Tag Archives: history Point Nepean National Park is a special place with a long and visible history. It sits at the very edge of Melbourne, Victoria: the city wraps itself around Port Phillip, and from the southeast tip here at Point Nepean, you can almost throw a stone across the Victory Bight to the southwestern Melbourne suburb of […]  August 1st is Swiss National Day, and thanks to William Tell, Switzerland’s independence will always be associated with apples. Who doesn’t know the story of that legendary Swiss hero? That mountain man, that peasant from Bürglen in the canton of Uri, who resisted the commands of a tyrannical overlord, and was then forced to shoot […]  Bad lighting and dancing shadows lend an eerie air of animation to the figures on the walls all around us. Intricately carved pillars and beautifully restored wall-reliefs contrast with uneven stones and rough scaffolding: it truly is surreal walking after dark through structures built over 2000 years ago. My Nile river boat was rafted up […]  The United Kingdom takes great pride in its naval history. Separated by water from the rest of Europe since around 6500 BC., what are now the British Isles have always had a relationship with the sea for their livelihood and for trade. The Phoenicians in Iron Age Europe mention the trade route to England for […]  I love the old cobbled cities of Europe, and the historical stories they tell. I spent some of my school years living in the French-speaking parts of Eastern Canada where the historical root and ties were to France. When I was studying the history of the early European explorers and settlers in Canada, their names […] |
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