Category Archives: Architecture The Netherlands is known for its flat landscape punctuated by canals and dikes. If fact, I was taught at school that dyke was a Dutch word. While it is true that dijk (pronounced ‘dyke’) is a common word in Dutch, it comes from the same Old German word that gave English ‘ditch’. Sadly, the little […]  The only travel I can do at the moment is vicariously: with our government giving us no clue as to when borders might open again, it is impossible to plan and it is hard to even dream … I am trying to use this down-time productively: cleaning out boxes and drawers and cupboards. But, I’m […]  Travel in Europe is such a joy! Everywhere you go, there are beautifully-maintained, fresh and green outdoor public spaces, and well-preserved and integrated historical buildings. Take Rapperswil on Lake Zurich in Switzerland, for example. Part of the municipality of Rapperswil-Jona, this is a town I probably would never have heard of, had we not been […]  I love the old cobbled cities of Europe, and the historical stories they tell. I spent some of my school years living in the French-speaking parts of Eastern Canada where the historical root and ties were to France. When I was studying the history of the early European explorers and settlers in Canada, their names […]  Patan, or Lalitpur (ललितपुर), or Manigal, is an ancient Newari city of just over 200,000 people. It sits on the southern plateau of the Bagmati River, eight kilometers south of Kathmandu, and was – up until the conquest and unification in the late 1700s, under Prithvi Narayan Shah, the Gorkha Prince and future King of […] |
|
