Guyana

WOOT! New country Guyana added to the collection. It's been quite some time since I've been able to cross a country from the Americas off my list, so quite enthusiastic to get one now. (Last one was Colombia back in 2011). Postcard is from the capital of Georgetown and shows Saint George's Anglican Cathedral on Guyana's tentative World Heritage List. It was built in 1889–1894 and, measuring 43.5 metres, is one of the world's tallest wooden buildings.

Stamp from a 1997 set of 24 commemorating George Washington on the 200th anniversary of his death. Stamp seems to depict George and the Founding Fathers, maybe signing the Declaration of Independence. 

United Arab Emirates

Long skinny postcard showing Dubai's famous Burj Al Arab Hotel. The hotel is renowned for being highly luxurious and is sometimes billed as the world's only "seven star" hotel. The Royal Suite, billed at US$18,776 per night, is one of the most expensive hotel rooms in the world.

Many thanks to Salah for swapping cards. You can check out Salah's postcard blog, ASDF Postcrossing.

Joint stamp set commemorating Arab Postal Day 2008, which highlights cooperation and communication among Arab States in the field of postal services.

East Timor

Woohooooo!! Welcoming new country, East Timor, to my collection. With this, I am very near to getting a card from every country in Asia – the first continent to be struck from my list! Super-huge gigantoid bear hug and around-the-world high five to friend Nancy, who arranged to have a family member send this to me! Muito obrigado and 謝謝!

There was no info about the picture, so I assumed it was of Dili harbour, but was able to discern that this is, in fact, Central Maritime Hotel, indeed in capital, Dili. The hotel was previously a cruise ship that was converted into a hotel!

Stamp depicts José Ramos Horta, the second President of East Timor and a founder the FRETILIN party that struggled against the Indonesia occupation of the country. He was co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for "sustained efforts to hinder the oppression of a small people", hoping that the award would spur efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the East Timor conflict. Independence was finally restored in 2002.

Czechoslovakia II

A postcard from my archives of the Czechoslovakian spa resort of Mariánské Lázně in eastern, modern-day Czech Republic. The spa was popular with the nobility of Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century, when many celebrities and top European rulers came to enjoy the curative carbon dioxide springs and features a wealth of fine architecture from the period. The spas hosted the likes of Goethe, Frédéric Chopin, Thomas Edison, Richard Wagner, King Edward VII of England, Russian Czar Nicholas II, and Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph I, and many others. On the Czech Republic UNESCO Tentative List as a part of the West Bohemian Spa Triangle.

Groovy stamp from 1987 about atomic energy.

Italy II

Postcard showing the Doge's Palace, and the Piazza San Marco, part of the Venice and its Lagoon World Heritage site. The Palace, built in 1340 in Venetian Gothic style was the home of the Doge, the leader of the Venetian Republic, elected from an inner circle of powerful Venetian families. One of the doge's ceremonial duties was to celebrate the symbolic marriage of Venice with the sea. This was done each Spring by casting a ring from an elaborate barge into the Adriatic. The doges rules the Venetian Empire for more than one thousand years before being forced to abdicate by Napoleon in 1797.

Many thanks to friend Laura who was visiting.

Two not terribly exciting definitive stamps from the Italian Posts.