The Norwegian Petroleum Museum

The Norwegian Petroleum Museum was opened on 20 May 1999. In Norwegian language the museum is called Norsk Oljemuseum. The unusual architecture has made the museum a landmark in the Port of Stavanger. Seen from the sea the museum looks like a small oil platform. The museum focuses on offshore petroleum activity especially in the North Sea.

The Norwegian Petroleum Museum is a museum for everyone. Its exhibits explain how oil and gas are created, discovered and produced, and what they are used for. The museum also provides information about technological advances and the way petroleum influences Norwegian society. Original objects, models, films and interactive exhibits illustrate everything from everyday life offshore to technology and dramatic incidents.

Pia sent me this card from Stavanger.

Stralsund

Stralsund is a city in Western Pomerania, Germany, situated at the Southern coast of the Strelasund (a sound of the Baltic Sea separating the island of Rügen from the mainland). Two bridges (the Rügendamm and since October 2007 the new Rügen Bridge) and several ferry services connect Stralsund with the ports of Rügen. A former district-free town, it is the capital of the new district of Vorpommern-Rügen since the September 2011 district reforms.

Since 2002, Stralsund's old town is honoured as a UNESCO World Heritage, along with Wismar. Together with Greifswald, Stralsund forms one of 4 high level urban centers of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The main industries of Stralsund are shipyards, fishing, and, to an increasing degree, tourism, services and IT (Information Technology).

Main landmark of Stralsund: Its unique Brick Gothic city hall from Hanseatic times. This building from 1278 features a remarkable 'show façade' that serves the sole purpose of displaying wealth of the city. Citizens can walk through the city hall and its gallery like they could walk any other street. The city hall also offers one of Europe's biggest Gothic cellar vaults.

The City Hall is one of Stralsund´s oldest and most beautiful buildings in the North German Brick Gothic style. Its origins date back to the thirteenth century. The magnificent decorated facade at the northern end of the building has become one of the city´s emblems. Together with St. Nicholas´ Church, the City Hall facade forms one of the city’s most splendid sights. The complex, originally composed of two long parallel wings, was originally used as a place for merchants to trade, with small shops and stalls on both sides of the inner courtyard as well as in the "Butter Passage" that led through the City Hall from Ossenreyerstrasse to the former main entrance of St. Nicholas´ Church. The coats of arms of Lueneburg and Bremen on the eastern side and Hamburg, Luebeck, Wismar, Rostock, Stralsund and Gerifswald on the northern are reminders of the once powerful Hanseatic League. The City Hall was comprehensively restored between 2001 and 2011, and it is from here that the city is still ruled today.

SS Suomi

The SS Suomi is a steamship that has been plying the waters of Lake Päijänne since 1906. Lake Päijänne is near Jyväskylä-located in the heart of Central Finland.

A little bit about Jyväskylä. It is a city and municipality in Central Finland in the western part of the Finnish Lakeland. It is the largest city in Central Finland and on the Finnish Lakeland. Jyväskylä is located on the northern coast of Lake Päijänne, 147 kilometres (91 mi) north-east of Tampere and 270 kilometres (170 mi) north of Helsinki. The hilly and forested terrain in Jyväskylä is surrounded by hundreds of lakes. Summers in Jyväskylä are warm and winters cold and snowy. As of 28 February 2013, Jyväskylä had a population of 133,687. The city has been one of the most rapidly growing cities in Finland since World War II. In 1940 there were only 8000 inhabitants in Jyväskylä. The Jyväskylä sub-region includes Jyväskylä, Hankasalmi, Laukaa, Muurame, Petäjävesi, Toivakka and Uurainen.

Elias Lönnrot, the compiler of the Finnish national epic Kalevala, gave the city a nickname "Athens of Finland". This nickname is used to describe the major role of Jyväskylä as an education centre and the first place in the world to provide education in Finnish. The works of the most famous Finnish architect Alvar Aalto can be seen throughout the city. The city hosts Neste Oil Rally Finland, which is part of the World Rally Championship. It is also home of the annual Jyväskylä Arts Festival.

Thank you dear Merja for this nice card.

Svolværgeita in the Lofoten archipelago

Svolværgeita is a 150-metre (490 ft) tall pinnacle at the southwest face of Fløyfjellet on the island of Austvågøya in the Lofoten archipelago. The 569-metre (1,867 ft) high Fløyfjellet is located on the edge of the town of Svolvær in the municipality of Vågan in Nordland county, Norway. The first recorded time a climber reached the summit of Svolværgeita was on 1 August 1910 by Ferdinand Schjelderup, Alf Bonnevie Bryn and Carl Wilhelm Rubenson.

The first element is Svolvær, since it is located in that town. 

The last element is the finite form of geit which means "goat", since the mountain has two "horns". The two horns are called Storhorn and Lillehorn. By descending from Storhorn it is common to jump (if you look carefully, you'll see a guy doing just that! - wow) over a 1.5 metre wide gap and land safely on Lillehorn, while viewing the town cemetery (sic!) 300 metre below.

Thank you Pia for this remarkable picture on the card.

George Hendrik Breitner

Irene sent this card which features a painting by George Hendrik Breitner (September 12, 1857 – June 5, 1923) who was a Dutch painter and photographer from Amsterdam.   

Sochi

Lyudmila sent me this card which shows the port of Sochi in Russia. Also displayed is the Swan Hellenic luxury cruise ship Minerva II.

Sochi is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated on the Black Sea coast near the border between Georgia/Abkhazia and Russia. Greater Sochi sprawls for 145 kilometers (90 mi) along the shores of the Black Sea near the Caucasus Mountains. According to the 2010 Census, the city had a permanent population of 343,334; up from 328,809 recorded in the 2002 Census, making it Russia's largest resort city.

Sochi will host the XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games in 2014, as well as the Russian Formula 1 Grand Prix from 2014 until at least 2020 subject to the circuit being ready in time. It is also one of the host cities for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Thank you Lyuda for this pretty card.

The Herrenhausen Gardens

The Herrenhausen Gardens in Germany is located in Herrenhausen, an urban district of Lower Saxony's capital of Hanover are made up of the Great Garden, the Berggarten, the Georgengarten and the Welfengarten. The gardens are a heritage of the Kings of Hanover.

The Great Garden has always been one of the most distinguished baroque formal gardens of Europe while the Berggarten has been transformed over the years from a simple vegetable garden into a large botanical garden with its own attractions. Both the Georgengarten and the Welfengarten have been made in the style of English gardens, and both are considered popular recreation areas for the residents of Hanover. The history of the gardens spans several centuries, and they remain a popular attraction to this day.

This nice card was sent to me by Vivian.