2999, 3005 NETHERLANDS (Aruba) - Trams in Oranjestad

2999 Oranjestad - The green single-decker trolley 1265 (1)

Posted on 25.03.2017, 31.03.2017
The Oranjestad Streetcar is a single-track tram line in Oranjestad, the capital city of Aruba, owned and operated by Arubus, the national public transportation company. It was built as a key component of a larger project to upgrade the main retail areas of the town, other aspects of which included pedestrianization of streets, planting of trees, installation of ornamental street lighting and resurfacing of streets and sidewalks. It is the first and so far the only passenger rail service on the island and the rest of the Dutch Caribbean, and the second of any kind, after an industrial branch that was closed in 1960.

2999 Oranjestad - The green single-decker trolley 1265 (2)

The line was inspired by the popular battery-powered streetcar operation at The Grove in Los Angeles. In 2010 Aruba's Minister of Infrastructure visited the California factory of TIG/m, the company that had designed the Los Angeles car, and before long TIG/m was constructing two streetcars, a single- and a double-decker, for Aruba. In 2012 Aruba's Prime Minister signed an agreement with Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin enterprises, to make Aruba the world's first 100% green economy by 2020.  

3004 GERMANY (Hesse) - Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe (UNESCO WHS)

Located on the Fulda River, Kassel has been known throughout history primarily as a centre of Calvinist Protestantism, as source of mercenaries (Hessians) hired by the British crown to help suppress the American Revolution, and as home of the Brothers Grimm. In WWII, Kassel was heavily bombed by allied aviation, and after war most of the ancient buildings were not restored, large parts of the city area being completely rebuilt in the style of the 1950s. An exception is Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, an exceptional symbol of the era of European Absolutism.

3002 UNITED STATES (Arizona) - Maricopa people

3002 Maricopa girl

The Maricopa are a Native American tribe, who live in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (since 1879) and Gila River Indian Community (since 1859) along with the Pima, a tribe with whom the Maricopa have long held a positive relationship. The neighboring Pima (Akimel O'odham) called them Kokmalik'op (enemies in the big mountains), and the Spanish rendered it as Maricopa. They call themselves Piipaa, Piipaash or Pee-Posh (people). Their heritage language is Maricopa language, which belongs to the Yuman language family.

3001 PERU (Arequipa) - Historical Centre of the City of Arequipa (UNESCO WHS)

3001 Basilica Cathedral of Arequipa and volcano Misti

Founded in 1540 in a valley that had been intensively farmed by pre-Hispanic communities, Arequipa was highly important during the Colonial period, and after Peru gained its independence from Spain, was declared the capital city of Peru from 1835 to 1883. The historic centre of Arequipa, built in volcanic sillar rock (white and pink), represents an integration of European and native building techniques and characteristics, expressed in the work of colonial masters and Criollo and Indian masons, the result being a unique style called Escuela Arequipeña.

2991, 3000 CZECH REPUBLIC (South Moravia) - Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape (UNESCO WHS)

2991 Palace of Lednice (1)

Posted on 20.03.2017, 25.03.2017
Between the 17th and 20th centuries, the ruling dukes of Liechtenstein transformed their domains in southern Moravia into a striking landscape. It married Baroque architecture and the classical and neo-Gothic style of the castles of Lednice and Valtice with countryside fashioned according to English romantic principles of landscape architecture. At 200 km2 , it is one of the largest artificial landscapes in Europe. It is described by UNESCO as "an exceptional example of the designed landscape that evolved in the Enlightenment and afterwards under the care of a single family."

3000 Palace of Lednice (2)

The Palace of Lednice began its life as a Renaissance villa; in the 17th century it became a summer residence of the ruling Princes of Liechtenstein. The estate house - designed and furbished by baroque architects Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, Domenico Martinelli, and Anton Johan Ospel - proclaimed rural luxury on the grandest scale. In 1846-1858 it was extensively rebuilt in a Neo-Gothic style under the supervision of Georg Wingelmüller.

2998 RUSSIA (Nizhny Novgorod Oblast) - Nizhny Novgorod

2998 The view of the Nizhny Novgorod Main Trade Fair building
from the belfry of Nizhny Novgorod Seminar

Located about 400 km east of Moscow, where the Oka empties into the Volga, Nizhny Novgorod (known from 1932 to 1990 as Gorky, after the writer Maxim Gorky, who was born there) was founded in 1221 by Prince Yuri II of Vladimir. Originally the name was just Novgorod (Newtown), but to distinguish it from the other, older and well-known Novgorod to the west, the city was commonly called "Novgorod of the Lower lands". Later it was transformed into the contemporary name of the city that literally means "Lower Newtown".

2997 AUSTRIA (Vorarlberg) - The traditional clothes in Bregenzerwald

Located in Western Austria, the Bregenzerwald (Bregenz Forest) overlaps, but is not conterminous with, the  Bregenz Forest Mountains which are a range of the Northern Limestone Alps. The people from the region are regarded as self-assured, almost headstrong, and this results from their history. The political structure of Vorarlberg - which was given extensive rights in 1380 by the Habsburg monarchy - provided the basis for a sovereign "farmers' republic" with its own constitution and an independent jurisdiction.

2996 GERMANY (Saxony-Anhalt) - Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz (UNESCO WHS)

2996 Wörlitz Palace

The Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz is an exceptional example of landscape design and planning of the Age of the Enlightenment. Its diverse components - outstanding buildings, landscaped parks and gardens in the English style, and subtly modified expanses of agricultural land - serve aesthetic, educational, and economic purposes in an exemplary manner. For Prince Leopold III Friedrich Franz of Anhalt-Dessau (1740-1817) and his friend and adviser  Friedrich Wilhelm von Erdmannsdorff (1736-1800), the study of landscape gardens in England and ancient buildings in Italy during several tours was the impetus for their own creative programme in the little principality by the rivers Elbe and Mulde.

1392, 2995 TAIWAN - Yehliu

2995 Yehliu Cape

Posted on 03.01.2015, 23.03.2017
Located in the town of Wanli, New Taipei, Yehliu is a cape which stretches approximately 1,700m into the ocean and was formed as geological forces pushed Datun Mountain out of the sea. Known by geologists as theYehliu Promontory, it  forms part of the Daliao Miocene Formation. The rock landscape is one of most famous wonders in the world. The costal line is stretching in a direction vertical to the layer and the structure line; besides, the influences caused by wave attack, rock weathering, earth movement and crustal movement all contribute to the formation of such a rare and stunning geological landscape.

1392 Yehliu Geopark - Queen's Head

 

A distinctive feature of the cape is the hoodoo stones that dot its surface. A number of rock formations have been given imaginative names based on their shapes. The best known is the Queen's Head, an iconic image in Taiwan and an unofficial emblem for the town of Wanli. Other formations include the Fairy Shoe, the Beehive, the Ginger Rocks, and the Sea Candles. The geopark can be divided into three areas: one which contains mushroom rock and ginger rock, another which is similar to the first one, but the mushroom rock and the ginger rock are fewer, and the last one, which is the wave-cut platform located on the other side of Yehliu.

2006, 2994 UNITED STATES (Missouri) - Missouri map

2006 Missouri map

Posted on 03.11.2015, 22.03.2017
Located in the Midwestern United States and bounded by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska, Missouri is nicknamed the "Show Me State", due to the skepticism of its inhabitants. The two largest rivers are the  Mississippi (which defines the eastern boundary of the state) and the Missouri (which flows from west to east through the state) essentially connecting the two largest metros of Kansas City (the largest city of the state) and St. Louis. The state's capital is Jefferson City.

2994 Missouri: 1. The Gateway Arch and the St. Louis skyline;
2. Country Club Plaza in Kansas City; 3. Ozark Mountains.

Missouri's geography is highly varied. Its northern part lies in dissected till plains and the southern portion lies in the Ozark Mountains, with the Missouri River dividing the regions. The state lies at the intersection of the three greatest rivers of North America, with the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers near St. Louis, and the confluence of the Ohio River with the Mississippi north of the Bootheel. Located in the interior US, it generally has a humid continental climate with cold snowy winters and hot, humid, and wet summers, often experiencing extremes in temperatures.

2993 BELGIUM (Liège) - Stavelot

2993 Stavelot: 1. The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps;
2. The Museum of the Racing Circuit in the Abbey of Stavelot;
3.  Amblève river.

Stavelot, a Walloon municipality located at the confluence of the rivers Amblève and Eau Rouge in the Belgian Ardennes, grew up around the Abbey of Stavelot, founded ca 650, out of what had been a villa, by Saint Remaclus, a Benedictine missionary bishop. It was for a long time, by its abbey, the chief place of a small abbey principality which disappeared in the political changes that followed the French Revolution. In 1830 it became part of Belgium. During the Battle of the Bulge, the last major German offensive campaign of WWII, the city was the scene of severe fighting.

2992 INDIA (Nagaland) - Ao Naga

2992 Ao man during Moatsü Mong festival

The Aos are one of the major Naga tribes of Nagaland, Northeast India. Their main territory is from Tsula (Dikhu) Valley in the east to Tsurang (Disai) Valley in the west in Mokokchung district. They were the first Naga tribe to embrace Christianity and by virtue of this development the Aos availed themselves to Western education that came along with Christianity. Racially the Aos are Mongolians, and is believed to have migrated from the far east 'through' Chungliyimti, in Tuensang district, where are still intact the six stones from which it is said that they emerged.

2990 GERMANY (Rhineland-Palatinate) - Hambach Castle

Located on the mountain Schlossberg (literally Castle mountain; elevation: 325m) in the eastern outskirts of the Palatine Forest, near the urban district Hambach of Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, Hambach Castle ruled both as a protection castle and as a robber baron castle over the trade roads and the northern route of the Anterior Palatinate section of the Way of St. James. In late Carolingian Dynasty times and Ottonian dynasty times a castle of refuge was built there. Probably in the first half of the 11th century, a new castle was built inside the former estate.

2989 NETHERLANDS (Aruba) - Charlie's Bar in San Nicolaas

2989 Charlie's Bar in San Nicolaas

Located at 19km southeast of Oranjestad and known as the island's Sunrise Side, San Nicolaas is Aruba's second largest city, with a population of 18,126. It was named after Nicolas van der Biest (1808-1873), who owned a big piece of the land there. Landowners were then addressed by their subordinates by their first names preceded by 'Shon' meaning 'master'. So he was called 'Shon Nicolas', as was the area. It is thought that the change from Shon Nicolas to San Nicolaas was due to the influence of Spanish.

2988 KINGDOM OF WALLACHIA

The Kingdom of Wallachia (Czech: Valašské Kralovství) is a micronation founded in 1997 by the writer and photographer Tomáš Harabiš as an "elaborate practical joke". It was named after the region of Moravian Wallachia, a mountainous region located in the easternmost part of Moravia in the Czech Republic, near the Slovakian border. The name originated in the Vlachs, a historical term used for  Eastern Romance-speaking peoples in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. They migrated up along the Carpathians to Moravia between the 13th and 18th centuries.

0367, 2986 CZECH REPUBLIC (Prague) - Old Town Square - part of the Historic Centre of Prague (UNESCO WHS)

0367 Prague - Old Town Square

The Old Town Square of Prague and the surrounding quarter is lined with wonderful buildings in different architectural styles, from Gothic to Baroque. The Church of Mother of God before Týn, probably the most recognizable church in Prague, dominates the square. Its construction started in the 14th century in the late Gothic style, but the spires were finished in 1511. In front of the church is the historic Týn School, an arcaded Gothic building that gives access to the church.

2986 Prague - Church of Mother of God before Týn

 

To the left of the church can be seen the House At The Stone Bell, built in Gothic style in the second half of the 13th century, and rebuilt later into Baroque and Neo-Baroque style. A difficult reconstruction in the 1980s return the Gothic image to the house. Its front face is considered one of the most beautiful ones in Europe, illustrating the magnificence in the times of Charles IV, who transformed Prague into an imperial capital, the third-largest city in Europe, after Rome and Constantinopole.

2987 GERMANY (Bavaria) - Catholic Church of Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Bad Koetzting

Located in the Bavarian Forest, near the Czech border, Bad Kötzting (before 2005: Kötzting) has the charming character of a small town. The locals pride themselves with having one of the largest mounted religious processions in the world, the Kötztinger Pfingstritt. The Church of Assumption of the Virgin Mary is the center of a fortification with an outer wall, a trench and an inner fastening ring. First mentioned in 1179, it was expanded in 1737-1738, and the chancel and the tower were rebuilt in 1766-1769. The interiors are Baroque, with the high altar from 1771 and the pulpit from 1730. Only three ceiling frescoes have been preserved from the original five ceiling frescoes and were painted in 1930 by Josef Wittmann.

2985 SOUTH KOREA (South Jeolla) - Suncheon Bay - part of Southwestern Coast Tidal Flats (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

2985 Sunset at the tidal flats of Waon Village in Suncheon Bay

The Tidal Flats on the southwest coast of Korea, distributed in Gomso Bay, Yeoja Bay, and Hamhae Bay and the Sinan archipelagos, are unique macrotidal flats where typical embayed tidal flats turn into open-coast tidal flats during the monsoons. They have no barrier islands like other tidal flats in the Yellow Sea. During winter, strong waves create sand flats, while in summer, the mud flats expand as tidal currents overpower the waves. The seasonal change is very clear along the coastlines.

2984 SINGAPORE (Central Region) - Singapore Philatelic Museum

Housed in a building designed as an additional school building to Anglo-Chinese School (Oldham Hall) in 1906, the Singapore Philatelic Museum features postage stamps and related material from Singapore and other countries from the 1830s to present day. Presented in colourful, cosy and interactive exhibitions, the miniature pieces of art offer a window into Singapore and other parts of the world - with postage stamps featuring different aspects of history, culture, science and technology. The Singapore Philatelic Museum also houses the only operational colonial posting box in Singapore.

2983 ITALY (Veneto) - Venetian Arsenal - part of Venice and its Lagoon (UNESCO WHS)

2983 View of the Entrance to the Arsenal by Canaletto, 1732.

The Venetian Arsenal is a complex of former shipyards and armories clustered together in the city of Venice. Owned by the state, the Arsenal was responsible for the bulk of the Venetian republic's naval power during the middle part of the second millennium AD. It was "one of the earliest large-scale industrial enterprises in history". Its construction began around 1104, and became the largest industrial complex in Europe before the Industrial Revolution, spanning about fifteen percent of Venice. It is located in the Castello district of Venice, and it is now owned by the state.