A béguinage, what is that? Well, let's begin with a béguine (come on, that was funny...) A béguine is, or rather was, a woman who dedicated her life to her god - but didn't necessarily want to take a vow, or withdraw from the world. [...]
We’ve covered many serial world heritage sites here on Sophie’s World. Some are within the same country, such as the mining landscapes of Cornwall and Devon, while others are transnational: Struve’s Geodetic Arc, Europe's ancient beech forests, and even transcontinental, like le Corbusier’s buildings. Today, we’re in Belgium, taking a look [...]
In Belgium's second city, you’ll find the Plantin-Moretus Museum, a fascinating 16th century printing shop, publishing house and residence. Antwerp, then a city of 100 000 residents, was one of Europe's leading cities for printing and typography, with 140 bookshops, printers and publishers. Among these, Christophe Plantin was [...]
As you may recall, we really like Antwerp here at Sophie’s World. So we just had to return! Earlier, we’ve talked about the city’s three World Heritage sites (three!). This time, I'll tell you about an unusual Antwerp brewery. Sounds, well, not that exciting? That’s [...]
One of the most famous novels in Norway is called Gift (meaning Poison. Oddly, it also means 'married'). It was written in 1883 by Alexander Kielland and is a deeply critical social commentary on the educational system. Cramming and memorising was the order of the [...]
