Le Morne Cultural Landscape

Le Morne Cultural Landscape, a rugged mountain that juts into the Indian Ocean in the southwest of Mauritius was used as a shelter by runaway slaves, maroons, through the 18th and early years of the 19th centuries. Protected by the mountain’s isolated, wooded and almost inaccessible cliffs, the escaped slaves formed small settlements in the caves and on the summit of Le Morne. The oral traditions associated with the maroons, have made Le Morne a symbol of the slaves’ fight for freedom, their suffering, and their sacrifice, all of which have relevance to the countries from which the slaves came - the African mainland, Madagascar, India, and South-east Asia. Indeed, Mauritius, an important stopover in the eastern slave trade, also came to be known as the “Maroon republic” because of the large number of escaped slaves who lived on Le Morne Mountain.

Le Morne Cultural Landscape is an exceptional testimony to maroonage or resistance to slavery in terms of the mountain being used as a fortress to shelter escaped slaves, with physical and oral evidence to support that use. Le Morne represents maroonage and its impact, which existed in many places around the world, but which was demonstrated so effectively on Le Morne mountain. It is a symbol of slaves’ fight for freedom, their suffering, and their sacrifice, all of which have relevance beyond its geographical location, to the countries from which the slaves came – in particular the African mainland, Madagascar, India, and South-east Asia- and represented by the Creole people of Mauritius and their shared memories and oral traditions. (Source: UNESCO World Heritage Site Website) This is a UNESCO WHS, one of the two of Mauritius.

-20.463686,57.311528 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.

Wikipedia For more information, links, pictures and many more Wikipedia is the perfect site to be informed.

Official Site For visiting information (like fees and open days and times) use the official site.
Mauritius For travel information, the official site of the National Tourist Board, is the perfect location.

The City on the Island of Love

Back in 1493, only one year after Christopher Columbus arrived in America, Pope Alexander VI, the notorious Rodrigo Borgia, gave a bull to divide the New World only between Spain and Portugal. But France and England and Dutch had their interest too in those lands. France established Nouvelle France in Quebec, present-day Canada, France Antarctique in present-day Rio de Janeiro (Portuguese found the city) and France équinoxiale, in present-day Brazil, around the line of Equator. Originally there was a town of the Tupinamba tribe and they built a fort which was named Saint Louis as a dedication to King Louis IX. This was in 1612 and in only three years, it was conquered for Portugal by Jerônimo de Albuquerque and renamed renamed São Luís. Also the Dutch invaded the city and stayed there from 1641 until 1645. Sugar cane, cacao, tobacco and cotton were the goods that created wealth and modernize the city. In our days, the city has a large and very good preserved heritage of colonial Portuguese architecture and because of that it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site from 1997. From 1989 there was a program to restore and renovate the city's historical center. The city is built on an island and also because of that it is called "Island of Love" but more because there lived many famous Brazilian poets and writers. Those towns from northern part of Brazil and around Amazon are a dream place to visit. I imagine that the World is very different there. The food, the fruits, the people make me think of a dream place even though there is a lot of poverty - everything else compensate the poverty in my opinion but for sure many locals don’t think that and I understand.


PS: I saw on the official site that this year they celebrate 400 years: 1612-2012 :D

-2.528092,-44.304774 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.

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Brazil For travel information, the official site of the National Tourist Board, is the perfect location.

Dersu Uzala, the Best Guide for Sikhote-Alin

A few weeks ago I have wathced one of the most beautiful films ever. I have the DVD for a long time but put it aside for so long. The film was awarded with an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1975 and it is based on a memoir book. I am talking about Dersu Uzala, directed by the genius Akira Kurosawa for U.S.S.R. and Japan. The film is about the explorer Vladimir Arsenyev and his expedition in Siberia, in Sikhote-Alin, in the early part of the 20th century. It is amazing just because it is shot outdoors in Siberia and I had a chance to admire the beauty of that place. I love the character called Dersu Uzala, a guide for the Russian exploratory group, a man using his instincts and keen observation. The end of the movie is very impressive and sad but you have to watch it because I am sure you will love it. It is a movie made with heart, love, as Akira Kurosawa knows to do.

What is the relation with the postcard? Sikhote-Alin is presented in the card and I want to go there sometimes. I'm not an outdoor person but, maybe for a day, I would love to hear the silence of the harsh Siberia. Sikhote-Alin is a UNESCO WorldHeritage Site from 2001. It is a region consisting of mountain range extending about 900 km to the northeast of the Russian Pacific seaport of Vladivostok. From Wikipedia: "Sikhote-Alin comprises one of the most extraordinary temperate zones in the world. Species typical of northern taiga (such as reindeer and the Ussuri Brown Bear) coexist with tropical species, the Amur leopard, Siberian tiger, and the Asiatic Black Bear. The region holds very few wolves, due to competition with tigers. The oldest tree in the region is a millennium-old Japanese yew."

45.584998,135.744629 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.

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Official Site For visiting information (like fees and open days and times) use the official site.
Russia For travel information, the official site of the National Tourist Board, is the perfect location.

Acceptable to Cry at Funerals and the Grand Canyon

Ronald Ulysses "Ron" Swanson is my new favorite character. He is played by Nick Offerman in Parks and Recreation. I also love Amy Poehler but the story is about Ron. In an episode he created a Pyramid of Greatness. On the bottom second row he says that it is acceptable to cry at funerals and the Grand Canyon. Yes, Grand Canyon can make you cry. It is gorgeous. It worth’s the title of one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. As you all know it is created by the Colorado River in the Arizona state. To have some technical data I tell you that it is 446 km long and up to 29 km wide being over 1800 meters depth. Two billion years of Earth's geological history can be seen there. Native Americans from the Hualapai Tribe and Havasupai Tribe are the managers of the Canyon. To be in tone with Parks and Recreation department I have to tell you the history of the creation of Grand Canyon National Park. In 1903 U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt visited the Grand Canyon and because he loved the outdoors and also was a conservationist, he established in 1906 the Grand Canyon Game Preserve. A big mistake was reducing livestock grazing and because of that predators such mountains lions, wolves and eagles were eradicated. In 1908 it became a U.S. National Monument and only in 1919, Woodrow Wilson signed the law declaring it a National Park. It took so long because there was opposition from land and mining holders. From 1979 it is also on UNESCO World Heritage List. In 2007 a transparent bridge suspended over the canyon was open: Grand Canyon Skywalk. I also have a dreamcatcher from my cousin and it is the perfect souvenir that you can have from there. The card is really beautiful and it stays on the wall of my dental office.

36.1,-112.1 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.

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United States of America For travel information, the official site of the National Tourist Board, is the perfect location.

Visit Israel (dedicated to Eurovision and a friend)

1978 Paris, Israel wins for the first time Eurovision Song Contest with the famous song A-Ba-Ni-Bi. Because of that, 1979 Eurovision was hosted in Jerusalem. Israel invested much to make it a big show. Turkey did not participate being under pressure from Arab states. And guess who won: Israel won again with the beautiful song Hallelujah. Hosting the events is expensive so Israel didn't do it for the second time.
After twenty years, in 1998, in Birmingham, a transgender, Dana International won again the title for Israel. Diva, the winning song is still played on radios (for the first time in many years a Eurovision song became an international hit). The 1999 Eurovision Song Contest was held in the same place as in 1979. There were a lot of changes to modernize the show. The winner of the Contest was Charlotte Nilsson, representing Sweden with "Take Me to Your Heaven".
I really love the postcards (the short videos before each country) that were created by the Israel Television. Everyone starts with animation from the Old Testament and leads to the present day Israel promoting the country, especially the tourism.
Why I have talked about Eurovision? Because today starts the 2012 Song Contest in Baku Azerbaijan. Romania is in the first Semifinal and I hope that we will qualify for the 11th consecutive time in final.
Why I have talked about Israel? Because I have received some beautiful cards from there, from a good friend, a Romanian dentist that emigrated in the Promise Land. Elisabeta have sent me a beautiful album with 2011 stamps and those are gorgeous. I love Israel design, as I said the videos were great in 1999 and the stamps are one of my favorites in the world (also love Ukraine, Sweden, Switzerland...). One of the series is Visit Israel, promoting tourism and that was the trigger to remember the Eurovision in 1999.
Also, in 1999, one of the most seen landmarks was the beautiful Dome of the Rock. Rock of Moriah or the Foundation Stone is according to Islamic tradition the place from which Muhammad ascended to Heaven accompanied by the angel Gabriel. According to Jewish tradition, the stone is the site where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac. In Christianity it is believed that during the time of the Byzantine Empire, near the spot where the Dome was later constructed was where Constantine's mother built a small church, calling it the Church of St. Cyrus and St. John, later on enlarged and called the Church of the Holy Wisdom.

31.778, 35.2354 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.

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Israel For travel information, the official site of the National Tourist Board, is the perfect location.

Dacian Fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains

When I was young my parents take us every summer to the grandparents. We live in the eastern part of Romania (Vrancea County) and they live in the west (Timiş County). We always travel with our little Romanian car called Oltcit (it was made in collaboration with Citroen, which is why it has CIT in name). Once we stopped to visit the Dacian fortresses from Orăştie and it was kind of fun even though we were very little. We have spent a little time in the woods searching for the ruins because those were not built in the middle of the city like the Roman Forum in Rome. The six fortresses - Sarmizegetusa Regia, Costeşti-Cetăţuie, Costeşti-Blidaru, Piatra Roşie, Băniţa and Căpâlna - that formed the defensive system of Decebalus were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. Today, treasure-hunters sometimes search the area, as Romania lacks legislation in this domain. The beautiful Coson or Koson coins are one of the things they are searching for and after that they sell those gold coins on black market. The town of Sarmizegetusa Regia was the capital and major fortress of the Dacian kingdom, probably built in the mid first century BCE. It consisted of perimeter walls and fortifications, a sacred precinct, and a settlement area primarily for nobles and supporting servants. It was located at the top of a 1200 meter hill with excellent visibility of the surrounding lands. The sacred precinct was on the east side of the town, with a prominent plaza and circular shrines. There were two settlement areas one on the east side and a larger one on the west. In addition to dwellings they included workshops, storage buildings, and agricultural processing areas. Notable for the time is a distribution system for drinking water that used ceramic pipes. On the postcard you also can see the golden helmet; it is a gorgeous piece that can be seen in the National Museum of Romanian History from Bucharest.

Sarmizegetusa Regia: 45.623042,23.310277 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.

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Romania For travel information, the official site of the National Tourist Board, is the perfect location.

Ottoman Bridges from Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina was scarred by the war so bad that even today many don't visit the country evoking security reasons but this is a big mistake. Croatia is nearby and millions of people travel to famous Dubrovnik and they should go for a day in Bosnia and Herzegovina visiting the two most famous bridges build by the Ottoman court. I have seen the bridges in miniature in Miniaturk Park from Istanbul.
In Mostar is Stari Most or Old Bridge, The original bridge was commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1557 to replace an older wooden suspension bridge of dubious stability. Construction began in 1557 and took nine years. The bridge, 28 meters long and 20 meters high (90' by 64'), quickly became a wonder in its own time. The famous traveler Evliya Çelebi wrote in the 17th century that: the bridge is like a rainbow arch soaring up to the skies, extending from one cliff to the other. ...I, a poor and miserable slave of Allah, have passed through 16 countries, but I have never seen such a high bridge. It is thrown from rock to rock as high as the sky. The bridge stood there for 427 years until it was destroyed in 1993 by the Bosnian Croat artillery. After the war, World Bank, UNESCO, Aga Khan Trust for Culture, World Monuments Fund, Italy, Netherlands, Turkey, Croatia and the Council of Europe helped Bosnian authorities to rebuild it. It was inaugurated in 2004 and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge is a historic bridge in Višegrad, over the Drina River, completed in 1577 by the renown architect Mimar Sinan. It was ordered by the Grand Vizier Mehmed Paša Sokolović. It numbers 11 masonry arches, with spans of 11 to 15 meters, and an access ramp at right angles with four arches on the left bank of the river. The 179.5 meter long bridge is a representative masterpiece of Mimar Koca Sinan, one of the greatest architects and engineers of the classical Ottoman period and a contemporary of the Italian Renaissance, with which his work can be compared. During the 1992–95 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the bridge was a place of the brutal killing of a large number of Bosniac civilians by Bosnian Serb Army during the Višegrad massacre in 1992. The bridge received UNESCO World Heritage Listing in 2008.

Mostar: 43.337102,17.81483 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.
Visegrad: 43.782222,19.287778 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.
 Wikipedia Mostar Visegrad For more information, links, pictures and many more Wikipedia is the perfect site to be informed.

Official Site For visiting information (like fees and open days and times) use the official site.
Bosnia and Herzegovina For travel information, the official site of the National Tourist Board, is the perfect location.

Earth Day 2012: Gorgeous and Small Botanical Garden from Padua

Today, 22nd of April 2012, is the Earth Day. I’ve many thoughts about what I should write in green dedicated to this. I got many postcards from beautiful natural places, many included in UNESCO World Heritage List, but the place I am talking about is no bigger than my backyard and I simply love it. I’m referring to Orto Botanico di Padova or The Botanical Garden from Padua which is the first of its kind in the World. It was created in 1545 and it was devoted to the growth of medicinal plants. The first keeper of the garden was Luigi Squalermo called Anguillara. The garden was enriched with plants from all over the world, and especially from the countries connected in a way with Venice. The garden’s development was gradually accompanied by the establishment of a library, a herbarium and a number of laboratories. From 1997 it is a UNESCO site. The architecture it is a perfect pattern of a square within a circle, divided into four parts by two paths oriented according to the cardinal points. There are plants, trees and even some water basins with water plants. At present, the oldest plant is a palm planted in 1585 called the "Goethe palm", because the poet referred to it in his essay "The Metamorphoses of Plants"; this tree is situated in a greenhouse inside the Ortus Sphearicus, where there is also a ginkgo and a magnolia dating back to the mid-18th century, which are regarded as the oldest specimens in Europe. It is steps away from the Prato della Valle and the most famous pilgrimage place Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua so you should go and visit it.

45.399158,11.880725 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.

Wikipedia For more information, links, pictures and many more Wikipedia is the perfect site to be informed.

Official Site For visiting information (like fees and open days and times) use the official site.

Italy For travel information, the official site of the National Tourist Board, is the perfect location.

Incredible Trains of India

India. Incredible India! 1.2 billion people. Crowded. Very crowded. The main transportation system is the rail ways built over a hundred years ago by the Brits. Victoria Station was a masterpiece of its time. It was built as a new railway station on the location of the Bori Bunder Station in Mumbai in 1887 to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. In March 1996 its name was changed to the present name in honor of the Maratha warrior King Shivaji. From 2004 it is a UNESCO site. In 2008, the station was featured prominently in the Academy Award winning film, Slumdog Millionaire.

The station was designed by the consulting British architect Frederick William Stevens. He earned the commission to construct the station after a masterpiece watercolour sketch by draughtsman Axel Haig. The final design bears some resemblance to the St. Pancras railway station in London. This famous architectural landmark in Gothic style was built in ten years. On 26 November 2008, two terrorists entered the passenger hall of the CST, opened fire and threw grenades at people. The attackers killed 58 people and injured 104 others. In the next day everything was ready to use. India can't leave without trains.

I love the picture of this postcard. I love the station, the cabs of India (I have a small one as a souvenir), the red buses. I love the postcard. Its quality is amazing, like an expensive European card.

18.94,72.8353 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.

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Official Site For visiting information (like fees and open days and times) use the official site.
India For travel information, the official site of the National Tourist Board, is the perfect location.

Arbeit macht frei

Auschwitz-Birkenau Konzentrationslager
My best friend loves to visit places related to WWI and WWII. He wants us to go to Auschwitz but I do not think I can go there, it is very said, some said that even birds don't sing there. I know that first Concentration Camp of the Nazi Germany was in Dachau but the most ugly and famous was Auschwitz inaugurated in 1940 and then, with the inmates they built a new one, Auschwitz II or Birkenau. Auschwitz II–Birkenau was designated by the Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, Germany's Minister of the Interior, as the place of the "final solution of the Jewish question in Europe". There is also Auschwitz III–Monowitz, also known as Buna–Monowitz (a labor camp); and 45 satellite camps.
What can I tell about that place... maybe numbers, ugly numbers: killed 1.1 million as is estimated (mainly Jews, Poles, Roma); open in 1940 and eliberated in 1945. The camp's first commandant, Rudolf Höss, testified after the war at the Nuremberg Trials that up to three million people had died there (2.5 million gassed, and 500,000 from disease and starvation).
German doctors performed a wide variety of experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz. SS doctors tested the efficacy of X-rays as a sterilization device by administering large doses to female prisoners. Prof. Dr. Carl Clauberg injected chemicals into women's uteruses in an effort to glue them shut. Bayer, then a subsidiary of IG Farben, bought prisoners to use for testing new drugs. Josef Mengele, known as the "Angel of Death", researched on identical twins. He also took a special interest in dwarfs.
By 1943, resistance organizations had developed in the camp. These organizations helped a few prisoners escape; these escapees took with them news of exterminations, such as the killing of hundreds of thousands of Jews transported from Hungary between May and July 1944.
The iron gates are crowned with the infamous motto, "Arbeit macht frei" literally "work makes (one) free," meaning "work sets you free" or "work liberates".
The museum has more than 30 million visitors since its opening after the war.
From 1979 it is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Maybe some of you visited concentration camps and share their impressions.

50.035833,19.178333 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.

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Official Site For visiting information (like fees and open days and times) use the official site.
Poland For travel information, the official site of the National Tourist Board, is the perfect location.

Breathtaking Views of Iceland

Scenic setting for Iceland's ancient parliament, where Christianity was peacefully adopted in the year 1000, Þingvellir is a national park and one of the most visited places of the Northern Athlantic Island. It was inscribed by UNESCO inits World Heritage List in 2004. Thorn or þorn (Þ, þ), is a letter in the Old English and Icelandic alphabets which was replaced in other languages by the digraph th. The letter originated from the rune ᚦ. Þingvellir became a national park in 1928 due to its historical importance, as well as the special tectonic and volcanic environment. The continental drift between the North American and Eurasian Plates can be clearly seen in the cracks, the biggest one, Almannagjá, being a veritable canyon. Together with the waterfall Gullfoss and the geysers of Haukadalur, Þingvellir is part of the most famous sights of Iceland, the Golden Circle. According to Landnámabók, the settlement of Iceland began in AD 874 when the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfur Arnarson became the first permanent Norwegian settler on the island. Over the next centuries, people of Norse and Celtic origin settled in Iceland. Early on, district assemblies were formed, but as the population grew there was a need for a general assembly. The descendants of Ingólfur Arnarson who dominated the region of southwest Iceland had become the most powerful family in the country, and other chieftains felt a need for a general assembly to limit their power and so it was born the parliament.

The postcard I have from Olof is perfect. I can’t tell any wrong thing about it and I love it. I dream to visit Iceland and for sure I will go there. The scenic views are breathtaking in this postcard and for sure the real thing is thousand ways better.

64.258056,-21.125 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.

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Iceland For travel information, the official site of the National Tourist Board, is the perfect location.

Islands in the Bay of Kotor

I got the card ME-1100 from Postcrossing which means that it is from Montenegro. It is gorgeous! I and my friends plan to take a trip in Serbia and Montenegro and I have to say that info about what we can see there, where to stay and so on is not so good on the net. For sure one of the sightseeing places is Bay of Kotor because it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There is a little town called Perast, a quiet and peaceful place in the only fjord of the Mediterranean Sea. There are two islands and both have its own church. Our Lady of the Rocks (Gospa od Škrpjela) it is located on an artificial island created by bulwark of rocks and by sinking old and seized ships loaded with rocks. According to legend, the islet was made over the centuries by the seamen who kept an ancient oath after finding the icon of Madonna and Child on the rock in the sea on July 22, 1452. Upon returning from each successful voyage, they laid a rock in the Bay. The church was built in the 17th century and it contains 68 paintings by Tripo Kokolja, a famous 17th-century baroque artist from Perast. The other church is on the Island of Saint George. It is a natural island and there is built Saint George Benedictine monastery which dates back in the 12th century.

42.486667,18.688889 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.

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Montenegro For travel information, the official site of the National Tourist Board, is the perfect location.

Painted Churches of Northern Moldavia 1: Arbore

A few years ago I have traveled to Bucovina with my family and we wanted to see all the churches included in UNESCO World Heritage List. My mother insisted that not all worth a visit just because she saw them and was disappointed because the poor care and destructions. I decided I have to see all them so we did it and the visit was amazing. One of the oldest ones is Arbore, a very small church from Suceava country. It is dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. The name in the UNESCO list is Painted Churches of Northern Moldavia (there are 8 such places and I will describe all of them in time). The church from Arbore was built in 1503 by boyar Luca Arbore, one of the right hands of Ștefan cel Mare (Stephan the Great), the Prince of Moldavia between 1457 and 1504. The construction of the church was completed in about 5 months. Its exterior paintings date from 1541 and were made by Dragoş Coman and took about 4 decades. The outside paintings on the western wall are the best preserved, as opposed to those on the northern facade, which suffered extensive weather-related damage. This damage arose mostly because the church roof was plundered by marauding Cossack troops and melted in order to make bullets (the original roof was made of lead). Inside painting depicts Luca Arbore and his family offering the church to God through the intercession of Saint John the Baptist. Also inside are the tombs of Luca Arbore and his family. Luca Arbore died in 1523 by decapitation at the order of the Stephan IV (son of Bogdan III; also called Ştefăniţă) (he was the grandnephew of Stephen the Great). Luca Arbore was the regent of Stephan IV until 1523. From 2005 there are no religious rituals.

This is dedicated to Penelope Avril Binder from Germany because she said she is interested and Anca Ioana Bandaş who sends me many postcards from Bucovina.
Also I want to tell that the postcards of the monasteries are from Terra Design and Mr. Marius Vasiliu and his team did a great job editing such amazing postcards. Soon they will publish a series dedicated to all UNESCO Monasteries from Bucovina, including Arbore and for the first time Pătrăuţi.

47.729632,25.920255 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.

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Official Site For visiting information (like fees and open days and times) use the official site.
Romania For travel information, the official site of the National Tourist Board, is the perfect location.

Photos taken by me:

Benedictine Convent of St. John at Müstair

Thank you 'Zasa Lein' for the great swaps :D

I have not visited this place but I should go there and for sure after seeing the postcards that I have. Many years ago I have seen a TV series about Charlemagne and I am fascinated by him and for me, too see places related to him is great even though maybe he has no connection, only the influence of his power.

Benedictine Convent of St. John at Müstair was established ca. 780 under orders from Charlemagne. Because of its exceptionally well-preserved heritage of Carolingian art, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983. It is located in the upper valley of the Canton of Grisons in Switzerland (close to Davos and St. Moritz and just a hair distance to Italy) and it has a great series of figurative murals, painted c. A.D. 800, along with Romanesque frescoes and stuccoes. During the 20th-century restoration works, some of that frescoes from the 1160s were discovered here. Scenes from the life of King David are painted and also scenes from the youth, life, and Passion of Christ. On the bottom row of the paintings we can see the crucifixion of St. Andreas. On 20 January 1499, Habsburg troops occupied the surrounding valley and plundered the convent, but were soon driven back by the forces of the Three Leagues at the Battle of Calven. Following the raid, an armistice was signed between the Habsburgs and the Three Leagues. However this armistice only lasted a few days before the conflicts broke out between the Three Leagues' Old Swiss Confederacy allies and the Habsburg troops. These raids quickly escalated into the Swabian War, which ended in September 1499 with the Treaty of Basel granting virtual independence to the Swiss Confederacy. About 1500 the convent church was modified from a single-nave Carolingian construction into a three-nave late gothic church. Within the enclosure walls of the monastery are found other early elements, among them, in particular, in the north-west quarter, the residence of Bishop Norbert with its remarkable decor of frescoes and stucco-work in the two-storey chapel.

46.629798,10.448496 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.

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Official Site For visiting information (like fees and open days and times) use the official site.
Switzerland For travel information, the official site of the National Tourist Board, is the perfect location.

The Volcanoes of the Russian Peninsula of Kamchatka

This card is exceptional in my opinion. It is one of the most beautiful that I have. I think it is hard to take such a gorgeous photo and when you think this is not in a very easy to rich place. It is a Kamchatka Volcano card. The volcanoes of the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. There are 160 volcanoes, from this 29 are still active and six of them are in the UNESCO list. The highest volcano is Klyuchevskaya Sopka (4,750 m) and it is also the largest active volcano located in the Northern Hemisphere. These volcanic features are the site of occurrence of certain extremophile micro-organisms, which are capable of surviving in extremely hot environments. In 1952 was recorded an 8.2 magnitude earthquake, owing that to the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench. Those volcanoes are hard to rich but you can see some of them from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The city has developed a tourist infrastructure, the remarkable scenery attracts tourists even though it is expensive and hard to rich (no land connection exists, the only way to arrive is using airplane). Bear hunting and paragliding are some other things you can do there.

56.056044,160.644089 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.

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Official Site For visiting information (like fees and open days and times) use the official site.
Russia For travel information, the official site of the National Tourist Board, is the perfect location.

The Château that Rises Above the Loire Valley

I was visiting the Loire Valley back in 2008 and it is for sure one of the greatest places in the World. From back then I love to travel and visit castles and palaces. One of my favorite places was Château d'Amboise. It is built on a hill near the Loire. You have to walk up the hill and there is that beautiful and pretty unique castle. The chapel of Saint-Hubert is gorgeous and very ornate and there is buried the genius of geniuses Leonardo da Vinci but I only found that today when searching info about the castle – the pressure of the time and because me and my friends were in a real hurry to see as many castles as we can, we just saw but not read many info. The gargoyles are amazing and you can take photos of them because for of the placements of the castle they are really near you.

Château d'Amboise was built on a promontory overlooking the Loire River. The castle began its life in the eleventh century, when the Count of Anjou, rebuilt the stronghold in stone. In 1434 it was seized by Charles VII of France, because its owner, Louis d'Amboise, was convicted of plotting against Louis XI. However, the king pardoned him but took his chateau at Amboise. It then became the favorite of the French monarchs. It was rebuilt in the French late Gothic Flamboyant style by Charles VIII in the 15th century. A few years later the king decided to add some of the first Renaissance decorative motifs. King Francis I was raised at Amboise, which belonged to his mother, Louise of Savoy, and during the first few years of his reign the château reached the pinnacle of its glory. As a guest of the King, Leonardo da Vinci came to Château Amboise in December 1515 and lived and worked in the nearby Clos Lucé, connected to the château by an underground passage. Tourists are told that he is buried in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert, adjoining the Château, which had been built in 1491–96.
Henry II and his wife, Catherine de' Medici, raised their children in Château Amboise along with Mary Stuart, the child Queen of Scotland who had been promised in marriage to the future French Francis II. Amboise conspiracy was a conspiracy by members of the Huguenot House of Bourbon against the House of Guise, in 1560, during the French Wars of Religion. Although there, was signed the peace of Amboise in 1563, between Louis I de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, who had been implicated in the conspiracy to abduct the king, and Catherine de' Medici. The "edict of pacification", as it was termed, authorized Protestant services only in chapels of seigneurs and justices, with the stipulation that such services be held outside the walls of towns. Neither side was not satisfied by this compromise, nor was it widely honored. At the beginning of the 17th century, the huge château was all but abandoned when the property passed into the hands of Gaston d'Orleans, the brother of the Bourbon King Louis XIII. After his death it returned to the Crown and was turned into a prison during the Fronde, and under Louis XIV of France it held disgraced minister Nicolas Fouquet and the duc de Lauzun. Louis XV made a gift of it to his minister the duc de Choiseul. During the French Revolution, the greater part of the château was demolished, a great deal more destruction was done, and an engineering assessment commissioned by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte in the early 19th century resulted in a great deal of the château having to be demolished. King Louis-Philippe began restoring it during his reign but with his abdication in 1848, the château was confiscated by the government and became for a while the home in exile to Emir Abd Al-Qadir. In 1873, Louis-Philippe’s heirs were given control of the property and a major effort to repair it was made. However, during the German invasion in 1940 the château was damaged further. Since 1840, the Château d'Amboise has been listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture. Today, the present Comte de Paris, descendant of Louis-Philippe, repairs and maintains the château through the Fondation Saint-Louis.

47.413056,0.985833 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.

Wikipedia For more information, links, pictures and many more Wikipedia is the perfect site to be informed.

Official Site For visiting information (like fees and open days and times) use the official site.
France For travel information, the official site of the National Tourist Board, is the perfect location.

Throne of Jamshid - Persepolis, Iran

I remember my trip to Berlin because I love that place and I think you all should go there. Pergamon Museum, included in Museum Island, is one of the best in the World. It is as good as Louvre, British Museum and Vatican Museum. There you can see many things brought from many parts of the World, including some Persian artifacts from Persepolis. I will talk more about Berlin’s Pergamon Museum another time. Both, Museum Island and Persepolis are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Persepolis was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (ca. 550-330 BCE). In contemporary Persian, the site is known as Takht-e Jamshid (Throne of Jamshid). In Greek, the name Persepolis means "The City of Persians". It was built by the great king Darius I. In my postcard you can see the ruins of the Apadana Palace. The site includes a 125,000 square meter terrace, partly artificially constructed and partly cut out of a mountain. Grey limestone was the main building material used in Persepolis. After natural rock had been leveled and the depressions filled in, the terrace was prepared. Major tunnels for sewage were dug underground through the rock. A large elevated water storage tank was carved at the eastern foot of the mountain. After invading Persia, Alexander the Great sent the main force of his army to Persepolis in the year 330 BC. A fire broke out in the eastern palace of Xerxes and spread to the rest of the city. It is not clear if it was an accident or a deliberate act of revenge for the burning of the Acropolis of Athens during the Second Hellenic-Persian War. The amount of information about this great place is huge and in a few words I can’t describe the splendor of Persepolis, but I have to say something very important. There is planned to be built a water dam at Sivand. This can destroy the beautiful Persian city and another place included in the UNESCO World Heritage List is Pasargadae. We all have to remember the damages of Assuan Dam and in the recent time the Chinese Three Gorges Dam. Experts believe the damages will not exist because they will control the water level of the dam reservoir. Fortunately other from Iran do not believe that and all is at planning stage since 2006 and I hope they will not built this dam.


Timeline from www.ancient.eu.com
    518 BC
    Darius I The Great begins construction of the city of Persepolis.
    515 BC
    Completion of the Palace of Darius and the Grand Stairway at Persepolis.
    c. 515 BC
    Darius I moves the capital of Persia from Pasargadae to Persepolis.
    c. 478 BC
    Xerxes I builds the Gate of All Nations, the Hall of 100 Columns and the grand Palace of Xerxes.
    c. 336 BC
    Artaxerxes III builds the Hall of 32 Columns, the Palace of Artaxerxes and the Unfinished Gate.
    330 BC
    Persepolis is burned and looted by Alexander the Great.

29.934444,52.891389 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.

Wikipedia For more information, links, pictures and many more Wikipedia is the perfect site to be informed.

Official Site For visiting information (like fees and open days and times) use the official site.
Iran 2 For travel information, the official site of the National Tourist Board, is the perfect location.

Îmi amintesc cu mare drag călătoria la Berlin. Nu ezitaţi să mergeţi acolo, e unul din cele mai interesante oraşe ale lumii. La Muzeul Pergamon, care face parte din Insula Muzeelor, o să vedeţi lucruri fabuloase. Nu doar Luvrul, British Museum sau Muzeul Vaticanului, merită vizitate ci şi Berlinul. Oricum despre asta vă povestesc altă dată. Am făcut o groază de poze şi acum că am primit o vedere din Iran mi-am amintit că şi lucruri din Persepolis sunt la Berlin. Ambele locaţii, Insula Muzeelor şi Persepolis sunt incluse în Patrimoniul UNESCO.

Persepolis a fost capitala Impreriului Ahemenid şi oraşul datează din secolul al VI-lea Î.E.N. Imperiul a fost întemeiat în timpul regelui Darius I. Numele provine din limba greacă și înseamnă „Orașul perşilor”. Numele persan se referă la „Dschamschid” un rege legendar. Imaginea din vedere prezintă palatul Apadana, construit la ordinul lui Darius I. Oraşul se întindea pe o suprafaţă de 125.000. metrii pătraţi ce includea construcţii precum cele din vedere dar şi unele realizate în munte. Au fost săpate în munte inclusiv rezervoare pentru apă. Declinul imperiului a fost declanşat de puterea lui Alexandru Macedon. În 330 Î.E.N. a cucerit oraşul şi se spune că focul din palatul lui Xerxes a fost o răzbunare pentru distrugerea Acropolelui din Atena în timpul celui de al doilea război dintre greci şi perşi. Sunt aşa de multe lucruri de povestit despre acest loc încât doar câteva fraze nu pot să includă frumuseţea locului şi cantitatea imensă de informaţie despre Persepolis şi Persia. Trebuie să vă spun doar un lucru: construcţia unui baraj la Sivand ar pune în pericol aceste ruine. Să nu uităm ce s-a întâmplat în Egipt la construcţia barajului de la Assuan, dar mai aproape, ca timp, este construcţia Barajului celor trei Defileuri din China. Nu doar Persepolis poate fi înghiţit de ape ci şi Pasargadae, un alt loc inclus în Patrimoniul UNESCO pentru Iran. Se pare că nici autorităţile din Iran nu au încredere deplină în inginerii care au dat asigurări că locurile nu o să fie distruse, aşa că din 2006 totul este la stadiu de proiect, aşa cum sper să rămână, sau mai bine să fie uitat.

Asante Traditional Buildings

On the territory of today Ghana, in the 18^th century an Empire riches its golden age, it was the Ashanti Empire. Everything was then destroyed by the European Colonialists from Portugal, Netherlands and Britain. They all took all the riches (gold and ivory and more) and then they transformed the people into slaves and were sold in America and Europe. The things that show us a little bit of that empire are a few houses built of clay, straw and wood, and are vulnerable to natural fluctuations. There is therefore a need for the preservation of the buildings. The buildings were described as "home of men and gods". From 1980 those houses are included in UNESCO World Heritage List. Thank you Emmanuele for the beautiful cards from Ghana.

6.40111,-1.62583 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.

Wikipedia For more information, links, pictures and many more Wikipedia is the perfect site to be informed.

Official Site For visiting information (like fees and open days and times) use the official site.
Ghana For travel information, the official site of the National Tourist Board, is the perfect location.

Pe teritoriul Ghanei de astăzi, în secolul al XVIII-lea a ajuns la apogeu Imperiul Asante sau Ashanti. Totul a fost distrus de colonialismul european. Fără excepţie, portughezii, olandezii şi britanicii au profitat de bogăţiile locului şi i-au transformat de oameni în sclavi ce erau apoi vânduţi în Americi sau Europa. Amintirile fizice despre bogăţia imperiului sunt minime dar au scăpat câteva construcţii de lut, lemn şi paie, simboluri ale unei civilizaţii, casele tradiţionale asante. Din 1980 aceste case sunt incluse în Patrimoniul UNESCO fiind foarte vulnerabile schimbărilor meteorologice şi ar fi păcat ca aceste ultime dovezi să dispară. Mulţumesc Emmanuele pentru vederile frumoase din Ghana.

Castles of the Golden Coast

Prince Henry the Navigator first sent ships to explore the African coast in 1418. The Portuguese had several motives for voyaging south. They were attracted by rumors of fertile African lands that were rich in gold and ivory. They also sought a southern route to India. The Portuguese first reached what became known as the Gold Coast in 1471. In 1481, the recently-crowned João II decided to build a fort on the coast in order to ensure the protection of this trade: Elmina Castle. Some historians note that Christopher Columbus was among those to make the voyage to the Gold Coast with this fleet. At the height of the gold trade in the early sixteenth century, 24,000 ounces of gold were exported annually from the Gold Coast. First established as a trade settlement, the castle later became one of the most important stops on the route of the Atlantic slave trade. The Dutch seized the fort from the Portuguese in 1637, and took over all the Portuguese Gold Coast in 1642. The slave trade continued under the Dutch until 1814; in 1871 the Dutch Gold Coast, including the fort, became a possession of the British Empire. Britain granted the Gold Coast its independence in 1957 and the country became known as Ghana: the word Ghana means Warrior King and was the title accorded to the kings of the medieval West African Ghana Empire. From 1979 it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the title “Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions” which include other 10 castles. The beautiful postcards are from Emmanuele Bonsie and I like the cards and the history of that place. A history which became darker because of the slave trades.


A second fortification that I will talk about is Cape Coast Castle which is also included in the World Heritage List. It was built by Swedish traders for trade in timber and gold. Later the structure was used in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The first timber construction on the site was erected in 1653 and named Carolusborg after King Charles X of Sweden. It was later rebuilt in stone. In April 1663 the whole Swedish Gold Coast was seized by the Danes, and integrated in the Danish Gold Coast. In 1664 the Castle was conquered by the English and was extensively rebuilt it. In 1844, it became the seat of the colonial Government of the British Gold Coast. It was first restored in the 1920s by Britain and then in the ‘90s by the Ghanaian Government.

I have to write something about trading cards with peoples from Africa or other countries in Asia or so on. We are afraid that we’ll not get what we want but this is such unfortunate because we, Romanians, are also perceived (sometimes) as bad. My message is for all and I have to tell you that in every nation are a few bad seeds but many more, the majority, are good seeds. In European Union we have such perceiving problems with Danish, Finnish, Dutch and many more.

I know Emmanuele from Dănuţ Ivăncescu and he thought the same things and I will show you his text from his blog because is a perfect message.

Ghana is in Africa, in Africa-Africa, in Black Africa, not in Maghreb or in extreme south. In that area from where come, for decades, only news about wars, massacres and coups. We see on TV very interesting documentaries about wildlife and national parks, but it seems that we prefer they remain there, on TV, not to see them live. Because actually we're afraid of those beautiful and dangerous animals, of diseases, of the people there, of the instability which we think that defines Africa.

That's why when I got in touch with Emmanuel from Ghana, I hesitated. I hesitated to send him the Romanian banknotes that he wanted in exchange to the postcards that I wanted. I hesitate even though I was the one who contacted him, and not vice versa. I didn't have confidence because he is from Africa. Eventually I sent him the envelope and I got the 3 cards, as we agreed. I must therefore apologize to Emmanuel for the way I thought. I know that confidence people are everywhere, but also I must to believe it and behave as such.

World, Come to My Home!

Elmina Castle: 5.083,-1.348 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.
Cape Coast Castle: 5.103779,-1.24091 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.
Wikipedia For more information, links, pictures and many more Wikipedia is the perfect site to be informed.

Official Site For visiting information (like fees and open days and times) use the official site.
Ghana For travel information, the official site of the National Tourist Board, is the perfect location.

Prinţul Henric Navigatorul a trimis vase să exploreze coastele Africii în 1418 pentru a căuta o altă rută maritimă spre India. Pe Coasta de Aur, aşa cum se numea Ghana în 1471, portughezii au construit un castel pentru a uşura comerţul. Scopul iniţial a fost rapid schimbat şi Castelul Elmina a devenit principalul loc de îmbarcare a sclavilor africani. Construcţia s-a făcut la ordinal regelui João II şi se spune că printre navigatorii din 1481 a fost şi Cristofor Columb. Se pare că s-a ajuns la un export de 24.000. de uncii de aur anual, aşa că nu e mirare de ce coasta se numeşte de aur. În 1637 fortul a fost cucerit de olandezi şi vânzarea de sclavi a continuat până în 1814 când, printr-un tratat Anglo-Olandez s-a interzis comerţul cu sclavi. În 1872 castelul a fost preluat de britanici până în 1957 când Coasta de Aur a devenit stat independent; primul stat sub-saharian care şi-a câştigat independenţa. Numele de Ghana înseamnă Rege Luptător şi a fost numele unui imperiu african ce s-a dezvoltat în vestul continentului negru. Din 1979 este în Patrimoniul UNESCO, adică de la a treia sesiune. Împreună cu acest castel mai sunt incluse încă alte zece castele ale zonei, construite de portughezi, olandezi sau britanici. Vederile le am de la Emmanuele Bonsie şi îmi plac foarte mult.

O altă fortificaţie din aceeaşi serie, tot inclusă în Patrimoniul UNESCO, este şi Castelul Cape Coast construit de suedezi pentru a transporta aur şi lemn. Ca şi Castelul Elmina, şi acesta a ajuns în cele din urmă un avanpost pentru transportul sclavilor în Americi. Prima construcţie a fost ridicată din lemn în 1653 şi a fost denumită Carolusborg în onoarea regelui Carol al X-lea al Suediei. Mai târziu a fost refăcut din piatră. In 1663 teritoriile suedeze de pe Coasta de Aur au fost preluate de danezi. La un an distanţă, în 1664, englezii au cucerit castelul şi abia în 1844 acesta a devenit locul punctul central al guvernatorului britanic pentru Coasta de Aur. Tot englezii l-au refăcut în 1920 şi renovat de guvernul ghanez în anii ’90.