FDC from India: Kanwar Ram Sahib

Kanwar Ram Sahib was born in April 1885 in a small village Jarwar of Sukkur District in Sindh(now in Pakistan) to devout and pious parents. His name Kanwar Ram, in Sindhi denotes "LOTUS". Kanwar Ram Sahib went on to become a luminary of Sindhi people. He advocated peace, nonviolence and communal harmony. He was endowed with a divine voice which he effectively adopted for "Bhagat", a folk-art form of storytelling, with a fusion of song, dance and drama. He radicalized devotional singing and gave a new thrust to Sindhi Soofi lyrical fork music. He divine message of love, unity and peace touched the souls of countless people irrespective of caste, color, creed and religions.

Beach of Boscombe

Boscombe is a suburb of the much larger Bournemouth. Boscombe is by the sea and it has its own pier, which was built in 1888, with a unique aircraft-wings design added in the 1950s at the entrance which is a listed building.

The area upon which Boscombe is situated, between the somewhat older village of Pokesdown and Bournemouth Square was part of the great heathland which covered much of western Hampshire, and extended well into eastern Dorset. It has a long sandy beach and Boscombe Cliff Gardens offers views of the bay that stretches around from Hengistbury Head to Bournemouth and to Alum Chine and the entrance to Poole Harbour. Boscombe was originally an independent settlement, separated from Bournemouth by dense wood and moorland. Boscombe was incorporated into the boundaries of Bournemouth in 1876 (against the wishes of Boscombe residents).

Florence, Tuscany

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 367,569 inhabitants (1,500,000 in the metropolitan area).

The city lies on the River Arno and is known for its history and its importance in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance, especially for its art and architecture. A centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the richest and wealthiest cities of the time, Florence is considered the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance; in fact, it has been called the Athens of the Middle Ages. It was long under the de facto rule of the Medici family. From 1865 to 1870 the city was also the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.

The historic centre of Florence attracts millions of tourists each year and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. Florence is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and its artistic, historic and cultural heritage and impact in the world remains vast up to this day. The city has also a major European impact in music, architecture, education, cuisine, fashion, philosophy, science and religion. The historic centre of Florence contains numerous elegant squares (piazzas), Renaissance palaces (palazzi), academies, parks, gardens, churches, monasteries, museums, art galleries and ateliers. The city has also been nominated, according to a 2007 study, as the most desirable destination for tourists in the world.

Exploring the Expo 2010 in Shanghai (3)

Cover from Argentina

This is my first philatelic item from Argentine and many thanks to Viviana!

Anping

Anping District is a district of Tainan City. The history of Anping dates back to the 17th century, when Dutch East India Company occupied Taiwan. In the period of the Japanese occupation, the history of trade between China and Japan unfolded at Anping. Anping was originally a small island separated from the mainland of Tainan until the 19th century. Due to the ocean current, the small lagoon between Anping island and Tainan was silted up and gradually disappeared, and Anping became a part of Tainan.

Bochnia, Poland

Bochnia is a town of 30,000 inhabitants on the river Raba in southern Poland. The town lies approximately in halfway [38 kilometres (24 mi)] between Tarnów (east) and the regional capital Kraków (west). Bochnia is most noted for its salt mine, the oldest functioning in Europe, built circa 1248. Since Poland's administrative reorganization in 1999, Bochnia has been the administrative capital of Bochnia County in Lesser Poland Voivodeship. Before reorganization it was part of Tarnów Voivodeship.

Bochnia is one of the oldest cities of Lesser Poland. The first known source mentioning the city is a letter of 1198, wherein Aymar the Monk, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, confirmed a donation by local magnate Mikora Gryfit to the monastery of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre in Miechów. The discovery of a major vein of rock salt at the site of the present mine in 1248 led to the granting of city privileges (Magdeburg rights) on 27 February 1253 by Bolesław V the Chaste.

Semperoper, Dresden

The Semperoper is the opera house of the Saxon State Opera Dresden and the concert hall of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden in Dresden, Germany. It was first built in 1841, by architect Gottfried Semper.

The building is considered to be a prime example of "Dresden-Baroque" architecture. It is situated on the Theater Square in central Dresden on the bank of the Elbe River. On top of the portal there is a Panther quadriga with a statue of Dionysos. The interior was created by such famous architects of the time as Johannes Schilling. Monuments on the portal depict famous artists such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, William Shakespeare, Sophocles, Molière and Euripides. The building also features work by Ernst Rietschel and Ernst Julius Hähnel. In the pre-war years, the building premiered many of the works of Richard Strauss. During the last weeks of World War II in 1945 the building was destroyed again - this time by Allied bombing and the subsequent fire storms. Exactly 40 years later, on February 13, 1985 the opera was rebuilt almost the same as it was before the war.

FDC from Croatia: Expo 2010

On April 29th Post Croatia issued a block on the theme Expo 2010 in Shanghai. Many thanks to Koric for this nice FDC from his hometown. On the left you may see the Croatia Pavillion.
Last month I visited the Croatia Pavillion and here are two photos of it. The first one shows the gate of the pavillion.
The second one is just the same as it is printed on the cover.

Sartų Regional Park

I did not find too much information about "sala Sartų ežere", but I'm sure that it's a regional park with lakes and many small islands. It's located in the north-eastern part of Lithuania.