Dutch Fleet at Anchor

A lovely painting of the Dutch Fleet of the 1800's at anchor.

USS Missouri Memorial

USS Missouri (BB-63) ("Mighty Mo" or "Big Mo") is a United States Navy Iowa-class battleship and was the third ship of the U.S. Navy to be named in honour of the US state of Missouri. Missouri was the last battleship built by the United States and was the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan which ended World War II.

Missouri was ordered in 1940 and commissioned in June 1944. In the Pacific Theatre of World War II she fought in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and shelled the Japanese home islands, and she fought in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. She was decommissioned in 1955 into the United States Navy reserve fleets (the "Mothball Fleet"), but reactivated and modernized in 1984 as part of the 600-ship Navy plan, and provided fire support during Operation Desert Storm in January/February 1991.

Missouri received a total of 11 battle stars for service in World War II, Korea, and the Persian Gulf, and was finally decommissioned on 31 March 1992, but remained on the Naval Vessel Register until her name was struck in January 1995. In 1998, she was donated to the USS Missouri Memorial Association and became a museum ship at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. 

Thank you Duncan for this wonderful card.

The Archipelago Trail

Saaristotie in Finnish means Archipelago road in English. This Finnish national road 180 (regional road 180) runs from Kaarina to Korppo (Korpo) via Parainen (Pargas) and Nauvo (Nagu).

Archipelago Sea is a part of the Baltic Sea between the Gulf of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland and the Sea of Aland , within Finnish Territorial waters . By some definitions it contains the largest archipelago (island group) in the world by the number of islands, although many of the islands are very small and tightly clustered.

The larger islands are inhabited and connected by ferries and bridges. The Aland Islands, including the largest islands of the region, form an autonomous region within Finland. The rest of the islands are part of province of Southwest Finland. The Archipelago Sea is a significant tourist destination.

Several of the islands have been developed for tourism. Accommodation facilities ranging from exclusive and luxurious beach villas to the more common simple sports cabins with good fishing opportunities are available. Several of the islands have been developed to provide coastal facilities.  

The Archipelago Trail. The Archipelago Ring Road allows travellers to access the archipelago by car, bus or boat. The circular route of the Archipelago Trail, even though only approximately 250 kilometres in length, offers a surprising number of varied experiences. During your trip from one island to another, you will experience various ferries and vessels.

Yes, indeed Ella, a holiday for tourists here would just be wonderful!

Provence

Provence is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. The traditional region of Provence comprises the départements of Var, Vaucluse, Bouches-du-Rhône, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Alpes-Maritimes and parts of Haues-Alpes. The important places in this region are shown on the card. The Romans made the region into the first Roman province beyond the Alps, their Provincia Romana, the origin of its present name.

Christiane who lives in this region sent me this card.

Sammallahdenmäki - Bronze age burial site

Sammallahdenmäki is a Bronze age burial site in Finland in Lappi municipality. It was designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1999, and includes 36 granite burial cairns dating back more than 3,000 years, to 1,500 to 500 BC. It is located on a hill in a remote area off the road between Tampere and Rauma. Originally, it was near the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, but the land has risen so it is now 15 kilometers from the sea. It is one of the most important Bronze Age sites in Scandinavia.

Four of the cairns were excavated by archaeologist Volter Högman in 1891, including Kirkonlaattia ("Church Floor"), an unusual rectangular cairn covering 16 x 19 metres with a flat top, and Huilun pitkä raunio ("long ruin of Huilu"), which is surrounded by an ancient stone wall.

The Bronze Age cairn cemetery of Sammallahdenmäki in Lappi was the first Finnish archaeological site to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in December 1999. Sammallahdenmäki was chosen to the list as the finest Western Bronze Age site in Finland and Scandinavia.

Thank you Ella for this card.

Aphrodite's Baths

Akamas, is a promontory and cape at the northwest extremity of Cyprus area of 230 square kilometres. Ptolemy described it as a thickly wooded headland, divided into two by summits [a mountain range] rising towards the north. The peninsula is named after a son of Theseus , hero of the Trojan War and founder of the city-kingdom of Soli.

Until the year 2000, the peninsula was used by the British Army and Navy for military exercises and as a firing range. Under the 1960 Treaty of Establishment, the British Army was allowed to use the Akamas for exercises for up to 70 days a year. 

At the southern end of the peninsula is the town of Pegeia and on its northeast side the town of Polis.

Due to the mountainous nature of the peninsula there are no roads running through its heartland. Furthermore some roads marked on Cypriot road maps of the area are not tarmaced. Visitor attractions in Akamas include a loggerhead turtle sanctuary and the Baths of Aphrodite where the goddess is said to have bathed, near Polis. As the area is therefore relatively inaccessible, there is a large diversity of flora and fauna there. Indeed the European Environment Agency noted that it was one of only 22 areas of endemism in Europe. This however looks like it may be threatened by tourist development and the planned A7 motorway between Polis and  Paphos; organisations such as the Green Party of Cyprus, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are taking action to protect the area.

This natural beauty spot is steeped in the myths and legends of Cyprus. Set in a pool grotto, surrounded by greenery, the site is said to be the place where Aphrodite, goddess of Love, bathed. According to local folktale, bathing in the pools water, could reduce your age by about 10 years, although eels have been placed in the water in the past to stop people from getting in the water. Legend also has it that Aphrodite met her most famous lover, Adonis at this spring. Thank you Merja for this pretty card. Lucky Adonis ;-))

Church of Petäjävesi

These two cards show the two views of this famous church in winter and in summer. The Petäjävesi Old Church is a wooden church located in Petäjävesi, Finland. It was built between 1763 and 1765. The bell tower was built in 1821. It was inscribed in 1994 on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The church is located about 1 km to the west of the centre of Petäjävesi. The church went out of use in 1879 when the new church was built. 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.

The church was built as the chapel for the area of Petäjävesi, which has belonged to the congregation of Jämsä. The local people had been given the permission to build a graveyard and a small village church at their own expense by the crown as early as in 1728 because the trip to Jämsä was long, howewer it took about 35 years until the construction began. The church was planned and built by Jaakko Klemetinpoika Leppänen, a church builder from Vesanka. In 1821 the windows were enlarged and the sacristy was moved from the northern part of the church to the east. The bell tower was also added by Erkki Leppänen, the grandson of the original builder.

After the new church was built, the old remained abandoned for a long time. Only the cemetery around the church and the belltower were in use. In the 1920's an Austrian art historian Josef Strzygowski noticed the architectural and historical value of the church and since 1929 it has been restored several times. In 1994 it was approved in the UNESCO's World Heritage Sites representing typical eastern Scandinavian wooden church tradition.

Thank you Ella for these lovely cards.