Monthly Archives: September 2014
Parliamentary Palace III – Deja Vu
Before July I had never visited Bucharest, or anywhere else in Romania. However, when we arrived at the Palace of the Parliament, I had the definite sense that this was a place I had been before. Yes, I had read a bit about it before the trip; I knew it was in the Guinness Book […]
Parliamentary Palace II – Michael Jackson Was Here
There was a movie (which I have never seen) that was very popular in 1969 titled “If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium.” That I think is a pretty common feeling for anyone traveling through a number of countries in a short period of time: you can feel a little disoriented when you wake up […]
Parliamentary Palace I – Massive Excess in Bucharest
It’s huge. No, actually it is gigantic. Or colossal – you choose the adjective. The Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania, is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s second largest office building, after the Pentagon in Washington, and also as the heaviest building. More than 700,000 tonnes of steel […]
The World is Watching
It seems like everyone has an opinion on the September 18 independence referendum to be held in Scotland, except me. I probably should have paid more attention to the upcoming vote, but really, why should I care? My family left Scotland in 1843; I may have some distant cousins still living there now, but I […]
Out Of Control
Artificial intelligence was very much at the forefront of my consciousness when we visited The Atomium in Brussels. For the past couple of years they have had a digital art display as part of the museum, and for 2014 the special exhibit was titled Out of Control. It’s a look at a battle between a […]
When in Lippstadt…
Traditions are a big part of our lives. There is a comfort in the familiar – and that is especially true when you are traveling. As a stranger in a strange land, sometimes you just want something that feels like home. That may be why I had an ice cream cone at McDonald’s in downtown […]
Songs of Innocence
We interrupt these vacation memories for an important cultural announcement: U2 have released a new album, their first in five years. It is already the most widely distributed album of all time, as it was made instantly available for free to the subscribers to Apple’s iTunes service, at least 500 million people. “Free” to subscribers […]
Something Rotten in Parliament
One of the fun things about a vacation, for me anyway, is traveling to locations that can bring history alive in a new way, places like Dunwich, a village in Suffolk County on England’s North Sea Coast. I had never heard of the town before our English hosts, Peter and Charlotte, suggested we drive there, […]
Keeping Score in the War That Never Ends
A century later, it haunts them still. The last Canadian veteran of the First World War died in 2010, and I would imagine that is pretty much the case in most countries. The generation that fought and survived the bloody battles in France and Belgium from 1914-18 has now passed into the history books. But […]
Franz Liszt Played Here
In downtown Bucharest it seems there is a plaque on every second building, indicating some semi-interesting historical information to be shared in Romanian, English and French. Unable to resist the printed word in any form, I looked at the plaque on Capsa House, and discovered that its claim to fame was a recital given there […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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