Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Monthly Favorite Surprise RR * January '16

This year I've been joining all these RR's so far and I've already joined next month RR. In the 1st month of the year I've received cards from USA, Russia, Ukraine and Germany.

Cynthia grew up next to the volcanoes of  Hawaii. The card has no identification of this vulcano though but Cynthia said it is located on the Big Island. 

In December Rita sent me one of my favorite cards, in January she sent me another favorite!! This one is from Kaliningrad and it shows the King's Gate. 
The King's Gate is one of the former six gates that were built during the 19th century around Kaliningrad (the former German city of Königsberg). 
The King's Gate was originally the Gumbinnen Gate (German: Gumbinner Tor), built in 1765 at the edge of the district Neue Sorge. In 1811 it was renamed the King's Gate and was the terminus of the Königstraße boulevard. The gate was redesigned by Friedrich August Stüler in 1850. The west facade has three sandstone statues.
The gate was damaged during the Second World War. Furthermore, as a first victory celebration, Soviet soldiers decapitated the statues. With the celebration of the city's 750-year existence in June 2005, the gate was renovated. A few months before the beginning of the festivities, the gate was still in a desolate condition. Within a few weeks, however, the gate was restored to its condition before the war. Fully restored statues replaced the decapitated ones on the gate with this renovation. - in: wikipedia

Last September I've been to Kiev for a couple of hours, I really wanted to visit St. Sophia Cathedral but the weather was so bad that my friends and I decided to go to the airport instead. Maybe next time.
Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev is an outstanding architectural monument of Kievan Rus'. The cathedral is one of the city's best known landmarks and the first heritage site in Ukraine to be inscribed on the World Heritage List along with the Kiev Cave Monastery complex. - in: wikipedia
The card was sent by Lera.

Foto: Szyszka, Erfurt
I love it when I get to discover some interresting places or monuments thanks to cards. Anne sent be this Erfurt's card with the local Krämerbrücke - Merchants' Bridge. I've never heard about this bridge and now I want to see it. 
The Merchants' Bridge (Krämerbrücke) is the longest series of inhabited buildings on any bridge in Europe. The Merchants' Bridge is Erfurts most interesting secular construction, initially in wood but rebuilt in stone in 1325. There were originally 62 narrow buildings along its 120-metre length, but subsequent redevelopment left just 32 buildings. Of what was once a pair of bridgehead churches, only the Church of St. Aegidius remains at the eastern end of the bridge today.
 The Merchants' Bridge is lined with galleries, cafés and boutiques offering traditional crafts, Thuringian blue printed fabrics, hand-painted ceramics, handblown glassware, jewellery, wood carvings, antiques and delicious Thuringian specialities - perfect for browsing. - in: http://www.erfurt-tourismus.de/en/all-about-erfurt/places-of-interest/merchants-bridge/

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