Europe
the legend of the rose of turaida
When we travel, we are always fascinated by the different tales, folklores and legends from different countries and places we visit.
Have you heard about the legend of the Rose of Turaida?
If you ever visit Turaida Castle in Latvia, you will be sure to pass by and see the grave of Maija – the Rose of Turaida.
The legend goes a little like this:
In early 17th Century (1601), the Swedish troops captured Turaida Castle. There was a young orphan girl discovered by the clerk of the castle, who adopted her as his own daughter and named her Maija.
Maija grew up to be beautiful young woman and the people named her the Rose of Turaida. She was engaged to a gardener by the name of Victor, who lived at Sigulda Castle. In the evenings, they would secretly meet each other at Gutmanis Cave.
A man named Adam who worked at Turaida Castle was interested in Maija and proposed to her. She rejected his proposal and Adam decided to win her over by deceit. He wrote a note to Maija inviting her to meet at Gutmanis Cave, as if the note were from Victor.
Maija turned up to the cave wearing a red silk scarf and realised she had been tricked, and chose to die rather than be unfaithful to her fiancé, Victor. She told Adam that the scarf would protect her neck from any sword and that he should attempt to cut her neck. Adam tried and Maija’s lifeless body fell down at his feet.
It was Victor that discovered his love murdered. In despair, he raced off to find help but in the meantime had dropped his axe. Suspicion arose and he was arrested and tried for her murder. It was only after a comrade-in-arms to Adam testified of the truth, which resulted in Victor being freed. Maija is now buried at the edge of Turaida graveyard, where Victor planted a linden tree on her grave.
What a tragic love story!
Where have you been that has a similar historical tale behind it?
Share with us your thoughts.
And remember, if you want to how we are getting on during our Camino, we are posting daily videos on our Facebook Page.
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weekly photo challenge: adventure!
The Weekly Photo Challenge asked to show “adventure!” We are on a LONG adventure at the moment, embarking on the Way of St James, walking 800 km to Santiago de Compostela. 
For anyone interested, you can read our daily reflections. Or you can watch our daily debrief on our Facebook Page.
And although it is our adventure, we are also doing it to raise awareness about Angelman Syndrome.
Have a great week ahead, everyone!!
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day 0 of the camino
Don’t worry, we don’t plan to bombard your inbox/reader newsfeed every day with a day-by-day summary of our Camino.
Depending on how it goes and subject to wifi capabilities, we will share occasionally on this blog where we are at, with some photos! However, the plan is to share a Camino Diary elsewhere for those who may be interested. So we will attempt to post a short video at the end of each day on our FB page and share a more daily personal (and possible raw) reflection from both of us on our other blog.
In addition, a note to all the blogs we follow and regularly read/like/comment, if we are quiet, please don’t think you have lost us. We will not likely have the time to do our reading after a long day’s walk but we will see how we go 🙂
Anyway, we are here in St Jean Pied de Port and will be walking the 25 km on Day 1. It has been a really lovely day and although it hasn’t officially started for us, we have already met a few people from around the world! There is such a wonderful sense of community!
Time for bed and let’s see what tomorrow holds! Next time you hear from us, we will be in Spain 🙂
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the museum of miniatures and cinema in lyon
Would you believe these are miniature scenes?
How realistic, right? Well, there are over 100 of these scenes on display at the Musée Miniature et Cinéma* in Lyon, France.
There are a few exhibit rooms dedicated to displaying all these different miniature (to-scale) scenes crafted by miniaturists. When we say miniature, we mean that these were behind viewing windows (for most) of no bigger than 30 cm. The detail in each scene is simply astounding and how life-like they are had us fascinated for ages!
But before you can even lay your eyes on all these delicate and artistic scenes, for all those movie buffs out there, there is a film exhibition, that you should get through, focusing on special effect techniques with original film props. With over 300 for you to explore, you will be occupied for hours. Props, costumes and artefacts from movies including Planet of the Apes, X-Men, Star Wars, Gremlins and Harry Potter are exhibited.
And if you ever saw the movie, Perfume, then you might recognise these scenes.
Some of the articles on display are not for the faint-hearted or youngsters, but if movies with blood, gore and aliens is your thing, then you shall be thoroughly entertained.
Our verdict
It’s a different type of “sight-seeing” especially when we needed a break from the history/art museums, castles and churches. We really enjoyed it and wouldn’t mind spending a bit more time in there. It’s a good place for the whole family, but be aware that the exhibits are on different floors that require using steps.
* Entrance is 9€ for adults (other prices available on their website) or free with the Lyon City Pass.
Hope you all have a great rest of the week!
More posts to follow about Lyon and other parts of our Europe adventures as we still
have so much more to share but for the next 6 weeks or so, our focus will be on the
Camino!
wise monkeys abroad 