Author: Ms. R.

Victorian England had a unique relationship with death. Because Victorians died young, died quickly, and died of injuries and infections modern medicine helped abolish, they invented elaborate grieving rituals to give meaning to their loved ones’ ephemeral lives. All of this happening at the same time as advances in photography led to the prevalence of postmortem photos, where Victorians would haul out their dead, prop them up on stands, and take a picture worth a thousand words. These stands……

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Located in the Saint-Paul Aurélien cathedral in Saint-Pol-de-Léon, Les Étagères de la nuit (“Shelves of the night”) contain 31 “skull boxes” that date from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Each box contains one genuine human skull, most of which you can have a quick peek at through a heart- or trefoil-shaped hole. Skull boxes were commonly used to keep a track of the deceased while clearing out the graveyards in order to leave space for new tombs. Five years after……

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Whether you are interested in the history or the architecture or just looking for a picnic site with an unusual  backdrop Sawley Abbey is well worth a visit. The site is directly alongside the River Ribble and sits just inside the Forst of Bowland “area of outstanding natural beauty.” It is the ruin of a 12th-century Cistercian  monastery  established by monks from northeast England and has a history  of conflict and bloodshed After its formation, the monastery got by for many years,……

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Tucked into the small town of Enumclaw, Washington, this museum is packed with a rotating collection of classic, vintage, and other exotic import cars sure to capture visitors’ attention. On any given day, visitors might see a Model T Firetruck from 1921, a 1964 Falcon Sprint, race legend Sam Auxier Jr’s ford racing rig, or the Boss 429 Mustang.  The museum started as a home for private collector’s vehicles and has grown ever since. Proceeds help benefit the Epilepsy……

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The wreck of the Dorcas Pendell is a rare treat— a shipwreck in crystal clear shallow water. No need for scuba gear, a quick kayak trip in a sheltered bay and visitors can almost touch the wreckage.  Constructed in 1884, the Dorcas Pendell was a 149 foot long, two-masted schooner that plied the Great Lakes for years until it was grounded during the Big Storm of 1913. Eventually, the ship eventually caught fire and burned to the waterline. The……

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Fitzroy Gardens has several quirky sights and attractions scattered across 64 acres of green space, but none received such mixed reviews than The Dolphin Fountain. Situated in the middle of the park at the edge of the Central Business District in East Melbourne, this fine monument consists of a pyramid of granite boulders, on top of which lie a variety of different sea creatures. Visitors will find dolphins, octopuses, crabs, sea birds, sea turtles, and many more aquatic animals……

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Fur trapping and trade with Native Americans drew the first Europeans to the upper Columbia River. Later, European settlers found the land and climate ideal for fruit farming. Orchards sprang up and flourished in the late 19th-century. The Old Apple Warehouse began as a fruit packing plant built adjacent to the rail line in 1908 by the local cooperative. Farmers drove produce-laden wagons into one end of the building, unloaded in the basement for transfer to rail cars, and……

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On the night of February 25th to 26th 1944, thousands of bombs fell on Augsburg destroying large parts of the city. Their original target was the aircraft works of the former aviation company Messerschmitt AG, one of the predecessors of Airbus SE. However, thousands of bombs missed their target and hit the city forest Siebentischwald.  Countless impact craters still bear witness to this terrible time, but the growing vegetation has obscured their visibility. Since 2011, a public charity transformed some……

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