Guess the City

hint please

Murmansk?

https://www.google.com/maps/@68.9856794,33.0948002,3a,75y,236.84h,98.28t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sQ3f5F9Uml4uE4z6pmi8FMQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

YES !!!

https://www.google.com/maps/@68.9826598,33.0955864,3a,75y,310.18h,90.87t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1smrhk13lnCidCsu5I8f-pFg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

https://www.google.com/maps/@68.9860639,33.0960879,3a,75y,254.58h,85.36t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sujAKG6gpXnAIlhBb_1WQsw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

I mean, it was clear from your link that that was THE lighthouse :-)

oh...

https://dissolve.com/stock-photo/Monument-Sailors-Kursk-Murmansk-Russia-royalty-free-image/101-D246-103-494

Murmansk it is

https://i.ibb.co/KGxhVwH/Screenshot-2021-11-02-at-16-59-32.png

Quite a fan of this, one step back from ShariVari's link

That's very Murmansk

Quintessential!

https://i.ibb.co/M8MfYwJ/cmas.jpg

Tis (almost) the season

colonial feel and all the pictures are of white people dressed warmly, guessing either Canada or New Zealand

isn't that rotating wooden candle thing German? (iirc it's called a pyramid?)

... doesn't place this picture in Germany, obv

Card is in English "Christmas Pyramid."

And I'm always amused at the thought of the Google photo-car rumbling through museums, offices, etc.

The electrical outlet is infuriatingly blurry. Can't tell if its US, UK or Euro style.

This is some kind of museum, right?

that's a US outlet imo, because the sockets are one above each other, which doesn't work for UK plugs.

also those vestments look popish.

A cursory google suggests there aren't loads of churches or cathedrals with that single-spire-and-two-tower structure but so far checking museums in the two UK cities which seem to have such a cathedral (Lichfield and Truro) has turned up nothing

the black and white photo of santa also looks very mid-century US.

anyone recognize those churches as ... boston?

If it's the US I'd guess its some museum display about Christmas as celebrated by German immigrants, so most likely somewhere in the upper Midwest. Puzzled by the photo on the right, looks like a Santa standing next to some pianos out on the street? The caption seems to read "(Illegible) Music Store Santa"

i don't get a german american vibe fwiw (i get that this is a museum or whatever, but those pink vestments do feel v catholic)

That Santa photo on the right, taken outside next to a large sign. Lifts? Litts? Maybe an old deparment store?

There's another set of letters in the background, KUM, could be a radio station? There's a WKUM in Puerto Rico

this all feels like some "here's how pope X celebrated christmas when he was a child" display to me - and those three tower pictures... Germany/Austria/Switzerland/Italy?

I don't think it's Ratzinger, this is in his childhood house in Marktl, Bavaria (where they have a couple of free standing square towers but nothing 100% like on those pics): https://www.papsthaus.eu/index.php?page=biografie-raeume

not John Paul II either https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOizlB4Guq8S5BuN8i-qyBkKkaf1P22OBeFmsa6ifPlIaKtPIoqo-BzmAGJsRXg-g?key=MGlVZW85VWx3Qmo1TlJ2dWppZHhjLTd5WGxIY3Fn

That totally makes sense. Though it looks a bit threadbare for a pope's museum. Maybe a cardinal or other luminary of the church?

a small parish when they worked before they got promoted maybe - but we can't go too far back either - when was Santa invented again? he did exist before coca cola gave him the red suit in the early 20th century, right?

it's the saddest christmas tree ever as well. a sign of poverty/famine/wartime?

oh yeah, father christmas and saint Nicholas existed before. but that Santa Claus look isn't too old imho

don't think it's a real tree, but in general I love spindly christmas trees

the wooden shepherd's cane could be famous, dunno?

not Father Pio either I think (stigmata dude in italy)

it could just as easily be "this is what (priest dude) brought with him from his home land" - turning it into a "could be anywhere in the world" deal. In short, I give up. Can I request a second pic?

Salzburg Christmas museum / Weihnachtsmuseum?

that looks way more professional than the pic we've got, I think

that "ho ho ho" got me wondering... Was that associated with Father Christmas in continental Europe forever or is it a relatively recent import from the English speaking world?

The one label I could read was in English ("Christmas Pyramid" with no apparent non-English co-label) so I assume it's in the English speaking world.

I think this has got to be US - English writing puts it in the Anglophone world, and this just doesn't feel very British/Commonwealth. Popish robes a bit of a mystery though. Writing in the Santa photo looks like 'Tafts' maybe?

cardinals wear red too - do any famous imported german/european ones spring to mind?

The power outlets are American

Looks like pianos in the Santa Claus vintage photo? Don't think that helps much

Oops already noted

Need something to grease these wheels

Not a huge fan of these indoor ones if I'm being honest

I feel like we haven't been able to get enough info from those three drawings/paintings of 1. a church that looks a bit like Notre Dame in Paris (two towers at one end but this one has a bigger one on the other end so it's not Notre Dame) - then below that 2. a big white castle/fort type building in the mountains and the third pic is a 3. rectangular tower + horses + something with stairs... None of this rings a clear bell with me though, no idea where/how to start searching for them.

The family photo with a way more healthy christmas tree... grandad, dad, 4 kids and mother? (I thought people had like at least 15 kids before WWII, is this a wartime/depression inspired tiny family?)

Top left corner of the "Santa on the street with a white piano (and maybe a second piano?)" picture: it's a store's name I guess, but what does it say? Lafis? Tafis? Tafts?

the KUM that waterface already mentioned in that same pic (organs instead of pianos maybe?) : could be KUH or XUH too?

Yeah sorry, I'm repeating info other people had already noticed aren't I - meh

Not a huge fan of these indoor ones if I'm being honest

― ignore the blue line (or something), Wednesday, November 10, 2021 9:03 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

heavy cosign. this isn't "Guess the Interior"