuttgart’s approach as an early example of integrating microclimatic analysis i...

Great card of a rice paddy field. Rice is such an important staple food in Asia. 

Monschau is a small resort town in western Germany. There is a historic town centre which has many half-timbered houses and narrow streets which have remained unchanged for about 300 years.  Monschau Castle is found in the southern part of town. It was first recorded in 1217 as castrum in Munjoje by the Archbishop of Engelbert I of Cologne. It was expanded in the middle of the 1300s into a fortress for the counts of  Jülich and equipped with mighty ring walls and wall walks. It was beseiged by Emperor Charles V in 1543. The eventually captured it and plundered the castle and town. It was sold to a private buyer in 1836 who ordered the roofs removed to avoid paying a building tax. It fell into ruin until the government of the Rhine province secured and repaired it. A youth hostel was opened after the First World War. The youth hostel still operates today. 

Eight kilometres from downtown Tucson is Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. It was established in 1925. It is home of the 355th Wing assigned to the Twelfth Air Force, part of Air Combat Command. However, the base is better known as the location of Air Force Materiel Command's 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, which is an aircraft boneyard for all excess military and US government aircraft and aerospace vehicles.  The 309th takes care of nearly 4000 aircraft, which makes it the largest aircraft storage and preservation facility in the world. The arid climate prevents the aircraft from corroding. The ground is so hard that they do not sink in the ground.  There are four categories of storage for aircraft at the 309th: Long Term - aircraft are kept intact in inviolate storage for future use. No parts are removed without the express permission of appropriate program office. Parts Reclamation - aircraft are kept, picked apart, and used for spare parts. Flying Hold - a...

In my biography I write down that I do not want to tell you what to send me as I like the variety of cards I receive. However, I do put at the bottom if you have a lawn bowling (bowls) card, I would love it. I have only received a handful of bowls cards over the 10+ years I've been Postcrossing, but I do have four times as many regular lane bowling cards. This is a card showing for lane bowling in Germany. I'm not sure if Kegelbahn is 'bowling' in German, or its just the name of the lanes. 

The words on the front of the card translate to: The Twilight Saga I sell dusk in the world. I collect the worl gentle to see you.

This card from Berlin features the World Clock (Weitzeituhr) at Alexander Plaza (Alexanderplatz). East Germany erected the clock in 1969 and it was named a historical and culturally significant monument by the German government in 2015.  The clock was designed by Erich John, an employee of the planning group for the transformation of Alexanderplatz. He got the idea for the clock when wreckage of the  Uraniasäule, a pre-World War II public clock, was found during the restoration of the square in 1966.  In 1997, during a necessary repair of the clock, cities who were renamed or which moved time zones were updated. Leningrad, for example was changed to Saint Petersburg. There were also 20 cities that were omitted from the original clock by the East German government for political reasons, such as Tel Aviv, Cape Town, and Seoul, were added to the clock. 

 

This card was sent from Wingate, a town of 3500. The sender is a high school student "because their teacher thought it was a good idea." He sent this card because he likes frogs.  The card is from the American Museum of Natural History - August Johann Rosel vod Rosenhof, Historia naturalis ranarum nostratium.

A New Years card from Toronto. There was a postal strike in November 2024 and this was sent after the strike was over. 

This is a reprint of the large letter state name postcard, probably around the 1930s-1940s. The sender comes from Orange, a township of 35 000 people. The name derives its name from William III of England, or William IV, Prince of Orange. 

The sender challenged me to find some information on the checkerboard flowers. which is pictured on the front of the card. Checkerboard flowers, also known as Fritillaria, is a genus of spring flowering herbaceous bulbous perennial plant in the lily family. Species come from the Middle East and Asia and were introduced to Europe in the 1500s. There are about 140 different species divided among eight subgenera. Flowers are usually solitary, nodding, and bell shaped. The bulbs have fleshy scales and resemble lilies. Today they can be found from the Mediterranean, North Africa, Eurasia, southwest Asia, and western North America. 

The card is a reproduction of an oil pastel entitled Circle Dance  by Ann Altman.  Sandy is a city of almost 100 000 people located in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. There are a couple of theories as to how Sandy got it's name: The first theory is Brigham Young named Sandy because of it's thirsty soil. The second theory is it is named for Alexander "Sandy" Kinghorn, the engineer who ran the first train line to this end of the Salt Lake Valley.  Sandy is home to Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer and the Utah Royals of the National Women's Soccer League. Both play in America First Field (American First Credit Union) which has seats for 20 213 soccer spectators. 

This card from Baltimore is a part of the "Women in Science" series. This card features Karen Horney (1885-1952). Karen Horney was a German psychoanalyst. She questioned some of Sigmund Freud's theories, specifically the ones about sexuality. In response to Freud's Theory of Penis Envy she founded feminist psychology. Feminist psychology centred on social structures and gender. Horney disagreed with Freud about inherent differences inthe psychology of men and women, and she traced such differences to society and culture rather than biology.  In 1932 she accepted a position at the Chicago Institute of Psychoanalysis, mostly due to the rise of Nazism in Germany. After two years she relocated to Brooklyn, New York. She taught and trained psychoanalysts while working at the New School for Social Research and the New York Psychoanalytic Institute.  After Horney's death, the Karen Horney Clinic opened on 6 May 1955 in New York City. It continues to research and train me...

The sender says she lives on the Detroit River and looks over Windsor, Ontario. She loves to cross into Canada and buy all-dressed potato chips and butter tarts!