The Wiesensee

The Wiesensee is an artificial lake, dammed up in 1971, in the Westerwald low mountain range. The lake covers about 80 hectares and lies in the area of Stahlhofen am Wiesensee's various centres on the lake's west shore, and Pottum on the north shore in the Westerwaldkreis. The community of Winnen borders on the lake to the southeast. The lake is a nature conservation area, and only parts of the water surface are open for recreational use.

It is a holiday and tourist destination. Several hotels, a luxury hotel and golf course lie near the shore. Many leisure facilities in the winter and summer make the Wiesensee attractive for athletes, young families and youth. Around the lake runs a roughly 6.5-km-long hiking path loop.

Once every year, usually in the third week of October, the lake is fished clean, and completely drained. On this occasion the fishing festival is traditionally held.

Every three years, the Vereinsring Pottum ("club ring") stages a Sommernachtfest ("Summer Night Festival") at the lake.

Thank you Benny for this card.

XIth German Gymnastic Festival in Frankfurt in July 1908

This is a reproduction of a historic postcard. Thank you Andre for this wonderful card.

When Kaiser Wilhelm II made it known in summer 1905 that he would be willing to have the traditional singing contest transferred permanently to Frankfurt as well as having the 11th German Gymnastics Festival held there three years later, the municipal authorities lost no time in taking action. At a meeting of town councillors, funds were allocated for a general architectural competition. The invitation to tender was issued in April 1906 and was won just one year later by Friedrich von Thiersch, who designed a 6,000 m², daylight-flooded hall, suitable for playing host to all manner of exhibitions, musical performances and other events.   

Construction work began on 11 June 1907 and was supervised directly by Frankfurt City Council. Responsibility for marketing and operating the hall was given to ‘Ausstellungs- und Festhallen-Gesellschaft’ – known today as Messe Frankfurt. Exactly 13 months later in July 1908, the still-unplastered Festhalle hosted the opening ceremony for the 11th International German Gymnastics Festival. When the gymnasts had returned home, the construction was completed and officially opened on schedule.   

Sail Amsterdam

Sail Amsterdam is a Dutch maritime event held every five years for 5 days. In 2010, the eighth edition took place from 19 to 23 August. The next edition of Sail Amsterdam will be held fromAugust 19,2015 to August 23, 2015.

The event was first held in August 1975 during the celebration of the 700th anniversary of the city of Amsterdam. During the preparations was proposed to organize a nautical event in the port of Amsterdam, somewhat following the First Dutch Exhibition held in 1913 in Shipping Technology, which would be the focus of the harbour and the city. There were ships from around the world for this event 'Sail Amsterdam 700' invited.

After the success of 'Sail Amsterdam 700' it was decided in 1980 to organize a Sail Amsterdam to lead the organization in the right direction is the permanent organization Stichting Sail Amsterdam (SSA) was established in 1977. Since then it has succeeded the SSA to organize an event in 1980 , 1985 , 1990 , 1995 , 2000 , 2005 and 2010 .

This maxicard commemorates Sail Amsterdam 1995, held from 6^th June 1995.

In 2000 and 2005 there were more than two million people at the event, including 360,000 foreigners. In 2010, the buzz was with 1.5 million visitors a little smaller, partly because the event took a day shorter, but still belongs Sail Amsterdam's busiest public events in the Netherlands.

Thank you Dear Maria for this nice card.

The Pre-Columbian era Pottery

The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during the Early Modern period. While the phrase "pre-Columbian era" literally refers only to the time preceding Christopher Columbus's voyages of 1492, in practice the phrase usually is used to denote the entire history of American indigenous cultures until those cultures were conquered or significantly influenced by Europeans, even if this happened decades or centuries after Columbus's first landing. For this reason the alternative terms of Precontact Americas, Pre-Colonial Americas or Prehistoric Americas are also in use. In areas of Hispanic America the term usually used is Pre-Hispanic.

Indigenous peoples of the Americas continue to evolve after the pre-Columbian era. Many of these peoples and their descendants continue traditional practices, while evolving and adapting new cultural practices and technologies into their lives.

The pottery shown on the card is that of a Jaguar Effigy bottle with Bridge Spout with Resist from Peru. Far North Coast Piura Valley. It is possibly of the Late Horizon/Early Intermediate period, Vicus 400-200 bc.

Resist is a coating that is put on pottery or ceramic to protect a certain area from paint or glaze. When the piece is fired, the resist will burn away and the area that it was put on will show with the paint or glaze surrounding it.

Thank you Billy for this interesting card.

Lake Teletskoye ("Golden Lake")

Lake Teletskoye ("Golden Lake") is the largest lake in the Altay Mountains and the Altai Republic, Russia, and has depth up to 325 meters.

Situated at a height of 434 m (1,424 ft) above the sea level, the lake is 78 km (48 mi) long and 5 km (3.1 mi) wide and lies between the mountain ridges Korbu and Altyntu, on the junction of the Sailughem Mountains and the Western Sayans. Its surface area is 233 km² (90 sq mi); however, due to its considerable depth (325 m, 1,066 ft), the lake contains no less than 40 km³ (9.6 cubic miles) of fresh water. Annual water level fluctuations are estimated at some 348 sm. The lake transparency is high, with the visibility of the lake water ranging from six to fourteen meters.

About 70 rivers and 150 temporary streams flow into the lake, the largest of them, Chulyshman River, supplying more than half of the lake's water. The lake is drained through a single outlet, the Biya River, which, after its confluence with the Katun River, forms one of Siberia's largest rivers, the Ob River.

The lake is surrounded by mountains of 600-1,300 m in the northern part and about 1,700-2,400 m (5,600 - 7,900 ft) in the southern part. Lake Teletskoe is included into Altaisky Nature Reserve. That reserve along with the Katun Natural Reserve and the Ukok Plateau Nature Refuge were listed as one of UNESCO World Natural Heritage Sites under the name "Golden Mountains of Altai".

The Altay people have a legend about the name of the lake in their language, which means Golden Lake. According to this story, once, a rich man had a ingot of gold, which he wanted to use to buy food. He travelled around Altai, but could not find anyone who would sell him any food. Eventually, he threw the gold into the lake. This legend is the origin of the name.

Thank you Daria for this lovely card.

The San Francisco cable car

The San Francisco cable car system is the world's last manually operated cable car system. An icon of San Francisco, California, the cable car system forms part of the intermodal urban transport network operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway, or "Muni" as it is better known. Of the twenty-three lines established between 1873 and 1890, three remain (one of which combines parts of two earlier lines): two routes from downtown near Union Square to Fisherman's Wharf, and a third route along California Street. While the cable cars are used to a certain extent by commuters, their small service area and premium fares for single rides make them more of a tourist attraction. They are among the most significant tourist sites in the city, along with Alcatraz Island, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Fisherman's Wharf. The cable cars are the only mobile National Monument in the world, and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The cable cars are not to be confused with San Francisco's heritage streetcars, which operate on Market Street and the Embarcadero.

Bev sent me this pretty card.

King Gustav III of Sweden

Merja sent me this card which portrays an Helmet from King Gustav III’s tournament armour in the 1770’s.

Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Adolph Frederick and Louisa Ulrika of Prussia who was a sister of Frederick the Great of Prussia.

A vocal opponent of, as he saw it, abuses by the nobility of a permissiveness established by parliamentarian reforms that had been worked out since the death ofCharles XII, he seized power from the government in a coup d'état in 1772, ending the Age of Liberty and venturing into a campaign to restore royal autocracy which was completed by the Union and Security Act in 1789, sweeping away most of the last pretences of Riksdag rule. As a bulwark of enlightened despotism, his expenditure of considerable public funds on cultural ventures contributed to his controversial majesty. Attempts to seize first Norway through Russian aid, then to recapture the Baltic provinces through a war against Russia were unsuccessful, although much of Sweden's former military might was restored. An admirer of Voltaire, Gustav legalized Catholic and Jewish presence in the realm and enacted wide-ranging reforms aimed at economic liberalism, social reform and the abolishment, in many cases, of torture and capital punishment, although the much-praised 1766 Freedom of Press Act was severely curtailed through amendments in 1774 and 1792, all independent media effectively extinguished.