Connecting the World with #LinkingPostcards

The beginning of our RoadTrip 2017 was in Chicago at this wonderful place in Grant Park - the Buckingham Fountain - 

Going on a long trip across the USA The planning of the road trip is almost completed and the day we start our journey is getting closer with every day that passes. We had to change our complete route back - some road closures, fire hazards in some areas along the road, and the chosen route is too long for two weeks. The output of the route length was in Miles and I was calculating with kilometers ... thus we have to shorten our itinerary and will have to leave some areas for another trip. Which also means, we're going to get back ...

Kloster Seeon, Chiemgau, Bavaria Was already sent to Albergo Pradat  in Corvara , Alta Badia in South Tyrol on April 1, 2017. No answer so far, not even a private note or mail ... feeling sad for this, as this is one of our  favorite hotels in South Tyrol.

special moments - in a special place -  with special people That is our favorite little hotel in Styria, Austria: das onkel fritz  am Semmering, in the neighborhood of the UNESCO World Heritage, Semmering Railway . Thank you  Fam. Rottenschlager for taking part at my initiative of # LinkingPostcards ... Magic Mountain Flair around the Semmering ...  20 Schilling Bill before 2002 Specially created for #LinkingPostcards this wonderful scene from the Magic Mountain along the Semmering Railway. This place is on the favorite hiking tour of the Rottenschlager Family, who own our favorite little romantic hotel, and take every spare minute to get out into nature. The motive on the # LinkingPostcard used to be once on the reverse of a 20 Schilling bill (Austrian official currency before the Euro) - see left hand side picture. The card I selected for sending them, is a quiet and relaxing place on my favorite lake: Chiemsee. I selected this card to sen...

Thank you so much Leo Deegan , that was really a big surprise, that moved me to tears. It is the most wonderful thing that happened with #LinkingPostcards and I'm sure quite sure, no one will be able to excel this. Now let me present you the #LinkingPostcard Luca, that 5 year old Luca Deegan has created for me. SuperLuca on the left is shooting electricity to a bad guy.  (I need your help Leo with the word in your letter) Just little things like this - not being able to find out what one word means - makes a letter even more personal. Like many children of his age. "Luca is really into superheroes, so much so that he made up his own SuperLuca, his daddy told me in his handwritten letter. Flying into the sunset ... one of my favorite pictures taken on the island of Madeira (Portugal). While my partner and I were watching the sunset, I saw this plane just taking off and heading for the sunset, all over the Atlantic Ocean. Now the card took the same way heading ...

The shortest distance so far to create a pair of #LinkingPostcards. This card was sent by Wilhelm Hellstern  a cousin of mine from Weingarten. Wilhelm is an artist himself and does wonderful paintings. He started to create a collection for his artwork, but did not add anything to it so far. Let's hope he will do so soon, so you can also see his wonderful ArtWork. The card he sent to me is from Kastelruth in South Tyrol with the typical Haflinger Horses . We both love South Tyrol with its wonderful landscapes. Knowing that he loves South Tyrol, also my card was shot in that wonderful region in the Dolomites It's a sort of Highland Cattle we saw at Würzjoch (a mountain pass in the heart of the Dolomites. The stamp shows the pavilion in our city park. Starting with the middle of May every Sunday afternoon there is a free event taking place within the pavilion. It can be a choir singing, a band playing, a group dancing ... all local artists from Waldkraiburg an...

Yet another link on our global chain of #LinkingPostcards completed. It connects Bavaria with North-Rhein-Westphalia  - the South of Germany with the North. This card comes from Susanne Stelle   and was sent from Krefeld in Northern Germany. Susanne "always looks on the bright side of life" and she was also one of those people to immediately say yes, when learning about the postcard exchange in real life. The card I received from Susanne was shot on the Island of Mallorca. For having to wait so long for my answer, Susanne received two cards from me. She is the first one to receive a postcard from me in my own country, but I had only stamps for outside Germany. Also something went wrong with my first order and I didn't get any sent. Placing another order, everything worked perfectly, but Susanne had to wait for so long, so she got two cards, one for the # LinkingPostcards initiative and the other one for the waiting. I thought she might like one of my shot...

Initially I wanted one pair of #LinkingPostcards shown in one layer, but recently I found out that the number of layers you can use within a map is limited to 10. Never used more than about 4 - 5 layers before, just when I started to plan my next USA trip Now I created a layer called "Headquarter" - that is the city I live in and wherefrom the #LinkingPostcards started and will spread hopefully all over the world. As it symbolizes the home of #LinkingPostcards, the icon used to show on the map is going to be the HOME (house) icon. For every continent I'm going to create a new layer, and within the layer all the countries, counties and locations I get a card from. The continents will not be displayed in alphabetical order, but in the order I received the first card from that continent. The locations where the cards come from, are marked with a camera-icon on the map. There is going to be a different color for every continent. As my very first #LinkingPostcards r...

This link is a very special link for me in more than one regard. It is the first link that was created with a person outside of Google+ and this person is my cousin Inge Covaciu. She lives in the city called Sântana near Arad in the country I was born and grew up - Romania. Beautiful Romania ... She has many good photos and could not decide which ones to send, so I got a total of 5, 3 of which I would like to present you here. When I went to school in the neighboring town of Arad, I used to commute by train, that was driven by such a steam engine, as shown on the left picture. Wonderful memories from my teenage years. The colorful trees can be found in a small village in the Western Carpathian Mountains called Bucium . There are some interesting basaltic rocks in the area, that break from their places and slide down from time to time, but it's also a wonderful place for hiking. The flowers and herbs in the lower right corner photo are in her own garden. Beautiful B...

Am 1. März dieses Jahres habe ich eine Aktion gestartet, sich gegenseitig eigene Postkarten oder ausgedruckte Aufnahmen von einem selbst gemachten Foto auf dem normalen Postweg handgeschrieben zu verschicken. ein kleiner Überblick der bereits vorhandenen, aber teilweise schon verschickten Postkarten Wie alles begann - ein Blick hinter die Kulissen  Im Juli 2016 hatte ich auf dem ersten Europäischen Route 66 Festival in Ofterdingen meine erste eigene Foto-Ausstellung vorrangig mit Aufnahmen von der Route 66. Zu dieser Veranstaltung habe ich auch etwa 100 Postkarten mit Motiven meiner Bilder von der Route 66, aber auch vom Südwesten der USA und aus Europa einschließlich meiner Heimat Bayern drucken lassen und diese mit einem Sticker mit meinen Kontaktdaten versehen. Ich wollte nicht nur den Deutschen die Route 66 näherbringen, sondern auch den Gästen, die den weiten Weg über den Ozean gemacht haben, um an diesem Festival teilzunehmen, ein wenig meine Heimat zeigen - denn ich v...

Link number 3 on the global chain of # LinkingPostcards completed. This link connects Slovakia with Germany, Bratislava with Waldkraiburg in Bavaria. These dreamlike photos come almost from the neighborhood, if compared with the first two links Michal Vörös , the author of these marvelous postcards caught my eyes with such blurred, mostly minimalist images, like out of a dream. I'm so happy he's among those, who immediately said - I want to participate. The card Michal received from me is the Icarus I found on the island of Tenerife . Dreams are my reality , Michal says in his profile description and live, love laugh ...  That's one of the reasons I selected Icarus the dreamer, which fits his description so well, but even more the inscription on the wall " FINCA PURA VIDA " which means PURE LIFE ESTATE (property) ... Watching his lovely Donna you can feel this pure life emerging out of his photos.  The stamp is a detail from a calender (a machin...

The first cards coming from an European country: Slovakia Michal Vörös Thank you Michal . Your card put that huge smile you sent me on my face. I love your dreamscapes a lot and will keep them in safe place. As soon as you receive mine, it's already on its way to you, please send me a picture of the card and stamp as the others did, so I can create the connection in a blog article and on the # LinkingPostcardsMap . Link created - please click here to view the post   The first card that did not cross the German border to reach me, but it was shot on the Island of Mallorca. Susanne Stelle Dear Susanne , I'm afraid you will have to wait a few more days before I can send you one of my cards. When I ordered my special stamps, did not consider I might send any cards to someone in Germany, but I would like to send all my cards with this special kind of unique stamps. I hope it's going to be worth waiting. Link created - please click here to view the post The ...

The second link on this hopefully endless chain of # LinkingPostcards was created between Germany and New Zealand. That's over one day away by airplane. This time the card came in an envelope with handwritten letter. I can't even remember when I got my last handwritten letter. Even if I received a letter by regular mail from friends the content was computer printed. Only the envelope was handwritten. Came from DownUnder all the way to Bavaria Together with Luci Westphal from Colorado, Maire Thompson was my inspiration for starting the chain of # LinkingPostcards . It was wonderful reading about the place you live, seems to be a wonderful place, and thank you for inspiring me to start this chain of # LinkingPostcards . Burghausen the longest castle in Europe went all the long way to New Zealand Last Sunday, however, I read on a plate giving information on the castle for tourists, that it's the longest castle in the world. Whether the longest in Europe or ...

The very first card I ever received within this action of #LinkingPostcards came all the way over from Coloarado in the United States of America and it shows one of my favorite places, that I visited twice, so far. It was so wonderful to hear, that Luci Westphal , the sender of the card, was there too and so was her father. 3 people, 3 different times, same place Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde, Colorado Luci was also my inspiration for starting this chain of #LinkingPostcards together with Maire Thompson from New Zealand.  This card went all the way over the Atlantic Ocean to Colorado. This is Chiemsee, my favorite Bavarian Lake in Feldwies / Übersee The image on this card was shot at my favorite Bavarian lake - Chiemsee. It's about 30 min. drive from where I live. After a long way of work, being stressed and tired, we would go some place at the lake just to relax enjoy the sunset. This is a special place, that has deckchairs the year through outside (provided it...

The idea of exchanging own creations on postcards or printed photographs didn't stop with the collection. I wanted to have an overview, where all my cards were sent to, and where from I got a card back. But this is impossible to be realized with Google+ Collections. I want to see all the locations were my cards have been sent to on a map, and by the end of the year I'm going to check how many continents, countries, locations and people we connect with #LinkingPostcards . Missing Link between sender, recipient and # LinkingPostcards Map If you receive one of my cards, please take a photo of the card and the stamp. You may either post it publicly or send me the photo in a private message (if you do not want your name to be published). If publicly posted, please do not forget to share it with me, too. I might not see or omit it because of too many new postings in my stream. The photo is meant to be included in this blog and added to the appropriate location on the #Lin...