Handelskade, Willemstad, Curaçao

Despite being nearly four hundred years old (Willemstad was founded in 1634), the city is remarkably well preserved and boasts some of the best Dutch colonial architecture in the world. The Handelskade, which follows the narrow patch of land on the Punda side of St. Anna Bay, was once the main commercial street in Willemstad, as merchant vessels could effectively come right up to the store fronts. However, the Penha department store (the yellow building at the far right, which dates from 1708) is still located along the Handelskade.

The historic area of Willemstad, including Punda and Otrabanda, was made a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997, as it "is a European colonial ensemble in the Caribbean of outstanding value and integrity, which illustrates the organic growth of a multicultural community over three centuries and preserves to a high degree significant elements of the many strands that came together to create it."

Black & White

Look at those gorgeous emborsed stamps ....

City Maps of Olde England

Chester

Established on the River Dee by the Romans (note the Roman coins depicted on the map), Chester is known for its medieval walls, whose parapets form a continuous promenade almost two miles long. Formerly a port, the town, as Speed notes, "hath been accounted the key into Ireland". But by Speed's lifetime the Dee estuary was filling with silt, which helped spur the growth of nearby Liverpool into a major port.

Thank you to Serene to send me this postcard !!

Floating Market Thailand

Damnernsaduak Floating Market, Rajburi Province, Thailand.

Damnernsaduak is believed to be one of a well-known and an attractuve travelling sites. Historically, Damnoenssaduak was actually the name of the canal dug in the reign of King Rama IV by the military men and the people of Rajburi, Samutsakorn and Samutsongkram Province directed by Phayasrisuriyawong, the minister of Defence.

Holland



Thank you to Danielle for her second card to me even the first card was loss during transit.

One Pilla Pagoda

The One Pillar Pagoda (Vietnamese:Chùa Một Cột, formally Diên Hựu tự , which litterally means “long lasting happiness and good luck”) is a historic Buddhist temple in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.

The unique pagoda is located in the western part of the city, near Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum, Ong Ich Khiem St., Ngoc Ha, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi.

According to legend, ageing Emperor Ly Thai To of the Ly dynasty, who had no children, used to go to pagodas to pray to Buddha for a son. One night, he dreamt that he was granted a private audience to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, who was seated on a great lotus flower in a square-shaped lotus pond on the western side of Thang Long Citadel, gave the King a baby boy. Months later, when the Queen gave birth to a male child, the Emperor ordered the construction of a pagoda supported by only one pillar to resemble the lotus seat of his dream in the honour of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. According to a theory, the pagoda was built in a style of a lotus emerging out of the water.

Istra, Croatia

Istria (Croatian, Slovene: Istra), formerly Histria (Latin), is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner. It is shared by three countries: Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy.

Natalia bought this postcard from her vacation in Croatia.

Yaremche Waterfall

Waterfalls of Ivano-Frankivsk region:

Yaremche: waterfall on the river Prut (at the foot of Hoverla Mountain), waterfall on the river Bahrivets; "Probiy" (height - over 8 meters, Yaremche) on the river Prut, "Huk" on the river Zhene