The Billiard Room

Located in the Bachelor’s Wing of George W. Vanderbilt’s country chateau, the Billiard Room was a place where men would retire after dinner to smoke and play billiards. True to Victorean fashion, women rarely, if ever, entered this male domain.

The Billiard Room, part of Biltmore House’s Bachelor's Wing. Decorated with an ornamental plaster ceiling and rich oak paneling the Billiard Room was equipped with both a pool table and a carom table (table without pockets.) This room was mostly an attraction to men, yet welcoming the ladies if they chose to stop by.  Secret door panels on either side of the fireplace led to the private quarters of the Bachelors’ Wing.

Thank you very much indeed Sarah for this nice card.

Mount Fuji

THIS CARD HIGHLIGHTS THE COMMON SENSE OF THE STUPID, CALLOUS AND ILLITERATE POSTAL WORKER IN THE NEW DELHI POST OFFICE WHO STAMPED THIS CARD THE WAY HE DID.

Mount Fuji located on Honshu Island, is the highest mountain in Japan at 3,776.24 m (12,389 ft). An active strato-volcano that last erupted in 1707–08, Mount Fuji lies about 100 kilometres (60 mi) south-west of Tokyo, and can be seen from there on a clear day. Mount Fuji's exceptionally symmetrical cone, which is snow-capped several months a year, is a well-known symbol of Japan and it is frequently depicted in art and photographs, as well as visited by sightseers and climbers. It is one of Japan's "Three Holy Mountains" along with Mount Tate and Mount Haku; it is a Special Place of Scenic Beauty, a Historic Site, and was added to the World Heritage List as a Cultural Site on June 22nd, 2013.

The mountain has been selected as a “cultural” rather than a “natural” heritage site. As per UNESCO, Mount Fuji has “inspired artists and poets and been the object of pilgrimage for centuries”. The 25 locations include the mountain itself, Fujisan Hongū Sengen Taisha and six other Sengen shrines, two lodging houses, Lake Yamanaka, Lake Kawaguchi, the eight Oshino Hakkai hot springs, two lava tree molds, the remains of the Fuji-kō cult in the Hitoana cave, Shiraito Falls, and Miho no Matsubara pine tree grove.

Thank you Fuchico for this card.

Liberec, Czech Republic.

Liberec is a city in the Czech Republic. Located on the Lusatian Neisse and surrounded by the Jizera Mountains and Ještěd-Kozákov Ridge, it is the fifth-largest city in the Czech Republic.

Settled by German and Flemish migrants since the 14th century until their expulsion after World War II, Liberec was once home to a thriving textile industry and hence nicknamed the "Manchester of Bohemia".

For many Czechs, Liberec is mostly associated with the city's dominant Ještěd Tower (please see mypost dated March 06, 2010). Since the end of the 19th century, the city has been a conurbation with the suburb of Vratislavice and the neighboring town of Jablonec nad Nisou. Therefore the total area with suburbs encompasses 150,000 inhabitants. This makes Liberec the third-largest city (with suburbs) in Bohemia after Prague and Pilsen.

Thank you Petr for this nice card which shows many views of Liberec.

The Zielona Góra Wine Festival

The Zielona Góra Wine Fest (Polish: Winobranie w Zielonej Górze) is a wine festival held in the Polish town of Zielona Gora. The tradition is related to the period of harvest of grapes from the local vineyards which were then turned into wine. The first festival took place in October 1852. Nowadays it starts in the first or second week of September and lasts for nine days.

The festivities start on a Saturday with a parade through the city centre. It is preceded by a symbolic ceremony when the Roman wine god Bacchus and his Maenads receive the keys to the town from the local authorities. During the nine days a lot of cultural and sport events take place, among which the International Festival of Folklore is one of the most prominent. There are also theatre meetings (including street theatres) and music concerts.

The centre of the town turns into a big marketplace for the time of the fest, with a separate street allotted for the antiques market.

Thank you Dear Jadwiga for this nice card.

Fall Themed Cards from Finland

These two cards were also released along with this year's traditional fall-themed stamps (see my post dated 28th September,2013 in my blog www.http://letstalkstamps.blogspot.in/  

Thank you dear Ella for these lovely cards.

The Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin

The Gendarmenmarkt is a square in Berlin, and the site of the Konzerthaus and the French and German Cathedrals. In the centre of the square is a statue of Germany's poetFriedrich Schiller.The square was created by Johann Arnold Nering at the end of the seventeenth century as the Linden-Markt and reconstructed by Georg Christian Unger in 1773. The Gendarmenmarkt is named after the cuirassier regiment Gens d'Armes, which was deployed at this square until 1773.

During World War II, most of the buildings were badly damaged or destroyed. Today all the buildings have been restored to their former state.

The French Cathedral (in German: Französischer Dom) the older of the two cathedrals, was built by the Huguenot community between 1701 and 1705. The cathedral was modelled after the destroyed Huguenot church in Charenton-Saint-Maurice, France. The tower and porticoes, designed by Carl von Gontard, were added to the building in 1785. The French cathedral has a viewing platform, a restaurant and a Huguenot museum.

The German Cathedral (in German: Deutscher Dom) is located in the south of the Gendarmenmarkt. It has a pentagonal structure and was designed by Martin Grünberg and built in 1708 by Giovanni Simonetti. It too was modified in 1785 by Carl von Gontard, who built the domed tower. The German Cathedral was completely destroyed by fire in 1945, during World War II. After German reunification it was rebuilt, finished in 1993 and re-opened in 1996 as a museum of German history.

Thank you Marco for this lovely card.

Angry Birds

Itella Posti Oy most probably made history by releasing the world's first official Angry Birds stamps, featuring six of the popular game characters - five birds and one pig on 9^th September, 2013. The designer of the stamps is Toni Kysenius, Art Director at Rovio Entertainment, who also designed the HockeyBird character and related stamp issue for last year's IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships. 

In order to ensure authenticity, the Angry Birds stamps feature a pattern which is only visible under UV light. In addition, an irregular perforation follows the shape of the characters. The sheet of six 1^st class stamps also includes Priority labels fitting the appearance of the stamps.

Angry Birds is a video game franchise created by Finnish computer game developer Rovio Entertainment. Inspired primarily by a sketch of stylized wingless birds, the first game was first released for Apple's iOS in December 2009. Over 12 million copies of the game have been purchased from Apple's App Store, which has prompted the company to design versions for other touchscreen-based smartphones, including the Android, Symbian and Windows Phone operating systems. It has since expanded to video game consoles and for PCs.

Angry Birds has been praised for its successful combination of addictive gameplay, comical style, and low price. Its popularity led to versions of Angry Birds being created for personal computers and gaming consoles, a market for merchandise featuring its characters and even long-term plans for a feature film or television series. With nearly 2 billion downloads across all platforms and including both regular and special editions, the game has been called "one of the most mainstream games out right now", "one of the great runaway hits of 2010", and "the largest mobile app success the world has seen so far".

Thank you Ella for this lovely Angry Birds maxi card.