SPIRIT ISLAND

World-famous Spirit Island, on Maligne Lake is the heart and soul of Jasper National Park. Spirit Island is a tiny little island that held a spiritual place for the first Nations people. It's one of the most picturesque spots in the Canadian Rockies which is used for so many photos and postcards. Maligne Lake is surrounded by a circle of rocky peaks.

It is the largest glacially formed and fed lake in the Canadian Rockies and those remnants of the last Ice Age still cling to the cliffs, rest in the cirques and cap off the pinnacles of Maligne Lakes' fabulous ring of 3,360 meter mountains. It is the melt waters of those glaciers that give the lake its' lovely, tranquil-blue colour and that backdrop of lofty peaks which holds back the busy world and provides a calming wilderness experience.

DAINTREE

In Far North Queensland, just north of Port Douglas, the Daintree Rainforest is a dense jungle area part of the Australian Wet Tropics environment protected by World Heritage Listing, United Nations since 1988). The Daintree Rainforest consists of the Daintree village, the Mossman Gorge and Cape Tribulation. It is amongst the most ancient ecosystems on earth, over 110 million years old. More than 18,000 known plant species exist. Some trees are more than 2,500 years old.

 

 

Daintree National Park, with Cape Tribulation top left

In the Daintree National Park, the Mossman Gorge is home to some of Queensland's most beautiful tropical forest. Rare birds shelter in the overhanging green trees and fish inhabit the cool, shady pools. Cape Tribulation is in the heart of the Daintree Rainforest, home to some of the oldest rainforest on the planet, and this Word Heritage listed rainforest is adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef.

CAPE BEACHES

The choice of beaches in the Cape Peninsula is vast (more than 100 to choose from) but to make it easier each beach is unique, offering something to suit every beachgoer. There are family beaches, beaches for suntanning, snorkelling, boardsailing, surfing, fishing and for swimming! There is also an unofficial beach for nudists at Sandy Bay.

• Hout Bay >> http://theworldofpostcards.blogspot.com/2014/10/HOUTBAY.html

• Muizenberg  >>  http://theworldofpostcards.blogspot.com/2014/11/MUIZENBERG.html

• Bloubergstrand >> http://theworldofpostcards.blogspot.com/2014/11/BLOUBERGSTRAND.html

Cape Town's Beaches.  The fun of surf, sand and sun together with magnificent scenery on a picturesque shoreline

• Sandy Bay - Well-known unofficial nudist beach. The beach is backed by steep sand dunes and bushy mountain slopes. Poorly protected from the south-easter wind, Sandy Bay has no access roads, shops or facilities.

• St. James - Named after the first church built here, in 1874, this is a charming village, with beautiful holiday houses, residences and a small, sheltered beach and a large tidal pool ideal for toddlers. Characterised by its parade of brightly coloured bathing boxes. There is a cafe on the main road.

• Clifton - Four sheltered beaches seperated by enormous granite boulders. Cold for swimming, but noted for bikini-clad sun-bathers. Many houses are built on stilts or on overhanging cliffs. The area between the sea and Victoria Road is a scenic and botanic reserve. Cape Town's most glamorous beach packed in season with consequent parking problems.

Received from Lynne, Cape Town

CLEVELAND

Cleveland, located in the State of Ohio within Cuyahoga County, is on the southern shore of Lake Erie, part of the Great Lakes Region. It is the 18th largest metro area and 15th largest consumer market in the United States with nearly 3 million residents in Greater Cleveland metro and nearly 400,000 in the City of Cleveland. LifeSavers candy, the modern golf ball and the electric streetlight are all Cleveland firsts invented right here in Cleveland. Cleveland is the home of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman. Oscar winners Paul Newman and Halle Berry hail from the region.

The "Best Location in the Nation" is the claim of this world port located on Lake Erie. The 52-story Terminal Tower (center) is a Cleveland landmark. Lakefront Stadium (left) is home of Cleveland's Indians baseball and Browns fooball. Over 2 million people live in metropolitan Cleveland.

 

The 52-story Terminal Tower splits the Cleveland skyline like a towering cloud buster. It’s rightfully a city symbol. At the tower’s base is the renovated Regional Transit Authority’s light rail system. Inside is the ornate Tower City Center, home to a retail mall, food court, cinema, and a rich selection of hotels and restaurants.

BELFAST

Belfast is the capital city of the North of Ireland and is situated at the head of Belfast Lough. It is the largest urban area in the province of Ulster, the second largest city on the island of Ireland and the 15th largest city in the United Kingdom. The name Belfast also originates from the Gaelic Beal Feirste, which means mouth of the river.

Some of the many attractions in the historic city of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Top row: Queen's University, the Crown Bar and City Hall.
Middle row: Belfast Castle, the Titanic Centre and the Botanic Gardens.
Bottom row: Stormont, the Big Fish and Harland & Wolfe Titanic Mural.

Belfast is a product of the Victorian industrial age. Shipbuilding, engineering, linen and rope-making flourished here. The city's most enduring peaceful symbols are the two great yellow Harland and Wolff dockyard, nicknamed Samson and Goliath, while numerous haughty Victorian buildings fill the city center. City Hall is the most impressive structure, topped by handsome copper domes, with elaborate stucco and a staircase of three types of Italian marble inside.

Only in Belfast can you trace the Titanic story to its source, discover the passion and pride of those who designed and built her and relive the excitement of the Titanic era when the city was at the height of its powers.

To find out more about Belfast: Belfast City Hall

Received from Vikki

NEW BRUNSWICK

New Brunswick is the largest of Canada’s three Maritime provinces. It is located under Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula and beside the State of Maine. New Brunswick was one of the first provinces, along with Ontario, Québec and Nova Scotia, to join together to form the Dominion of Canada in 1867.  New Brunswick is Canada's only officially bilingual province with approximately 35 per cent of the population French-speaking.

Lupins and boathouse
 

New Brunswick has spectacular autumn foliage, wildflowers in the spring and pure, white snow in the winter. In this small province by Canada's eastern seas you'll find wide silver rivers where bright salmon leap, canoes gliding on soft emerald streams, rearing sentinel headlands standing firm against Atlantic tides, and silken sand beaches where water runs shallow and warm. The province is marked by its rolling hills and spectacular valleys, as well as its historic and modern architecture located in many of its cities, towns and villages. 

King's Landing Village Mill

Dropped like an emerald beside the sapphire blue of the St. John River, is Kings Landing. Its bustling country lanes lead you into the homes and lives of early New Brunswick settlers. Every corner of Kings Landing is active, from the kitchen fires to the blacksmith's forge. You can see the largest water-wheel driven sawmill in Canada.

Received from Roger

CHRISTCHURCH

Christchurch is New Zealand's second-largest city and the gateway to the South Island. Bordered by hills and the Pacific Ocean, it is situated on the edge of the Canterbury Plains that stretch to the Southern Alps. Located on the east coast of the South Island, Christchurch is a city of contrasts.It is a place where its residents continue to enjoy a healthy, active lifestyle amidst a natural environment world-renowned for its beauty. A growing cosmopolitan ambience also adds a touch of excitement without overt flashiness.

The 'Sign of the Takahe' - Christchurch New Zealand

This unique Gothic style building was conceived by Mr. H. G. Ell in 1918 as a roadhouse for the refreshment of travellers along the scenic Port Hills. I was constructed with primitive tools by relief workers during the 1932 depression and commands a panoramic view of the city, the Plains and the Southern Alps. The roadhouse is open daily for inspection and refreshments.

NELSPRUIT

Nelspruit lies in the fertile valley of the Crocodile River about 330 kilometres east of Johannesburg. Known as the capital of the great outdoors. The town was essentially created on 28 August 1884, when the Republican Volksraad approved plans to build a railway from the newly discovered Lowveld goldfields to Johannesburg. Kruger National Park is only 50 kms from this adventurer's paradise. Colourful commercial core of the lowveld. The area is noted for fruit production (citrus, mango, banana, avocado, macadamia and pecan nuts), wayside stalls and curio shops. With its sub-tropical climate, abundant sunshine and lush covered hills and valleys. The lowveld botanical gardens just outside of the town boasts a rare collection of plant species and the first man-made rain forests. Today the city's economy benefits from its proximity to Mozambique and Swaziland.

Postcrossing Postcard ZA-31777

BOSTON

The town was named Boston (Native Americans had called it Shawmut)after the town of the same name in England, which had been named after St. Botolph, the patron saint of fishing. Boston, first incorporated as a town in 1630, and as a city in 1822, is one of America's oldest cities, with a rich economic and social history. What began as a homesteading community eventually evolved into a center for social and political change. Boston has since become the economic and cultural hub of New England.
Boston is home to the nation's first public park (The Boston Commons 1640), the first public library (1653) and the first subway (1897).

Custom House Clock Tower
Boston, Massachusetts

The Custom House Tower is a 29-story skyscraper that is a masterful blending of two very discrete styles. The original building was built in 1847 in the Greek Revival style in a crucifix shape that featured 36 Doric granite columns (only 1/2 of which actually supported the structure) and which weighed some 42 tons each. Each of these columns was carved from a single piece of granite. Atop this original structure was also a magnificent dome reminiscent of the Pantheon.

Postcrossing Postcard US-959207

ROTHIEMURCHUS

Hidden in the forest of Rothiemurchus, this beautiful place is one of the most loved in the UK.  Rothiemurchus is a special place at the heart of the Cairngorms National Park, near Aviemore, in the Scottish Highlands.
The Cairngorms is the collective name for the high plateau to the south of Aviemore and which have four of the five highest mountains in Scotland.

ROTHIEMURCHUS, CAIRNGORM MOUNTAINS, HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND
Loch an Eilein Castle: www.rothiemurchus.net

The Rothiemurchus Estate includes Loch an Eilein Castle, an exceptionally lovely loch, surrounded by pines below a mountain backdrop and with an island castle, started in the 15C by Lachlan of Mackintosh but later enlarged and passing, as part of the estate, to the Gordons and then the Grants. Until the loch was dammed during the 18C  the castle could be reached by causeway.

Received from Hazel