Tag Archives: architecture My husband was born in Passau, Germany. Or, so they tell him; he doesn’t actually remember. It is named as his birthplace on his papers, which always causes some consternation at border-crossings, because he has a Hungarian name and an American passport. His parents escaped from Hungary after the Soviet Red Army invaded in September 1944. Some years later, when my husband was five, they emigrated to the USA with […]  Mongolia seems vast. That’s probably because it is. Once you are outside the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, the plains and the skies go on forever. The “World Factbook”, published by the CIA, puts it in terms Americans can understand: Mongolia is “more than twice the size of Texas”. Landlocked between its bigger neighbours China and Russia, Mongolia […]  Late summer last year, my husband and I were in central Italy enjoying the sun – and the sun-drenched olives and tomatoes and grapes – that Italy is known for. We were holidaying Italian style: we rented a wonderful villa in the tiny town of Gioiella, Umbria (Villa Gioiella), practically on the border of Tuscany, and packed the rooms with three generations of friends and family. […]  The best way to immerse yourself in a new culture is to spend time where local people congregate and worship. In the early morning of my first day in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, I took a taxi across the busy city centre from my hotel in the east, to the country’s largest monastery, Gandantegchinlen (“the great place of complete joy”) Khiid, west of city […]  Irony: the future of the little city of Hội An has literally been saved by it’s own past demise. Hội An (會安) means “peaceful meeting place”. Once upon a time, particularly between the seventh and 10th centuries, this strategic port near the mouth of the Thu Bon River was part of the Chăm Pa Kingdom (192-1832). The Cham, who were seafarers and traders, controlled the spice […] |
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