Moscow Water Transport

Inland water transport is one of the oldest types of transport serving Moscow citizens. The united city water transport system includes waterways, ports, shipping companies, as well as ship-repair and ship-building enterprises responsible for passenger transportation, navigation safety, and waterways operation. Waterways of the Moscow water area extend from Moscow along the Channel named after Moscow and the Volga river to Rybinsk, as well as from Moscow along the Moscow River and the Oka to Nizhny Novgorod and Kaluga.

Apart from cruising river buses that make tourist and entertaining trips along the Moscow River within the city there are cruising ships that depart from the Northern and Southern river stations and take their passengers along Russian rivers via many old Russian cities.

Main river navigation starts from the Northern river station situated at the bank of the Khimki Reservoir. It was built in 1937. The river station is an architecture memorial and one of the symbols of Moscow. From this station cruising ships depart that take their passengers on short weekend trips and on long trips to Saint Petersburg, the Solovetsky Islands, Perm, Ufa, Astrakhan, and Rostov-on-Don that take from two weeks up to a month.  

The building of the Northern river station is built in the form of a huge ship with a high spire and a broad central staircase. At the end of the spire there is the star that in 1935—1937 was at the Spasskaya tower of the Moscow Kremlin. The sickle and hammer are encrusted with semiprecious stone from the Urals. The verandas of the station are decorated by the fountains South and North that symbolize the connection between the southern and northern waterways of Moscow. A park is adjoining the station building. In the station there is a restaurant. The total length of the quays is 1.5 km.

This pretty card was sent to me by Zhenya.

Castle of Stolzenfels on the Rhine

Stefan sent me this card showing this imposing castle on the Rhine. Finished in 1259, Stolzenfels was used to protect the toll station at the Rhine, where the ships, back then were the main transport for goods, had to stop and pay toll. Over the years it was extended several times, occupied by French and Swedish troops in the Thirty Years' War and finally, in 1689, destroyed by the French during the Nine Years' War. For 150 years the ruins decayed, until in 1815 they were given as a present to Frederick William IV of Prussia by the city of Koblenz. Following the romantic traditions, the prince started to completely rebuild the castle after 1826 as a summer residence. Supported by famous neoclassic architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the castle was completely remodeled in the then fashionable neo-Gothic style, aiming to create a romantic place representing the idea of medieval knighthood - the architects even created a tournament site.

Fleet Street

London's Fleet Street, named after the river Fleet which flows at one end of the street, had many legal offices and courts surrounding it in the late 15th century. From 1500s onwards, several publishing and printing shops began locating themselves on Fleet Street to serve the legal offices in its neighbourhood. From 1702, when London's first daily newspaper The Daily Courant set up its office there, the street became the hub of the news industry of Britain. Almost all major news companies had their presence on Fleet Street. Though the news industry has moved away from Fleet Street, even today, the street is called the spiritual home of British journalism. There is a tradition that every British journalist gets married in the Christopher Wrens Church on Fleet Street.

This nice card sent to me by Violeta shows Fleet Street as it was in 1905. That’s 108 years ago. This busy scene shows the street of the press, leading down to Ludgate Circus. Beyond the bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral dominates the city skyline.

The Masskara Festival

The Masskara Festival, is a festival held each year in Bacolod, Philippines, every third weekend of October nearest October 19, the city's Charter Inauguration Anniversary.

The word "Masskara" is a portmanteau, coined by the late artist Ely Santiago from mass (a multitude of people), and the Spanish word cara (face), thus forming MassKara(a multitude of faces). The word is also a pun on maskara (Filipino for "mask"), since a prominent feature of the festival are the masks worn by participants, which are always adorned with smiling faces.

The festival first began in 1980 during a period of crisis. The province relied on sugar cane as its primary agricultural crop, and the price of sugar was at an all-time low due to the introduction of sugar substitutes like high fructose corn syrup in the United States. It was also a time of tragedy; on April 22 of that year, the inter-island vesselDon Juan carrying many Negrenses, including those belonging to prominent families in Bacolod City, collided with the tanker Tacloban City and sank. An estimated 700 lives were lost in the tragedy.

In the midst of these tragic events, the city's artists, local government and civic groups decided to hold a festival of smiles, because the city at that time was also known as the City of Smiles. They reasoned that a festival was also a good opportunity to pull the residents out of the pervasive gloomy atmosphere. The initial festival was therefore, a declaration by the people of the city that no matter how tough and bad the times were, Bacolod City is going to pull through, survive, and in the end, triumph.

The Masks in the History of the festival is constantly changing from masks influenced by native Filipinos which was slowly influenced by Carnival of Venice and Rio Carnival motifs. Earlier Masks had feathers, native beads, and masks were hand painted while modern masks feature plastic beads, plastic.

The festival features a street dance competition where people from all walks of life troop to the streets to see colourfully masked dancers gyrating to the rhythm of Latin musical beats in a display of mastery, gaiety, coordination and stamina. Major activities include the MassKara Queen beauty pageant, carnivals, drum and bugle corps competitions, food festivals, sports events, musical concerts, agriculture-trade fairs, garden shows, and other special events organized ad-hoc every year.

Thank you Nathalie from the Philippines for this lovely card.

Cars

Masha sent me this cards portraying various cars in various states of repair and disrepair!!!

Viking ship

Viking ships were vessels used during the Viking Age in Northern Europe. Scandinavian tradition of shipbuilding during the Viking Age was characterized by slender and flexible boats, with symmetrical ends with true keel. They were clinker built, which is the overlapping of planks riveted together. They might have had a dragon's head or other circular object protruding from the bow and stern, for design, although this is only inferred from historical sources.

They ranged in the Baltic Sea and far from the Scandinavian home areas, to Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Newfoundland, the Mediterranean, and Africa.

The ships are normally divided into classes based on size and function. They were from 10 meters long (33 ft) to sometimes even 30 meters (99 ft).

Marlies send me this lovely card from Germany.

Munich

Munich is the capital and the largest city of the German state of Bavaria. It is located on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, behind Berlin and Hamburg. About 1.42 million people live within the city limits. Munich was the host city of the 1972 Summer Olympics. Its inhabitants are sometimes called Munichers in English.

The city's motto is "München mag dich" (Munich likes you). Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" (Cosmopolitan city with a heart). Its native name, München, is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat of arms. Black and gold—the colours of the Holy Roman Empire—have been the city's official colours since the time of Ludwig the Bavarian.

The two famous buildings shown on this card are the Frauenkirche and the Rathaus. Thank you my friend Wolfgang.

The Frauenkirche (full name Dom zu Unserer Lieben Frau, "Cathedral of Our Dear Lady") is a church in Munich that serves as the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising and seat of its Archbishop. It is a landmark prominent with its twin towers, and is considered a symbol of the Bavarian capital city.

The Rathaus-Glockenspiel of Munich is a tourist attraction in Marienplatz the heart of Munich.

Part of the second construction phase of the New Town Hall, it dates from 1908. Every day at 11 a.m. (as well as 12 p.m. and 5 p.m. in summer) it chimes and re-enacts two stories from the 16th century to the amusement of mass crowds of tourists and locals. It consists of 43 bells and 32 life-sized figures. The top half of the Glockenspiel tells the story of the marriage of the local Duke Wilhelm V (who also founded the world famous Hofbräuhaus) to Renata of Lorraine. In honour of the happy couple there is a joust with life-sized knights on horseback representing Bavaria (in white and blue) and Lothringen (in red and white). The Bavarian knight wins every time of course.

This is then followed by the bottom half and second story: Schäfflertanz (the coopers' dance). According to myth, 1517 was a year of plague in Munich. The coopers are said to have danced through the streets to, "bring fresh vitality to fearful dispositions." The coopers remained loyal to the duke, and their dance came to symbolize perseverance and loyalty to authority through difficult times. By tradition, the dance is performed in Munich every seven years. This was described in 1700 as, "an age-old custom", but the current dance was defined only in 1871. The dance can be seen during Fasching (German Carnival): the next one is in 2019.

The whole show lasts somewhere between 12 and 15 minutes long depending on which tune it plays that day. At the very end of the show, a very small golden bird at the top of the Glockenspiel chirps three times, marking the end of the spectacle.