5
If you want to think about medieval defense, this is a great area of the world for it. And here we come at last to the biggest and best example of them all, the citadel at Carcassonne. What’s fascinating about … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Travel
These are the citadels at Lastours, in the mountains of southern France. The 13th century was a time when inaccessible might be a feature and not a bug.They were built by the Cathars. The Pope declared a crusade against them, … Continue reading
Before we leave the subject of buildings (so dear to the writer’s heart! Knowing how buildings are made makes explosions more convincing.) I have here a fine example of how it is done today. … Continue reading
Robert Heinlein wrote a story, “And He Built A Crooked House,” about SFnal architects. In it one of the laymen says that, broadly speaking, a house is a device to keep the rain off. And this is true. If the … Continue reading
How things are put together fascinates me. A writer must know many things, and a person who makes things always wants to know how it’s done. Today let’s think about buildings. In the US modern housing is ‘stick built’, erected … Continue reading
I’m spending some time in Europe, and propose to intermittently blog about interesting things. This first post is about castles, for which I have a profound weakness. France is stiff with them, but this one is, frankly, crazy. Imagine yourself, … Continue reading
This post is brought to you by a single finger and a mobile phone and an eight hour bus trip. The reason you have an extra Meanwhile in Australia this week is be because so many people have asked me … Continue reading
At the invitation of professor and author Kij Johnson we went to visit the University of Kansas, with its vast holdings of SF and SFnal history. The actual collection is going to have to be a separate post — there … Continue reading
I didn’t bring my Croc clogs on our most recent return to Seattle, but we did bring the dogs, and I decided I would write my blog about that trip. The trip was for a necessary return to the surgeon … Continue reading
I simply cannot resist a grim Victorian prison. And fortunately I was able to score tickets to tour Kilmainham Gaol Museum in Dublin. This grim stone pile was built in 1796 and extensively refurbished to the latest fashions in Victorian … Continue reading