Słupsk Town Hall | Poland

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Słupsk is a city in northern Poland near the Baltic coast. The Town Hall in Słupsk was built in 1901, when the town was known as Stolp, and was a part of the Prussian Province of Pomerania within the German Empire.

Słupsk was once a member of the Hanseatic League, an alliance of trading towns located along the coast of the North and Baltic Seas.

Hansestadt Warburg | Germany

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The Hanseatic League, or Hansa, started as a northern European trading confederation in the middle of the 13th century and continued for some 300 years. Its network of alliances grew to 170 cities and it protected its interests from interfering rulers and rival traders.

Warburg is a town in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Its origins date back to the year 1010 when it was mentioned for the first time. In 1364, Warburg experienced its economic heyday in joining the hanseatic association. 

Hansestadt Göttingen | Germany

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Göttingen is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. In medieval times the city was a member of the Hanseatic League. But the cities relationship with the League remained distant. As an inland town, Göttingen enjoyed the economic connections, but it did not want to get involved in the politics of the alliance. 

 

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Altstadt Regensburg, UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Finland’s gateway to the world: hanseatic city of Turku

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Turku is Finland’s oldest city, centrally located at the crossroads of the Baltic Sea. The city served as Finland’s gateway to the world since the Hanseatic times.

 

The Hanseatic League dominated commercial activity in the Baltic Sea in the Middle Ages. The League was founded by north German towns and German merchant communities abroad to protect their mutual trading interests.

In the 14th century the main trade route from Finland to the Hanseatic towns in North Germany went via Tallinn. Traders from Turku sailed to Tallinn where they could do business with Hanseatic merchants travelling east and west.

Hanseatic League member Tallinn | Estonia

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Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. The origins of the city date back to the 13th century.

The Historic Centre (Old Town) of Tallinn is an exceptionally complete and well-preserved medieval northern European trading city on the coast of the Baltic Sea.

The city developed as a significant centre of the Hanseatic League during the major period of activity of this great trading organization in the 13th-16th centuries.

 

Vitebsk, hanseactic city in Belarus

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Vitebsk is located in northern Belarus, near the border with Russia. The country’s fourth largest city with about 350,000 inhabitants.

Once part of the Hanseatic League, the city was on the end of a trading route from Riga to Polotsk.

Bergen – Famous for its Bryggen Hanseatic Wharf | Norway

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Bryggen, the old wharf of Bergen, is a reminder of the town’s importance as part of the Hanseatic League’s trading empire. Around 1360 a ‘Kontor’, a foreign trading post of the Hanseatic League, was established in Bergen. 

The Hanseactic city of Braunschweig | Germany

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Braunschweig is a city located in the state of Lower Saxony, Germany. The card shows part of Dankwarderode Castle, built between 1160 and 1175.

The city was a member of the Hanseatic League, a confederation of merchant guilds and their market towns that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe.   

Hanseatic city of Wismar | Germany

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The Hanseatic League was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and their market towns that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe. The league dominated commercial activity in northern Europe from the 13th to the 15th century. Up to 200 towns and cities were members of the League.

Wismar is a port and hanseatic city in Northern Germany on the Baltic Sea. It is located 45 km from Lübeck, the former capital and Queen City of the Hanseatic League.

The historic centres of Stralsund and Wismar is a Unesco World Heritage site.

 

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Part of a set of two stamps issued 2015 in the series Castles and Palaces of Germany.

Ludwigslust Palace is a stately home or schloss in the town of Ludwigslust.

Essaouira | Morocco

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Essaouira is a coastal city in Morocco. According to whc.unesco.org, Essaouira is an exceptional example of a late-18th-century fortified town, built according to the principles of contemporary European military architecture in a North African context. 

The Medina of Essaouira is World Heritage Site.

Thx Patrik!

Memorial poles at SGang Gwaay Island | Canada

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The village of Nans Dins is located on a small island off the west coast of the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii). Remains of houses, together with carved mortuary and memorial poles, illustrate the Haida people's art and way of life.

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A pre-printed matching ‘stamp’.

Sugar Loaf Island | Grenada

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Grenada is the most southerly of the Windward Islands in the Caribbean. It is one of the ten smallest countries in the world. Grenada has a population of about 100,000 and covers an area of only 133 square miles. One of the six smaller islands that are part of Grenada is the high pointed Sugar Loaf Island, just offshore Levera Beach.

 

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Grenada issued a new definitive set in 2013, all featuring parrots. The highest value is $50 (1$ is enough postage for one postcard). 

Langkawi Islands | Malaysia

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Langkawi, since 2008 officially known as Langkawi the Jewel of Kedah is an archipelago of about 100 islands in the Andaman Sea in northwestern Malaysia. Only two of the islands are inhabited.

As for the name of the island, Langkawi is a combination of two words: Lang and Kawi. 'Lang' is a corrupt form of the Malay word 'helang' which means eagle and 'Kawi' means marble. Both are found in abundance in Langkawi. The bird on the card is a White-Bellied Sea Eagle.

Tropical island paradise | Guam

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The island of Guam is located approximately 3,300 miles west of Hawaii, 1,500 miles east of the Philippines and 1,500 miles South of Japan. The island is the western most territory of the United States. As you already figured out by the looks of the postcard, Guam is truly a tropical island paradise. The average temperature is 85F (about 30 degrees Celsius).

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USA stamps are used on Guam. 

The lost paradise of Sempu Island | Indonesia

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Sempu is an island located 800 meters from the southern coast of the province of East Java in Indonesia. The island is a conservation area, It is totally uninhabited and barely any tourists go there.

 

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The Flores Hawk-Eagle and the Elegant Sunbird

In 2012 Pos Indonesia issued a set of four stamps about threatened bird species.  

The island of La Désirade | Guadeloupe

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Guadeloupe is an overseas region of France in the Caribbean. The two main islands are Basse-Terre to the west and Grande-Terre to the east. The archipelago also comprises the smaller islands of Marie-Galante, La Désirade and the Îles des Saintes.

La Désirade is a small island, only 11 km long and 2 km wide and a population of about 1,800. It is Guadeloupe’s least-developed and least-visited island. Even the nicest beaches are nearly deserted. 

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The ROC code on the postmark reads 37752A. The geographical locations are not mentioned on the postmark, only the ROC code. 37752A refers to Pôle Caraïbes, the airport of Guadeloupe. 

Puerte del Conde | Dominican Republic

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La Puerta del Conde (meaning The Count’s Gate) is located in Santo Domigo, capital of the Dominican Republic. The construction of this gate started in 1543 and is named for the Count of Peñalba, who led the successful defense of Santo Domingo against an invading force of 13,000 British troops in 1655.

 

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(left) Juan Pablo Duarte Díez (1813-1876), one of the founding fathers of the Dominican Republic. 

(right) Manuel Simó (1916-1988), the Republic’s most important 20th century composer.

The Twin Island Country: Trinidad and Tobago

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Named for the tobacco cultivated by the original Carib population, Tobago existed separately from Trinidad for centuries. While the explorer Christopher Columbus sighted the island in 1498, he did not land and no attempts were made to colonize Tobago.

In 1889, during a period of economic decline, Britain annexed the smaller Tobago to Trinidad as an administrative ward. The islands achieved independence from England in 1962 and became the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in 1976.

The Twin Island Country, Trinidad and Tobago

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After discovery by Christopher Columbus in 1498 the the island remained under Spanish rule until the end of the 18th century. The British captured it in 1797 and in 1889, they joined the smaller Tobago to Trinidad as an administrative ward. The islands achieved independence from England in 1962 and became the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in 1976.

 

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100th anniversary of Syrian/Lebanese Presence in Trinidad and Tobago. The stamp is part of a set of four, issued 2010.

Early 1900’s many immigrants from greater Syria (comprising present day Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Lebanon) escaped religious persecution and economic hardship in their native countries. They started out as guest workers but today it is a thriving community. 

Marigot Bay | St Lucia

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Marigot Bay is located just south of Castries, the capital of St Lucia. 

“Sheltered by towering palms and the surrounding hills, the narrow inlet is said to have once hidden the entire British fleet from French pursuers. 

Yachts play the same trick these days – the bay is a popular place to drop anchor and hide away for a few nights.” 

The flag of Jamaica

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Jamaica is located about 150 kilometers south of Cuba and 200 kilometers west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

 

The flag of Jamaica was first raised on August 6, 1962, Jamaican Independence Day. A diagonal yellow cross divides the Jamaican flag into four black and green triangles.

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Jamaican legend Bob Marley (1945 – 1981). 

Kilimanjaro Safari | Tanzania

“Ride off in an open-air vehicle for a tour of a lush African savanna, home to exotic animals.”

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Searching for information about Kilimanjaro Safaris I learned it is also an attraction at Disney's Animal Kingdom on the Walt Disney World Resort property in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. It simulates an open-sided safari ride through the savanna of East Africa.

The original Kilimanjaro Safari of course can only be found in Tanzania. If you are lucky you can spot elephants, rhinos, lions, giraffes, baboons, cheetahs, warthogs,  Saddle-billedstorks, snakes and many other.

Thx one more time Steve!