When you are at Balmoral Castle you shouldn’t forget to cross the road and visit Crathie Kirk, the parish church of the small village of Crathie. The church, that is linked to the Church of Scotland and is nowadays united with the neighbouring parish of Braemar, has somewhat of a royal history. When coming to […]
A long time ago when there were no dikes yet, settlements in the Dutch Province of Friesland were built on artificial dwellings up to 15 metres high to protect the settlement from the floods in times the sea level rose. These mounds in Friesland were called ‘terpen’. Around the year 1200 the people started to […]
Did you know that East Frisia (Ostfriesland) in Germany once had its own counts from 1464 to 1654, and even its own Fürsten (princes) from 1654 to 1744? Then the Cirksena dynastie became extinct. The last woman died in 1761. Without much trouble the Prussians then claimed East Frisia. In Aurich is the family mausoleum. […]
Last week I was in Denmark, not a very royal vacation for a change, but I did see a few things connected to Danish royalty. On Wednesday I was in Ribe, the oldest existing town in Scandinavia, that celebrated its 1300th anniversary in 2010. Lovely old streets and houses, several museums worth a visit. I […]
The churchyard of the pittoresque Church of St Mary near Provender House, Norton, Kent, Great Britain, is truly beautiful. It is small but most interesting. Where you’d expect local residents with British sounding names, you’ll find Scots, a Finnish woman and some Romanoffs. Here you will find the graves of Andrew Alexandervitch Romanoff and his […]
