One of the most recognisable images of Berlin is the Victory Column or Siegessaule standing in a roundabout at the Tiergarten. Standing at nearly 67 metres the huge column is topped with a magnificent golden bronze statue of Victoria which alone weighs over 35 tonnes and is 8.3 metres high. The monument was designed by Heinrich Strack to commemorate the Prussian victory in 1864. the monument has been shifted a few times with the last being in 1939 as part of Hitler’s failed Welthauptstadt Germania plans. The column has been used in many movies and video clips including U2’s Stay single and is a focal point of the Berlin Love Parade. Even Barack Obama used the column as a backdrop to his historic visit during the 2008 Election campaign.
The Kehlsteinhaus or “Eagles Nest” as it is commonly known is a small building on top of the German Alps that was originally built as a retreat for Adolf Hiler. Presented to him on his 50th birthday the building sits on a ridge on top of Kehlstein Mountain near Berchtesgarden. The buildings remote location required the construction of an amazing windy 6.5klm road as well as a tunnel and elevator system in the mountain itself. It is said that Hitler rarely visited the building and its this reason the building still stands today, as most of Hitler’s other houses have been torn down since the end of the war to stop them taking on a shrine like use. Today the Kehlsteinhaus is used as a restaurant offering magnificent views of local area as well as tours of the complex. Read the rest of this entry »
Heathrow airport is one of the world’s busiest and with its five different terminals it can be a nightmare to navigate with sometimes huge distances to travel between flights and to the carpark.
Well they have come up with a futuristic and novel way to help move people around, with the trial introduction of a pod system which should move travellers easily and swiftly around the complex. Read the rest of this entry »
We like off beat museums at tripandom and there are plenty of them around the world, but very few are dedicated to dictators. One such museum is the Stalin Museum in the city of Gori, Georgia. The museum shows the life of the Russian dictator Joseph Stalin who was born in the city and went on to lead the USSR from 1922 to 1953. The museum features his personal train carriage, his childhood home as well as many artifacts from his life as well as plenty of statues and artworks of him. Hit up the next page for a short news video about the museum as well as the link to their website where you can see a few galleries of the exhibits. Read the rest of this entry »
The Christkindlesmarkt or Christmas Markets are in full swing in Germany and the biggest of them all is in Nuremberg where more than 2 million people flock to the Hauptmarkt to buy their goods from the more than 150 stalls. The stalls run for about a month, and close Christmas eve and are one of Europe’s most magical experiences. Snow, bud lights and beautifully decorated stalls, and not forgetting some great gifts. Crafts,wooden toys, ornaments, seasonal foods like gingerbread, Christmas cake and of course the warm Christmas wines. The markets are held in quiet a few centres around Germany including Munich,Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Berlin other European centres like Toulouse France, Salzberg in Austria and even Leeds in London and Birmingham have their own. Chicago and many US cities have them too. Read the rest of this entry »
Stuttgart’s Mercedes Benz Museum is probably the best automotive museum in the world with over 160 vehicles all magnificently displayed in a building designed by UNStudio who also designed the New Zealand Te Papa Museum, which can only be described as art. There are over 16500 square metres of exhibition space with some of the world’s finest examples of Mercedes Benz automobiles. The exhibition starts at the top floor and works it’s way down spiral ramps to the bottom with giant showcases of vehicles on all levels. Amongst it’s huge collection are cars, buses, trucks from all eras of the Mercedes Benz timeline all shining like jewelery in the beautiful displays. One highlight is the Gallery of Celebrities where visitors can get up close to the Popemobile, movie and music stars cars and even a Mercedes owned by Princess Diana.
The Smetana Museum or Muzeum Bedricha Smetany is a Prague Museum dedicated to the great Czech composer Bedrich Smetana who died in 1884. It has prime position on the beautiful Vltava river in Old Town right next to the Charles Bridge. Before 1936 the lovely Renaissance building was home to the Prague Water Company and now houses many of Smetan’s possessions including music stands, letters and even his ear bone. He is best known for his symphonic poem Vltava (also known as The Moldau from the German), his tomb can also be visited at the VyÅ¡ehrad cemetery in the grounds of VyÅ¡ehrad Castle.
If there is one thing almost as popular as beer, pretzels and pork at Oktoberfest it has to be the humble potato or “Kartoffel” in German. Around Oktoberfest they are normally presented as a tasty shredded potato Pattie that has been fried in hot oil and served golden brown with apple sauce but at the Potato Museum the potato is present in art form along with a bit of history of the Potato. The Potato Museum or “Die Kartoffelmuseum” is claimed to be the world’s only museum that is dedicated to the potato and is fittingly situated in Munich. So if you are heading to Munich for Oktoberfest this year make sure you try out a tasty Kartoffel like the one pictured above or even head over to the Kartoffelmuseum, their website link is below, it’s in German so you may want to run it through a translator to get the low down on location and opening times etc. Read the rest of this entry »
The festivals are starting to kick of in Germany, and one of the premier events is the Stuttgart Cannstatter Volkfest. It’s Stuttgart’s answer to Munich’s Octoberfest and last year attracted over 4 1/2 million visitors and over half of them from outside Stuttgart. Now in it’s 163rd year the festival runs from the 26th of September until the 12 of October and is fun for the whole family. There are some great carnival rides and attractions plus plenty of beer, in fact over on million litres of beer is served during the festival and over 700,000 meals. This year the festival has a mascot, he is WasenHasi, who is a cute little bunny, the soft toy market is going to go crazy because he is so cute. Some of the huge tents this year include Grandls hofbrau Zelt, Stamer Hof, Furstenberg Zelt and Schwaben Brau Festireli. The festival takes up a huge 68,000 square metres and is open daily from lunch time to midnight.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the Soviet control of much of Eastern Europe many of the huge monuments to the rule were removed and in many cases destroyed. But many in Lithuania were later retrieved and restored and are now on display at Grtas park, near Druskininkai in Southern Lithuania which opened in 2001. The park has become a family amusement park, and has a very odd list of attractions, there are over 80 of huge statues of just about every leader to rule the East, including Lenin and Stalin. There’s a few wooden huts with over a million pieces of memorabilia from this period and even a zoo, well a pretty crappy one in more ways than one. Don’t expect any exotic animals unless you are counting the chickens, pigs and the odd ostrich or pheasant- if you like the look of them, head down to the restaurant, they have a few of their zoo exhibits on the menu.. tasty. There’s plenty of market stalls where you can buy your very own Soviet era treasure or even some dodgy beer brewed on the premises. It may not be Disneyland but you will certainly be amazed, although in different ways. if you know what we mean.
