The European Union of 25

The European Union (EU) is an economic and political union or confederation of 27 member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Economic Community (EEC), formed by six countries in 1958. In the intervening years the EU has grown in size by the accession of new member states, and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. The Maastricht Treaty established the European Union under its current name in 1993. The latest amendment to the constitutional basis of the EU, the Treaty of Lisbon, came into force in 2009.

Since then, the eurozone has increased to encompass 17 countries. This maxi card and the stamp on it with the special postmark commemorates the event on 16th April 2003. These 10 countries signed the Treaty of Adhesion in Athens.2004, when the the EU saw its biggest enlargement to date when Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the Union joined the other 15 States of the EU. This maxi card sent to me by Merja was released on 1.5.2004.

The Portland Observatory

Here's some more nautical lore.The Portland Observatory, built in 1807 at Portland, Maine, is the last surviving maritime signal tower in the United States. Using both a telescope and signal flags, two-way communication between ship and shore was possible several hours before an incoming vessel reached the docks.

Portland has a deep harbor sheltered by numerous islands. Ships entering the harbor are not directly visible from the wharfs, which created problems for merchants trying to prepare for the arrival of cargoes. This problem was solved in 1807 when Captain Lemuel Moody organized the construction of an observatory on Portland's Munjoy Hill, visible from both the open ocean and the wharfs. During the War of 1812, the observatory was used as

a watch tower.The 86-foot (26 m) tall observatory (7 stories) is octagonal and lighthouse-shaped, with a fieldstone base, and stands 222 feet (68 m) above sea level. The observatory's 'lantern' (cupola) included a P & J Dolland Achromatic Refracting Telescope, which could identify ships 30 miles (48 km) to sea. That telescope disappeared from the observatory in 1939. Maria gave me this nice card.

Swan of Finland

Suomen Joutsen (also popularly known as the “Swan of Finland), is a three-masted, steel hull, full rigged ship. She was built in 1902 in St. Nazaire, France to serve in the trade between Atlantic and Pacific ports. In 1930, she was bought by the Government of Finland to serve as a Finnish Navy training ship. Before World War II she made eight long ocean voyages. From 1956 she was a stationary Seamen's School for the Finnish Merchant Navy. Since 1991, she has been a museum ship owned by City of Turku, Finland.

Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative centre of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural centre of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,398,889 (2012) (up from 1,293,537 recorded in the 2002 Census), making it Russia's fourth-largest city. Between 1924 and 1991, the city was known as Sverdlovsk after the Bolshevik party leader Yakov Sverdlov.

Soon after the Russian Revolution, on July 17, 1918, Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra, and their children Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia (her death has been under dispute ever since), and Tsarevich Alexei were murdered by the Bolsheviks at the Ipatiev House in this city. Other members of the Romanov family were killed at Alapayevsk the day after. In 1977, the Ipatiev House was demolished by order of Boris Yeltsin, to prevent it from being used as a rallying location for monarchists. He later became the first President of Russia and represented the people at the funeral of the Tsar in 1998.

This card sent to me by Lisa shows photographs of some of the city’s theatre’s and museums in this well-known city. Especially the Opera House. Yekaterinburg is famous for its theaters, among which are some very popular theatre companies: the Yekaterinburg Academic Ballet and Opera Company, the Sverdlovsk Academic Theater of Musical Comedy, the Yekaterinburg Academic Dramatic Theater, the Yekaterinburg Theater for Young Spectators, the Volkhonka (a popular chamber theatre), and the Kolyada Theater (a chamber theatre founded by Russian playwright, producer and actor Nikolai Kolyada). Yekaterinburg is the centre of New Drama, a movement of the contemporary Russian playwrights Nikolai Kolyada, Vasily Sigarev, Konstantin Kostenko, the Presnyakov brothers, and Oleg Bogayev. Yekaterinburg is often called the capital of contemporary dance for a number of famous dance companies residing in the city: the Kipling, the Provincial Dances, the Tantstrest, and a special department of contemporary dance at the Yekaterinburg University of Humanities.

Famous Tall Ships

Thank you Karoly for this nice card. It’s indeed a ‘Who’s Who’ of famous Tall Ships.

The Gorch Fock I (ex Tovarishch, ex Gorch Fock) is a German three-mast barque, the first of a series built as school ships for the German Reichsmarine in 1933. She was taken as war reparations by the USSR after World War II and renamed Tovarishch. After a short period under the Ukrainian flag in the 1990s and a prolonged stay in British ports due to lack of funds for necessary repairs, the ship was acquired by sponsors and sailed to her original home port of Stralsund, where her original name of Gorch Fock was restored on November 29, 2003. She is a museum ship, and extensive repairs were carried out in 2008. The Federal German government built a replacement training ship, the Gorch Fock (1958), which is still in service.

Many regard Mir as the fastest Class A sail training ship in the world. Since 1996, she won the Tall Ship Races five times! Since 1990, up to 60 trainees of all ages are welcome on board to sail along with the Russian students of the Admiral Makarov State Maritime Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia. Mir's full complement of sails is 26; she is sailed with a crew of 200 but can be sailed with only 30. The ship's crewmembers and cadets have acquired a lot of friends in many European and some American ports, which makes every arrival a joyful experience!

Alexander von Humboldt is a German ship originally built in 1906 by the German shipyard AG Weser at Bremen as Reserve Sonderburg. She was operated throughout the North and Baltic Seas until being retired in 1986. Subsequently she was converted into a three masted barque by the German shipyard Motorwerke Bremerhaven and was re-launched in 1988 as Alexander von Humboldt.

The STS Sedov, formerly the Magdalene Vinnen II (1921–1936) and the Kommodore Johnsen (–1948), is a 4-masted steel barque that for almost 80 years was the largest traditional sailing ship in operation. Originally built as a German cargo ship, the Sedov is today a sail training vessel, training cadets from the universities of Murmansk, Saint Petersburg and Arkhangelsk. She participates regularly in the big maritime international events as a privileged host and has also been a regular participant in the Tall Ships' Races.

Great Horror Movie Heroes

This one is for the lovers of horror movies. The fmous three featured in the three maxi cards shown here, were all masters of their craft. Hemant from the USA sent me these cards.

Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (20 October 1882 – 16 August 1956), commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played and achieved cinematic immortality as the world’s most famous vampire - Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his career.

William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor. Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein (1931), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and Son of Frankenstein (1939). His popularity following Frankenstein was such that for a brief time he was billed simply as "Karloff" or "Karloff the Uncanny." His best-known non-horror role is as the Grinch, as well as the narrator, in the animated television special of Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966). As Frankenstein’s monster, Boris Karloff was able to convey an impressive range of emotions without speaking.

Lon Chaney (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930) was an American actor during the age of silent films. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of early cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted characters, and his groundbreaking artistry with makeup. Chaney is known for his starring roles in such silent horror films as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera. His ability to transform himself using makeup techniques he developed earned him the nickname "The Man of a Thousand Faces." As the horribly disfigured Eric, who lived below the Paris Opera House, Lon Chaney terrified audiences everywhere.

Kimon the Athenian

Further to my post on this famous Athenian on 15.11.2011, Merja sent me another nice card from Larnaca in Cyprus, showing the bust of Kimon the Athenian. Kimon was an Athenian general and statesman, a member of the distinguished Philaid family and the son of the great Miltiades, the victorious general at Marathon. He helped defeat the Persians at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC. He cleared the Persians from the eastern Mediterranean and died in Cyprus in 449 BC leading a naval expedition against Persia.