Once upon a time there stood a proud castle showing the prestige of one of the most powerful families of Britain. The most luxurious and sumptuous palace in Wales. It was called Raglan castle. It belonged to two families loyal to the British monarch from generation to generation. And yet it had to pay the...Read More

The Nile is the second the longest river in the world. For centuries it was considered the longest one. It was considered not only a river – there was always some kind of mystery and magic in it. The ancient Egyptians deified it and worshipped it. Other civilisations living along its banks worshipped it as...Read More

As we live in Belgium, we travel regularly to Germany via Poland, but unlike many, we do not treat Germany as a racing track, but as a country that offers a huge number of very interesting and sometimes little known places to visit. Each time we go to Poland we use a slightly different route...Read More

Greece has an uncountable number of islands. Big, small, famous and unknown, flooded by tourists and the ones totally off the tourist track. Everyone has something to choose from. This time I’d like to tell you about one of those which is a bit less known by mass tourism. Lesbos – the third largest Greek...Read More

We all as kids have read the Greek myths. Aphrodite appearing from the sea foam, Icarus daring to fly like a bird, Athena appearing from the head of Zeus, Hercules fulfilling his 12 tasks… all of these and many more are part of our culture and history. Greece is the cradle of the European civilisation....Read More

We all love the charm of St Valentine’s Day – the anonymous love letters, the red hearts, the romantic dinners, the chocolate gifts… but do you actually know who Saint Valentine was, what did he do, where can you find him and what does he have to do with love? Here is the answer –...Read More

“The queen of Sheba came to Jerusalem “with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much gold, and precious stones” (I Kings 10:2). “Never again came such an abundance of spices” (10:10; II Chron. 9:1–9) as those she gave to Solomon. She came “to prove him with hard questions,” which Solomon answered...Read More

To describe that Lalibela is a magical place is an understatement. It’s beyond magic. It is a place one has to visit in order to feel it’s uniqueness. Once you are there, you are immediately transferred several centuries back into the times where pilgrims travelled from far and with great effort to finally arrive after...Read More

As I am a history freak, let’s start with a bit of history of Corvey. Emperor Charlemagne fought against the Saxon tribes for over 30 years. Once these fights were over and he was victorious, he decided it was high time to Christianise the pagan Saxons and bring the light of civilisation to them.Read More

Once upon a time (precisely in the second half of the 19th century) in the middle of nowhere in south-east France lived a village postman. One day when he was distributing his letters he stumbled upon a stone. He took it in his hand and looked at it for a long while.Read More