Tag Archives: museum

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 […]

View full post »

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 […]

View full post »

“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….” I saw on the news this week that Princess Leia’s iconic gold bikini from Return of the Jedi going to auction shortly, and is expected to fetch between $80,000 and $120,000 USD. I was a keen fan of those original Star Wars movies: not such a […]

View full post »

Rajasthan is known for it’s colourful fabrics: especially the “crowning” turbans of the men which hark back to the Rajput land-owners and rulers. Traditionally, the size and style of the turban denoted status and rank, and different colours were worn for different purposes, like weddings and celebrations, or during different seasons. Holy men in white or saffron turbans are […]

View full post »

A castle, cheese, wine and chocolate: what’s not to love about Gruyères? We were meant to be hiking around Leysin in the Swiss Alps, but it was raining, and had been for days. We went through the guide books and asked locals about alternative amusements (q.v.: A Trip to the Salt Mines). The medieval town of Gruyères was three train-hops away […]

View full post »