3419, 3420 FANTASTIC CREATURES - Bigfoot

3419

Bigfoot or Sasquatch are, in North American folklore, a hairy, upright-walking, ape-like creatures that dwell in the wilderness and leave footprints. They are strongly associated with the Pacific Northwest (particularly Oregon, Washington and British Columbia), Northern California, and individuals claim to see the creatures across North America. A majority of scientists have historically discounted the existence of Bigfoot, considering it to be a combination of folklore, misidentification, and hoax, rather than living animals.

3420

People who claim to have seen it describe Bigfoot as large, muscular, bipedal ape-like creatures, roughly 1,8-2,7 m tall, covered in hair described as black, dark brown, or dark reddish. The enormous footprints for which the creatures are named are claimed to be as large as 60 cm long and 20 cm wide. Some footprint casts have also contained claw marks, making it likely that they came from known animals such as bears, which have five toes and claws. There are several organizations dedicated to the research and investigation of Bigfoot sightings in the United States. The oldest and largest is the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO).

3418 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - Persimmons harvesting in Strunjan

Strunjan is a coastal town in the Municipality of Piran, situated between Piran and Izola, in the valley of the river Roja, along the saltpans and in the nearby hills. The favourable natural conditions of the peninsula of Strunjan, especially the sea climate and its leeward position, made it possible for man to settle here and develop traditional economic activities in harmony with nature. The local population cultivates grapes, produces wine, grows fruit and early vegetables.

3416 ITALY (Piedmont) - Superga air disaster

On the afternoon of May 4, 1949, the weather in Turin was miserable: clouds almost touching the ground, showers, strong southwest wind gusts, and very poor horizontal visibility. In these conditions, a three-engined Fiat G.212 of Avio Linee Italiane (Italian Airlines) crashed into the retaining wall at the back of the Basilica of Superga, which stands on a hill on the outskirts of Turin. The impact caused the instantaneous death of all the 31 people on board.

3415 THAILAND (Bangkok) - Jim Thompson House

The Jim Thompson House is a museum housing the art collection of American businessman and architect Jim Thompson, the museum designer and former owner. Following his relocation to Bangkok and the establishment of the Thai Silk Company Limited in 1948, Thompson also became a major collector of Southeast Asian art. Attracted by the subtlety of their craftsmanship and expression, he built a large collection of historical Buddhist statues and traditional Thai paintings made of wood, cloth, and paper that depicted the life of Buddha and the legend of Vessantara Jataka.

3414 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - Harvesting the smoke bush leaves in Piran

The European smoketree (Cotinus coggygria), also known as smoke bush, Venetian sumach, or dyer's sumach is a species of flowering plant in the family Anacardiaceae, native to a large area from southern Europe, east across central Asia and the Himalayas to northern China. The wood was formerly used to make the yellow dye called young fustic. From the Middle Ages onwards, the heartwood and leafy branches of smoke bush were widely used in Europe, especially Italy, for dyeing silk & wool (young fustic), often in combination with other yellows, such as weld, as the yellow shade from young fustic tends to have a reddish hue.

3413 NETHERLANDS (Netherlands / Overijssel) - Postcrossing Meetup, Deventer, 9 June 2018

Located on the river IJssel, largely on the east bank, but also to a lesser extent on the west bank, Deventer was founded in the 8th century, developing much between the years 1000-1500 due to the river trade. Since 2007 it is twinned with Sibiu, a city in Romania.

0346, 2027, 2227, 2513, 3396, 3412 CANADA (Alberta) / UNITED STATES (Montana) - Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park (UNESCO WHS)

3396 Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park

The Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park is the union of the Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada and the Glacier National Park in the United States. Situated on the border between the two countries and offering outstanding scenery, the park is exceptionally rich in plant and mammal species as well as prairie, forest, and alpine and glacial features. It has a distinctive climate, physiographic setting, mountain-prairie interface, and tri-ocean hydrographical divide.

2027 CANADA - Waterton Lakes National Park -
Prince of Wales Hotel on the shore of Waterton Lake

Waterton Lakes National Park was named after Waterton Lake, in turn after the Victorian naturalist and conservationist Charles Waterton. The park contains 505 km2 of rugged mountains and wilderness, and ranges in elevation from 1,290m at the townsite to 2,910m at Mount Blakiston. Overlooked by the historic Prince of Wales Hotel, Waterton Lake is composed of two bodies of water, connected by a shallow channel known locally as the Bosporus.

2227 CANADA - Waterton Lakes National Park - Crypt Lake

Crypt Lake is a pristine alpine lake occupying a cirque that often has ice into August. Most of the area around the lake is covered in scree and/or snow, and hiking around the circumference of the lake requires approximately 45 minutes. The Crypt Lake Trail is one of the premium hikes in park. Wildlife can be spotted in the mountains towering above including mountain goat and bighorn sheep. The slopes along the Crypt Lake Trail serve as primary bear country. From Crypt Lake it is only a short walk to the edge of Crypt Falls with views over the valley below.

2513 CANADA - Waterton Lakes National Park - Cameron Falls

Located in Montana, Glacier National Park includes parts of three sub-ranges of the Rocky Mountains (Clark, Lewis, and Livingston Range), with at least 150 named mountain peaks over 2,400 m, over 130 named lakes (from a total of 700), more than 1,000 different species of plants and hundreds of species of animals. Of the estimated 150 glaciers which existed in the park in the mid-19th century, only 25 active glaciers remained by 2010, and is estimated that all the glaciers may disappear by 2020 if the current climate patterns persist.

0346 UNITED STATES - Glacier National Park -
Clements Mountain

Clements Mountain (2670m), located in the Lewis Range, which stands tall over Logan Pass and above the Hidden Lake Trail. The peak was named after Walter M. Clements who had worked to set up a treaty between the Native American tribe Blackfeet and the U.S. Government for the purchase of tribal lands east of the continental divide which became part of the park.

3412

Today, Blackfeet Indian Reservation borders the park in the east. Like other peaks in Glacier National Park, Clement Mountain exhibits a classic "Matterhorn" shape. Foreground is dominated by a plateau covered with a species of monkey-flowers, perhaps Lewis' monkeyflower (Mimulus lewisii), which is native to western North America, from Alaska to California and Colorado.

3363, 3410 ITALY - Talking hands

3363 The cover of the photo album "Mani che Scalano il Cielo"

It is known, the hands of people, seemingly simple anatomical attributes, but precious tools that allow work, communication, art and, ultimately, survival, are extremely expressive and reflect the way of life and the occupation of the owners. The postcard 3363 is a reproduction of the cover of the photo album Mani che Scalano il Cielo (Hands Which Reach the Sky), published by Terra Ferma in 2009 and belonging to the well-known Italian photographer-mountaineer Fausto De Stefani, the sixth man to have climbed the 14 highest peaks of the world, all exceeding 8000 meters.

3410

This fascinating photo album contains truly unique portraits in which the hands are the protagonists: hands marked by deep furrows; calloused hands, black with earth, wise hands of ordinary people, mostly Nepalese and Tibetan, that De Stefani wanted to capture with brightly colored shots during his travels. The images, evocative and high quality compositions, are a celebration of the natural spirituality that these people, guests of the mountains closest to the sky, also seem to express through their hands. I don't know if the photo in postcard 3410 is from the same photo album, but it could be.

3409 THAILAND (Bangkok) - Bangkok National Museum

3409 Phra Buddha Sihing image in Buddhaisawan Chapel

Established and opened in 1874 by King Rama V to exhibit relics from the rule of King Rama IV's rule, the Bangkok National Museum features exhibits of Thai art and history. It occupies the former palace of the vice king, set between Thammasat University and the National Theater. Other than preserving and displaying Thai artifacts dating from the Dvaravati, Srivijaya, to Sukhothai and Ayutthaya periods, the museum also displays extensive collections of regional Asian Buddhist Arts such as Indian Gandhara, Chinese Tang, Vietnamese Cham, Indonesian Java, and Cambodian Khmer arts.

3407 ROMANIA - Puzzle map of Romania - series of postcards

3407 The summary of the series
"100 years since the Great Union of Romania"

At the initiative of Mihnea Răducu, between 1st December 2017 and 1st December 2018, so in the year in which the Romanians celebrated the centenary of the Great Union, took place every month a meeting of the Romanian postcrossers, and at each meeting has been edited a postcard to recall this exceptional event for the Romanians. 
  

The all 12 postcards of the series
"100 years since the Great Union of Romania"

Moreover, each postcard contains a fragment from the outline of the borders of Romania and a letter, such that if you put together all the 12, you make on one side the map of Romania and on the other side the word "Postcrossing". Finally, Mihnea edited a postcard to solve this puzzle (3407). The 12 postcards can be seen here: 

P - Second Train Postcrossing Meetup, 24 February 2018
O - Postcrossing Meetup, Cornu, 15 September 2018
S - Postcrossing Meetup, Iaşi, 24 March 2018
T - Postcrossing Meetup, Chișinău, 23 June 2018
C - Postcrossing Meetup, Bucharest, 20 January 2018
R - Postcrossing Meetup, Bucharest, 2 December 2017
O - Postcrossing Meetup, Bucharest, 14 July 2018
S - Postcrossing Meetup, Bucharest, 17 June 2018
S - Postcrossing Meetup, Curtea de Argeş, 11 November 2018
I - Postcrossing Meetup, Bucharest, 1 December 2018
N - Postcrossing Meetup, Bucharest, 5 May 2018
G - Postcrossing Meetup, Bucharest, 7 October 2018 

3406 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - Preparations for Easter in Piran

The Palm Sunday is a christian feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter, and commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. In most liturgical churches it is celebrated by the blessing and distribution of palm branches or the branches of other native trees representing the palm branches the crowd scattered in front of Christ as he rode into Jerusalem. In Istria the traditional palm weaving become a popular festive decoration. Painting Easter eggs is also also a tradition spread in many European country and not only.

3405 NETHERLANDS (Netherlands / North Holland) - Royal Palace of Amsterdam

Situated on the west side of Dam Square, the Royal Palace of Amsterdam in Amsterdam is one of three palaces in the Netherlands which are at the disposal of the monarch by Act of Parliament. The sandstone of yellowish hue has darkened considerably in the course of time. In the rear of the building is a 6-metre-tall statue of Atlas carrying the Globe, symbolising the worldwide extent of 17th-century Dutch commerce and interests. The large domed cupola is topped by a weather vane in the form of a cog ship, a symbol of Amsterdam. Just underneath the dome, there are a few windows, from where one could see the ships arrive and leave the harbour.

3404 FANTASTIC CREATURES - The skeleton of a dragon

Associate professor of natural sciences and doctor of biological oceanography, Jean-Baptiste de Panafieu (fr) wrote scientific documentary books for the general public and for children, made documentaries for television, participated in expeditions as a scientific advisor and designed exhibitions on scientific themes. He has published more than 80 books, as an author or co-author, about environment and ecology, life in the oceans, food, evolution of animal forms and paleoanthropology. Among these is the volume Créatures fantastiques Deyrolle (Fantastic creatures Deyrolle), issued on the publishing house Editions Plume de Carotte Hardcover in 2014.

3403 MALAYSIA (Kuala Lumpur) - Old Istana Negara in Kuala Lumpur

This building located along Jalan Istana in Kuala Lumpur was the former residence of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (Supreme King) of Malaysia. It was replaced by the new national palace as the official residence of the King in 2011, and in 2013 was converted into The Royal Museum and referred as Old Istana Negara. The palace was originally a double-storey mansion called The Big House built in 1928 by a local Chinese millionaire, Chan Wing. During the Japanese occupation from 1942 to 1945, it was used as the residence of the Japanese Governor.

3402 HAITI - National Palace

The National Palace was the official residence of the President of Haiti, located in Port-au-Prince, facing Place L'Ouverture near the Champs de Mars. Designed in 1912 by the Haitian architect Georges Baussan (1874-1958), it was severely damaged during a devastating earthquake in 2010, the ruins being demolished in 2012. In 2017 President Jovenel Moise announced that they will be commencing the rehabilitation of the national palace. Moise stated that the palace's exterior will look the same, but the interior will be modernized to fit the needs of a head of state in the coming years.

3401 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - The repairing of the wooden boats in the škver of Seča

 

In Seča (former Sveti Jernej - the Slovene name of Saint Bartholomew), a settlement not far from Piran,  at the end of Jernej's channel, the wooden boats are still renovated in škver. A škver (from Italian squero) is a small craft workshop or shipyard for the production, renovation and maintenance of exclusively small wooden vessels (up to 25 meters), in the traditional, manual manner. Škver was also named the most important accessory in the construction of each new wooden boat, a strong, flat beam rigidly fixed to the floor, which served as the base for the keel on which the entire boat was then built.

3400 GERMANY (Rhineland-Palatinate) - Postcrossing Meetup, Konz & Trier, 31 May - 3 June 2018

Between 31 May and 3 June 2018 took place at Konz and Trier a 4th International Postcrossing Meetup, occasion with which was published this postcard. The two city are only 8 km from each other, on the Moselle river. The meeting point, was at the front of Porta Nigra (UNESCO WHS), and the program was varied and interesting. Excursions took place, inside and outside Trier (for exemple to Orscholz, to the canopy pathway), BBQ, a raffle and others. Furthermore, it was offered a special 70-cent-stamp of German Post to the 200th birthday of Karl Marx (on the postcard).

3399 FRANCE (Bourgogne-Franche-Comté) - The Bread of the Earth

This postcard depict the cover of the book The Bread of the Earth - The Mountain People Tell, by Anne-Marie Prodon, published by Cabédita Publishing House on December 22, 1998. In 25 chapters, 35 peasants and mountain people recount their lives in the first half of the 20th century, in their villages of the Franco-Swiss Jura. Men and women of the earth, attached to their living environment and their heritage, they conducted the same struggle to find the basic necessities for their existence in this arid county subject to the strong winds from the north. Through both funny and tragic anecdotes, they bear witness to a harsh and healthy life that made them robust, tenacious, determined and ingenious to face everyday realities.