Besigheim in Swabia

My friend from this wonderful part of Germany, Besigheim in Swabia which is not only a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany, but an area over-flowing in wine. Mmmm. The card depicts Hirch, a restaurant cum hotel in Besigheim.

Swabia was one of the ten Imperial Circles of the Holy Roman Empire from 1500 to the dissolution of the Empire in 1806. Besigheim is a municipality in the district of Ludwigsburg in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is situated 13 km north of Ludwigsburg at the confluence of the Neckar and Enz rivers. The town has many old buildings and a town hall that dates back to 1459. There are two medieval towers, gothic church, cobblestone market place and other historical objects of interest.

Besigheim was founded in the 12th century as a well- defended walled city. The first mention of the city in official documentation was in 1153 in a decree by King Friedrich I. In 1693 the fortifications were all but destroyed by French troops, and by 1750 were little more than rubble.

Besigheim is the twin town of Newton Abbot, Devon in the UK.

The Terrible Lifeguard !

Gerda My Dutch friend sent me this card with a picture drawn by  Joshua Douglas a Dutch children's author.

Joshua Douglas made ​​his debut as a poet at the 32nd International Poetry Festival in 2001. In 2009 he published his picture book The Kiss Crocodile and other night creatures dear. " Loes Riphagen did the illustrations. Joshua is the brother of painter Daniel Douglas. He lives and works in Utrecht.

The Terrible Lifeguard – the picture depicted on the card is about Lifeguard Brulboei.

Lev takes his father to swim training to Lifeguard Brulboei, the most famous swimming champion ever. Everyone thinksthis idea is. But Lev knows better. Brulboei is the most terrible lifeguard you can think of. He is rude and mean, he is fierce, rough and cruel. And he has a terrible secret ... Together with his neighbour Lita he plays……. Can they uncover the terrible lifeguard and show who Brulboei really is?.......................

Interesting!

The Peace Palace, The Hague, Netherlands

This nice card on which is shown The Peace Palace is an administrative building in the Hague, the Netherlands. It is often called the seat of international law   because it houses the International Court of Justice   (which is the principal judicial body of the United Nations), the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Hague Academy of International law, and the extensive Peace Palace Library, was sent to me by Marlies from Holland. 

In addition to hosting these institutions, the Palace is also a regular venue for special events in international policy and law. The Palace officially opened on 28 August 1913, and was originally built to provide a symbolic home for the Permanent Court of Arbitration, a court created to end war which was created by treaty at the 1899 Hague Peace Conference. Andrew Dickson White whose efforts were instrumental in creating this court and securing the funding to provide it with a "worthy accommodation", wrote of the idea to his friend Andrew Carnegie who eventually provided 1.5 million dollars to build the Peace Palace:

"A temple of peace where the doors are open, in contrast to the Janus-temple, in times of peace and closed in cases of war as a worthy testimony of the people that, after many long centuries finally a court that has thrown open its doors for the peaceful settlement of differences between peoples".

Were such a fabric to be created, men would make pilgrimages from all parts of the civilized world to see it. It would become a sort of holy place, prized and revered by thinking men throughout the world, and to which, in any danger of war between any two countries, the minds of men would turn naturally and normally. The main difficulty now is that the people of the various nations do not really know what was done for them by the Conference; but such a building would make them know it. It would be an "outward and visible sign" of the Court, which would make its actual, tangible existence known to the ends of the earth"

--Andrew Dickson White to Andrew Carnegie to, August 5, 1902

28 August 2013 is both the Centenary of the Peace Palace, and the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's"I have dream" speech. King's embrace of pacifism and the Gandhian method of satyagraha  is a clear legacy of the 19th century Peace Movement from which the Peace Palace and the Permanent Court of Arbitration, emerged. 28 August 2013 is also the anniversary of the death of Hugo Grotius. Grotius, who died in 1645, is recognized as the founder of the vision of International Law of which the Permanent Court of Arbitration is an expression. In his autobiography, Andrew Dickson White, who led the U.S. delegation to the 1899 Hague Peace Conference which established the Permanent Court of Arbitration, wrote "Our work here, at the end of the nineteenth century, is the direct result of Grotius' work at the end of the 17th century"

The Caspian turtle 14.9.92

The Caspian turtle or Striped-neck terrapin (Mauremys caspica) is a species of turtle in the family Geoemydidae, living of the eastern Mediterranean region. It ranges from southwestern former USSR and central Iran to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Israel and Lebanon, northward through Turkey to Bulgaria, and through Cyprus, Crete, and the Ionian Peninsula to former Yugoslavia. This is a tan to blackish, medium-sized (to 25 cm), semi-aquatic turtle. Its low, oval carapace has a slight medial keel (better developed in juveniles) and a smooth unserrated marginal border, which is slightly upturned and tapered above the tail. A pair of low lateral keels are present on the pleural scutes of hatchlings but these become lower with age and disappear completely in adults. Females are generally larger than males, have flat plastra and shorter tails with the vent under the rim of the carapace. The smaller males have concave plastra and longer, thicker tails with the vent beyond the rim of the carapace. This Maxi card was given by Merja.

Inge Löök

Inge Löök (real name Ingeborg Lievonen) is a Finnish artist born in Helsinki in 1951. She was once a professional gardener, but today she is most famous for her Granny postcards which so many love and collect. If you like you can view some of them on this blog.

I was very fortunate to get this card addressed to me and signed personally by Inge Löök herself. And all this happened because of My friend Ella in Helsinki. Thank you Ella.

Seasons Greetings

To All My Dear Friends,

Wish you All the very Best for Christmas and in the New Year. God Bless You All.

Rostislav, a Russian Battleship

Irina of Saint Petersburg sent me this nice card showing ‘cleanship’ being carried out on the Rostislav, a Russian Battleship of the early ‘90s.

Rostislav was a pre-dreadnought battleship built by the Nikolaev Admiralty Shipyard in the 1890s for the Black Sea Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy. She was conceived as a small, inexpensive coastal defence ship, but the Navy abandoned the concept in favor of a compact, seagoing battleship with a displacement of 8,880 long tons (9,020 t). Poor design and construction practices increased her actual displacement by more than 1,600 long tons (1,600 t). Rostislav became the world's first capital ship to burn fuel oil, rather than coal. Her combat ability was compromised by the use of 10-inch (254 mm) main guns instead of the de facto Russian standard of 12 inches (305 mm).

Her hull was launched in September 1896, but non-delivery of the ship's main guns delayed her maiden voyage until 1899 and her completion until 1900. In May 1899 Rostislav became the first ship of the Imperial Navy to be commanded by a member of the House of Romanov, Captain Alexander Mikhailovich. From 1903 to 1912 the ship was the flagship of the second-in-command of the Black Sea Fleet. During the 1905 Russian Revolution her crew was on the verge of mutiny, but ultimately remained loyal to the regime, and actively suppressed the mutiny of the cruiser Ochakov.

Rostislav was actively engaged in World War I until the collapse of the Black Sea Fleet in the beginning of 1918. She was the first Russian ship to fire on enemy targets on land during World War I, the first to be hit by a German airstrike, and the first to destroy a submarine, albeit a Russian one. In April 1918 the fleeing Bolsheviks abandoned Rostislav in Sevastopol. A year later the British occupation forces permanently disabled her engines. The White forces used the ship as a towed floating battery, then scuttled her in the Strait of Kerch in November 1920.