The Round Tower of Vyborg

Vyborg, or Viipuri to the Finns, was once Finland's second-largest town and a thriving and cosmopolitan place. Vyborg was the largest community in the area of Karelia that was ceded to the Soviet Union after the Winter War, and though it was recaptured and briefly annexed once more by Finland in the next conflict, it returned to Soviet hands with the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947, when Finland relinquished all claims on the place.

The Round Tower and the Rathaus Tower date from the mid-16th century. One of the bloodiest stories of Vyborg is related to the Round Tower. In 1599, in Sweden a serious struggle for the throne was in full swing between officially crowned ruler Sigismund and his uncle Duke Charles. Charles had great influence in the army and turned his claims for the throne into a real war. Sigismund was forced to flee to Poland, and Charles began to persecute his supporters. Just like in other Swedish castles, carnages occurred in Vyborg. Charles’ soldiers beheaded the most influential city-dwellers in public including town major Arvid Tavast. The heads of the executed were brought from the site of carnage to the Round Tower and put there on iron rods for all to see. This event that took place on 30 of September of 1599 is remembered as “the Vyborg massacre.”

Only in 1923, the Round Tower received a new life, as it became a historical restaurant and a place of meetings of a Technical Club – a union of Vyborg’s architects. In the WWII years, the building was almost not harmed. In 1940, in the “three-storied stone tower” a Museum of local lore was opened; it existed several months. In 1970s, restoration works were carried out in the tower, and a restaurant, which successfully works to this day, was opened there again. The so-called "Round Tower" is now a very nice and beautiful place. Upstairs they have an upper class restaurant, where you can for instance taste the famous Russian dish "the blinis" served with hacked onion, smetana (a creamy thick diary product) and caviar. Thank you Merja for this nice card.

Joensuu - The Happening Place

Joensuu ("mouth of the river") is a city and municipality in North Karelia in eastern Finland. It is located in the province of Eastern Finland and is part of North Karelia region. It was founded in 1848. The population of Joensuu is 73,373 (January 31, 2011). Joensuu is a lively student city with over 15,000 students enrolled at the University of Eastern Finland and a further 4,000 at the North Karelia Technical School. The largest employers are the municipal City of Joensuu, North Karelian Hospital District Federation of Municipalities, Abloy and Punamusta. The European Forest Institute, the University and many other institutes and export enterprises such as Abloy and John Deere Forestry give Joensuu an international flavour.

Each year during the three-day festival weekend some 100 bands from both Finland and abroad take to the Festival's five stages and numerous clubs. The variety of genres available is wide, from jazz to heavy metal and from reggae to the brightest stars of Finnish rock'n'roll scene. Ilosaarirock's supreme line-up, uniquely relaxed atmosphere and immaculate organising have all contributed to the fact that the festival has been sold out already in advance for an entire decade now. This pretty card was sent to me by Merja. So, come on all ye potential rock stars - Joensuu is a happening place. And, if you meet Merja there, say Hi to her on my behalf.

Old Church at Petäjävesi

The Petäjävesi Old Church is a wooden church located in Petäjävesi, Finland. It was included in 1994 in the UNESCO World Heritage List. It was built between 1763 and 1765. The clock tower that has been built in 1821 is connected to it. UNESCO considered it to be a representative Lutheran church of the Scandinavian tradition, mixing Renaissance with older Gothic architectural elements. The old church has retained its original appearance and its interior decoration exceptionally well. It is a popular church for weddings in the summer, and there is a church service on most Sundays. Merja sent me this picture postcard of this historical church.

Talbot Lago T26 Grand Sport 1948

One of the immediate post-war cars that received notoriety for its speed was the T26 Grand Sport (GS). It was built for either racing or luxury and benefited directly from Talbot's successful T26 Course Grand Prix car. As such it was expensive, rare and helped Louis Rosier win the LeMans 24 Hour race.

The GS replaced the Record chassis which was named for its remarkable top speed. Having a 4.5-liter, inline-6 with aluminium cylinder heads and triple carburettor fuel feed from the T26 the Grand Prix cars, the GS was one of the world's most powerful production cars. It produced 190 bhp which was good for around 125 mph depending on the body that was fitted. Chassis details were similar to the Grand Prix cars, but it was longer and wider. It came it two wheelbase lengths -104 and 110 inches. All Talbots of the period used a body-on-frame design and had a strong enough chassis to receive a body from wherever the customer chose. Thus, no two cars were alike in the series of 36, and some became the most beautiful expressions of automotive art. Many of the great pre-war design houses like Saoutchik and Figoni & Falaschi were still around to body the T26 in their own way.

Two competition T26s, chassis 110055 and 90131, were prepared for LeMans and looked like underdogs with their pre-war technology compared to competition like Ferrari. However, 24-hour reliability helped the two cars, especially after the Ferraris dropped out, and they placed both first and second place. Louis Rosier raced the winning car for the whole duration except for two laps that his son Jean-Louis drove. In the 24 hours, Rosier personally changed a rocker arm while in the pits and suffered a black eye in the night when an owl went through the windscreen! For his victory, Louis Rosier was named the Champion of France. Tony Lago must have been pleased with the LeMans result as four years earlier he said ‘‘whenever one of my cars wins a race, I feel that I am paying a moral debt to the country which has permitted me to realize my life's dream.''

Unfortunately the Grand Sport was one of the last great cars made by Talbot-Lago. In 1958 the company was bought by Simca. This card was sent to me by Diana.

Bei Carna, Connemara

Carna is a small area in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland, located on the country's west coast in the heart of the Gaeltacht and about 50 km west of Galway city. Carna may be a small area but it has a big enough influence on the surrounding areas in Connemara as it contains a Garda Síochána station, a Health Centre including a Rapid Response Ambulance and it also houses an Irish Coastguard lifeboat. Carna is located close to the village of Cill Chiarain and they share the peninsula locally called Iorras Aithneach. There is currently 178 people living in Carna Village but there are 1786 people living in the townlands around Carna and the Iorras Aithneach area. The population dramatically dropped from the previous average of 8000 before the Great Famine. There are a number of public buildings in Carna. There is a hotel in carna called Carna Bay Hotel, there is a nursing home located there and there is a pharmacy called Cogaslann Agatha located in the village centre. There are also 4 shops located in Carna and 3 pubs.

The National University of Ireland, Galway, has an Irish-language and educational centre (Áras Shorcha Ní Ghuairim) in Carna. It also operates a marine biology station Martin Ryan Institute in Maínis and an atmospheric research station at Mace Head, Carna, which is run by the university's experimental physics department. There is a water reservoir in Carna that provides West Connemara including Roundstone with fresh water. A bus is also based in Carna that brings passengers between Carna and Galway City picking up passengers along the N59.

Since Carna is in Conamara, it is an area that Catholics emigrated to during the Cromwell days, when the statement "to hell or to Connacht" was familiar to all Catholics. Carna is in a strong Gaeltacht region, so most of the people speak Irish at home. The population is almost totally (96 per cent - 2006) bilingual with English being the second language spoken. There is an Irish language college for second level students located in Carna and Cill Chiarain called Coláiste Sheosaimh. Claudia sent this pretty card, which looks like a painting to me.

Automobiles E. Bugatti was a French car manufacturer founded in 1909 in Molsheim, Alsace, as a manufacturer of high-performance automobiles by Italian-born Ettore Bugatti.

Bugattis were well known for the beauty of their designs (Ettore Bugatti was from a family of artists and considered himself to be both an artist and constructor) and for the large number of races they won. The death of Ettore Bugatti in 1947 proved to be the end for the marque, and the death of his son Jean in 1939 ensured there wasn't a successor to lead the factory. No more than about 8000 cars were made. The company struggled financially, and released one last model in the 1950s, before eventually being purchased for its airplane parts business in the 1960s. Today the name is owned by Volkswagen Group, who have revived it as a builder of limited production exclusive sports cars.

The Type 41 Royale was Ettore Bugatti's most luxurious and extreme car. It was designed for heads of state and massive chauffeur-driven bodies. Thus, it was the largest Bugatti both in length and engine displacement. It was also Bugatti's most exclusive model. Only six were ever manufactured and each had considerable presence due to their massive and distinct bodies. These typically had long, sweeping fenders that hugged 24-inch aluminium wheels.

Powering the Royale was a 12.7-liter, straight-8 engine that produced 300 bhp. This was enough power to haul a 7000 lb limousine or whatever body that was affixed to it. Bugatti had to use a nine-bearing crankshaft and a single modified carburettor. Initial production was slated for 25 units, but much less where made due to the depression. This exclusivity has made these cars the most desirable in the world. Even when new, a Royale with a roadster body by Weinberger was $43,000 USD. Each Royale received a standing elephant mascot for its radiator cap. Ettore’s younger brother, Rembrandt Bugatti who was one of the premier animal sculptors of the era, cast these from an original sculpture. Total production of the Type 41 is still up for debate since we have six original cars, 11 total bodies and a crashed prototype. Of the cars manufactured, only three went to actual owners while the rest where kept by the Bugatti family for some time. The project wasn't a complete loss as Bugatti eventually sold 25 Royale engines to power the French Autorail.

Coupé De Ville Napoleon. The first prototype, chassis 41100, was completed in 1927. It featured engineering traits from Bugatti's eight-cylinder Grand Prix cars including their cast aluminum wheels with built-in brake drums. This first car initially wore a Packard body, and two subsequent bodies before being nearly destroyed in an accident. It later became the famous Coupé De Ville Napoleon as designed by Ettore's son Jean Bugatti at the age of 21. At that time 41100 may have been wearing it's fifth body!

This extravagant limousine was fashioned specifically for Ettore himself. It had a split skylight and a wood-rimmed interior with plush upholstery. Every detail was thoroughly considered and a speedometer was even included for the passengers. Currently, the Coupé De Ville Napoleon is the most valuable car in the world. Ettore used the car up until his death in 1947. It eventually ended up with the Schlumpf brothers and still resides as a highlight in their Mulhouse Museum, which is now preserved by the government as the Musée National de l'Automobile de Mulhouse.

The Kellener-bodied Royale, 100141, still holds the world record for fetching $8 700 000 USD at Christie's Auction in 1983. When adjusted for inflation, this price would be over $16 million, a price that only other Royales or the first Rolls Royce Silver Ghost could eclipse. In 1985, Pebble Beach hosted a fantastic reunion that brought together all six of the surviving Royales. The Goodwood Festival of Speed again attempted this feat in 2007 but they failed to get the Berline de Voyage car out of the Blackhawk Collection. This nice card was given to me by Maria.

Viking Alphabet - Runic alphabet

Little is known about the origins of the Runic alphabet, which is traditionally known as futhark after the first six letters. In Old Norse the word rune means 'letter', 'text' or 'inscription'. The word also means 'mystery' or 'secret' in Old Germanic languages, and runes had an important role in ritual and magic. Here are some theories about the origins of runes:

• The alphabet was probably created independently rather than evolving from another alphabet.
• Runic writing was probably first used in southern Europe and was carried north by Germanic tribes.
• The Runic alphabet is thought to have been modelled on the Latin and/or Etruscan alphabet.

The earliest known Runic inscriptions date from the 1st century AD, but the vast majority of Runic inscriptions date from the 11th century. Runic inscriptions have been found throughout Europe from the Balkans to Germany, Scandinavia and the British Isles. The Notable features are the direction of writing in early Runic inscriptions is variable. Later they settled down into a left to right pattern, and the Word divisions were not generally recognised in Runic writing, although one or more dots were occasionally used for this function. Elder Futhark is thought to be the oldest version of the Runic alphabet, and was used in the parts of Europe which were home to Germanic peoples, including Scandinavia. Other versions probably developed from it. The names of the letters are shown in Common Germanic, the reconstructed ancestor of all Germanic languages. This nice card was sent to me by Kristiny from Norway.