Our experience of life is subjective...

Last week, two brothers and I went on the journey of a lifetime.

Taking our motorbikes, we rode across southern England, through the channel tunnel, up through France, Belgium and Holland until we reached the battlefields surrounding Arnhem in time for the 75th anniversary of Operation Market Garden.

The reasons for the journey, what we discovered about each other and the men and women involved in that ferocious battle will be the focus of a future article.

After several days we left Holland and pushed on to the historic Polish city of Kraków and from there to Oswiecim, otherwise known as the small town of Auschwitz. Over the course of the next seven hours we began what I can only describe as an oddly inspiring yet the darkly depressing journey through the most appalling treatment of one part of society by another.

Darkly depressing because it beggars belief what ordinary people will do to others when we buy into a narrative of intolerance and hatred designed to focus on our differences.

Oddly inspiring because despite the most inhuman treatment where all vestiges of hope should rightly have been extinguished, people found it within themselves to support each other and endure.

Upon my return to the UK, many of the "plates" which we all struggle to manage on a daily basis were out of equilibrium.

Family, work, our political class of all persuasions publicly abusing each other like playground bullies.

Somehow, staring at the evil that men do has made me feel more resilient to deal with each of these situations, many of which may well have previously seemed too much.

If any of you feel you have the stomach for it and the opportunity presents itself - please go see for yourselves and I hope you also leave equally re-equipped to deal with the problems you may face.