USA - Florida

The Beaker's Resort, Palm Beach, Florida

A truly wonderful resort to stay at.

Czech Republic

Karlštejn Castle, Czech Republic

If you're in the Czech Republic near Prague, it is worth a drive up to this castle.  The large center tower acts almost as a keep where, if the castle was under attack, people could run to as a last line of defense.

The small village around the walk up to the castle was filled with quaint restaurants and store selling all sorts of things.  The only thing that ruined the time was one college-age-girl in our group spending an obscene amount of money to call their boyfriend back home and explaining that she didn't realize that the bar she went to the night before was a gay bar.  (Because, clearly, that's just what you want to hear about walking up to a castle dating back to the 1300s!)

Finland

FI-2023875

"Sigyn" 1887, Hajan Sjoestroem

United Kingdom

Parliament and Big Ben, London, England, from my friend Karolina.

USA - Utah

I found this card in a small trove of small postcards my grandparents sent my father in 1971.  The image is of a marble copy of Dutch sculptor Bertel Thovaldson apparently in the Temple Square near the Visitors Center in Salt Lake City.

The message on the back of the card reads: 

Hi.  We are at the mormon Visitors Center.  The tours [?] are free + so are these cards.  The choir is having its rehersal now + we are going to go listen to them.  It's hot here.  95 [degrees Fahrenheit].

Ma + Pa

This card was written on August 5, 1971 and stamped on the 6th.  That would mean the card was mailed 43 years ago today!

Poland

Kolumna Zygmunta, Warsaw

[Sigismund's Column]

The monument commemorates King Sigismund III Vasa, who moved the capital of Poland to Warsaw from Kraków  in 1596.  The column sits in Castle Square and was badly damaged by the Germans during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.

This card was sent by my father and mother to my paternal grandparents 41 years ago today on August 4, 1973.

USA - Idaho

From the card: 

Needle in Grand Canyon near Tower Fall, Yellowstone Park is similar to the rock spires nearby, which are responsible for the name of Tower Fall in Tower Creek near this point.  These names originated with the Washburn party of 1870.

I know I've said it before, but I love these kind of white border postcards.  Today is the first of a two-day special posting.  This and tomorrow's card both were found in a box at my grandmother's house and were mailed by my grandparents to my father in 1971.  

This card was dated on August 4, 1971 and postmarked on August 5th.  That would make this card 43 years old today.  The card was printed by Haynes Studios, Inc., of Bozeman, Montana.

The message on the back of the card:

We already used up 5 rolls of film.  Our motel tonight is across from Idaho state Univ.[ersity].  The campus is beautiful.  Yellowstone is beautiful.  The nights + mornings are cold + afternoons hot.

Ma + Pa

USA - Illinois

A card of Maple Leaves at Mama, 1857, by Utagawa Hiroshige, from the Art Institute of Chicago.

I sent this card as a private swap to Fanny, in France.   

Denmark

Copenhagen, Denmark

USA - Wisconsin / Poland

An ad card of Batalion "Burza", a Polish living history organization.  Their website, as on the reverse of the card, is www.baalionburza.com

Why this card today?  August 1, 2014 marks the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, where the Polish Armia Krajowa (Home Army) and citizens of Warsaw rose up against their Nazi occupiers.  The Poles, attempting to liberate the capital, battled the Germans throughout the city from August 1 to October 2, 1944, while allied Soviet forces mostly waited on the other side of the river. 

  

Estimates range from 10,000 members of the AK were killed in action with 150,000 to 200,000 civilians killed.  Between the initial invasion of the country in 1939, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, and general planned German destruction of the city, 85% of Warsaw was destroyed by January 1945.