Tag: wartimes
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Amazing scenes on Denmark’s ‘Bunker Coast’
As the final light of day shines along the beaches of northern Denmark, it highlights a surreal scene that harks back 60 years. The North Sea swirls around scores of gigantic concrete bunkers built by the occupying German Reich in the 1940’s. With concrete walls up to 3.5 metres thick, the bunkers are among at…
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Stepping back in time in eastern Germany
Sections of eastern Germany are like a time capsule from the 1950’s. Villages, towns, shops and farms have a distinct Soviet-era look. We spent time exploring the Kremmen area, a small rural centre, about 40 minutes east of Berlin. This is squarely in the former GDR, known to most of the world as Communist East…
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The striking Collossus of Prora
I know that some people ‘switch off’ at the mere mention of Adolf Hitler. But the former Nazi leader and his regime continue to leave shadows across much of modern Germany; whether we like it or not. And those shadows don’t get any bigger than the ‘Collossus of Prora’, the giant Hitler hotel on the…
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In northern France, the fallen have been honoured
It’s not a tourist hotspot. In fact, it’s only a small dot on the map of Northern France. But the rural commune of Fromelles, in the Nord region near the city of Lille, attracts crowds of travellers – because of something horrendous that happened during the First World War. On July 19 in 1916, more than…
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The memorial that leaves you disoriented and apprehensive
It’s unsettling and confronting – but something that everyone should see. The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is now an extremely popular attraction in Berlin, Germany. And, as we discovered first hand, it is also remarkably thought-provoking. Photo by Szczebrzeszynski. Author=[http://www.flickr.com/people/10069045@ Located just south of the Brandenburg Gate, the Holocaust Memorial, as it is…
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Reliving an historic Australian night
Fort Scratchley, located at Newcastle, is the country’s only east coast fortification to have fired on an enemy naval vessel. It occurred more than 80 years ago, when a Japanese submarine shelled the city of Newcastle just after 2am on June 8 1942. On our tour of the fort and its myriad of tunnels and…
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The underground Churchill War Rooms
As well as its famous Tube railway system, London has another ‘underground’ that is well worth a visit. The Churchill War Rooms – a converted storage basement – is set deep beneath London’s parliamentary precinct and provides a fascinating look at the bunkers from where Britain’s World War II planning was carried out. V Visitors move…
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The Eagle’s Nest, Bavaria, Germany
The first thing you notice about Germany’s Kehlsteinhaus, or ‘Eagle’s Nest’ is the approach road that climbs 800 metres up the side of a mountain, without one hairpin bend. An engineering marvel, the road contains five tunnels in its 6.5 kilometres. It was built in 1937, as part of the Eagle’s Nest – a 50th…
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Berlin’s wall is fast becoming a memory
It’s one the most potent symbols of the 20th century – but more than three decades have passed since the Berlin Wall ceased to exist. Each anniversary, television shows those unforgettable images from Berlin in 1989; thousands swarming over the wall; massive traffic jams as blocked roads were re-opened; and the bewildered look of the…
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The incredible story of the white stallions and ‘Operation Cowboy’
The Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria is well known internationally, but only recently did we realise the incredible story behind the Lipizzaner horses. Travelling in Slovenia, we visited the Lipizzaner Stud at Lipica, said to be the world’s oldest continuously operating facility of its type with a foundation date of 1580. Apparently, the Lipizzaner’s…
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We agree: this was the world’s worst car
German engineering has produced some great cars. The Trabant certainly wasn’t one of them. Yet, decades after the last East German people’s car was made, history has indeed been kind to the Trabi. Despite being regarded as a symbol of the defunct East Germany and the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in general, the Trabi…
Mature Travellers 