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Europe 2022: A Mixed Museum Experience

I have always loved history. One of my favourite forms of relaxation is to curl up with a book that can teach me something about a time or place that is unfamiliar to me. With that in mind, it would seem to be a natural extension to assume that I enjoy visiting museums. Because they’re …

Normandy – It Just Felt Odd

I love visiting countries where English isn’t the primary language spoken – language is so much a part of a culture and a national identity. But, as someone who speaks only a smattering of other languages, communicating in these countries can sometimes pose a bit of a problem. I usually find that people in the …

Normandy: A 950-Year-Old Tapestry

Having said that my primary interest in going to Normandy was to discover a little of the history of the area at the time of William the Conqueror, who successfully invaded England in 1066, the Bayeux Tapestry seemed a good place for me to start. The Tapestry is a 70-metre-long embroidery depicting the story of …

Why Visit Normandy?

So, now that we’ve arrived in Normandy, I guess the next important question is what we’re going to do while we’re there? For my husband Craig, the obvious answer was to visit the sites of the WWII Normandy landings – not just the beaches themselves, although Omaha and Utah were easily within driving distance from …

Deciding on a Destination

Craig and I have a tradition. When we travel to a new country, we buy a small flag of whatever country we’ve been to. These flags are displayed in our indoor braai room –barbeque, for those who aren’t South African. So far, we’ve collected around 20 flags. This begs the question of why our recent …

Fiction Becomes Reality

When I was in high school I went through a protracted phase of devouring any novel or movie I could lay my hands on that was set during WWII. Even now, every now and then I’ll settle down to enjoy a book that’ll take me back to this period in history. So it’s no surprise …

Where Two Roads Intersect

Those of you who know the Oedipus myth will understand one of the reasons for the title of this article. For those who don’t, a crossing of roads plays a rather significant part in the Oedipus story… well, actually a three-way stop, but I’m sure you’ll forgive me the liberty. According to the myth, Oedipus …

My Greek Odyssey

Okay, so perhaps I didn’t go island hopping for 10 years like Odysseus did on his way home from the trojan War as described in Homer’s The Odyssey, but I felt my recent trip to Greece was no less of an an epic adventure than that great work! Over the next few weeks I’m going …