Wrocław, Poland

Wrocław is the largest city in western Poland. It is on the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, roughly 350 kilometres (220 mi) from the Baltic Sea to the north and 40 kilometres (25 mi) from the Sudeten Mountains to the south. Wrocław is the historical capital of Silesia and Lower Silesia. Today, it is the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. At various times in history, it has been part of the Kingdom of Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, the Austrian Empire, Prussia and Germany. It became part of Poland in 1945, as a result of the border changes after the Second World War. The population of Wrocław in 2016 was 637,075 making it the fourth-largest city in Poland and the main city of Wrocław agglomeration.

Wrocław is classified as a global city by GaWC, with the ranking of high sufficiency and living standard. It was among 230 cities in the world in the ranking of the consulting company Mercer — "Best City to Live" in 2015 and the only Polish city in this ranking has been recognized as a city growing at the business center.

In 2016, the city is a European Capital of Culture and the World Book Capital. Also, Wrocław will host the Theatre Olympics, World Bridge Games and the European Film Awards in 2016, IFLA Annual Conference and World Games in 2017.

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Stained glass, unveiled in 2006 at the church of Our Lady Help of Christians in Warsaw Chomiczówka

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1st general-national rally firefighters Polish Republic in Warsaw

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A memorial plaque donated by Polish Firefighters

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Saint Florian - Patron Firefighters

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Reproduction poster from 1920

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Gold sign of the Volunteer Fire Brigades Polish Republic

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Saint Florian - Patron Firefighters

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Herb Volunteer Fire Brigade Niepokalanów

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Poster "You love the forest - protect it against fire"

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Saint Florian - Patron Firefighters

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Saint Florian - Patron Firefighters

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Elibris Volunteer Fire Brigade in Niepokalanów

The Bund, China

The Bund or Waitan is a waterfront area in central Shanghai. The area centers on a section of Zhongshan Road (East-1 Zhongshan Road) within the former Shanghai International Settlement, which runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River in the eastern part of Huangpu District. The area along the river faces the modern skyscrapers of Pudong District. The Bund usually refers to the buildings and wharves on this section of the road, as well as some adjacent areas. It is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Shanghai. Building heights are restricted in the area.

Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona is the capital city of the autonomous community of Catalonia in the Kingdom of Spain, as well as the country's second most populous municipality, with a population of 1.6 million within city limits. Its urban area extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of around 4.7 million people, being the sixth-most populous urban area in the European Union after Paris, London, Madrid, the Ruhr area and Milan. It is the largest metropolis on the Mediterranean Sea.

Barcelona is one of the world's leading tourist, economic, trade fair and cultural centres, and its influence in commerce, education, entertainment, media, fashion, science, and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities. It is a major cultural and economic centre in southwestern Europe, 24th in the world and a financial centre.

Los Angeles, United States

Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L.A., is the second-largest city in the United States after New York City, the most populous city in California, and the county seat of Los Angeles County. Situated in Southern California, Los Angeles is known for its mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, sprawling metropolis, and as a major center of the American entertainment industry.

Nicknamed the "City of Angels", Los Angeles is a global city with a diverse economy in entertainment, culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine and research. It has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index and 9th in the Global Economic Power Index. The city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States.

Los Angeles includes Hollywood and leads the world in the creation of television productions and recorded music; it is also one of the leaders in motion picture production.

California, United States

California is the most populous state in the United States. It is also the third most extensive by area. Los Angeles, in southern California, is the state's most populous city and the country's second largest after New York City. California also includes the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles County, and the largest county by area, San Bernardino County. Geographically located in the western part of the United States, California is bordered by the other United States states of Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, and Arizona to the southeast. California shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California to the south and the Pacific Ocean is on the state's western coastline. The state capital is Sacramento, which is located in the northern part of the state. A majority of California's cities are located in either the San Francisco Bay Area or the Sacramento metropolitan area in northern California; or the Los Angeles area, the Riverside-San Bernardino-Inland Empire, or the San Diego metropolitan area in Southern California.

California is regarded as a global trendsetter in both popular culture and politics, and is the birthplace of the film industry, the hippie counterculture, the Internet, and the personal computer. The state's economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services; together comprising 58% of the state's economy. Three of the world's largest 20 firms by revenue, Chevron, Apple, and McKesson, are headquartered in the state. Although only 1.5% of the state's economy, California's agriculture industry has the highest output of any United States state. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world and the 35th most populous.

Six Flags Magic Mountain, United States

Six Flags Magic Mountain is a 262-acre (106 ha) theme park located in the Valencia neighborhood of Santa Clarita, California, north of Los Angeles. It opened on May 30, 1971, as Magic Mountain, a development of the Newhall Land and Farming Company. In 1979, Six Flags purchased the park and added the name "Six Flags" to the park's title.

With 19 roller coasters, Six Flags Magic Mountain holds the world record for most roller coasters in an amusement park. In 2015, the park had an estimated 3.1 million visitors ranking it eighteenth in attendance in North America.

Kraków, Poland

Kraków, also Cracow or Krakow, is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River (Polish: Wisła) in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life and is one of Poland's most important economic hubs. It was the capital of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland from 1038 to 1569; the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569 to 1795; the Free City of Kraków from 1815 to 1846; the Grand Duchy of Cracow from 1846 to 1918; and Kraków Voivodeship from the 14th century to 1998. It has been the capital of Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999.

In 2000, Kraków was named European Capital of Culture. The city hosted the World Youth Day in July 2016.

The Tatra Mountains, Poland

The Tatra Mountains, Tatras or Tatra (Tatry either in Slovak and Polish), are a mountain range that form a natural border between Slovakia and Poland. They are the highest mountain range in the Carpathian Mountains. The Tatras should be distinguished from the Low Tatras which are located south of the Tatra Mountains in Slovakia.

The Tatra Mountains occupy an area of 785 square kilometres (303 sq mi), of which about 610 square kilometres (236 sq mi) (77.7%) lie within Slovakia and about 175 square kilometres (68 sq mi) (22.3%) on the territory of Poland. The highest peak, called Gerlach, at 2,655 m (8710 ft) is located north of Poprad. The highest point in Poland, Rysy, at 2,499 m (8200 ft) is located south of Zakopane.

The Tatras are protected by law by the establishment of the Tatra National Park, Slovakia and the Tatra National Park, Poland, which are jointly entered in UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves. In 1992 the Polish and Slovak parks were jointly designated a transboundary biosphere reserve by UNESCO in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves under its Man and the Biosphere Programme.

Lake Balaton, Hungary

Lake Balaton is a freshwater lake in the Transdanubian region of Hungary. It is the largest lake in Central Europe, and one of the region's foremost tourist destinations. The Zala River provides the largest inflow of water to the lake, and the canalised Sió is the only outflow.

The mountainous region of the northern shore is known both for its historic character and as a major wine region, while the flat southern shore is known for its resort towns. Balatonfüred and Hévíz developed early as resorts for the wealthy, but it was not until the late 19th century when landowners, ruined by Phylloxera attacking their grape vines, began building summer homes to rent out to the burgeoning middle classes.

Kenya

Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country in Africa and a founding member of the East African Community (EAC). Its capital and largest city is Nairobi. Kenya's territory lies on the equator and overlies the East African Rift covering a diverse and expansive terrain that extends roughly from Lake Victoria to Lake Turkana (formerly called Lake Rudolf) and further south-east to the Indian Ocean. It is bordered by Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, South Sudan to the north-west, Ethiopia to the north and Somalia to the north-east.

Kenya has a warm and humid tropical climate on its Indian Ocean coastline. The climate is cooler in the savannah grasslands around the capital city, Nairobi, and especially closer to Mount Kenya, which has snow permanently on its peaks. Further inland, in the Nyanza region, there is a hot and dry climate which becomes humid around Lake Victoria, the largest tropical fresh-water lake in the world. This gives way to temperate and forested hilly areas in the neighbouring western region. The north-eastern regions along the border with Somalia and Ethiopia are arid and semi-arid areas with near-desert landscapes. Kenya is known for its safaris, diverse climate and geography, and expansive wildlife reserves and national parks such as the East and West Tsavo National Park, the Maasai Mara, Lake Nakuru National Park, and Aberdares National Park. Kenya has several world heritage sites such as Lamu and numerous beaches, including in Diani, Bamburi and Kilifi, where international yachting competitions are held every year.

Baltic Sea, Poland

The Baltic Sea (Polish: Morze Bałtyckie) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, enclosed by Scandinavia, Finland, the Baltic countries, and the North European Plain. It includes the Gulf of Bothnia, the Bay of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga, and the Bay of Gdańsk. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 10°E to 30°E longitude. A mediterranean sea of the Atlantic, with limited water exchange between the two bodies, the Baltic Sea drains through the Danish islands into the Kattegat by way of the straits of Øresund, the Great Belt, and the Little Belt.

The Baltic Proper is bordered on its northern edge, at the latitude 60°N, by the Åland islands and the Gulf of Bothnia, on its northeastern edge by the Gulf of Finland, on its eastern edge by the Gulf of Riga, and in the West by the South-Swedish part of the Scandinavian Peninsula.

The Baltic Sea is connected by artificial waterways to the White Sea via the White Sea Canal and to the German Bight of the North Sea via the Kiel Canal.

The biggest postcard I ever got. It's A4 size. 

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Ostróda, Poland

Ostróda is a town in Ostróda County in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship in Poland.
The town lies in the west of the historic Masuria region on the Drwęca river, a right tributary of the Vistula. Lake Drwęca west of the town is part of the Masurian Lake District. Ostróda has become a growing tourist site owing to its relaxing natural surroundings.

Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul, historically known as Constantinople and Byzantium, is the most populous city in Turkey and the country's economic, cultural, and historic center. Istanbul is a transcontinental city in Eurasia, straddling the Bosphorus strait (which separates Europe and Asia) between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. Its commercial and historical center lies on the European side and about a third of its population lives on the Asian side. The city is the administrative center of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (coterminous with Istanbul Province), both hosting a population of around 14.7 million residents. Istanbul is one of the world's most populous cities and ranks as the world's 7th-largest city proper and the largest European city.

Skara Brae, Orkney, United Kingdom

Skara Brae is a stone-built Neolithic settlement, located on the Bay of Skaill on the west coast of Mainland, the largest island in the Orkney archipelago of Scotland.
Europe's most complete Neolithic village, Skara Brae gained UNESCO World Heritage Site status as one of four sites making up "The Heart of Neolithic Orkney." Older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids, it has been called the "Scottish Pompeii" because of its excellent preservation.

Klaipėda, Lithuania

Parc Astérix, Plailly, France

Parc Astérix is a theme amusement park in France, based on the stories of Asterix. Situated approximately 35 km north of Paris, 32 km from Disneyland Paris and 20 km from the historic Château de Chantilly, in the city of Plailly, in the Oise department. The park, opened in 1989, is operated by Compagnie des Alpes.

It is especially well known in France for its large variety of roller coasters (including a bobsled one), and has begun incorporating rides and themes from historic cultures such as the Gauls, the Romans, the ancient Greeks and recently the Egyptians, but always in the visual style of the stories.

Kansas, United States

Kansas is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka and its largest city Wichita. Kansas is named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind", although this was probably not the term's original meaning. For thousands of years, what is now Kansas was home to numerous and diverse Native American tribes. Tribes in the eastern part of the state generally lived in villages along the river valleys. Tribes in the western part of the state were semi-nomadic and hunted large herds of bison.

Kansas is one of the most productive agricultural states, producing high yields of wheat, corn, sorghum, and soybeans. Kansas with its 213,000 km² is the 15th most extensive and with its about 2.9 million people the 34th most populous of the 50 United States. Residents of Kansas are called "Kansans", officially, and Jayhawkers as a nickname, alluding to the Kansas Jayhawker anti-slavery fighters of the American Civil War. The Kansas Jayhawks team nickname is based on the Jayhawkers name. Mount Sunflower is Kansas's highest point at 1232 m.

Porto, Portugal

Germany

Krynica Morska, Poland

Krynica Morska is a town and coextensive municipality on the Vistula Spit in northern Poland. It has been a part of Nowy Dwór Gdański County in Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999; previously it was in Elbląg Voivodeship (1975–1998).

Krynica Morska is the main tourist destination on the Vistula Spit. The administrative area of the town extends along most of the Polish part of the spit, up to the Russian border, also including a number of other localities such as Przebrno and Piaski (the latter being about 4 kilometres from the border, which is not crossable at present).

It has the smallest population of any urban commune in Poland. Because of the inclusion of mainly rural areas of the spit within its boundaries, it has the lowest population density of any town in Poland.

Wörthersee, Austria

Wörthersee is a lake in the southern Austrian state of Carinthia. The popular bathing lake is a main tourist destination in summer.

Up to tofay, the Mediterranean climate and the clean, warm waters make Lake Wörth a popular tourist destination in summer. Although the region around the lake has been termed "Austria's Monte Carlo", in recent decades tourism around Lake Wörthersee has suffered from tough competition from package holidays to cheaper overseas destinations. As a response a number of local businesses have tried to focus on niches such as high quality tourism, family tourism or golf and horse-riding vacations.

Sardinia, Italy

Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (after Sicily and before Cyprus) and an autonomous region of Italy, which goes by the official name of Regione Autonoma della Sardegna / Regione Autònoma de Sardigna (Autonomous Region of Sardinia).

The nearest land masses are (clockwise from north) the island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia, the Balearic Islands, and Provence. The Tyrrhenian Sea portion of the Mediterranean Sea is directly to the east of Sardinia between the Sardinian east coast and the west coast of the Italian mainland peninsula. The Strait of Bonifacio is directly north of Sardinia and separates Sardinia from the French island of Corsica.

The region has its capital in its largest city, Cagliari, and is divided into eight provinces. Its indigenous language and the other minority languages (Sassarese, Corsican Gallurese, Catalan Algherese and Ligurian Tabarchino) spoken by the Sardinians enjoy "equal dignity" with Italian each in the concerned territory by a regional law.

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Ulaanbaatar or Ulan Bator is the capital and the largest city of Mongolia. A municipality, the city is not part of any aimag (province).

Located in north central Mongolia, the municipality lies at an elevation of about 1,310 metres in a valley on the Tuul River. It is the cultural, industrial and financial heart of the country, the centre of Mongolia's road network and connected by rail to both the Trans-Siberian Railway in Russia and the Chinese railway system.

The city was founded in 1639 as a nomadic Buddhist monastic centre. In 1778, it settled permanently at its present location, the junction of the Tuul and Selbe rivers. Before that, it changed location twenty-eight times, with each location being chosen ceremonially. In the twentieth century, Ulaanbaatar grew into a major manufacturing centre.

Portugal

Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, being bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east. The republic also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments.

Portugal is a developed country with a high-income advanced economy and high living standards. It is the 5th most peaceful country in the world, maintaining a unitary semi-presidential republican form of government. It has the 18th highest Social Progress in the world, putting it ahead of other Western European countries like France, Spain and Italy. It is a member of numerous international organizations, including the United Nations, the European Union, the eurozone, OECD, NATO and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. Portugal is also known for having decriminalized the usage of all common drugs in 2001, the first country in the world to do so. However, the sale and distribution of these drugs is still illegal in Portugal.

[Postcard came from Finland]

Herrenchiemsee Castle, Germany

Herrenchiemsee Castle, Germany

Herrenchiemsee is a complex of royal buildings on Herreninsel, an island in the Chiemsee, Bavaria's largest lake, 60 km south east of Munich. Together with the neighbouring island of Frauenchiemsee and the uninhabited Krautinsel it forms the municipality of Chiemsee.

After being purchased by King Ludwig II of Bavaria the former Herrenchiemsee monastery was converted into a royal residence known as the Old Palace (Altes Schloss), while the king built Herrenchiemsee Palace also known as the New Palace (Neues Schloss), the largest of his palaces.

Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a mountain resort town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in the Oberbayern region, and the district is on the border with Austria. Nearby is Germany's highest mountain, Zugspitze, at 2,962 m (9,718 ft.).

Salzburg, Austria

Salzburg is the fourth-largest city in Austria and the capital of the federal state of Salzburg.

Salzburg's "Old Town" (Altstadt) is internationally renowned for its baroque architecture and is one of the best-preserved city centers north of the Alps. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The city has three universities and a large population of students. Tourists also frequent the city to tour the city's historic center and the scenic Alpine surroundings.

Salzburg was the birthplace of 18th-century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In the mid‑20th century, the city was the setting for the musical play and film The Sound of Music.

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Oristano, Italy

Oristano is an Italian city and comune, capital of the Province of Oristano, in the central-western part of the island of Sardinia, Italy. It is located in the northern part of Campidano plain.
The economy of Oristano is mainly based on services, agriculture, tourism and small industries.

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Finland

Lithuania

Bonn, Germany