Covilhã - Portugal

After a busy week i'm back.

The postcrossing forum is under maintenance, there's nothing good on tv.... updating this blog is always a good idea to spend some time before sleeping and i've a small pile of cards to show.

Let's start with portuguese card from a city nearby. All cards have been sent by Pedro.

Covilhã is a city and a municipality in the interior of Portugal with 36.000 inhabitants.

The city is sometimes referred to as town of wool and snow, due to it's proximity to Serra da Estrela Mountain.

The church on the card is the Stª Maria Church, built in the 16th century. In 1940 the façade was covered with tiles.

And this is the Stª Cruz or Calvário Chapel, a gothic chapel built in the 15th century by Henry the Navigator, Lord of Covilhã.

These are the coat of arms of the 31 parishes that compose Covilhã's municipality.

Spain & Portugal

I need to make updates while i still have time, next week i'll start another course and i won't have time to post so often.

Today i've received these 2 cards, the 1st one from Spain and the other from Portugal.

"Olite castle-palace was the former residence of the Kings of Navarre until the union of the kingdom with Castile in the 13th century. Declared a National Monument since 1925. During the 13th-14th centuries underwent alterations, but the most important development came during the times of King Carlos III the Noble." - in: http://www.spain.info/

The card was sent by Sónia "soniasadin".

Graça "gracinha" sent me another card after the 7 she sent me last week. This time is a card from Góis with its Misericórdia Church. The church started to be built in 1596 with the help of the local inhabitants.

GB-91160

One of the officials received this week, my 1st card from Manchester.

GB-91160, sent by James.

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, situated in the south-central part of North West England.

On the card there's the Bridgewater Canal, Piccadilly Gardens, Castlefield, Manchester Cathedral and the Central Library.

Ruins of St. Paul's - Macau

The gtky girls really help me with my unesco collection. This one was sent by Relie.

Relie sent me this Ruins of St. Paul's card from her 1 day trip to Macau. These ruins are the remains of a 17th century portuguese cathedral. It was built between 1582-1602 by the Jesuits and it was the biggest catholic church in Asia at the time. It was destroyed by a fire during a thyphoon in 1835.

The Ruins of St. Pauls are one of Macau's most famous landmarks. In 2005 were added to the World Heritage Sites list.

Sagres - Portugal

I had this card in my favorites album, Raquel "kel" saw it and send it to me. I really like this card, it's an amazing view.

This piece of land is the Sagres Point, a windswept shelf-like promontory located in southwest Algarve.

This place has always been important for saylors because it offers a shelter for ships before attempting the dangerous voyage around Cape St. Vicente. Given the dangerous of beeing blown onto the coastal rocks, captains perferred to wait in the lee of the point until favourable winds allowed them to continue.

Urnes Stave Church - Norway

Some of my gtky friends are travelling. A few days ago i've received a norwegian card from Ula and last thursday i've received more cards from Norway but this time sent by Valerie. This one shown Urnes Stave Church, a UNESCO site.

The Urnes Stave Church is an whs since 1979, located at the Ornes farm, near Lustrafjorden. "The church was built around 1130 or shortly thereafter, and still stands in its original location. The church is believed to be the oldest of its kind. It provides a link between Christian architecture and the architecture and artforms of the Viking Age with typical animal-ornamentation, the so called "Urnes-style" of animal-art. Archaeological investigations have discovered the remains of one, or possibly two, churches on the site prior to the current building. The excavations uncovered holes in the ground from earth-bound posts which had belonged to an early post church, a type of church with walls supported by short sills inserted between free-standing posts. It is not known if this church had a raised roof above the central space of the nave like the present church. The earliest possible dating of this church is the early eleventh century. In the 17th century the nave of the church, which is a raised central room surrounded by an aisle, was extended southwards. Other elements were also added to the church, including a baptismal font (1640), a wooden canopy above the altar (1665) and a pulpit (1693–1695). The altarpiece, which depicts Christ on the cross with the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist, dates from 1699. Windows were added to the church in the 18th century." - in: wikipedia

1st Non Postcrossing Meeting

Last sunday in Sintra, took place another postcrossing meeting, well, a non postcrosing meeting. Last meeting in Leiria it was decided to have official national meetings once a year and all the other meetings would be non postcrossing meetings :P

The postcrossers in this meeting were: Ana "ninocas" and her family; Rita Simões and her boyfriend; Susana "susanaportugal" and her boyfriend; Diana "patzow"; Luís "ludovico", Joana "joana122"; Carla and Cristina "kryx87" who made and sent me the card :P