Mt. Washington, New Hampshire

This pretty photo card arrived on June 3. At 6,288 feet of elevation, Mt. Washington looks very pretty with it's nice blanket of snow, but to someone from Colorado, this doesn't seems like a 'real' mountain (we have 53 peaks over 14.000 ft in elevation, and over 700 13,000 ft. peaks).  Mt. Washington may not be a '14er', but it is definitely a real mountain -- it is well-known for it's very unpredictable and dangerous weather, and it has held the world record for wind speed (231 mph) since 1934.  It may only 1,008 feet higher than Denver, but you have to respect a mountain like that!

mountwashington.com ~ (down for maintenance as of 6/3/10, but there is a paragraph with a few facts posted on the page).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Washington_(New_Hampshire)

Loggerhead Turtle from Florida

This card arrived on June 16 from Florida.  This is a Loggerhead Turtle.  The back of the card says that the east coast of Florida is the second largest nesting site of Loggerheads in the world.  Nesting season is April through September.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loggerhead_sea_turtle.

The Novodevichy Convent, Moscow

Arriving on May 28 is possibly my favorite postcard so far.  I love the colors of the postcard, and the building itself is gorgeous.  

The location itself has quite an interesting history.  The Novodevichy Convent was founded in 1524, and originally built as a fortress. In the years following, it has served as a fortress, a convent and monastery, a shelter for royal Russian ladies (those that had to "take the veil"), a military hospital, orphanage, museum and apartments. There is also a cemetery on the grounds.  In 1812, Napoleon's army tried to  destroy it, and Tolstoy used it as a setting for scenes in both 'War and Peace' and 'Anna Karenina'.  

  

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novodevichy_Convent

Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Guangzhou, China

Another postcard from China!  This one came on May 25.  My Postcrossing profile says I will enjoy getting any postcard, but if you can send one of a castle, then I will be particularly happy.  The sender of this postcard says "Hello ~ you said you love castles very much and I'm very sorry that I don't have such postcard :(  Anyway, I hope you'll like this one :)".  I do like this one - I love the colors of this building!  This is the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Guangzhou, China.  

I have to reluctantly admit that my knowledge of Chinese history is fairly rusty, and I had to look up Dr. Sun Yat Sen. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yat-sen. This memorial hall is in Guangzhou, China.  There is also a National  Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial hall in Taipei City ~ yatsen.gov.tw/english/. The National memorial hall is what I first found when I searched for the hall, and it didn't look anything like my postcard's photo and I was confused until I found the one in Guangzhou.  

Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin

The postcard with Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin, Germany arrived in my mailbox on May 24, 2010.  It is also one of my favorite cards which I have received.  Isn't it beautiful?

I just love the grounds!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlottenburg_Palace

The flowers in these stamps are asters.  Simple flowers are just very pretty.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aster_(genus)

Oostpoort, Delft

This is the "Eastern Gate" in Delft, Netherlands.  It was built around 1400, and is the only city gate remaining in Delft (I cannot seem to find how many gates there were originally).  This card arrived on May 15, 2010.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Gate_(Delft)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delft

Delft is a city in the province of South Holland.  Well-known persons from Delft include Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (the father of microbiology and developer of the microscope ~ which I think is very cool), and Johannes Vermeer (painter, well known for works such as 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' and 'The Milkmaid').  I am learning so much about the Netherlands. I am told that I am of Dutch descent. In my reading, I had seen that the people in the Netherlands call themselves "Nederlanders", and that only in English are they known as "Dutch".

Here's a link to a postcard I received from the Netherlands where I learned about the different provinces.  North Holland and South Holland are two of twelve provinces:   acollectionofpostcards.blogspot.com/2010/06/groeten-uit-noord-holland.html

Here is the stamp from this postcard:

Bremerhaven ~ "Gate to the World"

Arriving on May 3, 2010 was this postcard from Bremerhaven, Germany.

The main view in this card is the Columbus Cruise Center.  These days tourists take cruise ships all over the world from here, but in the 19th and 20th centuries over 7 million people emigrated to America from here.  Bremerhaven was the largest German emigration port. The top left photo shows the German Emigration Center. Here, my sender tells me, the process of their emigration is told, as well as the life histories of some of the emigrants.

Here is the German Emigration Center's website:

http://www.dah-bremerhaven.de/english/english.html  (English version)

I have German ancestors (two of my great-grandmother's were from Germany) and my husband is of German ancestry as well.  This would be a very interesting place for us to visit!

This flower is known as a bleeding heart:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamprocapnos_spectabilis