World on my postcards

 Piazza San Marco was constructed in the ninth century as a small square dotted with trees.  As the largest square in the city now and the only one given the designation of "piazza", St. Mark's Square has always been the location of important government buildings and other facilities central to the goings on in Venice.   Besides being filled with people and great specimens of architecture, Piazza San Marco is also full of pigeons. Pigeons have long been a problem in the square but only recently did the city pass a law that banned the feeding of these birds.

Kangaroos are the largest marsupial surviving on earth today. They are well known for their style of movement; hopping on their hind legs whilst using their large, muscular tail for balance. Kangaroos use their tail like an extra leg when they are manoeuvring around, or standing still. Kangaroos are one of the only animals that are not able to move backwards easily, and this is why they are used on the Australian national emblem.

      S tockholm is like no other capital in the world. Built on fourteen islands, it rises gracefully from water so clean that you can go swimming or fishing in the very heart of the city. Its waterfront is alive with boats, from ferries to shuttle you around the city to sailboats and yachts that cruise out into the vast archipelago that stretches into the Baltic.               

The Plaza de Cibeles is a square with a neo-classical complex of marble sculptures with fountains that has become an iconic symbol for the city of Madrid. It sits at the intersection of Calle de Alcalá (running from east to west), Paseo de Recoletos (to the North) and Paseo del Prado (to the south). Plaza de Cibeles was originally named Plaza de Madrid, but in 1900, the City Council named it Plaza de Castelar, which was eventually replaced by its current name. It is currently delimited by four prominent buildings: The Bank of Spain, the Palacio de Buenavista, the Palacio de Linares and the Cybele Palace. These constructions are located in four different neighbourhoods from three different adjacent districts.

 The llama is a camelid.They are very tough animals and the Incas used them as pack animals for thousands of years because they are very strong and surefooted on the rocky paths of the mountains and can carry very heavy loads. Their wool is used for making woven Bolivian clothing like sweaters, gloves, winter caps, and coats because it is very thermal. The only problem is, when it gets wet is smells really bad. It also shrinks so you can NEVER put a wool sweater in the dryer.   In Bolivia some people also eat their meat. It is used in certain traditional dishes and is also ground like hamburger meat. Llamas are kind of moody. They can kick really hard and can also bite, and if you make them angry they spit this disgusting gooey stuff at you that's kind of green so you have to be careful about getting too close to them.

The Church of Notre-Dame of Dijon is a Roman Catholic church in Dijon. Considered a masterpiece of 13th-century Gothic architecture, it is situated at the heart of the preserved old centre of Dijon. It is in Place Notre-Dame, near the Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy and opposite the rue Musette.

Dijon is perhaps best known for its mustard (named after the town), which is still produced locally, but it is also one of the most beautiful cities in France, and its historic buildings and byways were not heavily damaged by bombing in World War Two and are largely intact. Dijon was for some time the capital of the Dukes of Burgundy. Burgundy was a great power during the 14th and 15th centuries, when the dukes controlled a large part of what is now northeastern France, western Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

 The Sloupsky castle lies at the south border of Sloup over the valley of the Dobranovsky stream. The origin, history and the position of this castle is not exactly known till nowadays. The historians suppose it used to stand at the northeast root of the rock where it was protected by surrounding ponds and swamps. Some medieval buildings survived at the top. They probably served as a shelter during wars. The today’s precincts cut into the limestone rock are from 17th and from the beginning of 18th century when hermitage was founded there. Nowadays the 35metres high limestone formation is considered as the rock castle.

This is not a postcard, but it's a letter that I've got from my Czech teacher. It was very kind of her to send me a letter with different stamps from Czech Republic. I'm very happy to have them and I've put it on my wall like a picture. :)

The 1,600 Pandas World Tour started in 2008 as a collaboration between WWF and Paulo Grangeon, an enthusiastic French sculptor who created the 1,600 papier mache pandas. With over 30 years of experience in his craft, Grangeon created the pandas in various poses, emotions and sizes using recycled paper, as a symbolic representation of the amount of pandas left in the wild. The tour has appeared in more than 100 exhibitions across various countries such as France, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

   Koalas do not drink much water and they get most of their moisture from leaves. In Aborigine language, the word ‘koala’ means ‘no water’.    Baby Koalas are known as ‘ Joeys'. When the Joey is born, it’s only about 2 centimetres long , is blind and furless and its ears are not yet developed. On its amazing journey to the pouch, it relies on its well-developed senses of smell and touch, its strong forelimbs and claws, and an inborn sense of direction. Once in the pouch, it attaches itself to one of the two teats which swells in its mouth, preventing it from being dislodged from its source of food.

 The eastern half of the island of New Guinea - second largest in the world - was divided between Germany (north) and the UK (south) in 1885. The latter area was transferred to Australia in 1902, which occupied the northern portion during World War I and continued to administer the combined areas until independence in 1975. A nine-year secessionist revolt on the island of Bougainville ended in 1997 after claiming some 20,000 lives. Since 2001, Bougainville has experienced autonomy. Under the terms of a peace accord, 2015 is the year that a five-year window opens for a referendum on the question of independence.

 The special stamp is reproduced at postcard-size in this collectable set of stamp cards. c.1774 – Pulteney Bridge, River Avon. The UK's finest example of an inhabited bridge. Pulteney Bridge, together with the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, is one of the world's most beautiful bridges. Like the Ponte Vecchio it is one of a handful of historic bridges in the world with shops built into it. Built for William Pulteney by Robert Adam, the bridge was an attempt to connect central Bath to land on the other bank of the River Avon and make Pulteney's fortune. In spite of its practical origins it is surely the most romantic bridge in the world, best viewed from Parade Gardens park by the crescent weir.

The statue of King Carol I stands proudly in the middle of the Palace Square, in front of the beautiful building bearing on the frontispiece the King’s name: “Fundatiunea Universitara Carol I”, “Carol I University Foundation”. Preoccupied with increasing the quality of education at all levels, in 1891, with the occasion of 25 years of his reign, King Carol I decided to create a library to be used by university students. “Choosing Ourselves the place of the future building, We wanted it to rise close to Our residence, under Our eyes and protection” The King revealed in a letter addressed to the Prime Minister (“alegând Noi Înşine locul viitoarei clădiri, am vroit ca ea să se ridice aproape de reşedinţa Noastră, sub ochii şi sub ocrotirea Noastră”). The King and the Queen personally donated a large part of the initial book endowment of the library. The Library was heavily damaged during the events of the December 1989 Revolution, when the roof was engulfed by fire. Thousa