There’s nothing like traveling in Europe to shake up your
perspective on history. In the United States, we get excited
about things that are 200 years old; in the West, where some
states have yet to celebrate their centennials, even newer items
and places get the historic treatment. But visit Europe, where
cities and buildings have stood for over a thousand years, and
you begin to see the past along a different timeline. A classic
example is Switzerland’s Chateau de Chillon, a castle built by
French dukes in the 800s. Sitting atop a bluff on the banks of
beautiful Lake Geneva, this castle was lived in and expanded by
nobility for over 1,000 years – the last residents moved out in
the 1800s. The castle was made famous by the English poet Lord
Byron, who wrote about it in his popular work “The Prisoner of
Chillon.” During our tour of the castle, we visited the dungeon,
where as many as 250 prisoners were held at one time, and saw
where Byron carved his initials into a stone pillar. The tour of
the large castle