Category Travel
York, 306 A.D: The World Is Watching
York was not on the original summer itinerary. The plan was to go to England’s Lakes District and do some hiking. But by the time we decided that as our final destination the price of accommodations was sky high, so we looked for cheaper options that would be just as interesting. Compared to York, I […]
Searching For Dracula
Dracula is everywhere in Romania, perhaps the country’s biggest tourist draw. But a flawed one that many Romanians are ambivalent about. Tourist cash is welcome, but I got the impression that vampires are not a favorite topic. Irish novelist Bram Stoker had never been to Romania when he set his 1897 vampire novel Dracula in […]
All This For A Song
It’s a monument to creativity, seven floors in downtown Brussels devoted to musical instruments. But there was no cigar box banjo. Admission is free at the Musical Instruments Museum on Wednesdays, so we planned our visit for then. That turned out to be a good decision: I hate wasting money and Vivian wasn’t enthralled as […]
Waiting on Juno Beach
They knew it was coming. Not the exact date or time, but there was a sense of inevitability. One day they would look out of the bunker and the English Channel would be filled with ships and soldiers. They couldn’t take comfort in the propaganda boasts about the impregnability of their Atlantic Wall. They worked […]
The Bayeux Tapestry
When it all boils down to it, it’s just a big piece of cloth. But they built a multi-story museum to hold it and tell its story because it is no ordinary piece of cloth. The Bayeux Tapestry tells the pictorial story of William the Conqueror and the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. It […]
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 […]
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 […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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