Wedding Roundup: Ernst-August and Ekaterina of Hanover

All the features about the wedding of Hereditary Prince Ernst-August of Hanover and Ekaterina Malysheva, right here:



Photos of the Wedding Guests

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What The Heck? The One In Which I Criticise Meghan And Kate (Because I Can)

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The Duchesses of Cambridge and Sussex really bring out the worst in people, don't they? Not Meghan and Kate themselves but their very existence. The royal watching world has become an interesting one, to say the least, since Meghan joined the scene. Because, let's face it, there can never be two women peacefully coexisting. It's a truth universally acknowledged that one woman must always be pitted against another. And to join the fun: I will criticise them too. Because I can and I will, just wait for it... (I'm currently still working on my critcism because I'm honestly just not that interested in the British royal family to begin with apart from that period when I was about 13 before I discovered the bad boys from Monaco who were way cuter back then. And still kind of are, at least one of them.) 
There have always been different camps in royal watching: Elizabeth vs. Margaret, Mary vs. Letizia, Diana vs. Fergie, and you could go on, and on, and on, and on. Some o…
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Schloss von Hammerstein

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Yesterday was a ten castles kind of day in the life of this Castleholic. So where to start sharing them with you? I suppose the first one I saw on my latest castle adventure is a good beginning: Schloss von Hammerstein in the small village of Apelern near Hanover that interestingly boasts not just one but two castles. (We will get to the other one, Schloss von Münchhausen, in another post.) Now owned by the Barons on Hammerstein in the 12th generation, the history of their castle is actually also tied to the Münchhausen family. Already firstly mentioned in the 11th century, the estate came into the hands of Baron Jobst of Münchhausen in 1550 as a fiefdom by the Counts of Holstein-Schaumburg. After Jobst's line of the Münchhausen family died out in the 16th century, Anton of Wietersheim became the new owner of the estate. It was the Chancellor of the Counts of Holstein-Schaumburg who built today's Weser-Renaissance style castle between 1586 and 1590.  About 80 years later, the…
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Castelo dos Mouros

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The oldest one of all of Sintra's castles is the Castelo dos Mouros or Castle of the Moors. As its name suggests, its history dates back to the times of the five-centuries-long Muslim rule over Portugal which ended in 1249. During the Middle Ages, the term "moors" referred to the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula who initially were Berber and Arab peoples of North African descent. It was them who built the fortification in the Sintra mountains in the 8th and 9th centuries to protect the surrounding areas. Calling it a castle these days might be a bit of a stretch as only ruins remain of the Castelo dos Mouros. Still, the breathtaking views are worth the visit alone. Somehow, there is something magical in climbing walls that are over a thousands years old. It seems unimaginable these days to what length they went to achieve such architectural feats. Just don't forget to take an extra jumper as it can get quite windy up there! B…
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