Gothenburg, the Great Castle | Sweden

This nice postcard was sent by Sara from Gothenburg via postcrossing [SE-89039]. It shows Gothenburg's northern archipelago with among others the islands: Riso, Foto, Hono and Ockero.

Gothenburg (Swedish: Göteborg) is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 543,005, with 549,839 in the urban area and 973,261 inhabitants in the metropolitan area. The city was ranked as the 12th-most inventive city in the world by Forbes.

Gothenburg was founded by royal charter in 1621 by King Gustavus Adolphus. At the mouth of the Göta älv, the Port of Gothenburg is the largest port in the Nordic countries. The city was named after the Geats (Swedish: Götar varied: Geatas, Gautar, Goths, Gotar, Gøtar, Götar), the inhabitants of Gothia, now southern Sweden—i.e. "Geat Castle". The river on which the city sits is the Göta älv or Gothia River. Göta borg "Gothia Fortress" is the fort on the Göta Älv, built to protect the port.

Gothenburg is home to many students, as the city includes both the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology. Volvo was founded in Gothenburg in 1927. The city is a major center for sports and home to the IFK Göteborg, BK Häcken, GAIS, and Örgryte IS association football teams, the team handball team Redbergslids IK, as well as the Frölunda HC ice hockey team.

Gothenburg is served by Göteborg Landvetter Airport, located 30 km (18.64 mi) southeast of the city center. The smaller Göteborg City Airport, located 15 km (9.32 mi) from the city center, was closed to regular airline traffic in 2015.

The city is known for hosting some of the largest annual events in Scandinavia. The Gothenburg Film Festival, held in January since 1979, is the leading Scandinavian film festival with over 155,000 visitors each year. In summer, a wide variety of music festivals are held in the city, such as Way Out West and Metaltown. The annual Gothia Cup, is the world's largest football tournament with regards to the number of participants: in 2011, a total of 35,200 players from 1,567 teams and 72 nations participated.

Chile House | Germany

This beautiful postcard of Das Chilehaus was sent by Claus via postcrossing [DE-4484848]. He wrote: "The Chilehaus has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site together with the Warehouse district in July. It was built between 1922 and 1924 as an office building and it's shaped like a ship. The red bricks are very typical for Hamburg, many buildings were built with that material." I love it when fellow postcrossers actually read your profile and send you cards that you will probably like. I think Claus has nailed it!

A bit more trivia about the building: The Chilehaus (Chile House) is a ten-story office building in Hamburg, Germany. It is located in the Kontorhausviertel. It is an exceptional example of the 1920s Brick Expressionism style of architecture. This large angular building is located on a site of approximately 6,000m², spanning the Fischertwiete Street in Hamburg. It was designed by the German architect Fritz Höger and finished in 1924. [wikipedia]

The Rock of Gibraltar | Gibraltar

This postcard shows the Gibraltar Rock. The Rock of Gibraltar (Spanish and Llanito: Peñón de Gibraltar, sometimes called by its original Latin name, Calpe) is a monolithic limestone promontory located in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, off the southwestern tip of Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. It is 426 m (1,398 ft) high. The Rock is Crown property of the United Kingdom, and borders Spain. Most of the Rock's upper area is covered by a nature reserve, which is home to around 300 Barbary macaques. These macaques, as well as a labyrinthine network of tunnels, attract a large number of tourists each year.

The Rock of Gibraltar was one of the Pillars of Hercules and was known to the Romans as Mons Calpe, the other pillar being Mons Abyla or Jebel Musa on the African side of the Strait. In ancient times the two points marked the limit to the known world, a myth originally fostered by the Greeks and the Phoenicians.

Gibraltar is not the southernmost point of Europe, which is the Punta de Tarifa, at 25 kilometres Southwest of Gibraltar, as the crow flies. Gibraltar is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea and has no contact with the Atlantic Ocean. [wikipedia]

Rich Coast | Costa Rica

This amazing postcard is from Costa Rica, where I wish I could be right now since my British summer doesn't feel very summery [14 degrees and heavy rain].

Costa Rica (literally meaning, "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica (Spanish: República de Costa Rica), is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Ecuador to the south of Cocos Island. It has a population of around 4.5 million, of whom nearly a quarter live in the metropolitan area of the capital and largest city, San José.

Costa Rica was sparsely inhabited by indigenous people before coming under Spanish rule in the 16th century. It remained a peripheral colony of the empire until independence as part of the short-lived First Mexican Empire, followed by membership in the United Provinces of Central America, from which it formally declared sovereignty in 1847. Since then, Costa Rica has remained among the most stable, prosperous, and progressive nations in Latin America. Following a brief but bloody civil war, it permanently abolished its army in 1949, becoming the first of only a few sovereign nations without a standing army. [wikipedia]

The Beagle Boys

This postcard shows the Beagle Boys. The Beagle Boys are a group of thugs from the Scrooge McDuck comics, loosely based on the popular image of Ma Barker and the Barker-Karpis Gang. They are a gang of criminals who constantly try to rob Scrooge and were created by Carl Barks.

Their introduction and first appearance was in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories#134, in the Carl Barks comic Terror of the Beagle Boys. In more recent productions such as DuckTales and The Three Musketeers, the Beagle Boys sometimes appear as henchmen for Flintheart Glomgold, Magica De Spell, or Pete. They are still some of the most frequently appearing Disney comic characters, having gained huge popularity among Disney fans over the years.

In the comics, the individual Beagle Boys are referred to by their prison numbers, indicated on the tags seen on the chests of their distinctive red shirts (which appeared as orange in the comics). The three most common numbers are 176-167, 176-671, and 176-761. In fact, no digits other than one, six, or seven appeared on their prison ID tags. Carl Barks used to include the words "Beagle Boys, Inc." on their shirts under their numbers, which was later deleted. In later years, they appeared in the comics as a trio (some combination of the most common numbers with 671-176, 716-617 and 176-176), plus cousins and other relatives of various talents as spin-off characters. They live in a small tumbledown hide-out in Duckburg; in 1980s American-produced stories, their pet cat Ratty often lived there as well.

Moscow, the Hero City | Russia

This postcard is from Moscow. Moscow (Russian: Москва, tr. Moskva) is the capital and the largest city of Russia with 12.2 million residents within the city limits and 16.8 million within the urban area. It is the capital of the Central Federal District and Moscow Oblast. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, and scientific center in Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as the largest city entirely on the European continent. By broader definitions Moscow is among world's largest cities, being the 13th largest metro area, the 17th largest agglomeration, the 16th largest urban area, and the 9th largest within limits city worldwide. According to Forbes 2013, Moscow has been ranked as the ninth most expensive city in the world by Mercer and is one of the world's largest urban economies, being ranked as an alpha global city according to the Globalization and World Cities Research Network and is also one of the fastest growing tourist destinations in the world according to the MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index. Moscow is the northernmost and coldest megacity and metropolis on Earth. It is home to the Ostankino Tower, the tallest free standing structure in Europe; Mercury City Tower, the second tallest skyscraper in Europe and the Moscow International Business Center. By its territorial expansion on July 1, 2012 southwest into the Moscow Oblast, the capital increased its area 2.5 times; from about 1,000 square kilometers (390 sq mi) up to 2,511 square kilometers (970 sq mi), and gained an additional population of 233,000 people.

Moscow is situated on the Moskva River in the Central Federal District of European Russia making it the world's most populated inland city. The city is well known for its unique architecture which consists of many different historic buildings such as Saint Basil's Cathedral with its brightly colored domes. With over 40 percent of its territory covered by greenery, it is one of the greenest capitals and major cities in Europe and the world, having the largest forest in an urban area within its borders—more than any other major city—even before its expansion in 2012. In the course of its history the city has served as the capital of a progression of states, from the medieval Grand Duchy of Moscow and the subsequent Tsardom of Russia to the Soviet Union. Moscow is considered the center of Russian culture, having served as the home of prestigious Russian artists, scientists and sports figures during the course of its history and because of the presence of many different museums, academic and political institutions and theaters. Moscow is also the seat of power of the Government of Russia, being the site of the Moscow Kremlin, a medieval city-fortress that is today the residence of the Russian president. The Moscow Kremlin and the Red Square are also one of several World Heritage Sites in the city. Both chambers of the Russian parliament (the State Duma and the Federation Council) also sit in the city.

Over time, Moscow has acquired a number of epithets, most referring to its size and preeminent status within the nation: The Third Rome (Третий Рим), The Whitestone One (Белокаменная), The First Throne (Первопрестольная), The Forty Forties (Сорок Сороков), and The Hero City (город-герой). In old Russian the word "Сорок" (forty) also meant a church administrative district, which consisted of about forty churches. The demonym for a Moscow resident is "москвич" (moskvich), rendered in English as Muscovite.

The second card was sent on April 3rd, unknown year. The stamps overlap the handwriting. 

Nevsky Prospect | Russia

This postcard show Nevsky Prospect at night. Nevsky Prospect (Russian: Не́вский проспе́кт, tr. Nevsky Prospekt) is the main street in the city of St. Petersburg, Russia. Planned by Peter the Great as beginning of the road to Novgorod and Moscow, the avenue runs from the Admiralty to the Moscow Railway Station and, after making a turn at Vosstaniya Square, to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

The chief sights include the Rastrelliesque Stroganov Palace, the huge neoclassical Kazan Cathedral, the Art Nouveau Bookhouse, Elisseeff Emporium, half a dozen 18th-century churches, a monument to Catherine the Great, an enormous 18th-century shopping mall, a mid-19th-century department store, the Russian National Library, and the Anichkov Bridge with its horse statues. The feverish life of the avenue was described by Nikolai Gogol in his story "Nevsky Prospekt". Fyodor Dostoevsky often employed the Nevksy Prospekt as a setting within his works, such as Crime and Punishment and The Double: A Petersburg Poem.

During the early Soviet years (1918–44) the name of Nevsky Prospect was changed, first to "Proletkult Street" (Ulitsa Proletkul'ta) in honor of that Soviet artistic organization. Following the demise of Proletkult the name was changed again, this time to "Avenue of the 25th of October," alluding to the day of the October Revolution.

The Nevsky today functions as the main thoroughfare in Saint Petersburg. The majority of the city's shopping and nightlife are located on or right off of the Nevsky Prospekt. [wikipedia]

The Island of Venus | Cyprus

This is a nice map postcard from Cyprus, also known as the Island of Venus. Cyprus (Greek: Κύπρος; Turkish: Kıbrıs), officially the Republic of Cyprus (Greek: Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία; Turkish: Kıbrıs Cumhuriyeti), is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Cyprus is the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean, and a member state of the European Union. It is located south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel and the Gaza Strip, north of Egypt and east of Greece.

The postcard was sent on 26 March 1988 and it reads: 'Hi Yvette, Hope all is well. We are fine this end. Cyprus is great so far. Rob is away so I'm a bit down. The weather is hot. We have got a car so I'm hoping to go to Limassol and Paphos sometime to explore their shops. We are in RAF Akrotiri, so there are plenty of planes that fly over. The quarter is ... and has a big garden for Tom to roam around in. Tom is still the same - a pain. Anyway will have to go. I will write shortly when I've got time. Take care of yourself. Love to Matthew and John. Love Kay and Thomas xxx'

Cynthia's trip | Italy

Cynthia went on a coach trip to Italy in July[?] 1969. I don't know her but I know much about that trip through these two postcards. Her first [?] stop was in Rome.

She writes: 'It is our last day in Rome, and we have just finished taking photographs of this building "The Victor Emmanuel Monument". It is very tiring walking around Rome, but we want to see all we can while we're here, unlike the rest of the party who are content to sit on a coach day after day. We find it cheaper to. Do hope you are keeping well dear. Love from Cynthia xxx'

Kahu-Kiwi cloak | New Zealand

This is an amazing postcard from New Zealand. It shows a Maori girl in Kiwi feather cloak. 'This highly prized cloak is ornamented with Kiwi feathers and is a Kahu-Kiwi cloak, usually worn for ceremonial occasions.'

Maori cloaks with feather decoration may not have been popular in the period before European contact. About forty cloaks were collected on Captain Cook's voyages, but few bear the traces of feathers. Mick Pendergrast, a specialist in Maori textiles, comments that cloaks decorated fully with feathers seem to have appeared in the mid-nineteenth century. They became popular by the 1880s, and remain prestigious garments today. 

Feathered cloaks are often extremely colourful, using pheasant, parrot, peacock and domestic fowl feathers. Sometimes dyed feathers are incorporated into cloaks. Feathered cloaks are normally worked in an upside-down position, starting at the lower edge. The work is suspended between weaving sticks, without using a loom. Vertical warp threads are arranged between the sticks and the wefts are twined across them. The feathers are attached during the twining process. [British Museum]

In the back there is a Tauranga postal stamp with the date 19 February 1979. The handwriting says: 'Dear Margaret, we are on our last stages now of our tour of New Zealand. I shall take it easily at that seaside bungalow, where the beach is within a minute walk. What a wonderful country. We never cease to admire the scenery and many other things. 

We expect to be home on March 5th, going just to San Fransisco for 2 nights. 

I'm afraid it has been a very tiring winter for youin England, one of those years when all the bad things come at once. I do hope it will be followed, as in 1947 by a lovely summer. Look forward to seeing you again then. 

Much love, Nina'

Well, I do hope that Margaret had a lovely summer and no more bad things happened to her.