Tag Archives: architecture

When you travel, you meet people who travel. I was in Morocco on a small group tour. When I mentioned my planned trip to Raja Ampat and the Spice Islands, one of my travel-companions insisted: “You must read Nathaniel’s Nutmeg: How One Man’s Courage Changed the Course of History.“ Naturally, I complied – although it […]

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Walking through history is so much more interesting than attempting to study it at school! Old stone walls have such stories to tell. Chefchaouen in Morocco’s Rif Mountains was originally founded as a defensive fortress in 1471 – at a time when Portugal was attacking northern cities and towns in the region. The mossy, rammed […]

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Some cities feel like old friends. Whether you’ve visited many times or never, the streets and buildings are familiar from popular culture, pictures, and movies. Paris is like that – around every corner there is a familiar “Aha!” site. I had a couple of short stopovers in Paris during a recent rainy September. I found […]

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It was surreal: on a hot and still afternoon in the southwest of Türkiye, I was walking in the footsteps of the Crusaders. The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller, have a long history. Formed early in the 12th century, their mission was to […]

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I loved Chefchaouen. I never quite managed to pronounce it though! The name of this charming little city in the mountains of northwestern Morocco comes from an Arabic word chef meaning “to look” and a Berber word echaouen meaning “antlers” or “horns”; the term refers to the two most prominent mountain peaks that overlook the […]

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