Remembrance Day – Honouring the Fallen – Ypres 2013 (Iepers – Flemish spelling)

I do partake in what is called Dark tourism, but when I went to Ypres, it was for different reasons.  I had a couple client meetings and on my way to Ypres, I found myself looking into things to see as I love going to places that I’ve never been before.  I’m quite a nostalgic person and love places with a lot of history.  This time, it hits close to home.  Although I never had any family members that fought in WWI, I carry a heavy heart for those families that lost family members.  My fraternity also has members that did fight and a lot died or went MIA during this time of great desperation and travesty.

I decided to make this blog and put it up in time to remember those who have fallen.

A full minute of silence as the clock strike 11AM on the eleventh day of November 96 years ago today.

The poem written in the form of rondeau and really encapsulates the feeling of the time.  It was written by a Canadian Military physician named John McRae.  “He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of friend and fellow soldier Alexis Helmer, who died in the Second Battle of Ypres. According to legend, fellow soldiers retrieved the poem after McCrae, initially unsatisfied with his work, discarded it. “In Flanders Fields” was first published on December 8 of that year in the London-based magazine Punch.”

 

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.”

 

For those of you that have never been or just haven’t had the chance yet, I’ve included a personal tour based on Photos and videos.  Videos will be made in separate posts.

 

The photos show a partial look at what Ypres has to offer.  They’ve built a complete walkway around the city limits and scatter throughout this walk are smaller cemeteries where soldiers were put to rest one final time.  The plots are separated by nationality.  You will see the headstones of thousands of soldiers with their name, rank and nationality.  They are buried beside each other and segregated based on which country they represented.

Enjoy the photos.

 

 

 

Hey Boss, dee plane, dee plane! Munich To Toronto 2013 (sept)

 

Normally, I won’t make such a small post, especialy about an airplane.  I like to write about my experience of the places that I visit, but on this occassion, I was quite fascinated with the plane that I was in.  It’s not too common for me to just hop into a plane, get to my destination and begin photo-bombing.

I felt that this was blog-worthy because of the coolness of the interior.  It was a little drafty, but this Boeing 777 was brand spanking new.  There were electric plugs and even USB sockets on the seat monitor where you watch the movies.  I think the USB plug is for chargin your devices and not for moving data back and forth though.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have a USB cable or device to this out.

There aren’t that many photos, but I wanted to show you what I saw and what I noticed.

 

The wing span is WIDE on this plane and stretches for at least 8-12 rows.  You’ll see that in the photos.

 

That’s it for this post  I will update the Toronto trip as soon as I can in another post.  Actually, I might need to break it down to a couple posts as there are a lot of photos and places to show.

A Walk Through Salzburg Castle (2013)

The photos listed are actually from the same Salzburg trip that I posted on August 25th of this year (2013).  The path to the castle winds up the hill and back down again.  The trip takes about an hour or so if you walk normally, but if you decide to stop at one of the shops or walk in the museum, it could take longer than that.

I plan on adding a few more photos to this if I go back to visit, but I think I still have some on my SD card on my phone.

FYI, there IS an entrance fee.  I forgot to pay attention to it, but I believe it’s around 10 Euros per person.  Those that live in Salzburg get in for free.  Actually, I thought I had to pay as well, but I told the lady in German that I was part of the family that just walked through ahead of me…shhhh  don’t tell!  haha.

You will notice in the photos that there are quite a few kids in them.  They are children from 3 other families that went with us on the walk.  I think subconciously, the Austrians promote a healthy lifestyle.  These friends of mine ALWAYS go for extended walks and that is quite a good thing IMO.  I spent my childhood watching TV and eating McD’s burgers.  AcK!

I am a bit behind in my posts as there are at least another 4 or 5 more I need to write JUST to keep relatively updated and this is not even counting all the older records I have of past trips.  In the next few weeks I will attempt to at least get caught up with my recent travels before I delve into writing about the older trips taken.

For more information, or if you intend on visiting this place, visit: http://www.salzburg-burgen.at/en/

Salzburg Trip 2013

Hey Everyone,

Today is Sunday August 25th and I’ve already been to Salzburg one previous time this year to visit an old friend from school way back in the day.  His name is George and he was visiting some other friends in the city, so I decided to travel and meet all these new people.  It was and is quite a fun experience and I came out of it knowing a little more German.

Anyway, back to Salzburg.  We decided to go and see Eagles Nest which was Adolf Hitler’s favourite escape.  It is kind of similar to “Camp David” for the US president, but the location is far different.  I mean geologically.  Eagles Nest or rather “Kehlsteinhaus” (in German, is set on a mountain top that soars 1,834 meters high).

If you plan to visit Eagles nest, it’s actually located at the edge of the Austrian border, but on the German side.  You have to get off the Bergesgaden Exit off the highway.  Then you drive for 10 min until you get to the actual mountain.  You have the choice of parking at the bottom and taking a gondola up or drive half way up and catch busses.

Pause.  Will continue in a bit.  I am about to take off to the Salzburg Schloss, which is the castle/palace.  I shall continue in a few hours.

 

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2 weeks later….oops  Sorry about that guys.  I just had quite a hectic time since Salzburg and just didn’t have the time or the energy when I did have the time to finish my blog.  Finally, I am sitting down now and trying to get all the details down for you to read.

Ok, so when you reach the base of the mountain, it’s best if you drive up, however, if you don’t have a powerful car with a lot of stuff or people in it, it may have trouble climbing the steep slopes of the mountain.  I’ve got an older Beetle and it had a hell of a time getting up and on the way down was almost as bad because it was pretty much 20 min of just breaking all the way down.  Breaks on older cars aren’t as sensitive as the new ones, so it was pretty tense all the way down.

Once we reached the destination, there was loads of parking.  You will need to pay for it and make sure you have change because there are ticket machines to purchase time stamps for however long you wish to stay.

You cannot see everything from one place because the elevation is steep enough that the actual museum sits at the lowest spot of the local area and the restaurant, gift shops are all slightly higher than where the museum is.  The busses are on the upper side (you can’t miss them).  You need to walk across the entire parking lot and down the stairs on the other side (not very visible).  That is where you buy your tickets (costs around 30 euros per person) to the actual Eagles Nest site and each ticket will specify which bus you are on.  They are quite punctual!  Be on time when you wait.

FYI:  The higher you go in this tourist place, the higher things costs.  The same things you could get near the bottom of the mountain is cheaper by a few euros on every single item.  Be careful on when you get your shopping bug.  It could cost you!

Going up!

The buss ride up AND down is Fantastic!  It takes about 5 min of driving up before you begin to see spectacular views.  They are very nice.  Now, nothing compared to Peru and Cusco, but, in it’s own way, extremely beautiful.  Don’t worry, this blog isn’t one devoid of photos.  I just prefer to do the basic overall synopsis of my trip and break down photos based on subjects and show them in mini posts of the same posts.  Over time that one post would gain in size as I sift through my images.

 

Arriving at the top

First of all, you DO NOT need to take the buss up if you really don’t want to, but it’s even steeper and if you are afraid of heights, forget it.  Take the buss.  You can hike up or even bicycle.  When I went, there were a few bikes up there and saw one guy just finishing his climb.  Suffice it to say, I was very impressed, because that is not an each climb for anything.

When the driver drops you off he tells you to go to the ticket booth to tell them what time you will be finished.  They reserve seats for you on these busses.  Not actually places, but they make sure there is enough sitting room. It’s too dangerous to have people standing as the busses need to stop and start quickly.  This would cause too much people shuffling on the busses.

IF you miss the time, you have to ask each buss driver yourself if there is enough room on his/her buss to take you down.

Still Not at the Top

As you leave the buss, you will come to a tunnel that goes on for about 200 or so meters.  At the end, there will be a waiting room with an elevator.  Up until the elevator you can’t take photos.  This rule is really ONLY for the elevator (Why?  I have no idea).  It’s quite nice and old school.  You have your concierge taking you to the top with telephone in tow.  This was the elevator that Hitler took when he spent his leisure time during his political life.  I’ve been told that Hitler only visited this place about a dozen times.  It was not a spot he frequented, but apparently really loved.

 

Finally at the Top

 

The elevator opens into a restaurant.  You can sit there and have some fun with drinks and some food.  The food is not bad and the beer is pretty good.    If you go there for lunch, it is a nice place to visit for a few hours.  Beyond the restaurant you will see the paths to the upper rocks and other smaller locations for views.  BE CAREFUL!  The rocks have been worn down so much that it’s almost like walking on ice.  One could easily slip and fall or slip and worse.  Keep your eyes out for benches.  Most of them are in excellent locations to sit and enjoy the view(s).

The entire event would take you about 2 hrs, but if you eat, it would increase that time to 2.5-3 hrs.  I would consider this to be a full day affair because the mountain is one thing and the actual museum is the other.  Unfortunately, I went to the top first and when I came back down, it was too late by then to visit the museum.  I will have to write about that at a later date when I get a chance to revisit the area.

 

Steve’s Travel Blog – Welcome Post!

Hello everyone and thanks for dropping by!

 

My name is Steve and this is my personal blog of my travels.  I don’t travel all the time, but I do travel frequently, so the site won’t be inactive for large periods of time.  If you have something to add, email me steve [at] austrianlife.com.  Most of the traveling you will see me do is for work, however, I always make sure I have at least enough time to see where I am visiting and to offer my own opinions of the location as an outsider.  Even moreso, offering tips along the way.

Currently, I live in central northern Austria and have been here for the past 10 years.  Unfortunately, my German is still bad as I work strictly in the English language, so I do suffer from lack of use.  Am I just gonna leave it like that?  No, because I purchased one of those Rosetta stone packages.  Lets see how that works.  Heck, I’ll even post about that progress as well.

I’m quite interested in going to unusual and unique places and not necessarily always going to a beach resort.  Those hidden gems like places to eat or visit.  Maybe even something a little darker, such as “Dark Tourism”, as I am a hobby historian too.  I’m very familiar with WWII and Nazi Germany, plus French, Italian and British history.

Over the past 20 years, I have been doing a large amount of traveling, when comparing to my youth.  When I was younger, sure I traveled, but I don’t remember much and at that time I wasn’t aware enough to absorb all there is to see.  I’ve now taken it upon myself to document as much as I can because there is a lot to know and see.  I don’t want to forget and it would be nice to have something for my friends and family to look at and maybe even learn a tip or two.

You will notice that I may jump from year to year because I have photos and memories from previous travels, like my 2004 trip to Peru/Argentina or my US travel days.  I did a lot of road tripping in my late teens and early 20’s, so I have to dig up stuff I had from those days as well.  All in all, everything will be there, but they may not be in the order that I have traveled in, however, they will be in their appropriate categories and will state in the title the date or at least the year I visited.

Thanks all for visiting, please come back again as I anticipate to keep this updated for years to come.