Welcome to version 3 or 4 of Yet another Murray Family website. Started way back in 1998 or 2002, this website was designed for sharing stuff with friends and family. Most of the content here is now historic as we and our friends and family have moved to social networks such as Facebook for communicating.
However, we have recently revived it with a new design and some new content. It also might be easier to find some stuff here too – the collection of family recipes for example.
Topics covered are celebrating life events, good books we have read, our travels and recipes we have invented or collected.
The Museum of Anatolian Civilisations had some amazing artifacts.
Ethnography Museum of Ankara
Ethnography Museum of Ankara – Ataturk, the hero and founder of modern Turkey was laid to rest here until his memorial Antikabır was built.
cermodern Art Gallery
We saw three exhibits:
Göbeklitepe The Gathering
This was an experience of fabric and light. It was sometimes disorientating in the dark environment. We entered through a maze of fabric with video projections, then there was a space with projections on conical fabric forms like the Whirling Dervish dancers. Another wall of video and the exhibit culminated in a space with a 360º projected video.
The construction of a new city: Anakara 1923-1933
Lots of photographs as well as 3D printed models of the housing
During our Spring break in 2010, we visited Istanbul and Dubai. Here are some of the highlights of our trip.
Istanbul
Topkapı Palace – photographs were not allowed inside, but we were impressed by the architecture and exhibits including a huge diamond that had been found on a rubbish dump.
Grand Bazaar – similar to the covered bazaar near the maze of shops in Izmir’s Kemeraltı, but on a bigger scale.
Hagai Sophia – the former Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal cathedral, later an Ottoman imperial mosque and now a museum.
Great Palace Mosaics Museum – a large collection of Byzantie era mosaics.
Pera Museum – we saw a Picasso exhibit, Turkish ceramics, and old measuring instruments.
Robot Zoo – one of the malls had an interactive science exhibit with robotic creatures.
Dubai
Dubai is usually a place where we change planes on our long-distance trips. After flying with Emirates several times we had earned a free flight so we stayed a few days in an apartment hotel in Dubai. Peter was ill for most of the trip, but we enjoyed relaxing in the apartment which was bigger than our home, swimming in the rooftop pool and exploring the neighborhood.
We spent 2 nights in Hamburg on our Denmark/Sweden/Germany holiday. During our full day there we visited Miniatur Wunderland.
That evening we ate hamburgers in Hamburg. The next day we took the train south through Hanover where we stopped for a few hours. One of Peter’s great-great-grandfathers came from there. We also stopped to change trains in Frankfurt where we ate frankfurters.
We stayed for the remaining four nights of our holiday in Stuttgart. There we enjoyed visiting the gardens and the natural history museum and exploring the city.
We took a day trip to the Altensteig in the Black Forest and spent the afternoon with Peter’s business partner and his family.
I went to Amman for a two-day business trip. The work finished early and so I got to enjoy a tour of the Jordan river where Jesus was baptized and the mountain where Moses viewed the promised land.
Three adult fares and one almost adult fare halfway around the world and back again cost more than our rent for the year.
We landed in Auckland earlier than expected and went into the central city to do some admin stuff which took much longer than expected. We stayed a couple of nights in an apartment and did some more admin, exploring the city and meeting with friends.
We then bused to Hamilton for a few days with Edria’s family.
We took the train to Palmerston North for a weekend reunion with Peter’s family, picked up one of Peter’s parent’s campervans and then spent a few more days exploring the Manawatu.
We spent a weekend in Hawkes Bay with Peter’s sister and her family, then traveled onto Taupo, Rotorua, and Tauranga.
A short visit again to Auckland and Hamilton, then we flew home again.
Prague has hundreds of museums and galleries to visit. We spent four nights in a rooftop apartment that was easy walking distance to a lot of the old city. During the days, we enjoyed exploring the city’s sights and cuisine on our Spring Break holiday.
Some of the highlights of our trip include: Museums: Nostalgic Museum, Strahov Monastery Library, Lego, Alchemy and Ghosts, KGB, Apple, and a World of Franz Kafka experience Art: Andy Warhol/Alfons Mucha/Salvator Dalí, Kampa, Gallerie Nova Sin Street food: Berries, beer, hot dog, hot wine, trdelnik = cinnamon pastry with whipped cream, halušky = ham/potatoes/cabbage