Stuff you don't find in guide books
While travelling overland across Europe, it’s easy to enjoy the scenery and hospitality without a second thought to horrific acts which took place over the centuries. We often don’t realise how special our generation is to live in a Europe where there hasn’t been a major war in over 70 years.
Before living in Prague I thought I knew about the Sudetenland and how Hitler annexed it before World War II. There’s a lot I’ve learnt about the nuances of history in the region/s that carry this name. This article is my attempt at straightening out the facts from the commonly-held myths.
People who speak out against a regime ? are targeted. We think this happens in dictatorships but a democratic society can face the wrath of an angry administration. Under communist rule, Czechoslovakia targeted the resistance fighter Milada Horáková as brutally as possible.
There’s a plaque on the wall in the castle in Ghent, Belgium, thanking the city for the symbolic establishment of the SAS. In Belgium. The SAS? Symbolic establishment? I started digging deeper to find out what this was all about.
About an hour’s drive north-east of Prague, the Gothic Bezděz castle watches over the region of Liberec. The view from the top of the Devil’s Tower is such that you can see one-eighth of the entire country!
There are many ? stories of Grey Ladies that haunt certain places. It’s interesting that most of these ghosts that wish to warn the living about something or other. The Grey Lady of Malta’s Fort St Angelo is no exception.
It’s not every day that you get to sit at a bar drinking with the ghosts of spies long-dead and conspiracies long-confounded. And yet, thatRead More
Wherever you are in Europe, it is safe to say that you are no more than a stone’s throw away from the location of some key historical event. Rome is no different and while the ruins of the old Empire are obvious, there are many more recent stories to be told.