Sunday, October 24, 2010

Two Places Worth A Visit , Both UNESCO W H Sites

Hello again. I have a short update for today. Canada doesn't have mail delivery on the weekend and on top of that I actually only received a couple of postcards all of last week. Must be a shortage of cards worldwide, I guess. As a result, I have just 2 cards for this time.

The first card today comes to us from Vilnius, Lithuania , compliments of Marganta, an international business student who also happens to be a Postcrosser. The card shows a large sand dune, part of the Curonian Spit. The Curonian Spit is a 98 km long thin curved sand dune that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. The northern 52 km of the spit belongs to Lithuania while the rest is part of the Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. The width of the dune varies from 400m to 3800m, while the average height is 35m but heights of 60m have been attained. The Curonian Spit was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list in 2000.
Marganta used a great stamp , one of a set of 2, issued in 1999 featuring items from a war museum.

Card #2 comes from Northern Ireland, U.K. It shows a portion of the Giant's Causeway. Located near Bushmills, County Antrim, Northern Ireland , the Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns. Often referred to as the eight wonder of the world, this remarkable arrangement of stones calls for an explanation. The peculiar columnar formation was caused by slow and irregular cooling of lava which produced hexagonal cracks. Although the stones are mainly six sided there are some of 3, 5, 7, and 8 sides. The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear into the sea.
The card was sent by David who has often contributed a postcard to this blog. In fact , in addition to cards, I have received quite a bit of good and relevant information, that has helped me a lot. Thanks David. David used 2 stamps on his card. The smaller one on the left is a 2007 regional issue featuring stones from the Giant's Causeway. The larger stamp is from a 2010 set of 6 featuring Winnie the Pooh.

That's about it for this time. Hopefully a few postcards will arrive in tomorrow's mail. Stay tuned.
As I mentioned in the title of this update, both places featured here today would be great places to visit. I can only hope. Take care.

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