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A Virtual Tour through Mediaeval Bruges
The weather turned into a mix of sunshine and clouds during the days I spent in Bruges, but despite the dramatic appearance of some of those clouds, it never rained. A tour on the canals is very...
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Roman and Mediaeval Vestiges in Tongeren
On my way back, I spent a day in Tongeren, a smaller town that often gets missed by tourists focussing on the Big Three, though it is well worth a visit. It is a nice place with some impressive Roman...
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12th Bloggiversary
My blog is celebrating its 12th anniversary this year. This makes it one of the rare species of Neanderthal blogs surving the rise of Homo Facebookiensis and Homo Instagramis - though I can still find...
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Border Castle and Forester's Lodge - The Altenstein at the Werra
There are several castles named Altenstein or Altenburg in Germany. The one I'm writing about here are a few ruins hidden in a forest near Bad Sooden-Allendorf, on a promontory 350 metres above a...
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From Castle to Convention Centre - Castle Scharfenstein in the Eichsfeld
We can thank Pope Benedict XVI for most of the repairs of castle Scharfenstein near Leinefelde-Worbis (1), and the surprisingly comfortable road leading to it.The castle sits on a promontory of a...
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Neolithic Orkney - Skara Brae
Storms often destroy coastal land, but sometimes they also bring to light interesting finds that have long been covered by sand and earth. The Viking Treasure from the German island of Hiddensee is one...
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Neolithic Orkney - Life in Skara Brae
Skara Brae might look like a cozy little village at the end of the world, but it was in fact part of a net of settlements and stone settings in the area, from the Ring of Brodgar, the Stones of...
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A Little Autumn Tour
I will be away for a few days traveling to Erfurt, Weimar and Jena in Thuringia. I've mentioned Erfurt a few times in my history posts; the town played an important role in the Middle Ages.Weimar, and...
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Some More Castles in Thuringia - An Overview
I spent a week visiting the towns of Erfurt, Jena, and Weimar. Two days I went hiking to some castles in the surroundings. Here are some first impressions (posts about the towns of Erfurt, Jena, and...
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A Virtual Tour through Mediaeval Erfurt
I had been to Erfurt, the capital of the county of Thuringia, back at the time of analog cameras, and only for a few hours. But it takes more than a few hours to explore all the interesting historical...
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American Trees and an Enchanted Rock - Some Hiking in the Harz
It's quite some time I last posted photos from the Harz mountain range, one of our favourite hiking areas. This time we took one of the walks in the Arboretum near Bad Grund. A rather North-American...
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I Won the Nano Again
The fourth win in a row: National Novel Writing Month 2017. It was a bit harder this time, but I kept going for the minimum of 1,667 words every day (on good days it was more) and it paid off.Of...
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Merry Christmas
I wish my readers and friends a merry and peaceful Christmas holiday. Winter in northern Norway
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A Fake Death and a Secret Mistress - The Stauffenburg near Seesen / Harz
Today I'll show you another rather obscure castle in my surroundings: the Stauffenburg near Seesen in the Harz mountain range (1). The castle may have been built by a 'Gerberdus of Stouphenburch', a...
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Scarborough Castle, Part 1 - From Roman Signal Station to Tudor Stronghold
After all those obscure German castles and geneaologies of German noble families I've been blogging about those last months - if I blogged at all - I'll be back to some British history and British...
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Scarborough Castle, Part 2 - From Civil War Fortress to Tourist Attraction
Ths is the second part about the history of Scarborough Castle. After James I (James IV in Scotland) ascended the throne in 1603, there was no longer any danger of an invasion from the north, therefore...
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The Architecture of Scarborough Castle
After the tour through the earlier and later history of Scarborough Castle, let's have a closer look at some of the architectural features.The barbican seen from the viewing platform; the double...
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A Trace of Spring in Dovrefjell - From Trondheim to Oslo by Train
Researching the convoluted history of the Honour of Richmond takes a bit more time than I thought, so here is a landscape post to go in between the Yorkshire castles I visited in 2013. I took the train...
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Winter Night on Hardangervidda - From Oslo to Bergen by Train
I took the afternoon train from Oslo to Bergen, well aware that the last part of the journey would take place in darkness. But as it turned out, there was sleat later changing into rain once we passed...
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Normans, Angevins and Britons - The History of the Honour of Richmond, Part 1
Richmond Castle, situated on a cliff above the river Swale in northern Yorkshire, is one of the finest examples of Norman architecture since it has not been altered in later centuries and displays the...
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