Category Archives: History The Swiss city of Bern is indelibly associated with bears. The bear has featured on the city seal and coat of arms since at least the 1220s. Stories relating to the keeping of live bears in a Bärengraben (bear pit) in the centre of the city – in what is still called Bärenplatz (Bear Plaza) – date back to the 1440s (or 1513 – depending on your […]  Woods and water are the central features of Canada’s Sunshine Coast. This rugged, mountainous, landscape on the southern-mainland coast of British Columbia (BC) in Canada’s west is bounded by the Coast Mountains on one side and the Strait of Georgia on the other. Although it’s just a stone’s throw from Vancouver, no access roads have been built around the fjords or through the […]  Seen one castle, seen them all? Not quite! During our wet month in Ireland in 2012 (Ireland), we visited a lot of castles in various states of ruin, renovation, or disrepair. What surprised me most was how different they all actually are. Perhaps it was the brief respite from the rain, but my husband and […]  Tennessee is in the middle of “The South”; Middle Tennessee is – as you’d expect – in the middle of the state; and the area south of Nashville is – more or less – “the middle” of the middle. Middle Tennessee is known for its farms, beautiful horses, rolling green landscape, and bluegrass-country music. Although it is defined by the serpentine curves of the Tennessee River, it […]  When travelling in search of natural phenomena, luck is everything. My husband and I visited Iceland last March for a three-day visit. We were already going to be in England during the northern winter, so when I saw the package “deals” to see the strong>Northern Lights and to go Whale Watching on the North Atlantic, […] |
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