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Munich New Year´s Eve

Sent by Jenni on 1 Oct, 2015 from Munich, Germany 

The Appearance of Beauty, Gasometer Oberhausen Germany

Sent by Ramona on 1 Oct, 2015 from Duisburg, Germany 

 

Animals

 Elephant herd, Lake Periyar, Kerala, India

from Antonio, Mumbai, India

Sheep herd on the island of Sylt, Germany

From Ariane, Hamburg, Germany

Cute little rabbit from Anke, Dortmund, Germany 

Hill of Crosses and Skirsnemunė churches

Hill of Crosses, Siauliai 

The Hill of Crosses is a site of pilgrimage about 12 km north of the city of Šiauliai, in northern Lithuania. The precise origin of the practice of leaving crosses on the hill is uncertain, but it is believed that the first crosses were placed on the former Jurgaičiai or Domantai hill fort after the 1831 Uprising. Over the centuries, not only crosses, but giant crucifixes, carvings of Lithuanian patriots, statues of the Virgin Mary and thousands of tiny effigies and rosaries have been brought here by Catholic pilgrims. The exact number of crosses is unknown, but estimates put it at about 55,000 in 1990 and 100,000 in 2006.

From Rita, Lithuania

More here

St. George's Church and Evangelical Lutheran Church, Skirsnemunė, Lithuania

The neogothic Church of St. George was built in 1903 and the Evangelical Lutheran  Church has been in use since the middle of the 19th century.

From Gyte, Vilnius, Lithuania

Cappadocia, Turkey

Ballooning Cappadocia

From Seval, Bursa, Turkey

Cappadocia has unreal amazing, spectacular and surrealistic landscapes -  fairy chimneys, pigeon houses hewn into the unique rock formations, orchards and vineyards, impressive valleys, each with distinctive rock formations, colors and features.



Dalfsen and Ameland

 Mirjam sent a card from the place where she lives.

Dalfsen is a municipality and a town in the Salland region of the Dutch province of Overijssel.

Postcard shows an old chocolade atelier from year 1625 and  the Catholic Church in Nes on the island of Ameland. Nicole  lives near this island, it takes about 45 min for to get there.

Nes is the second largest village on the island of Ameland, one of the West Frisian Islands in the northern Netherlands. Nes has  become a popular tourist destination, as the place where the ferry from the mainland arrives.

Vincent and Paul



Vincent van Gogh,  The Night Café in Arles, 1888

Feom Iris, Germany

The Night Café in the Place Lamartine in Arles is one of Vincent van Gogh's best known paintings from his Arles period. The work depicts the interior of the Café de la Gare, an all night tavern owned by Joseph-Michel Ginoux and his wife Marie.

Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853 – 1890) was a major Post-Impressionist painter. He was a Dutch artist whose work had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art. His output includes portraits, self portraits, landscapes and still lifes of cypresses, wheat fields and sunflowers. Van Gogh drew as a child but did not paint until his late twenties; he completed many of his best-known works during the last two years of his life. In just over a decade he produced more than 2,100 artworks, including 860 oil paintings and more than 1,300 watercolors, drawings, sketches and prints.

Paul Gauguin, Night Cafe in Arles (Madame Ginoux) 1888

In October 1888, Gauguin went to Arles on Vincent van Gogh's invitation, to try and build up an artists' community which van Gogh. At Arles, Gauguin and van Gogh worked on the same subjects. Café at Arles. Gauguin re-interpreted Van Gogh's two paintings by joining together the Night Café and the Portrait of Madame Ginoux.

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (1848 –  1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist who was not well appreciated until after his death. Gauguin was later recognized for his experimental use of color and synthetist style that were distinguishably different from Impressionism. His work was influential to the French avant-garde and many modern artists, such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.



French art

Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette, 1876

From Erwin, Netherlands

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, commonly known as Auguste Renoir (1841 – 1919), was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to Watteau.

 Dance at Le moulin de la Galette is housed at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and is one of Impressionism's most celebrated masterpieces. The painting depicts a typical Sunday afternoon at Moulin de la Galette in the district of Montmartre in Paris. In the late 19th century, working class Parisians would dress up and spend time there dancing, drinking, and eating galettes.

 Edouard Manet: Jeanne, Spring, 1881

From Norbert, Netherlands

Édouard Manet  (1832 - 1883) was a French painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, and a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.

Jeanne de Marsy was a French actress during this time period and is the model for Manet's painting.

Claude Monet (1840-1926) Woman with a Parasol, facing left, 1886

From Angela, Germany

Oscar-Claude Monet (1840 - 1926) was a founder of French Impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting.

The woman stands on a riverbank against a background of pale blue sky. The young woman in picture is Suzanne Hoschedé, one of the daughters of Alice Hoschedé, who was to become Monet's second wife in 1889. His future stepdaughter Suzanne was to be for a long time one of the painter's favourite models.

Viro - Estonia

 Singa village, Karula Upland, Võru County

From Alexandra, Russia

Karula National Park is located in Valga and Võru Counties. It was created to protect the nature characteristic of Estonia, to promote an ecological lifestyle and to revive the South Estonian country culture.

Pärnu, the summer capital of Estonia.

From Mariandra, 7 years old and her grandmother

 Madical SPA & Hotel Vasa

Street in Pärnu

Yacht

Wide open landscape

Wonders of summer

photo Margit Kurvits



Memories of past life

Alikartano-Mäntsälä, Kimmo Pälikkö, 1998

Independence Day, Kimmo Pälikkö, 1987

 Laundry day in winter,  Kimmo Pälikkö, 1988

Kimmo Pälikkö (1938) was born in Helsinki. He studied in Helsinki at an evening college and at the Free Art School, as well as at the University of Industrial Arts Helsinki.
He participated in his first joint exhibition at the age of 11 (water-colours and ceramics). He has painted Helsinki scenes ever since 1965. Pälikkö has arranged exhibitions under the theme "Vanishing City" since 1970. He held a portrait exhibition in 1977.

By 2011, over 1400 postcard motifs of his paintings have been produced and over 86 million postcards of his works have been printed.

Landscape of Belarus

Landscape of Belarus. Berezovsky district, Brest region

Tyypillinen maalaismaisema Valko-Venäjältä

Isäntä ja emäntä vievät aamuvarhaisella karjaa niitylle.

Typical village life in Belarus.

Man and wife are leading cows to pasture at four o'clock in the morning.

From Nikita, Brest, Belarus

Alppimaisemissa / Sceneries in the Alps

Mandylta sain niityllisen rentukoita.

Marsh marigolds in the front of Hochkönig, Salzburg from Mandy.
I love marsh marigolds and here  these  brilliant, yellow flowers have spread all over this Alpine meadow.  

Annalta  sain peilikirkkaan vuoristojärven ja alppiruusuja.  

Mirror Lake next to the Reiteralm in Austria

From  Anna I received this most beautiful reflections imaginable  and rhododendrons are blooming.

Syksyisen patikkaretken Anettelta

Schreckhorn, Grindelwald, Swizerland, from Anette

Kävelyretken järven ympäri Danielalta

 



Trübsee and Mount Titlis,  Switzerland from Daniela

Rauhallisen luontoretken Mecheleltä

 

 The Aiguilles d’Arves, The French Alps from Michel
All amazing and beautiful places to visit.

Kyliä ja kirkkoja - Villages and churches



Anna sent this card from Linz

 The card shows an old wooden farmhouse in Bödele in the very west of Austria.

Voralberg is a mountain region next to Swiss border.

Private swap from Anna 

Friedenskirche, Peace Chapel is a tiny church clinging to the edge of a cliff on Mt Stoderzinken near Gröbming. The view from the path must be stunning.

From Ursel

St. Oswald in Bad Kleinkirchheim a small village with typical little church, farmhouses and colorful gardens in the Central Eastern Alps. Bad Kleinkirchheim is a spa and ski resort town.



Mail from Austria

Bettina sent greetings from Vienna, the capital and the largest city of Austria.

Karlskirche or St. Charles Church

 In 1713, the black plague swept through Vienna. Emperor Charles VI made a vow: if the plague left the city, he would build a church dedicated to his namesake, St. Charles Borromeo. St. Charles was a 16th-century Italian bishop famous for ministering to Milanese plague victims.

Sophia sent an aerial view of her home town Insbruck.

PhotoThomas Defner

The card is showing the old town and river Inn. The word bruck comes from the same root as the modern German word "Brücke" meaning "bridge" which leads to "the bridge over the Inn" -  Innsbruck

From Anna I received postcard  from Festival city of Salzburg, the city of Mozart.

Mozart was born in Salzburg Mozart was born in Salzburg on 27 January 1756. He was the seventh child of Leopold Mozart who was a musician of the Salzburg Royal Chamber.

One of my favorite Mozart here

 Raffaela sent a card from Krems an der Donau - Wachau

Wegscheid - View of Hohen Markt

The Wachau is an Austrian valley with a picturesque landscape formed by the Danube river. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations of Lower Austria, located midway between the towns of Melk and Krems that also attracts "connoisseurs and epicureans" for its high-quality wines.



Bulgaria



Julialta, Sofia, Bulgaria

 From Julia, Sofia, Bulgaria

From Galina

FromNevena

Galina ja Nevena asuvat molemmat Varnassa, Mustanmeren rannalla. Varna on tärkeä satamakaupunki ja suosittu turistikohde kuuluisan loma-alueen,  Kultahietikon vieressä. Kultahietikkoa pidetään yhtenä euroopan upeimmista rannoista.

Galina and Nevena both live  in Varna on Black Sea coast . Varna is a major port city and a popular tourist destination near Bulgarian Golden Sands, which is considered as one of Europe's most spectacular beaches.

Gravensteen Castle, Gent, Belgium

 From Greta

From Cynthia

Tärkeimmät nähtävyydet Gentissä ovat Saint Bavon katedraali alttaritauluineen sekä katedraalin vieressä oleva kellotorni, Gravensteenin linna sekä  arkkitehtuuriltaan upea Graslein ja Koornlein keskiaikainen satama-alue.

Gravensteen eli Kreivien linna kohoaa joen rannalla muurien suojassa. Linna on rakennettu vuonna  v. 1180  kreivien asuinpaikaksi ja on yksi harvoista miltei ehjänä säilyneistä lähes tuhat vuotta sitten rakennetuista linnoista.  Linna hylättiin 1500-luvulla, jonka jälkeen sitä käytettiin oikeustalona ja vankilana. Vuonna 1885 Gentin kaupunki osti sen ja aloitti entisöinnin alkuperäiseen asuunsa.  Nykyään se toimii turistinähtävyytenä,  joka  sisältää mm. kidutusmuseon peukaloruuveineen, häpeänaamioineen ja mitä kaikkea kammotttavuutta ihminen on osannutkin keksiä.

Taidan jättää kidutusmuseon väliin, ihailen vain katedraalia ja kävelen satamakadulla.

The Gravensteen is a castle in Ghent originating from the Middle Ages.  Begun in the 12th century and expanded over time, this castle was the seat of the Counts of Flanders. Over the centuries, it functioned as a prison and as a cotton mill. Nowadays, it is open to visitors as a museum. You can for examplevisit  the Museum of Judicial objects, which might as well have been called the Museum of Torture.  The museum displays some of the tools used throughout the centuries to torture accused and punish convicts. Thumbs screws, a mask of shame and neck restraints are just some of the items you’ll see here.

I think I'll skip this part of the museum.

Frida and Diego

Frida Kahlo's self portrait "Diego on My Mind"

Private swap from Diego, Mexico

Sef portrait dedicated to Dr. Eloesser, 1940

 From Rosa, Mexico

  

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was a Mexican painter who is best known for her self-portraits. Kahlo had a volatile marriage with Diego Rivera. She suffered lifelong health problems, many caused by a traffic accident she survived as a teenager. Recovering from her injuries isolated her from other people, and this isolation influenced her works, many of which are self-portraits of one sort or another.

Diego Rivera (1886-1957)

Äitiys - Maternity 1916

My old Unicef collection

 Diego Rivera was a prominent Mexican painter and the husband of Frida Kahlo. His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in Mexican art.

 Rivera is best know about his political works, this painting however is from his cubist period in the early 1900s. Rivera abandoned cubism not long after this painting was made.

Ancient art

Postcards from Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete, Greece 

 My collection

Ladies in blue.

Fresco from Knossos (16th cent. B.C.)

Blue bird

Fresco from Knossos (16th cent. B.C.)

 The bull-sports

Fresco from Knossos (16th-15th cent B.C.) 

Clay model representing a circle of dancing women. The woman in the centre is playing a lyre. 

From Palaikastro, Crete 

Goddess with a Sacred knot.  ( The Parisienne ) 

Fresco from Knossos 1500-1450 B.C.

Knossos on Kreetan merkittävin pronssikautinen arkeologinen kohde. Paikalla sijaitsi Knossoksen palatsi, joka oli luultavasti minolaisen kulttuurin keskus.

Palatsissa asui kuningas Minos ja labyrintissä Minotaurus.

Kunigas Minos sai meren jumala Poseidonilta lahjaksi valkoisen härän, jonka hänen piti uhrata jumalille. Mutta härkä olikin kaunis ja  hohtavan valkoinen, eikä Minos malttanutkaan uhrata sitä, vaan teurasti omasta laumastaan ihan tavallisen härän. Jumalat tietysti rankaisivat Minosta moisesta röyhkeydestä. Niinpä rakkauden jumalatar Afrodite sai aikaan, että Minoksen puoliso Pasifae rakastui tuohon kauniiseen, hohtavan valkoiseen merestä nousseeseen härkään. Aika luonnoton rakkaus ja Pasifaeta nolostutti itseäänkin. Onneksi näppärä puuseppä Daidalos rakensi puisen lehmän, jonka sisään Pasifae saattoi mukavasti piiloutua.  Siitä ei tietenkään mitään hyvää seurannut vaan liitosta syntyi hirviö, puoliksi ihminen ja puoliksi härkä, joka sai nimekseen Minotaurus. 

Minos  oli kauhuissaan ja taas pyydettiin puuseppä / rakennusmestari Daidalos paikalle Hän suunnitteli sokkeloisen labyrintin umpikujineen ja mutkineen, josta kukaan ei selväisi eksymättä (eikä hengissä).  Sinne labyrintin sokkeloihin Minotaurus sijoitettiin asumaan.

Joka yhdeksäs vuosi Minos vaati Ateenan kaupungilta seitsemän nuorukaista ja seitsemän neitoa, jotka vietiin labyrinttiin ja siellä Minotaurus ahmaisi heidät kaikki suuhunsa.  

Kolmannella uhrien hakumatkalla astui esiin urhea sankari, kuningas Aigeuksen poika Theseus ja hän lupasi tappaa Minotauruksen. Aigeus  päästi Theseuksen matkaan ja muistutti Theseusta valkoisista ja mustista purjeista.  ( Jos onnistuu tehtävässä, nostetaan paluumatkalla valkoinen purje, jos menee pieleen tullaan takaisin mustat purjeet liehuen. )

Kuningas Minoksen tytär, Ariadne oli rakastunut Theseukseen ja halusi pelastaa tämän Minotauruksen kidasta. Hän pyysi Daidalokselta labyrintin avainta, lankakerää  jonka ojensi sitten Theseukselle.  Theseus sitoi lankakerän toisen pään labyrintin oven ulkopuolelle ja kerä alkoi vieriä itsestään eteenpäin ja johdatti hänet labyrintin keskelle. Siellä kurjassa loukossaan asusti hurja Minotaurus, nukkui onneksi, joten Theseusella oli ihan helppo homma katkaista sen ruma härän pää Lankaa kerimällä hän löysi  takaisin Ariadnen luokse.

Paluumatkallaan Ateenaan Theseus "unohti"  Ariadnen Naksokselle ja unohti vieläpä valkoset purjeetkin. Nähdessään mustapurjeisen aluksen palaavan satamaan, kuningas Aigeus heittäytyi epätoivoissaan mereen, siitä pitäen sen nimenä on ollut Aigeianmeri.

More here and here