Where to visit in Germany.
- Thread starter CanadianAR
- Start date
This might be unusual suggestion but I would suggest visiting one of the concentration camps like Bergen-Belsen or Dahau.
Why?Just so you can see with your own eyes what was it our grandparents were fighting for.
I visited Majdanek Camp when I was 14 or so-I still remember.
Why?Just so you can see with your own eyes what was it our grandparents were fighting for.
I visited Majdanek Camp when I was 14 or so-I still remember.
Having spent about 6 weeks in Berlin as a student in 2002, I can assure there are cheaper pizzas than 80 euros in Berlin. You might want to kartoffeln and eisbein (seasoned mash potatoes and pork shoulder as it a traditional Prussian dish. Don't forget to have a donair! Lots of historical stuff to see, but since the city had the **** bombed out of it, not as much as you would think from that era. The Cold war stuff is interesting (e.g. The tv tower, Karl Marx Allee, and the former GDR volkskammer). There is a Russia military cemetery in the Eastern part of the city with lots oddly proportioned Soviet statuary. Potsdam is very nice to visit, and is a very short train ride away. If you want to see some of the Third Reich's remains there is also KZ Ravensbrucke near Furstenburg, which is a short train ride away. Chilling and surprisingly well preserved as the Soviets used it after the war as a military base.
Would love to go back, so I am very Jealous right now,but I hope you have a great time!
Would love to go back, so I am very Jealous right now,but I hope you have a great time!
Bergen-Belsen is a day trip out of Berlin (so is Potsdam). Dachau is a day trip out of Munich. Sorry about the spelling mistake of the Schloss earlier!
I have been to Berlin 3x and Munich 4x. Berlin is very interesting but if you want to see the big beer halls, beer steins and leder hosen and all the other typical things people stereotype about Germany, you need to go to Munich.
That is why I suggest maybe seeing both...oh...you can drink on train, so you don't need to worry about wasted time!!!
Going to Bremerhaven, you've got to see this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_Wilhelm_Bauer
They also have an example there of the revolutionary Walter sub engine the Germans came up with, runs on hydrogen peroxide and another one of those things that if it came earlier would have had a profound effect on the war. I wanted to do the concentration camp tour, but sensed it was a touchy subject with my hosts. Still a lot of Denial there.
Grizz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_Wilhelm_Bauer
They also have an example there of the revolutionary Walter sub engine the Germans came up with, runs on hydrogen peroxide and another one of those things that if it came earlier would have had a profound effect on the war. I wanted to do the concentration camp tour, but sensed it was a touchy subject with my hosts. Still a lot of Denial there.
Grizz
If you want Canadian Army Combat History and German Army, go to the Rhineland area. Xantem,Cleve etc.
Rhineland March 1945 after 31 days striaght fighting Allies 750,000 vs German army and relics 210,000. Canada with next to no combat experienced officers/ncos left and sometimes led by rear echeleon tradesmen, Brits half led by Canadian and American junior offficers as Britain had no more to conscript, and the might US Army under Gen Simpson but still led by mostly rookies, all pushed through the black forrest/swamps about 40 Kms deep and from Holland to Switzerland, to the Rhine river.
In 31 days Allies dead 30,000 Axis dead 70,000 + 40,000 POW. This was the last big battle in the west.
Not far from our former NATO base at Lahr.
Rhineland March 1945 after 31 days striaght fighting Allies 750,000 vs German army and relics 210,000. Canada with next to no combat experienced officers/ncos left and sometimes led by rear echeleon tradesmen, Brits half led by Canadian and American junior offficers as Britain had no more to conscript, and the might US Army under Gen Simpson but still led by mostly rookies, all pushed through the black forrest/swamps about 40 Kms deep and from Holland to Switzerland, to the Rhine river.
In 31 days Allies dead 30,000 Axis dead 70,000 + 40,000 POW. This was the last big battle in the west.
Not far from our former NATO base at Lahr.
Saumur has the best tank museum, much better than the brit one in Southern counties. If in France, you must visit Vimy Ridge which is the only piece of Canadian soil (except for emabassies) in a foreign land. Normandy is a must to visit also and Canadians are so well recieved. BTW, cheapest car rentals are from Paris vis SIXT. I have rented E class MB for $2300 for 29 days or last year a BMW 520 station with nav and sports package for $1400/19 days. The earlier you book and pay, the cheaper it is.
Henry
Henry
RememberTheSomme
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Nova Scotia
This is a great location for sure QM86, a little of the cold War committment is a great idea as well. My brother was in Lahr 84-88 4CMBG, then there's Baden-Solingen , my step father was posted in Zweibrucken in the 50's using US Garand's and BAR's for airfield security, lots of Cold War places not to forget.. Maybe visit the town of Fulda, smack in the middle of the gap the US Army prepared to battle the Russian tank hordes sweeping to the west through this vital route. Sorry,..I grew up in the Cold war and I remember it's potential danger. Of course Berlin is a must, and as already mentioned the Seelow Heights.
So much history, you are very lucky to have this opportunity plan your trip well. Pizza's and schnapp's you can get here in Canada, to stand where the North Nova's crossed the Rhine during Operation Varisty in Mar'45 and 1CanPara lead the way in the large daytime drop and a friend of mine lost a lung to a German mortar sharpnel would be a thrill to me. Oh so much to see.......so little little time. Enjoy your trip.
When I visited Xanten and the Rhineland area 20 yrs ago they were just finishing the restoration of the Xanten cathedral to repair the war damage. One of my sisters is married to a German and has lived in that area since the late '80s so it always made a nice visit when I was in Germany. There are a lot of things to see in the area including a very large Commonwealth War Graves Commision cemetary where a lot of the aircrew who were shot down while bombing the Ruhr valley are buried.
During the same trip I had some business with the Brits up in BAOR so took a side trip along the old inner German boundary and the Fulda Gap which we had wargamed and map exercised to death in preparation for a defensive battle against the Soviet hordes. The border towers and all signs of the old frontier had been cleaned up by then. I overnighted in a gasthaus near there and listened to 3 pretty young girls chatting away a couple of tables away from me in the restaurant. At first I couldn't understand what they were speaking, then it dawned on me that they were Russians. So they finally made it thru the Fulda Gap, but never in the way that I expected.
During the same trip I had some business with the Brits up in BAOR so took a side trip along the old inner German boundary and the Fulda Gap which we had wargamed and map exercised to death in preparation for a defensive battle against the Soviet hordes. The border towers and all signs of the old frontier had been cleaned up by then. I overnighted in a gasthaus near there and listened to 3 pretty young girls chatting away a couple of tables away from me in the restaurant. At first I couldn't understand what they were speaking, then it dawned on me that they were Russians. So they finally made it thru the Fulda Gap, but never in the way that I expected.
MauserMike
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- SW Ontario
Bavaria for sure. Munich, Berchtesgaden, Dachau. If you want WWII, remember Bavaria was the birth place of National Socialism.
http://www.thirdreichruins.com/ - this website has a lot of cool info. Some of these places I have seen and I didn't even realize it until I saw the site.
http://www.thirdreichruins.com/ - this website has a lot of cool info. Some of these places I have seen and I didn't even realize it until I saw the site.
- Location
- Leduc County, Alberta
Otherwise known as the Red Army war memorial in Berlin....
Cologne, the French say.
Germans call it Koln.
The ROMANS called it Colonia. It's OLD.
The big church is the Cathedral of the Three Holy Kings. It was built to house a casket containing purported remains of the three Magi (Persian Kings) who visited Jesus shortly after His birth. It is the finest German High Gothic construction in the world..... and VERY possibly one of Humanity's greatest affirmations of Faith. The inside is utterly incredible. It is still a working Church, though, so have respect. The old white columns just outside the main entrance are the remains of a Roman Temple, one of the few visible relics of the ancient border town, although there is a lot in the city Museum.
Coming up from the Ruhrgebeit, you cross the Hohenzollern Bridge with its huge equestrian statues of Kaiser Wilhelm II at either end. The statues were removed for safety during the Second War and the Bridge had a very large bomb planted precisely between its two biggest spans. I have seen a photograph of the Bridge, taken from a low-level Lanc just a few days after the shooting ended and it shows the Bridge and the bomb damage....... and the entire city in utter ruin, hardly anything more than 6 feet high, only this magnificent Cathedral rising above it all, apparently undamaged.
Get closer, though, and you can see the pock-marks in the Cathedral from the Hurribombers and Thunderbolts and Mitchells, but the fabric of the building was struck only once by a bomb and the damage was limited, although there is a sign inside telling of the "allierte Schreckflieger". Actually, hitting the Cathedral was a court-martial offense in our Air Force but people have forgotten that part.
With true Germanic thoroughness, every building in the city had a duplicate set of its complete construction plans, continually updated, in the City Archive, which was in an EOTW-proof vault. When the shooting stopped, this vault was opened and the city REBUILT COMPLETELY from the original plans. There is NOTHING in downtown Koln (except the Cathedral) which is as old as I am (I was born in 1944)..... yet it looks exactly like a 19th-Century German city..... because it ALSO is completely ORIGINAL. Fascinating tale, and so very true.
I visited there n 1976, just as they were welding up the final bullet-holes in the roof over the train platform, and you could pick out the .303-calibre and the .50-cal and the 20mm holes very clearly, each one chalked for the welders, up to about 16 feet. I guess they just painted over the higher ones. I had had a rough several days (blown engine on a BSA, endless unbudgetted expenses, a railway functionary with a Red Plastic Belt, a robbery and so forth) and I was thoroughly sick of Germany by that time, so I looked up at those holes and remembered that my Dad had built the aircraft which put them there..... and, very quietly, I said, "Thanks, Dad!"
But the Cathedral is a MUST. It's 200 yards from the railroad station, so you have no excuse. If you see NO other building in Europe, it is still a MUST.
You, too, can be in the presence of the Three Holy Kings.
Germans call it Koln.
The ROMANS called it Colonia. It's OLD.
The big church is the Cathedral of the Three Holy Kings. It was built to house a casket containing purported remains of the three Magi (Persian Kings) who visited Jesus shortly after His birth. It is the finest German High Gothic construction in the world..... and VERY possibly one of Humanity's greatest affirmations of Faith. The inside is utterly incredible. It is still a working Church, though, so have respect. The old white columns just outside the main entrance are the remains of a Roman Temple, one of the few visible relics of the ancient border town, although there is a lot in the city Museum.
Coming up from the Ruhrgebeit, you cross the Hohenzollern Bridge with its huge equestrian statues of Kaiser Wilhelm II at either end. The statues were removed for safety during the Second War and the Bridge had a very large bomb planted precisely between its two biggest spans. I have seen a photograph of the Bridge, taken from a low-level Lanc just a few days after the shooting ended and it shows the Bridge and the bomb damage....... and the entire city in utter ruin, hardly anything more than 6 feet high, only this magnificent Cathedral rising above it all, apparently undamaged.
Get closer, though, and you can see the pock-marks in the Cathedral from the Hurribombers and Thunderbolts and Mitchells, but the fabric of the building was struck only once by a bomb and the damage was limited, although there is a sign inside telling of the "allierte Schreckflieger". Actually, hitting the Cathedral was a court-martial offense in our Air Force but people have forgotten that part.
With true Germanic thoroughness, every building in the city had a duplicate set of its complete construction plans, continually updated, in the City Archive, which was in an EOTW-proof vault. When the shooting stopped, this vault was opened and the city REBUILT COMPLETELY from the original plans. There is NOTHING in downtown Koln (except the Cathedral) which is as old as I am (I was born in 1944)..... yet it looks exactly like a 19th-Century German city..... because it ALSO is completely ORIGINAL. Fascinating tale, and so very true.
I visited there n 1976, just as they were welding up the final bullet-holes in the roof over the train platform, and you could pick out the .303-calibre and the .50-cal and the 20mm holes very clearly, each one chalked for the welders, up to about 16 feet. I guess they just painted over the higher ones. I had had a rough several days (blown engine on a BSA, endless unbudgetted expenses, a railway functionary with a Red Plastic Belt, a robbery and so forth) and I was thoroughly sick of Germany by that time, so I looked up at those holes and remembered that my Dad had built the aircraft which put them there..... and, very quietly, I said, "Thanks, Dad!"
But the Cathedral is a MUST. It's 200 yards from the railroad station, so you have no excuse. If you see NO other building in Europe, it is still a MUST.
You, too, can be in the presence of the Three Holy Kings.
If possible, rent a car in Germany.
Better cars, much lower rental rates.
Berlin is a great choice, if you are visiting Germany.
Not too far is Weimar, also very important historical site.
You want World War history- on the outskirts of Weimar is Buchenwald Concentration Camp.
Out of several that I visited, this one is best preserved.
