City of Luxembourg, Luxembourg

One more card for today.. this one is from a tag in Heather's great postcard group on Facebook. Such a treat, too!

The city of Luxembourg, also known as Luxembourg City, is a commune with city status, and the capital of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse Rivers in southern Luxembourg. The city contains the historic Luxembourg Castle, established by the Franks in the Early Middle Ages, around which a settlement developed. As of 2011, the commune of Luxembourg City had a population of 94,034, which was almost three times the population of the country's second most populous commune. The Old Quarters of the city is a Unesco site.

Because of its strategic position, Luxembourg was, from the 16th century until 1867, when its walls were dismantled, one of Europe's greatest fortified sites. It was repeatedly reinforced as it passed from one great European power to another: the Holy Roman Emperors, the House of Burgundy, the Habsburgs, the French and Spanish kings, and finally the Prussians. Until their partial demolition, the fortifications were a fine example of military architecture spanning several centuries.

The City of Luxembourg is located at the crossing point of two major Roman roads. In 963 Sigefroid, a count from the Moselle valley, built a castle on the Rocher du Bock, which he obtained by means of an exchange with the Abbey of St Maximin of Trier. His servants and soldiers settled around the castle and the modern town sprang from the market-place of this settlement, the Vieux Marché.

Mailbox, Guernsey

You know those 'Touchnote' cards that were really popular this summer thanks to the promotion? I received some of them, too, but only sent a couple as I realised too late that you didn't need to have a Samsung phone to be able to send these cards, grrr. :( I really like the idea, although I wouldn't want "normal" postcards to be replaced with these as there's no personal handwriting or real stamps.

Anyway.. one of these cards I received was a surprise from dear Agi in Croatia. Thank you so much!! :)

I particularly like this one as it's mail related, and Agi was clever to choose a picture of a Victorian wall post box in Guernsey - seeing as these cards are being sent from Guernsey. I hadn't realised post boxes in Guernsey are blue, I wonder if they are all like that over there? ..hhhmmmm...

American Indian symbols

A fantastic official card I received from the USA last year. I find this really interesting!

  US-1346923   Info from the back of the card:  

The earliest writings of the American Indians were those of signs and symbols. These symbols are always apparent in their handicraft and jewellery.
 

Yi Peng Festival, Thailand

Another swap postcard from Asia, this time from Thailand. (Apparently this is a handmade card! I would never have guessed! :O)

On this card you can see pictures of Yi Peng Festival. A multitude of sky lanterns are launched into the air where they resemble large flocks of giant fluorescent jellyfish gracefully floating by through the sky. People usually make khom loi from a thin fabric, such as rice paper, to which a candle or fuel cell is attached. When the fuel cell is lit, the resulting hot air which is trapped inside the lantern creates enough lift for the khom loi to float up in to the sky. Looks pretty magical to me!

Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

I've posted about Cameron Highlands here before (and there's been another post about the area since then...) but I just couldn't resist posting this card here as well as I really, really like it, and it's one of those times when I don't mind a card being a multiview *at all*.

In the top left corner you can see the Smokehouse Inn, next to it Strawberry Farm, then Sungai Palas Tea Plantation, and next to that you can see Clipping tea at Sungai Palas. In the bottom left corner you can see Clipping tea at Boh Tea Estate, next to that Orang Asli (Original people) rainforest village, and in the bottom right corner you can see a British phone box at the Smokehouse Inn. It's probably because of the phone box, the inn and the strawberry farm that this postcard doesn't really remind me of Malaysia - it seems very English to me instead! :O

Macquarie Island, Australian Antarctic Territories

This lovely Australian Unesco card was sent to me last year by my postcard pal Sharon. She's sent me some real gems before, including this one. ;)

Macquarie Island lies in the southwest corner of the Pacific Ocean, about half-way between New Zealand and Antarctica, at 54°30S, 158°57E. Politically, it is part of Tasmania, Australia since 1900 and became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 1978. In 1997 it became a World Heritage Site. It was a part of Esperance Municipality until 1993, when the municipality was merged with other municipalities to Huon Valley. The island is home to the entire Royal Penguin population on earth during their annual nesting season. Ecologically, it is part of the Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra ecoregion.

Since 1948 the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) has maintained a permanent base, the Macquarie Island Station, on the isthmus at the northern end of the island at the foot of Wireless Hill. The population of the base, the island's only human inhabitants, usually varies from 20 to 40 people over the year.

Lopinot, Trinidad & Tobago

A wonderful postcard from a recent Facebook swap with Nalini in Trinidad & Tobago. :)

On this card you can see a historical site in Lopinot, a village in Trinidad & Tobago. Doesn't it look beautiful?!

Montserrat W.I.

So much for trying to catch up with this blog... Well, I haven't really been in the mood for updating for a while now (or doing much else.. :/). I thought I'd give this a try now... Starting off with this great postcard of Montserrat that I received via a swap with dear Shinta in Indonesia (so it's not like I have a written and stamped postcard from Montserrat :P Oh well, this is still really nice!).

Montserrat is a Caribbean island that is a British overseas territory. It is located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands known as the Lesser Antilles, in the West Indies. The island of Montserrat measures approximately 16 km long and 11 km wide, with approximately 40 kilometres of coastline.

On July 18 1995, the previously dormant Soufrière Hills volcano became active. Eruptions destroyed Montserrat's Georgian era capital city of Plymouth and two-thirds of the island's population was forced to flee. The volcanic activity continues to the present, the affected areas currently being mostly in the vicinity of Plymouth, including its docking facilities, and also on the eastern side of the island in the area around the former W. H. Bramble Airport, the remnants of which were buried by flows from volcanic activity on February 11, 2010.

An "exclusion zone" extending from the south coast of the island north to parts of the Belham Valley has been imposed because of the size of the existing volcanic dome and the resulting potential for pyroclastic activity. Presently visitors are not permitted entry into the exclusion zone, but an impressive view of the destruction of Plymouth can be seen from the top of Garibaldi Hill in Isles Bay. Relatively quiet since early 2010, the volcano continues to be closely monitored by the Montserrat Volcano Observatory.

A new town and port is being developed at Little Bay in the northwest of the island. While construction proceeds, the centre of government rests at Brades.