Divi Little Bay in Saint Martin, The Caribbean

St. Maarten
Divi little bay
Philipsburg
Netherlands Antilles

The sender writes:
we enjoyed a bus tour of the island.  The water really was this beautiful!

This postcard is postmarked in 2015.

USA stamp 2014

Hummingbird 

illustrator Nancy Stahl. 

Issue Date: February 7, 2014

Postcard Rate 34 Cents

Happy April Fools Day

1er Avril (April 1st)

Fabricattion Francaise

This is a 'French Tint' postcard that is unused from 1921.

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As well as people playing pranks on one another on April Fools' Day, elaborate practical jokes have appeared on radio and TV stations, newspapers, web sites, and have been performed by large corporations. In one famous prank from 1957, the BBC broadcasted a fake film of Swiss farmers picking freshly-grown spaghetti, in what they called the Swiss Spaghetti Harvest. The BBC were later flooded with requests to purchase a spaghetti plant, forcing them to declare the film a prank on the news the next day.

Almeria, Spain

Almeria
Un Paseo por Almeria (A stroll around Almeria)
Costa de Almeria (The Coast of Almeria)

Fotografia: Jesus Gomez

This unused postcard is from 2015.

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Almería is a city in Andalusia, Spain on the Mediterranean Sea. It is the capital of the province of the same name.

When Something Goes Wrong...

When something goes wrong in your life 

- Just Yell - "PLOT TWIST!" and move on. 

This funny postcard is postmarked in 2016. 

USA stamp 2015

Coastal Birds

Spoonbill

Postcard Rate

The World Trade Center in Bahrain

World Trade Center
Kingdom of Bahrain

This postcard is postmarked in 2015 from Saudi Arabia.

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The Bahrain World Trade Center is a 240-metre-high (787 ft), 50-floor, twin tower complex located in Manama, Bahrain. The towers were built in 2008 and are the first skyscraper in the world to integrate wind turbines into its design.

The two towers are linked via three skybridges, each holding a 225kW wind turbine, totalling to 675 kW of wind power capacity. Each of these turbines measure 29 m (95 ft) in diameter, and is aligned north, which is the direction from which air from the Persian Gulf blows in. The sail-shaped buildings on either side are designed to funnel wind through the gap to provide accelerated wind passing through the turbines.

The wind turbines are expected to provide 11% to 15% of the towers' total power consumption, or approximately 1.1 to 1.3 GWh a year. This is equivalent to providing the lighting for about 300 homes.

Saudi Arabia stamp 2003

Mosques, 1 SR 

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Saudi Arabia stamp 2003

Rare Fish of the Red Sea

Canthigaster pygmaea

Pufferfish, Toby Fish

1 R

The Dome of The Rock in Jerusalem, Israel

Jerusalem

Photography by Garo Nalbandian

Jerusalem
The Dome of the Rock.

Worthy of praise is he who took his servant by night from the sacred mosque to the distant mosque, the presents which we have blessed.  (Koran Soura)

This postcard is postmarked in 2015 from Palestine.

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The Dome of the Rock has been called "Jerusalem's most recognizable landmark".

The site's significance stems from religious traditions regarding the rock, known as the Foundation Stone, at its heart, which bears great significance for Jews and Muslims.

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The Dome of the Rock is situated in the center of the Temple Mount, the site where the Jewish First Temple and Second Temple had stood. During the Byzantine era, Jerusalem was primarily Christian, and pilgrims came by the tens of thousands to experience the first church of Christianity and places where Jesus walked.

Palestine stamp 2011

Ramadan, 250 FILS

A Happy Easter

A Happy Easter

Printed in Germany
Series 389 H

This postcard has writing on it but was never mailed.  The crown Jesus is wearing, the flag, letters and dots are all metallic. 

It's Easter - A Postcard featuring Olaf

This is Olaf the snowman from the Disney movie Frozen saying "It's Easter!" This was a greeting card that had the top cut off and made a postcard out of it.  A few days later, someone else sent me the entire card, so now I have both.  I do not save cards, but this one I will :D

It is postmarked in 2015 from Canada with a 1.20 baby goat stamp.

Canada stamp 2014

Baby Wildlife

Mountain Goat, 1.20

Jaap van Zweden, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra

Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra
Jaap van Zweden - Music Director

Swire Maestro Series
Pictures At An Exhibition
25 and 26 Mar 2016

This great advertising postcard is postmarked in December, 2015, from Hong Kong.

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Jaap van Zweden (born December 12, 1960 in North Holland) is a Dutch conductor and violinist.  At age 15, he won a violin competition; this allowed him to attend The Juilliard School.  At age 18, Van Zweden became the concertmaster of the Concertgebouw Orchestra—the youngest violinist ever to assume that position, which he held until 1995.

Van Zweden began to work as a conductor after Leonard Bernstein invited him to lead an orchestra rehearsal in Berlin. In January 2016, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra announced that van Zweden will formally take over the orchestra's music directorship in 2018, after appointing him Music Director Designate in the 2017-2018 season.

Hong Kong stamp 2014

Landscapes of Hong Kong 

Kang Lau Shek, 3.70

The Western Wall / Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, Israel

Jerusalem, the Western Wall

Photography by S. Mendrea.

This postcard is postmarked in 2015 from Israel.

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The Western Wall, or Wailing Wall, is located in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is a small portion of the structure which originally was part of the western retaining wall of the Second Jewish Temple on top the hill known as the Temple Mount.

Israel stamp 2015

The Cyrus Declaration, 8.30

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The Cyrus Cylinder is an ancient clay cylinder, now broken into several fragments.

The text on the Cylinder praises Cyrus, sets out his genealogy and portrays him as a king from a line of kings. The Babylonian king Nabonidus, who was defeated and deposed by Cyrus, is denounced as a wicked oppressor of the people of Babylonia and his low-born origins are contrasted to Cyrus's kingly heritage. 

The Cylinder's text has traditionally been seen by biblical scholars as corroborative evidence of Cyrus' policy of the repatriation of the Jewish people following their Babylonian captivity (an act that the Book of Ezra attributes to Cyrus).

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Here is one more postcard of the Western Wall...

Prayer at the Wailing Wall

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, We were like them that dream. (Psalm 26:11)

The sender writes:

I am on a science seminar at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.  The first part of my trip started by touring the northern part of the country for a few weeks.  Then I spent five days on a nature-study field school, which consisted of climbing mountains and studying the topology of the dead sea area.  I climbed Mt. Masada at 2:30 in the morning and watched the sun rise.  It was magnificent, the excavations there are very exciting.  

I love Israel.  It is a very beautiful country in many ways.  The people have a very strong identity and spirit and a strong sense of purpose to survive. Israel is a fascinating country. 

This is postmarked  with two Israel stamps. I can't make out the year but one of the stamps is from 1972.

Israel stamp 1972

Campaign for Jewish Immigration

Star and words:

Let My People Go, 0.55

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Israel stamp

Airmail

Winged Deer

Elizabeth Taylor Starring in: Suddenly Last Summer, 1959

Elizabeth Taylor, Suddenly Last Summer, 1959. Photographer Unidentified
made in Hollywood: Photographs from the John Dobal Foundation Archive, Santa Barbara Museum of Art

I bought this in Australia in 2012.

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Suddenly, Last Summer is a 1959 American Southern Gothic mystery film based on the play of the same title by Tennessee Williams.

A title card at the start of the film sets the story in the year 1937.
The film tells the story of Catherine Holly (Elizabeth Taylor), a young woman institutionalized for a severe emotional disturbance that came about when her cousin, Sebastian Venable, died under questionable circumstances while they were on holiday in Europe. The late Sebastian's wealthy mother, Violet Venable (Katharine Hepburn), makes every effort to deny and suppress the potentially sordid truth about her son and his demise. Toward this end, she attempts to bribe the state hospital's administrator, Dr. Hockstader (Albert Dekker), by offering to finance a new wing for the underfunded facility – in Sebastian's name – if he will coerce his brilliant young surgeon, Dr. John Cukrowicz, (Montgomery Clift) into lobotomizing her niece, thereby removing any chance that the events surrounding her son's death might be revealed by Catherine's "obscene babbling".

Konigsse, Berchtesgadener Land, Germany

Konigssee

Berchtesgadener Land (a district in Bavaria)

Schone GruBe as den (Greetings from the) 

Berchtesgadener Land

St. Gartholoma am Konigssee 

(St. Bartholomew's Church)

This postcard is postmarked in 2015 from Germany.

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The Königssee is a natural lake in the extreme southeast Berchtesgadener Land. Most of the lake is within the Berchtesgaden National Park.

St. Bartholomew's is a Roman Catholic pilgrimage church that can only be reached by ship or after a long hike across the surrounding mountains.

Germany (Deutschland) stamp 2015

Asterix and Obelix Cartoon Series, 

Asterix, 62

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Germany (Deutschland)  stamp 2005

'Tagetes' (African Marigold flower) 20

Tajikistan Girls Dancing for Nowruz

Tajikistan Dushanbe

The sender writes:
On this card you can see the celebration of Nowruz in Tajikistan.  Every year on the 21st until the 28th we celebrate! The girls are wearing our national dresses while dancing!

This postcard is postmarked in 2015 with two Tajikistan stamps.

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Nowruz is the name of the Iranian New Year.  It marks the first day of spring or Equinox as and the beginning of the year in the Persian calendar. It is celebrated on the day of the astronomical Northward equinox, which usually occurs on March 21 or the previous/following day depending on where it is observed.

Tajikistan (Tadzhikistan) stamp 2007

Previous Issue of the stamp from 1994:

'The 70th Anniversary of the Capital Dushanbe' 

new surcharge, 

Overprint 0,75

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Tajikistan (Tadzhikistan) stamp 2014

Architecture Definitive 

Rudi Garden

Rudaki Park, Dushanbe - 0.10