The Kama Bridge

This card sent to me by Elena shows a View of Kama river and bridge in Perm, Russia. Perm is a city and the administrative centre of Perm Krai, Russia, located on the banks of the Kama River in the European part of Russia near the Ural Mountains. From 1940 to 1957 it was named Molotov.

The Kama Bridge, is a bridge on the highway R239 near Soroch'i Gory settlement in Tatarstan, Russia. It is a part of the longest bridge structure in Russia if measured by the total length of elevated roadway. The structure with a total length of 13,967 m incorporates three bridges: over the Kama River(1,608 m), over the Arkharovka River (549.9 m) and over the Kurlyanka River (69.8 m).

The construction of the bridge structure began in 1992 and was completed on 18 October 2002, when it was officially opened by the President of Tatarstan. The bridge is a very important one, since it is a part of a major Kazan - Chistopol - Bugulma - Orenburg highway. The second stage of the structure is planned to be built at a later date.

Kenting National Park

Kenting National Park is a national park located in the Hengchun Peninsula of Pingtung County, Taiwan, covering Hengchun, Checheng and Manzhou Townships. Established on January 1, 1984, it is Taiwan's oldest and southernmost national park, covering the southernmost area of the Taiwan island. Administered by the Executive Yuan's Ministry of the Interior, this national park is well known for its tropical climate and sunshine, scenic mountain and beach, the Spring Scream rock-band festival held in every March, and has long been one of the most favorite resort places in Taiwan.

Thank you Janet for this nice card.

Masters of the Universe

Zoey from China sent me this card which shows He-Man and his twin sister She-Ra. To their right areSkeletor and his hench men, in other words the bad guys. To their left are their friends or the good guys.

He-Man is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Masters of the Universe franchise. In most variations, he is the alter ego of Prince Adam. He-Man and his friends defend the realm of Eternia and the secrets of Castle Grayskull from the evil forces of Skeletor.

She-Ra is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Filmation cartoon She-Ra: Princess of Power, debuting in 1985. Also, a series of toys under her name were produced by Mattel. She is the alter ego of Princess Adora and the twin sister of Prince Adam/He-Man. She-Ra was intended to appeal to young girls in the same way that He-Man appealed to young boys. Filmation writer Larry DiTillio created the backstory for the property.
She-Ra was introduced in the animated movie The Secret of the Sword as Force Captain Adora, a member of the Evil Horde that rules the planet Etheria. She discovers that she is the long lost twin sister of Prince Adam of Eternia, having been kidnapped as a baby by the Horde's leader Hordak. She is granted the Sword of Protection, which parallels He-Man's Sword of Power, gaining the power to transform into She-Ra, her secret identity.

Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms (7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer and pianist. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene. In his lifetime, Brahms's popularity and influence were considerable; following a comment by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow, he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs".

Brahms composed for piano, chamber ensembles, symphony orchestra, and for voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works; he worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim. Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire. Brahms, an uncompromising perfectionist, destroyed some of his works and left others unpublished.

Brahms is often considered both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Baroque and Classical masters. He was a master of counterpoint, the complex and highly disciplined art for which Johann Sebastian Bach is famous, and of development, a compositional ethos pioneered by Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and other composers. Brahms aimed to honour the "purity" of these venerable "German" structures and advance them into a Romantic idiom, in the process creating bold new approaches to harmony and melody. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship have been admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg and Edward Elgar. The diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahms's works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers.

Thank you Maria for this nice maxicard from Germany.

Franconia and the River Main

This card was sent to me by Dieter during his cycling trip along the River Main (shown on the card). The area is popularly refered to as Franconia (Franken), which is a region for quality wine in Germany situated in the north west of Bavaria in the district of Franconia, and is the only wine region in the federal state of Bavaria. In 2008, vines were grown on 6,063 hectares (14,980 acres) of land in the region.

The greatest part of the wine region is situated in the county of Lower Franconia around its capital Würzburg along the Main River. There are a few areas in Middle Franconia mainly in the Steigerwald and a very small part in the area of Upper Franconia around Bamberg. The bends of Main have been used to define the region's three districts, two of which take their names from their respective geometric shape.

Norman Percevel Rockwell

The painting on this card sent to me by Mamiko from Japan was by Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978), who was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine for more than four decades. Among the best-known of Rockwell's works are the Willie Gillis series, Rosie the Riveter, Saying Grace (1951), The Problem We All Live With, and the Four Freedoms series. He is also noted for his work for the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), producing covers for their publication Boys' Life, calendars, and other illustrations.

For "vivid and affectionate portraits of our country," Rockwell received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America's highest civilian honour, in 1977.

Rockwell died November 8, 1978, of emphysema at age 84 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. First Lady Rosalynn Carter attended his funeral.

The Indiana Soldiers and Sailors Monument

The Indiana Soldiers and Sailors Monument is a 284 ft 6 in (86.72 m)-tall neoclassical monument located on Monument Circle in the center of Indianapolis. It was designed by German architect Bruno Schmitz and completed in 1901.

The Monument was erected to honor Hoosiers who were veterans of the American Revolution, territorial conflicts that partially led up to the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the US Civil War, and the Spanish American War. In addition to its external commemorative statuary and fountains (made primarily of oolitic limestone and bronze), the basement of the monument contains the Colonel Eli Lilly Civil War Museum, a museum of Indiana history during the American Civil War.

At the top of the Monument is an observation deck that can be reached by stairs at no cost or by elevator for a $2.00 charge (elevator brings you to the level just under the observation deck, with 30 additional steps). The staircase contains 331 steps, 330 of which are numbered. In 1902 the cost to build this Monument was (US) $598,318. It has been estimated that building a similar structure today would cost over $500,000,000.

It is about 21 feet (6.4 m) shorter than the 305-foot (93 m) tall Statue of The approaches to the Monument are guarded by bronze statues of four wartime leaders: George Rogers Clark, military conqueror of the Old Northwest; William Henry Harrison, first governor of the Indiana Territory and general during the War of 1812 (and, later, 9th President of the United States); James Whitcomb, governor of Indiana during the Mexican-American War; and Oliver Morton, governor during the Civil War.

The Circle is surrounded by retail shops, including the South Bend Chocolate Factory; studios for several local radio stations; the Hilbert Circle Theatre, home of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra; financial institutions; the Columbia Club, one of the oldest social clubs of Indiana; Christ Church Cathedral, a historic Episcopal church; and the IPL corporate headquarters. The Circle is the standard symbol of the city of Indianapolis, and the flag of Indianapolis is an iconic representation of Monument Circle and the two streets (Meridian and Market) that feed in and out of it.

Every Christmas season the Monument is decorated as an enormous Christmas tree. This city tradition is known as the Circle of Lights and has been done annually since 1962. The tree lighting ceremony is held the day after Thanksgiving. 

Thank you Dear Krissy for this wonderful card.