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.

L’Attaque de la Malle-Poste

L’Attaque de la Malle-Poste is a French adaptation of Rawhide a 1951 western film made by Twentieth Century-Fox. It was directed by Henry Hathaway and produced by Samuel G. Engel from a screenplay by Dudley Nichols. The music score was by Sol Kaplan and the song "A Rollin' Stone" by Lionel Newman. The cinematography was by Milton R. Krasner. The film stars Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward with Hugh Marlowe, Dean Jagger, Edgar Buchanan, Jack Elam and George Tobias.

The story in brief is about Tom Owens who travels west to learn more about the stagecoach business. Sam Todd is waiting at a remote way station to teach him the ropes. A woman named Vinnie Holt and her young niece Callie arrive on a coach that has been robbed. Owens and Todd are told that four escaped convicts named Zimmerman, Tevis, Yancy and Gratz intend to ambush the stage again when it returns east carrying a shipment of gold. Zimmerman pretends to be a lawman and Todd is killed. He and the other outlaws spare Owens' life because they need an official from the overland stage line to vouch that all is well when the gold shipment goes through.

Vinnie pretends to be Owens' wife. In an attempt to escape, they use a kitchen knife to open a hole in a wall, but it is only the smaller Callie who gets out. Tevis tries to force himself on Vinnie and when Zimmerman makes an effort to stop him, Tevis shoots him in the back. Gratz intervenes and is gunned down by Tevis as well. Tevis has the child, forcing Owens to cooperate with him. Owens' life is in grave danger but Vinnie is able to recover Gratz's rifle. She shoots Tevis with it. That leaves only Yancy, who discovers that the gang's plan has failed.

This card showing the French poster of this very riveting movie was given me by Maria.

The Bore Star of the Silja Line

The history of Silja Line can be traced back to 1904 when two Finnish shipping companies, Finland Steamship Company (Finska Ångfartygs Aktiebolaget, FÅA for short) and Steamship Company Bore, started collaborating on Finland–Sweden traffic. The initial collaboration agreement was terminated in 1909, but re-established in 1910. After World War I in 1918 a new agreement was made that also included the Swedish Rederi AB Svea. Originally the collaboration agreement applied only on service between Turku and Stockholm, but was also applied to the Helsinki–Stockholm in 1928. As a precursor to the policies later adopted by Silja Line, each of the three companies ordered a near-identical ship for Helsinki–Stockholm service to coincide with the 1952 Summer Olympics, held in Helsinki. Eventually only Finland SS Co.'s SS Aallotar was ready in time for the olympics. At this time the city of Helsinki constructed the Olympia Terminal in Helsinki's South Harbour, that Silja Line's ships still use

Bore Star was built in 1975 by Dubigeon-Normandie SA, Nantes. She was one of three sisters built for Silja Line services, being owned by Silja Line consortium member Bore. During the winters of 1975/76 and 1976/77 she was chartered to Finnlines for cruises around the Canary Islands and African coast. These were marketed as the Finnpartner, although her official name was unchanged.

In 1980 Bore Star was sold to Silja Line consortium member Finska Ångfartygs Ab, and renamed Silja Star. She remaining with them until replaced by larger tonnage in 1986, when she was sold to Sea Containers for use as the cruise ferry Orient Express, on a service between Venice-Piraeus-Istanbul. She operated under charter as the cruise ship Club Sea in the winter of 1986-87 and then became Eurosun under charter and then sale to an Effjohn subsidiary in November 1989. She ran as Orient Express again during the summer of 1990 under charter, before transfer to another Effjohn subsidiary as Orient Sun for cruises out of Singapore. In 1992 she was sold to a further Effjohn company for use as the Wasa Queen between Sundsvall-Vasa and Umeå-Vasa.

In 2001 she was sold to India and became the MV AMET Majesty, India’s first cruise liner. The ship is also a training ship. The acronym AMET stands for “Academy of Maritime Education and Training.” AMET University is operating the ship as both a cruise ship for 1,150 passengers and a training ship for 90 nautical cadets and 120 engineering cadets. How this hybrid operation will function remains to be seen, but one has to admire the evident enthusiasm. The cruise marketing site promises “a total royal treat on a seven star category cruise liner.” I have never seen a crusie ship rating higher than five stars, so seven stars sounds very impressive. Thank you Pia for this pretty card.