Guarda, Portugal

Guarda is a city and a municipality in Guarda District, Beira Interior Norte sub-region in Centro Region in Portugal. The city of Guarda was founded by King Sancho I in 1199.

Guarda is the highest city in continental Portugal (altitude 1,056 m), located to the northeast of Serra da Estrela (the largest mountain in mainland Portugal). The main attraction in Guarda is its cathedral, known as the Sé da Guarda. Guarda is a diocese of the same name.

Poland

Bucharest, Romania

Bucharest is the capital and largest city, as well as the cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is located in the southeast of the country, lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River.

Bucharest is the 6th largest city in the European Union by population within city limits, after London, Berlin, Madrid, Rome, and Paris.

Economically, Bucharest is the most prosperous city in Romania and is one of the main industrial centres and transportation hubs of Eastern Europe. The city has big convention facilities, educational institutes, cultural venues, traditional "shopping arcades" and recreational areas.

The city proper is administratively known as the "Municipality of Bucharest" (Municipiul București), and has the same administrative level as that of a national county, being further subdivided into six sectors, each governed by a local mayor.

Russia

Yeh-Liu, Taiwan

Postcard came from Hong Kong, but it shows a map of Yeh-Liu, in Taiwan.

St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands

Saint Croix is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States.

St. Croix is the largest of the islands in the territory. However, the territory's capital, Charlotte Amalie, is located on Saint Thomas.

Saarschleife, Germany

The Saarland is one of the sixteen federal states (or Bundesländer) of Germany. With its capital at Saarbrücken, it has an area of 2,570 km² - it is Germany's smallest federal state.
The state borders France (département of Moselle, which forms part of the région of Lorraine) to the south and west, Luxembourg to the west and Rheinland-Pfalz to the north and the east.

The Saarschleife (also Great Saarschleife in Mettlach called as opposed to little Saarschleife in Hamm, a district of taben-rodt) is a transverse valley of the Saar through the Taunus quartzite and is one of the most famous sights of Saarland. The popular view provides the location 180 m above the river views Cloef in Mettlach Orscholz district. The shore is formed by cliffs, scree slopes and small canyons.

De Twee Wieken, Netherlands

De Twee Wieken (The Two Wicks) is a modern primary school consisting of two locations. Both offices are located in the district of Lower Courts. Location Duivenvoorde is visited by about 180 pupils. The location Roerdompstraat has approximately 130 students. Both locations are part of a community school, which we cooperate with Child Foundation Zwijndrecht.

On the picture: children from this school.

Berlin, Germany

Russia

Taiwan

Vienna, Austria

Vienna is the capital and largest city of Austria, and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, and its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 6th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union. Until the beginning of the 20th century it was the largest German-speaking city in the world. Today it has the second most number of German speakers after Berlin. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city lies in the east of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

United States

A marble is a small spherical toy usually made from glass, clay, steel, plastic or agate. These balls vary in size. Most commonly, they are about 1/2 inch to 1 inch (1.3 to 2.54 cm) in diameter, but they may range from less than 1/30 inch (0.111 cm) to over 3 inches (7.75 cm), while some art glass marbles for display purposes are over 12 inches (30 cm) wide. Marbles can be used for a variety of games called marbles. They are often collected, both for nostalgia and for their aesthetic colors. In the North of England the objects and the game are called "taws", with larger taws being called bottle washers after the use of a marble in Codd-neck bottles.

The British and World Marbles Championship has been held at Tinsley Green, West Sussex, England, every year since 1932. Traditionally, the marbles-playing season started on Ash Wednesday and lasted until midday on Good Friday: playing after that brought bad luck. More than 20 teams from around the world take part in the championship, each Good Friday; German teams have been successful several times since 2000, although local teams from Crawley, Copthorne and other Sussex and Surrey villages often take part as well; the first championship in 1932 was won by Ellen Geary, a young girl from London.

Gdańsk, Poland

East Frisia, Germany

East Frisia or Eastern Friesland (German: Ostfriesland) is a coastal region in the northwest of the German federal state of Lower Saxony. It is the middle section of Frisia between West Frisia in the Netherlands and North Frisia in Schleswig-Holstein.
Administratively Ostfriesland belongs to three districts, namely Aurich, Leer, Wittmund and to the city of Emden.
There is a chain of islands off the coast, called the East Frisian Islands. These islands are Borkum, Juist, Norderney, Baltrum, Langeoog, Spiekeroog and Wangerooge.

The Bay of Kotor, Montenegro

The Bay of Kotor, known simply as Boka, is a winding bay of the Adriatic Sea in southwestern Montenegro. The bay, once called Europe's southernmost fjord, is in fact a ria of the disintegrated Bokelj River which used to run from the high mountain plateaux of Orjen.

The bay is about 28 km long from the open sea to the harbor of the city of Kotor and has a shoreline of 107.3 km. It cuts through the Dinaric Alps between the Orjen and Lovćen massifs. The narrowest section of the bay, the Verige strait, is only 340 m wide. As of 2013, it can be crossed by a ferryboat, but Montenegro is planning to build a bridge to span the strait, the so-called Verige Bridge.

Almaty, Kazakhstan

Almaty, formerly known as Alma-Ata and Vernɨy, is the largest city in Kazakhstan. Despite losing its status as the capital to Astana in 1997, Almaty remains the major commercial and cultural centre of Kazakhstan, as well as its biggest population center. The city is located in the mountainous area of southern Kazakhstan.

There is a theory, which is disputed, that the city derives its name from the Kazakh word for 'apple' (алма), and thus is often translated as "full of apples"; alma is also 'apple' in other Turkic languages, as well as in Hungarian and Mongolian. The Russian version of its name - Alma-Ata, used during the Soviet era - was often perceived by as a combination of two Kazakh words, meaning Father of Apples.
There is great genetic diversity among the wild apples in the region surrounding Almaty; the region is thought to be the ancestral home of the apple, and the wild Malus sieversii is considered a likely candidate for the ancestor of the modern domestic apple, which could explain the "Alma Ata" name.

Sucha Beskidzka, Poland

Sucha Beskidzka  (before 1961 called only Sucha) is a town in the Beskid Żywiecki mountain range in southern Poland, on the Skawa river. It is the county seat of Sucha County. It has been in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999; previously it was in Bielsko-Biała Voivodeship (1975–1998).

Since the beginning of the 20th century Sucha Beskidzka has been a tourist centre for the Beskidy Mountains (part of the Carpathians). Here several tourist trails begin, which lead into the mountains. First trail was marked in 1906. In the town there are fine examples of old architecture: a Renaissance castle (16th century), named Little Wawel after the royal palace in Kraków (now it serves as a hotel with a restaurant); a church with a cloister (17th century); and an old wooden inn, called Rzym (Rome) (18th century).

Ethiopia

Ethiopia, officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea to the north and northeast, Djibouti and Somalia to the east, Sudan and South Sudan to the west, and Kenya to the south. With over 90 million inhabitants, Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked country in the world, as well as the second-most populated nation on the African continent. It occupies a total area of 1,100,000 square kilometres (420,000 sq mi), and its capital and largest city is Addis Ababa.

On the picture: Ethiopian traditional house, gojobeit. Made of intricate weaving of bamboo or teff straw, sticks and mud, their structure becomes sturdy and undoubtedly beautiful.

Lüneburg, Germany

Lüneburg, also called Lunenburg in English, is a town in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is located about 45 km (28 mi) southeast of another Hanseatic city, Hamburg. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. The capital of the district of Lüneburg.
Lüneburg is also called the "Salt Town", a reminder of the days when it was the centre of a major salt industry. As of December 2007, the town was the 120th largest in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Mauritius

Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) off the southeast coast of the African continent. The country includes the island of Mauritius, Rodrigues (560 kilometres (350 mi) east), the islands of Agalega, and the archipelago of Saint Brandon. The islands of Mauritius, Rodrigues, and Réunion (172 km (107 mi) southwest) form part of the Mascarene Islands. The area of the country is 2,040 km2. The capital and largest city is Port Louis.

Siedlce, Poland

Siedlce is a city in eastern Poland. Situated in the Masovian Voivodeship (since 1999), previously the city was the capital of a separate Siedlce Voivodeship (1975–1998). Siedlce lies between two small rivers, the Muchawka and the Helenka, along European route E30. It is the fourth largest city of the Voivodeship, and the seat of a Roman Catholic Diocese of Siedlce. Siedlce is a local educational, cultural and business center.

Berlin, Germany

Karlsruhe, Germany

Berlin, Germany

Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany

Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany

Neuschwanstein Castle is a nineteenth-century Romanesque Revival palace on a rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau near Füssen in southwest Bavaria, Germany. The palace was commissioned by Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat and as an homage to Richard Wagner. Ludwig paid for the palace out of his personal fortune and by means of extensive borrowing, rather than Bavarian public funds.

The palace was intended as a personal refuge for the reclusive king, but it was opened to the paying public immediately after his death in 1886. Since then more than 61 million people have visited Neuschwanstein Castle. More than 1.3 million people visit annually, with as many as 6,000 per day in the summer. The palace has appeared prominently in several movies and was the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle and later, similar structures.

Karlsruhe, Germany

Karlsruhe is the second-largest city in the state of Baden-Württemberg, in southwest Germany, near the Franco-German border. It has a population of 296,033. Karlsruhe Palace was built in 1715, and the city is now the seat of the two highest courts in Germany: the Federal Constitutional Court and the Federal Court of Justice.

Karlsruhe Palace was erected in 1715 by Margrave Charles III William of Baden-Durlach, after a dispute with the citizens of his previous capital, Durlach. The city of Karlsruhe has since grown around it.

Berlin, Germany

Berlin, Germany

The Brandenburg Gate is an 18th-century neoclassical triumphal arch in Berlin, and one of the best-known landmarks of Germany. It is built on the site of a former city gate that marked the start of the road from Berlin to the town of Brandenburg an der Havel.

It is located in the western part of the city centre of Berlin, at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, immediately west of the Pariser Platz. One block to the north stands the Reichstag building. The gate is the monumental entry to Unter den Linden, the renowned boulevard of linden trees, which formerly led directly to the city palace of the Prussian monarchs.

It was commissioned by King Frederick William II of Prussia as a sign of peace and built by Carl Gotthard Langhans from 1788 to 1791. Having suffered considerable damage in World War II, the Brandenburg Gate was fully restored from 2000 to 2002 by the Stiftung Denkmalschutz Berlin (Berlin Monument Conservation Foundation).

During the post-war Partition of Germany, the gate was isolated and inaccessible immediately next to the Berlin Wall, and the area around the gate was featured most prominently in the media coverage of the opening of the wall in 1989.

Throughout its existence, the Brandenburg Gate was often a site for major historical events and is today considered a symbol of the tumultuous history of Europe and Germany, but also of European unity and peace.

Berlin, Germany

Germany

Berlin, Germany

The Reichstag building in 1945.

Shiraz, Iran

The Nasīr al-Mulk Mosque or Pink Mosque is a traditional mosque in Shiraz, Iran, located in Goade-e-Araban place (near the famous Shah Cheragh mosque). The mosque was built during the Qājār era, and is still in use under protection by Nasir al Mulk's Endowment Foundation. It was built by the order of Mirza Hasan Ali Nasir al Molk, one of the lords of the Qajar Dynasty, in 1876 and was finished in 1888. The designers were Muhammad Hasan-e-Memar and Muhammad Reza Kashi Paz-e-Shirazi.

The mosque extensively uses colored glass in its facade, and it displays other traditional elements such as panj kāseh-i (five concaves) in its design. It is also named in popular culture as Pink Mosque due to the usage of beautiful pink color tiles for its interior design.

Iran

Qashqai are a conglomeration of clans of different ethnic origins, mostly Turkic, but also Arab, Kurdish, and Lori. They mainly live in the Iranian provinces of Fars, Khuzestan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, Bushehr and southern Isfahan, especially around the city of Shiraz and Firuzabad in Fars. After assimilation politics since Pahlavi, almost all of them are bilingual, speaking the Qashqai language - which is a member of the Turkic family of languages and which they call Turki - as well as (in formal use) the Persian language. Majority of Qashqai people were originally nomadic pastoralists and some remain so today. The traditional nomadic Qashqai travelled with their flocks each year from the summer highland pastures north of Shiraz roughly 480 km or 300 miles south to the winter pastures on lower (and warmer) lands near the Persian Gulf, to the southwest of Shiraz. The majority, however, have now become partially or wholly sedentary. The trend towards settlement has been increasing markedly since the 1960s.

The Qashqai are made up of a number of tribes and sub-tribes including the Amele, Derre-Shuri/Dere-Shorlu, Kashkyoli, ShishBaluki/Shishbeyli, Farsimadan/Eymur, Qaracha, Rahimli and Safi -Khanli.

Gran Canaria, Spain

Gran Canaria is the second most populous island of the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago. Located in the Atlantic Ocean about 150 kilometres (~93 miles) off the northwestern coast of Africa and about 1350 km (~838 miles) from Europe.

The capital city of Las Palmas was founded on June 24, 1478, under the name "Real de Las Palmas", by Juan Rejón, head of the invading Castilian army. In 1492, Christopher Columbus anchored in the Port of Las Palmas (and spent some time on the island) on his first trip to the Americas. Las Palmas is, jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the capital of the autonomous community of the Canary Islands.

Kaunas, Lithuania

Kaunas  is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the centre of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. In the Russian Empire it was the capital of the Kovno Governorate from 1843 to 1915. It became the only temporary capital city in Europe during the interwar period. Now it is the capital of Kaunas County, the seat of the Kaunas city municipality and the Kaunas District Municipality. It is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kaunas. Kaunas is located at the confluence of the two largest Lithuanian rivers, the Nemunas and the Neris, and near the Kaunas Reservoir, the largest body of water entirely in Lithuania.

Antonin, Poland

Antonin is a village in the administrative district of Ostrów Wielkopolski County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland.

On the picture: Hunting palace in Antonin.

Đồng Tháp, Vietnam

Đồng Tháp is a province in the Mekong Delta region of southern Vietnam. Đồng Tháp is 165 km away from Ho Chi Minh City, bordered by Pray Veng Province (Cambodia) in the north with a length of more than 48 km; Vĩnh Long and Cần Thơ in the south; An Giang in the west; and Long An and Tiền Giang in the east.

Macau

Macau, also spelled Macao, is one of the two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China, the other being Hong Kong. Macau lies on the western side of the Pearl River Delta across from Hong Kong, which is about 64 kilometers to the east, and it is also bordered by Guangdong Province to the north and the South China Sea to the east and south. It is the most densely populated region in the world.

Gdańsk, Poland

Gdańsk  is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland's principal seaport and the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.
The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay (of the Baltic Sea), in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the Tricity (Trójmiasto). Gdańsk is the largest city in the Pomerania region of Northern Poland.

Gdańsk is situated at the mouth of the Motława River, connected to the Leniwka, a branch in the delta of the nearby Vistula River, whose waterway system supplies 60% of the area of Poland and connects Gdańsk to the national capital in Warsaw. This gives the city a unique advantage as the center of Poland's sea trade. Together with the nearby port of Gdynia, Gdańsk is also an important industrial centre. Historically an important seaport and shipbuilding centre, Gdańsk was a member of the Hanseatic League.
The city was the birthplace of the Solidarity movement which under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa, played a major role in bringing an end to Communist rule across Central Europe.

Nizhnevartovsk, Russia

Telecommunication Company in Nizhnevartovsk.

Poland

Butterfly. Postcard came from Gdańsk, Poland.

Łódź, Poland

Łódź  is the third-largest city in Poland. Located in the central part of the country. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship. The city's coat of arms is an example of canting: depicting a boat, it alludes to the city's name which translates literally as "boat."

The Manufaktura is an arts centre, shopping mall, and leisure complex in Łódź, Poland. It occupies the space between Zachodnia, Ogrodowa, Drewnowska, and Karskiego Streets.
The Manufaktura is located in the central part of the city, in the former industrial complex founded by Izrael Poznański, which is known also as the filming location of the novel by Władysław Reymont titled The Promised Land about the industrialization of the city of Łódź.

Austria

Picture from movie "Thunderball" (1965) with Molly Peters as Patricia Fearing and Sean Connery as James Bond.
Postcard came from Austria.

Prague, Czech Republic

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. It is the fourteenth-largest city in the European Union. It is also the historical capital of Bohemia. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava River.
Prague is home to a number of famous cultural attractions, many of which survived the violence and destruction of 20th-century Europe. Main attractions include the Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, Old Town Square, the Jewish Quarter, the Lennon Wall and Petřín hill.

On the pictures:
Prague Castle is the official residence and office of the President of the Czech Republic. Located in the Hradčany district of Prague and dating back to the ninth century, the castle has been a seat of power for kings of Bohemia, Holy Roman emperors, and presidents of Czechoslovakia. The Bohemian Crown Jewels are kept within a hidden room inside it.The Guinness Book of Records lists Prague Castle as the largest ancient castle in the world. It occupies an area of almost 70,000 m2, at about 570 meters in length and an average of about 130 meters wide.

The Charles Bridge is a famous historic bridge that crosses the Vltava river in Prague, Czech Republic. Its construction started in 1357 under the auspices of King Charles IV, and finished in the beginning of the 15th century.

Isfahan, Iran

Siosepol or Siose Bridge (which means 33 Bridge or the Bridge of 33 Arches), also called the Allah-Verdi Khan Bridge, is one of the eleven bridges of Isfahan, Iran and the longest bridge on Zayandeh River with the total length of 297.76 metres (976.9 ft). It is highly ranked as being one of the most famous examples of Safavid bridge design.
It consists of two rows of 33 arches from either sides, left and right. There is a larger base plank at the start of the bridge where the Zayandeh River flows under it, supporting a tea house which nowadays is abandoned due to the shortage of water and the river drought.
Other names for the bridge include "The Bridge of 33 Springs", "The Bridge of Chaharbagh", and finally "Zayandeh River Bridge".

Isfahan, historically also rendered in English as Ispahan, Sepahan, Esfahan or Hispahan, is the capital of Isfahan Province in Iran, located about 340 kilometres (211 miles) south of Tehran. It has a population of 1,908,609 and is Iran's third largest city after Tehran and Mashhad.
The cities of Zarrinshahr, Fooladshahr and Najafabad, Se-deh, Shahinshahr, Mobarakeh, Falavarjan and Charmahin all constitute the metropolitan city of Isfahan.

Iran

Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered to the northwest by Armenia, the de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, and Azerbaijan, with Kazakhstan and Russia across the Caspian Sea; to the northeast by Turkmenistan; to the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan; to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman; and to the west by Turkey and Iraq. It is the only country that has both a Caspian Sea and Indian Ocean coastline. Iran has been of geostrategic importance because of its central location in Eurasia and Western Asia and the Strait of Hormuz.