Pura Ulun Danu Temple - Indonesia

This indonesian card with an hindu temple in Bali was one of my favorites and it was sent by Shinta.

"Pura Ulun Danu Batur, built in 1926, is the second most important temple complex of Bali, after the mother temple Besakih. The temple is dedicated to Dewi Batari Ulun Danu, goddess of lakes and rivers. "Ulun Danu" literally translates as "head of the lake".

Until 1926 Pura Ulun Danu and the village of Batur were located down in the caldera, at the foot of the Batur volcano. After the volcano erupted violently in 1926, both the village and the temple were destroyed except for the most important shrine, an 11-tiered meru dedicated to Dewi Batari Ulun Danu. The villagers moved to the highest and oldest rim of the caldera where they rebuilt their village and the temple.

Actually the Pura Ulun Danu is a complex of nine different temples, containing in total 285 shrines and pavilions dedicated to the gods and goddesses of water, agriculture, holy springs, art, crafts, etc." - in: http://www.wonderfulbali.com/centralbali/ulundanu-batur.htm

Blumenau - Brazil

A few days ago i've received an envelope from Brazil with these 3 Blumenau cards sent by Mauro.

Blumenau is a city in the state of Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil. It was founded on September 2, 1850 by Dr. Hermann Bruno Otto Blumenau along with 17 German immigrants.

In 2000, the city had 261,505 inhabitants; many people in the rural area of Blumenau still speak German and live by German traditions. The architecture also reflects the german influence. These typical timbered houses are a good exemple of that architectural influence.

Moellmann castle was constructed in typical german style, following the model of the construction manner of typical buildings of Michelstadt in the "Odenwald" in Germany. The stimulus for this building was to create a building which one through its special architecture would be a centre of attraction & a landmark for Blumenau.

UA-47664

This beautiful card is my 1st official from Ukraine with the Genoese Fortress in Sudak, a small historic town located in Crimea.

UA-47664, sent by Mina.
The Genoese Fortress was built by Genoese's in 1365.
This fortress is on the Unesco Tentative List.

NZ-42815

Today is a national holiday and that means no mail but yesterday my mailbox was full. I've received 15 cards and 3 of them were officials. This one is from New Zealand.

NZ-42815, sent by Fran.

"Mt John Observatory is a high-tech research observatory, founded in 1965 as a joint project between the universities of Pennsylvania and Canterbury. It is at Lake Tekapo, in the centre of New Zealand’s South Island – where there is the greatest chance of dark, clear skies.
A large 1-metre Dall-Kirkham Cassegrain telescope was installed at Mt John in 1986. Known as the McLellan telescope, it is used mainly for high-resolution spectroscopy of stars with a Hercules vacuum echelle spectrograph (spectroscopy is the study of the way atoms absorb and emit electromagnetic radiation). The data can be used to measure star velocities, temperatures, pressures, chemical composition, rotation rates and other parameters." - in: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/astronomy-overview/4

CH-61998

Not so long ago i've sent an official card to a postcrosser i met at the Postcrossing Meeting in Zurich, and last week i've received this official sent by another postcrosser i also met there :) Coincidence!! Switzerland is not even a common country for my sent or received official cards.

CH-61998, sent by "giorgis".

Dominik "giorgis" sent me this beautiful card with the Triebtenseewli Lake, in the Canton of Berne, with the Vorder Zinggenstock and Lauteraarhorn peaks.

US-836941

This week arrived cards from 2 US national parks, both unesco sites. I already had an Everglades card showing 3 ugly woodstorks. This one also has birds: upper left - american egret; lower left - anhinga and lower right - egret and also a woodstork.

US-836941, sent by Sarah.

"Everglades National Park is the largest designated sub-tropical wilderness reserve on the North American continent. Its juncture at the interface of temperate and sub-tropical America, fresh and brackish water, shallow bays and deeper coastal waters creates a complex of habitats supporting a high diversity of flora and fauna. It contains the largest mangrove ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere, the largest continuous stand of sawgrass prairie and the most significant breeding ground for wading birds in North America.
The Everglades contains vast subtropical wetlands and coastal/marine ecosystems including freshwater marshes, tropical hardwood hammocks, pine rocklands, extensive mangrove forests, saltwater marshes, and seagrass ecosystems important to commercial and recreational fisheries. Complex biological processes range from basic algal associations through progressively higher species and ultimately to primary predators such as the alligator, crocodile, and Florida panther; the food chain is superbly evident and unbroken. The mixture of subtropical and temperate wildlife species is found nowhere else in the United States.

Everglades National Park is a noteworthy example of viable biological processes. The exceptional variety of its water habitats has made it a sanctuary for a large number of birds and reptiles and it provides refuge for over 20 rare, endangered, and threatened species. These include the Florida panther, snail kite, alligator, crocodile, and manatee. It provides important foraging and breeding habitat for more than 400 species of birds, includes the most significant breeding grounds for wading birds in North America and is a major corridor for migration." - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/76

IT-104662

Today i've received 3 cards, 1 of them was this official from Italy. I really like to receive cards from Italy. After Portugal, Italy, together with Croatia, is my favorite country.

IT-104662, sent by Flavio.
The card shows the Cly Castle in Saint-Denis, Aosta Valley in north-western Italy.

"The imposing Cly Castle is one in a series of grand fortresses built along the high mountainous frontier of the Italian Valle d'Aosta. Cly Castle occupies a beautiful strategic location overlooking the village of Chambave. The castle was built in the 13th century by Boniface of Challant and abandoned some four centuries later. Subsequently, some of the materials of the castle were later transported down the mounain where they were used to construct a residence in Chambave." - in: http://wikimapia.org/5662270/Cly-Castle-Castello-di-Cly-Schlo%C3%9F-Cly