Old schools
There’s far more to education than textbooks and teachers. The acquisition of knowledge and skills is a lifelong undertaking, and much can be picked up on our travels.
To recognise that fact, here are some attractions that may appeal to those holidaymakers looking for an educational edge to their post-Covid-19 trips.
THE GUTENBERG MUSEUM, MAINZ, GERMANY
Textbooks are important, of course, and they wouldn’t have become the bedrock of school life unless someone had invented a press with which to print them. And that someone was Johannes Gutenberg.
Although the first books printed in metallic type had been produced in the 13th century, in Korea, Mainz-born Gutenberg managed to harness several innovations in his wooden machine based on an agricultural screw press. By 1450, his printing press was in operation and within five years, Gutenberg had completed his Bible, about 180 copies of which he printed. The rest, as they say, is history – which can be read about in textbooks, of course.
Founded in 1900, Mainz’s Gutenberg Museum is dedicated to the German city’s most accomplished son. The museum’s treasures include two original Gutenberg Bibles and a reconstruction of the workshop the inventor used.
NALANDA MAHAVIHARA, BIHAR, INDIA
Long before Gutenberg was pressing his claim for immortality, generations of scholars had broadened their minds at Nalanda, a Buddhist monastery and respected centre of learning in the kingdom of Magadha (modern-day Bihar state), in India.
Established in the fifth century, Nalanda was the world’s first university to have residential quarters for students and teachers, and had the largest library of the ancient world. It was a magnet for those in search of knowledge and they came from as far afield as China (including Tang dynasty monk Yijing), Japan, Indonesia and Turkey.
Nalanda was done for when Muslim invaders swept across northern India at the turn of the 13th century, and it wasn’t until 1915 that the ruins of the site began to be excavated. Inscribed on Unesco’s World Heritage list, Nalanda is especially popular with tourists interested in Buddhism. As well as the excavations, attractions include an archaeological museum, multimedia and Vipassana centres, and the Xuanzang Memorial
Hall (dedicated to the Chinese Buddhist monk and traveller, another of Nalanda’s worldly students).
WAT MAHATHAT YUWARAJARANGSARIT RAJAWORAMAHAVIHARA,
BANGKOK, THAILAND
Also of interest to scholars of Buddhism – as well as lovers of long words
– is Bangkok’s Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University, at which English speakers are invited to study with the resident monks. In the old Rattanakosin district of the capital, a 10-minute walk north of the Grand Palace, and founded in 1887 by King Chulalongkorn, it is one of two public Buddhist universities in Thailand, and the oldest Buddhist university in the country.
Perhaps of greater appeal to visitors who do not wish to enrol for a course, though, is the surrounding temple,
Wat Mahathat Yuwarajarangsarit Rajaworamahavihara. Construction began during the time of the Ayutthaya Kingdom (1350-1767), before Bangkok was established, and Wat Mahathat is one of six temples in the Thai capital that is considered to be of “Royal class”. Visits are free of charge, although donations are encouraged.
AMES, IOWA, UNITED STATES
No country is more associated with the idea of the “college town” than the
United States, home to more than 7,000 degree-dispensing centres of learning.
Such towns feature in many a Hollywood movie – Good Will Hunting (1997; filmed in and around Bunker
Hill Community College, Boston),
Mona Lisa Smile (2003; Wellesley
College, Massachusetts), Pitch Perfect (2012; Louisiana State University,
Baton Rouge), for example – and are, according to financial news website 247wallst.com, “affordable, culturally vibrant communities, with healthy economies and a young, well-educated population”. The kind of place that is welcoming of visitors.
The best of the lot, according to analysis conducted by 24/7 Wall St in 2019, is Ames, home of Iowa State University (established: 1858). The conclusion was drawn from US Census Bureau data. Ames is the only US city with a population of at least 65,000 in which more than 45 per cent of residents are enrolled in college or graduate school and it has 236 bars or restaurants for every 100,000 inhabitants. Google “things to do in Ames” and top of the list is a visit to Reiman Gardens, a seven-hectare park on the Iowa State University campus that includes a conservatory filled with tropical plants and a butterfly enclosure.
Visit Ames for a taste of a very specific slice of American pie/life.
THE UNIVERSITY OF AL-QARAWIYYIN, FEZ, MOROCCO
Nine-hundred and ninety-nine years before Iowa State University was founded, the University of al-Qarawiyyin began imparting knowledge, although then as a mosque; it wouldn’t be officially designated as a university until 1963. Nevertheless, it functioned as a school of higher learning in many ways and had a head start of more than 200 years on Italy’s University of Bologna, which is widely considered the world’s oldest operating university.
Al-Qarawiyyin was established in AD859, during the Golden Age of Islam, by Fatima al-Fihri, a young Muslim woman, and the university’s historical library, which houses more than 4,000 manuscripts, remains open to the public.
The university is located in the northwest of Fez, the intellectual, spiritual and headwear capital of Morocco.
HOGWARTS, SOMEWHERE IN SCOTLAND
There’s not much witchcraft or wizardry that cannot be learned at Hogwarts, which is, as far as any Harry Potter reader can tell, somewhere in the Scottish Highlands. It’s beside a loch, but the exact location has been kept “unplottable” by author J.K. Rowling.
However, the castle in which Harry Potter’s school operates is certainly not in Durham or Northumberland, because those places are both in northeast England. Nevertheless, shots of Durham Cathedral, with digital spire added, and Northumberland’s Alnwick Castle were used to portray Hogwarts in the films.
A Unesco World Heritage Site that began life as a Benedictine monastery in AD995, Durham Cathedral welcomes all: “Maybe you’ll admire our groundbreaking Norman architecture, and relax in the serene Cloisters, or maybe you’ll enjoy spotting the parts of the cathedral using in blockbuster films including Harry Potter and Avengers: Endgame,” says the visitor website.
Tracing its history back to 1096, Alnwick Castle takes its Hogwarts associations even further, promising visitors Harry Potter-inspired events and rides on a flying broomstick.
Now, that’s a skill worth learning!