Netherlands - South Holland - Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout

Windmills of Kinderdijk, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Sent by Corien from Goes, Netherlands.

The Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout is a group of buildings in an exceptional human-made landscape in which the centuries-long battle of the Dutch people to drain parts of their territory and protect them against further inundation is dramatically demonstrated through the survival of all the major elements of the complex system that was devised for this purpose.

Construction of hydraulic works for the drainage of land for agriculture and settlement began in the Middle Ages and has continued uninterruptedly to the present day. The property illustrates all the typical features associated with this technology: polders, high and low-lying drainage and transport channels for superfluous polder water, embankments and dikes, 19 drainage mills, 3 pumping stations, 2 discharge sluices and 2 Water Board Assembly Houses. The beautifully preserved mills can be divided into three categories: 8 round brick ground-sailers, 10 thatched octagonal smock mills, and one hollow post mill.

The installations in the Kinderdijk-Elshout area demonstrate admirably the outstanding contribution made by the people in Netherlands to the technology of handling water.

The landscape is striking in its juxtaposition of its horizontal features, represented by the canals, the dikes, and the fields, with the vertical rhythms of the mill system. There is no drainage network of this kind or of comparable antiquity anywhere else in the Netherlands or in the world (read more).

Ivory Coast - Assinie

Fishing scene in Assinie (also known as Assinie-Mafia), Ivory Coast.

Sent by my best friend Taovik of Togo from Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

Assinie-Mafia is a coastal resort town in south-eastern Ivory Coast. It is a sub-prefecture of Adiaké Department in Sud-Comoé Region, Comoé District.

Assinie-Mafia is located 80 kilometres east of Abidjan along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea. Access to the area is by road A100 going east from Abidjan then turning right to the B-107 road (Route Assinie) then Route Assinie-Mafia along the coast. The road ends at Assinie-Mafia. Assinie-Mafia is a long narrow settlement along the coast on both sides of the outlet of Aby Lagoon.

Assinie-Mafia was a commune until March 2012, when it became one of 1,126 communes nationwide that were abolished.

The Assinie area starts at the location of the Paul-Emile Durand cottage in the west bordered to the south by the ocean and accessible by the Assinie-Mafia road. Opposite the town of Assinie-Mafia is a narrow peninsula (100–1000 m wide) extending from the west and 15 km long which is occupied by luxury villas and huts. Access is by car, private boats, or canoes across the lagoon (read more).

Belarus - Brest Fortress-Hero

Entrance to Memorial Complex in the form of five-pointed star.

Sent by Natalia from Minsk, Belarus.

Brest Fortress (Belarusian: Брэсцкая крэпасць, romanized: Bresckaja krepasć; Russian: Брестская крепость, romanized: Brestskaya krepost; Polish: Twierdza brzeska; Lithuanian: Bresto tvirtovė), formerly known as Brest-Litovsk Fortress, is a 19th-century fortress in Brest, Belarus. In 1965, the title Hero Fortress was given to the fortress to commemorate the defence of the frontier stronghold during the first week of Operation Barbarossa, when Axis forces invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. The title "Hero Fortress" corresponds to the title "Hero City" that the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union awarded to twelve Soviet cities.

Brest Fortress has sustained its original outline of a star shaped fortification since its construction in the early 19th century. The Citadel, the core of the fortress, was on the central island formed by the Bug River and the two branches of the Mukhavets River. The island was skirted by a ring of a two-storied barrack with 4 semi-towers. The 1.8 km long barrack comprised 500 rooms to accommodate 12,000 soldiers within thick walls built from super strong red bricks. Originally there were 4 gates to enter the Citadel. Today only Kholm Gate and Terespol Gate can be seen; most of the barrack lies in ruins (read more).

USA - California - Mill Valley

A winter landscape with snow-covered rocks and trees near water falls in Mill Valley, California.

Sent by Ariel from California, USA.

Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located about 14 miles (23 km) north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge and 52 miles (84 km) from Napa Valley. The population was 14,231 at the 2020 census.

Mill Valley is located on the western and northern shores of Richardson Bay, and the eastern slopes of Mount Tamalpais. Beyond the flat coastal area and marshlands, it occupies narrow wooded canyons, mostly of second-growth redwoods, on the southeastern slopes of Mount Tamalpais. The Mill Valley 94941 ZIP Code also includes the following adjacent unincorporated communities: Almonte, Alto, Homestead Valley, Tamalpais Valley, and Strawberry. The Muir Woods National Monument is also located just outside the city limits (read more).

Germany - Brandenburg - Neuruppin

Fontane City Neuruppin (Mark Brandenburg), the birthplace of Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Theodor Fontane, and the city of the Nuruppin. View accross the Lanke with the monastery church in the middle.

Sent by Werner from Cologne, Germany.

Neuruppin (German: [nɔʏʁʊˈpiːn], lit. 'New Ruppin', in contrast to "Old Ruppin [de]"; North Brandenburgisch: Reppin) is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, the administrative seat of Ostprignitz-Ruppin district. It is the birthplace of the novelist Theodor Fontane (1819–1898) and therefore also referred to as Fontanestadt. A garrison town since 1688 and largely rebuilt in a Neoclassical style after a devastating fire in 1787, Neuruppin has the reputation of being "the most Prussian of all Prussian towns".

Neuruppin is one of the largest cities in Germany in terms of area. The city of Neuruppin, 60 km (37 mi) northwest of Berlin in the district of Ostprignitz-Ruppin (Ruppin Switzerland), consists in the south of the districts located on the shores of Ruppiner See, which is crossed by the Rhin River, including the actual core city of Neuruppin and Alt Ruppin. In the north, it stretches up to the Rheinsberg Lake Region and the border with Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It is part of the Stechlin-Ruppiner Land Nature Park and is connected to the Wittstock-Ruppiner Heide, which was partly used for military purposes as the Wittstock military training area (read more).

Lithuania - Alytus

The highest pedestrian and cyclists bridge in Alytus.

Sent by Jolanta from Vilnius, Lithuania.

Alytus (Lithuanian: [ɐlʲiːˈtʊs]) is a city with municipal rights in southern Lithuania. It is the sixth-largest city in Lithuania and the 14th-largest city in the Baltic states, and also the capital of Alytus County. Being the historical centre of the Dzūkija region, it is connected to several major roads, linking it with the cities of Vilnius; Kaunas; Lazdijai, which is on the border with Poland; and Grodno, Belarus. In July 2024, its total population was counted as 50,996 people. The city lies on the banks of the Nemunas river.

For centuries, the city was divided into two separate entities. Even today, it consists of two parts still frequently referred to as Alytus I and Alytus II. The Alytus I half is smaller, and less developed than the Alytus II half, which forms the city centre with parks, microdistricts and industrial areas.

The name of the city is believed to be derived from the Lithuanian hydronym Alytupis (meaning river). Its name in other languages includes the Polish Olita, the German Aliten, the Russian Olita, the Belarusian Alita, and the Yiddish Alite (read more).

Lithuania - Vilnius Historic Centre

VILNIUS

OLD VILNIUS, LITHUANIA.

Sent by Yulija from Vilnius, Lithuania.

The Vilnius Historic Centre began its history on the glacial hills that had been intermittently occupied from the Neolithic period; a wooden castle was built around 1000 AD to fortify Gedimino Hill, at the confluence of the Neris and Vilnia rivers. The settlement did not develop as a town until the 13th century, during the struggles of the Baltic peoples against their German invaders. By 1323, when the first written reference to Vilnia occured, it was the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. At this time, some brick structures had apparently been erected on a small island formed when the Vilnia changed its course. By the 15th century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, with its capital Vilnius, had become the largest country in Europe, stretching from the Baltic Sea in the North to the Black Sea in the South. The historic centre comprises the areas of the three castles (Upper, Lower and Curved) and the area that was encircled by a wall in the Middle Ages. The plan is basically circular, radiating out from the original castle site. The street pattern is typically medieval, with small streets dividing it into irregular blocks, but with large squares inserted in later periods.

The historic buildings are in Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Classical styles and have a distinct appearance, spatial composition, and elements of internal and external finishes. They constitute a townscape of great diversity and yet at the same time demonstrating an overarching harmony. The townscape is characterised by the general pattern of the town plan, the network of streets, squares and the boundaries of the plots. The elements of the urban pattern in relation to its natural setting also determine the specific silhouettes, panoramas and vistas that are preserved today (read more).

Vedalia Ladybirds (Rodolia cardinalis)

2003 Australian postage stamp featuring an illustration of Vedalia Ladybirds (Rodolia cardinalis). The stamp valued at 50 cents.

Sent by Kris from Victoria, Australia.

Over the winter of 1888-1889 a lady beetle called vedalia beetle was introduced into California from Australia to combat cottony cushion scale, Icerya purchasi - also an introduced species. Cottony cushion scale was causing infestations so severe in California citrus groves that growers were pulling out their trees and burning them. Orchard values were plummeting. Yet, by the fall of 1889, the pest was completely controlled in the areas of introduction. The vedalia beetle literally saved the California citrus industry, and since the California success, it has been exported to many other parts of the world, often with equally successful results.

The introduction of the vedalia beetle is considered to be the beginning of classical biological control. The interest of scientists, growers and the public in this project was due to its spectacular success which was striking because the financial threat to the California citrus industry was acute; the pest itself was showy and its damage was obvious and critical; growers took the initiative and applied the natural enemies themselves; the natural enemies were visibly voracious and active; and the destruction of the pest and the recovery of the trees was evident within months. The cost of the project was about $1500.(read more).

United Kingdom - England - Presbytery Ceiling / Vault at Saint Alban's Cathedral

Presbytery Ceiling - The great vault forming the Presbytery ceiling was constructed in the thirteenth-century.

Sent by Marina from London, England.

The presbytery vault at St Albans is one of only two thirteenth-century wooden vaults over a main span to survive in England. A programme of cleaning and conservation carried out between 1997 and 2002, coupled with an analysis of the source and date of the timber used in its construction, significantly advanced our understanding of both the late thirteenth-century presbytery campaign at St Albans and thirteenth-century timber vault construction generally. As the inevitable density and restricted circulation of the final report on that work has hindered its wider reception, the following paper offers a summary, drawing attention to two features that may have wider implications for an appreciation of vaulting in timber. The first is that, although the general form adopted at St Albans is one associated with masonry vaulting, the wooden boards used for the vault webbing required a junction between the wall and the ridge rib, meaning that shallow liernes were originally deployed to run parallel to the central ridge. It is difficult to see this as imitative of vaulting in stone; rather it is likely to be the result of carpenters developing their own solutions to the constraints imposed by timber. Secondly, the late medieval remodelling of the vault replaced these liernes with false tiercerons, and rather nicely illustrates the ease with which timber vaulting could be modified. 

The dendrochronology gives a date range of 1273–93, and a date of around 1285 is suggested for the primary build. The major late medieval alterations are here associated with the second abbacy of John of Wheathampstead (1452–65) (read more).

Austria - Belvedere Palace

Vienna - Belvedere Palace.

It is a part of Historic Centre of Vienna, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Sent by Ilona from Vienna, Austria.

The Belvedere is a historic building complex in Vienna, Austria consisting of two Baroque palaces (the Upper and Lower Belvedere), the Orangery, and the Palace Stables. The buildings are set in a Baroque park landscape in the third district of the city, on the south-eastern edge of its centre. It currently houses the Belvedere museum known in German as the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere (in English, referred to both as the Belvedere Museum and Austrian Gallery). The grounds are set on a gentle gradient and include decorative tiered fountains and cascades, Baroque sculptures, and majestic wrought iron gates. The Baroque palace complex was built as a summer residence for Prince Eugene of Savoy.

The Belvedere was built during a period of extensive construction in Vienna, which at the time was both the imperial capital and home to the ruling Habsburg dynasty. This period of prosperity followed on from the commander-in-chief Prince Eugene of Savoy's successful conclusion of a series of wars against the Ottoman Empire (read more).

Canada - Alberta - Royal Alberta Museum

ROYAL ALBERTA MUSEUM - DOWNTOWN

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Sent by Alexandria from Edmonton in Alberta, Canada.

The Royal Alberta Museum (RAM) is a museum of human and natural history in Downtown Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, located north of City Hall. The museum is the largest in western Canada with more than 7,600 square metres (82,000 sq ft) exhibition space and 38,900 square metres (419,000 sq ft) in total.

The museum was established by the Government of Alberta in December 1967 as the Provincial Museum of Alberta. The museum received royal patronage from Queen Elizabeth II, and was renamed the Royal Alberta Museum in 2005. In 2011, plans were announced to move the museum to a new building. The museums continued to operate from its original building in Glenora, Edmonton until it was closed to the public in December 2015. Although the museum was closed to the public, a number of its departments continued to operate, either preparing the museum's collection for the move, or conducting fieldwork. The new building was completed in August 2016, and was opened to the public in October 2018.

The museum features expansive galleries chronicling Alberta's natural and cultural worlds, a feature gallery showcasing travelling exhibitions from Canada and around the world, an interactive, 650 square metres (7,000 sq ft) dedicated children's gallery, and a bug room with live invertebrates and visible nursery (read more).

Coca Cola Ad Card (13)

Sent by Hemm from  Åland Islands, Finland.

USA - Illinois - Windy City

The Windy City - Chicago, Illinois.

Sent by Pat who lives near Chicago, USA.

The city of Chicago has been known by many nicknames, but it is most widely recognized as the "Windy City".

The earliest known reference to the "Windy City" was actually to Green Bay in 1856. The first known repeated effort to label Chicago with this nickname is from 1876 and involves Chicago's rivalry with Cincinnati. The popularity of the nickname endures to this day, more than a century after the Cincinnati rivalry ended.

There are four main possibilities to explain the city's nickname: the weather, as Chicago is near Lake Michigan; the rivalry with Cincinnati; the World's Fair; and the politics (read more).

USA - South Dakota - Sioux Falls

Scenic illustration of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Sent by Jason from Texas, USA.

Sioux Falls is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Dakota. Founded in 1856, the city was abandoned, sacked, resettled and later grew to become a city with a 2020 Census population of 192,517 people.

The history of Sioux Falls revolves around the cascades of the Big Sioux River. The falls were created about 14,000 years ago when the last glacial ice sheet redirected the flow of the river into the large looping bends of its present course. Fueled by water from the melting ice, the river exposed the underlying Sioux quartzite bedrock, the hard pinkish stone of the falls. The quartzite itself is about a billion and a half years old. It began as sediments deposited on the bottom of an ancient, shallow sea (read more).

USA - California - Laurel Canyon

Laurel Canyon, in the Hollywood Hills, the birthplace of the "California Sound," remains a peaceful, natural escape in the heart of Los Angeles.

Sent by Alison from Los Angeles, USA.

Laurel Canyon is a mountainous neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills region of the Santa Monica Mountains, within the Hollywood Hills West district of Los Angeles, California. The main thoroughfare of Laurel Canyon Boulevard connects the neighborhood with the more urbanized parts of Los Angeles to the north and south, between Ventura Boulevard and Hollywood Boulevard.

Originally inhabited by the Tongva people, by the early 20th century real estate developers situated a vacation site along the slope of neighboring Lookout Mountain; this formed the nucleus of what would become the Laurel Canyon neighborhood. It later developed into a celebrity enclave: the remote, rugged nature of the land and its proximity to many of the movie studios in nearby Hollywood made it an ideal location for many movie stars to site their homes, especially during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Raymond Chandler's first novel The Big Sleep sets lurid scenes there, and in The Long Goodbye (1953), his private detective Philip Marlowe is residing in 'the Laurel Canyon district'.

By the 1960s, the neighborhood had become a local center for counterculture, and many prominent folk and rock musicians moved into the area, making it a nexus for musical collaboration. By the late 1970s, criminal activity in the neighborhood, including distribution of drugs, was controlled by the Wonderland Gang (named for a Laurel Canyon thoroughfare), and the neighborhood became associated with the Wonderland murders, a grisly quadruple homicide in 1981 (read more).

USA - South Dakota - The Mount Rushmore State

Map and information about the U.S. State of South Dakota.

Sent by Larry from New Jersey, USA.

The Many Nicknames of South Dakota

The Mount Rushmore State.

The Sunshine State.

The Swinged Cat State.

Of all the nicknames for South Dakota, perhaps none is more unusual than” The Swinged Cat State.”

This nickname originated from remarks made by South Dakota’s first governor, Arthur C. Mellette, according to an article from the South Dakota State Historical Society – State Archives.

In 1890, South Dakota was in the midst of a drought. Mellette was doing everything in his power to help settlers and keep them from leaving the state. On a trip to Chicago for aid, Mellette was met by Moses P. Handy, a friend and newspaperman. Handy asked Mellette, “Well, governor, how is South Dakota?”

Mellette replied, “Oh, South Dakota is a swinged cat, better than she looks.”

By swinged, Mellette meant “burnt” or “singed,” according to the article.\

The next day, the Chicago Inter Ocean newspaper had a story about Mellette, governor of the “swinged cat State.” (read more)

USA - Wisconsin - Wisconsin Dells

"Duck" amphibious vehicle (tour boat) touring the Wisconsin Dells river near the "Hawk's Bill" rock formation.

Sent by Amy from Minnessota, USA.

Wisconsin Dells (formerly Kilbourn) is a city in Columbia, Sauk, Adams and Juneau counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 2,942 at the 2020 census. The city takes its name from the Dells of the Wiscosin River, a scenic gorge that features sandstone formations along the banks of the Wisconsin River. It is a popular Midwestern tourist destination, home to several water parks and tourist attractions. Wisconsin Dells is about 42 miles (68 km) northwest of Madison, the state's capital city.

The natural formation of the Dells was named by Early French explorers as dalles, a rapids or narrows on a river in voyageur French. Wisconsin Dells is located on ancestral Ho-Chunk and Menominee land. The Ho-Chunk name for Wisconsin Dells is Nįįš hakiisųc, meaning "rocks close together".

According to Indian agent Joseph Montfort Street, the Sauk leader Black Hawk sought refuge with Ho-Chunks near the Dells of the Wisconsin River at the end of the Black Hawk War of 1832 before surrendering to the United States, but more recent research has argued that this was a mistranslation of the true location. The U.S. acquired the land in treaties with the Ho-Chunk nation in 1837 and with the Menominee in 1848, but Ho-Chunk people who resisted the U.S. policy of Indian removal continued to return to the area and eventually acquired small homesteads (read more).

USA - Ohio - State Bird (3)

The Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) is the state bird of Ohio and six other states (Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia).

Sent by Claire from Ohio, USA.

My other postcards of Ohio State Bird are here and here.