Spain

Covadonga

This card features the Spanish city of Covadonga.  The sender of the card tried to send me a packet of lose-leaf green tea by taping it to the back of the postcard.  Sadly, in transit the plastic baggie ripped and most of the tea leaves were lost.

With this card being the last put up for the 2016 year, I hope all of you have a happy and safe new year in 2017!

Spain

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Santa Cristina d'Aro

This card features Cueva de Daina, a monolith dating from 2700-2200 BC made up of granite stones.  The card features these interesting stamps.

Japan

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Good Luck

A cat wishes you good luck while wearing a tiny red cowboy hat and a red bandanna!

Norway or Poland?

Hello There

This card of a bunch of giraffes in a pot is from my friend Karolina.  She sent it for Valentines Day 2003.  I can't recall if at that time she was still living in Poland or if she had moved on to Norway or London.  The card was mailed in an envelope, so there is no stamp or marker to show where it was mailed from.

Taiwan

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Dwelling in the Fu-ch-'in Mountains 4 - Huang Kung-wang (1269-1354)

France

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Collection Paris Vintage

This card features various views of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France with an image of a stamp canceled regarding the World's Fair 1900.

USA - Washington State

Gnome @ The Seattle Great Wheel

Opening Day - 6/29/12

This card by my friend Chanele, whose birthday incidentally is also today, features a garden gnome at the Seattle Great Wheel. 

It also, of course, is Christmas Day.  I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season.

Russia

RU-4666788

I'm told this is an old, Soviet-era New Year's card (the blue Cyrillic writing is not making google translate happy to verify it), but given the Santa-figure and pretty squirrel painting within a painting. this makes for a pretty awesome Christmas postcard.

Merry Christmas!

Netherlands

NL-3410483

Wooden shoes from the Netherlands

France

Rock'N'Roll

This homemade Christmas postcard comes from my friend Eliana  who lives and studies in France.  The card included on the back this representation of a feather-pen using a real feather glued to the back of the postcard.

USA - Illinois

Tavern Scene: Woman fanning chestnuts

This card shows a detail from yesterday's Neapolitan Creche at the Art Institute of Chicago

USA - Illinois

Creche, (mid 18th century, Naples)

This massive Neapolitan Creche manger scene is on display for only a few weeks each year at the Art Institute of Chicago due to the fragility of the various figures inside around the holiday season and is one of the finest examples of the artwork outside of Italy.  

More can be read about the Creche at the Art Institute of Chicago page for it as well as some other close up photos of the figures inside.

Japan

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Kinkaku-Ji Temple

This temple is a World Heritage Site in Kyoto, Japan.

Russia

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This card features a card from the 2014 Sochi, Russia Olympics.  The card apparently features the railway station for the city.

USA - Indiana

Purdue University

The statue displayed in this card is a relatively new feature to Purdue University.  It shows a seated John Purdue (October 31, 1802 - September 12, 1876), the namesake of the university.  His death fell on the first day of classes for the third year of the university.  His grave is on campus, not far from this statue, on Memorial Mall.  In the background of this photo is University Hall, the oldest remaining building on campus.

Russia

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The Appearance of Christ to the People by Aleander Ivanov (1806-1858).  The painting took the artist 20 years to finish.  The painting is housed at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, Russia.

Russia

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Moscow

This card is of the State Historical Museum, designed in 1872.  The card features these interesting stamps.

Russia

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A fun card of a cat in a box on a tree.

Canada

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Canada

This beautiful photo of a loon sitting in its nest (I think it is a loon, yes?) is a huge postcard and is cut out.  The photo scanning makes it look like it is a large image on a white card, but the white bits are actually just the scanning and the card is in the shape of just the scanned colored part.

Mexico via California

Greetings from Tulum!

My friend Melissa grabbed this card for me from her trip to Cancun in the Spring of 2016.  Tulum is the site of a Mayan walled city, which you can see in some of the photos on the card.

Turkey

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Pendik

This card of an old photo featuring people walking around a street and a carriage is apparently a photo from the Pendik district of Istanbul.  The image is undated.

Taiwan

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Fort Santo Domingo

This card features Fort Santo Domingo built by the Dutch in Taiwan and the card features various flags that have flown there.  The card (claiming it was built by the Dutch) and Wikipedia (claiming it was built by the Spanish) seem to be in some dispute.

USA - Colorado

Boston

This patriotic card of Boston comes from my friend Chanele.  She mailed it from Denver when she was there on the way back from a trip to the East Coast.

China

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China

This card features a drawing of the flag of the People's Republic of China and the Tiananmen Square in Beijing. 

USA - Pennsylvania

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This card from 1984 features an Olympic torch runner for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angles.  The card is a pre-paid stamp card with the image on the front working as the stamp; however, the price of postage has gone up quite a bit since 1984 so the sender had to put on additional postage. 

USA - Indiana

Salvatorian Fathers, Merrillville, Indiana

This card features the Salvatorian Father's church, Our Lady of Częstochowa in Merrillville, Indiana near Chicago.

The card is numbered and the images show:

1. The Shrine of Our Lady of Częstochowa

2. The Panorama of 1000 Years of Christianity in Poland (from 966-1966)

3. The Main Alter of the church

4. Fatima Chapel where once can go and pray and light candles

5. The Monastery 

USA - California

Albert Einstein and his wife, Elsa

This card comes to me from my friend Melissa in the LA-area of California

USA - Maine

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At the Rat Mort, c. 1899 - Henri de Toulouse-Laurtec (French 1864-1901)

USA - Illinois

Chicago

This card features a view of Buckingham Fountain in Chicago.  One of the largest fountains in the world, the fountain was inspired by some at the Palace of Versailles and was dedicated on August 26, 1927.

Malaysia

MY-314883

Kuala Lumpur International Airport - Malaysia

I'm a big fan of Airports and love this card!  It comes with these interesting stamps from different regions of the country.

Spain

ES-407335

This card comes from Madrid, Spain and features a polaroid-like postcard of items for sale at a store with their price tags given in Euro.  The website listed on the back ends in a suffix of .cat, which I'm assuming would stand for Catalonia. 

Australia

AU-491183

Victoria Square, Adelaide

USA - Washington

Mt. St. Helens and Spirit Lake

This card was sent 39 years ago today from Klama, Washington on November 29, 1977.  My parents sent this card to my aunt.  

While this card is awesome because of the fact that it is old and it has a family connection, people who know recent history will notice that this card was sent a few years before Mount Saint Helens and Spirit Lake were forever changed by the May 18, 1980 eruption, killing approximately 57 people and changing the face of both the mountain and Spirit Lake.

Japan

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Japan Post Box No.1 [Pillar[

Takatsuki City Folk Heritage Museum

This card is of a postbox in the senders hometown.

Russia

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This card shows a beach that is unlisted in the card.  The sender is from Stary Oskol which was founded by Ivan the Terrible in the 1570s.

China

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Cross-collar Ruqun Skirt

Russia

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Tea with Baranki - Svetlana Goryacheva

This card features these awesome stamps.

USA - Montana

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Mount Rushmore National Memorial

This card of Mount Rushmore over an image of the American flag comes from Montana.  The monument is located in Black Hills, South Dakota.  The images of people on the side of the mountain are, from left to right, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

USA - Massachusettes

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Boston

USA - Illinois

The Artist and His Family - Adam Buck (Irish,1759-1833)

USA - Georgia

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Garden in Full Bloom, c.1866 by Claude Monet

Netherlands

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Happy Postcrossing

This card features a heart made up of images of flags of the world with the message of Happy Postcrossing.

Portugal

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Coimbra, Portugal

USA - Texas

Greetings from Austin, Texas

This fun card comes from my friends Chanele and Val when they went to see the band The Cure in Austin in May of 2016.  I love this old-type of travel poster design from the early to mid 20th century!

USA - Illinois

The Interior of the Palm House on the Pfaueninsel Near Potsdam, 1834 - Carl Blechen (German, 1798-1840)

A closer image of the cards is can be found here.