James Anderson-Pole
Travel recommendations
Australia
- Cockatoo Island, NSW
- National Pass, NSW
Czech Republic
Germany
- Berlin Nordbahnhof: Train station with exhibition on Berlin's ghost stations.
- Berlin TV Tower
- East Side Gallery Berin
Malaysia
Netherlands
New Caledonia
- Amedee Island: Recommend booking with MaryD.
New Zealand
- Mount Kaukau, Wellington
Samoa
Singapore
- Battlebox: 1942 Malaya Command Headquarters
- Changi Chapel and Museum: World War Two Prisoner of War camp.
- Former Ford Factory: Here the British surrendered to the Japanese in 1942. There is an exhibition on World War 2.
- Rail Corridor: I recommend the Central Section if you are short on time.
- Reflections at Bukit Chandu: Historical World War 2 site.
Thailand
United Kingdom
United States
Newseum: Was an excellent musuem but sadly closed at the end of 2019.
Travel Plans
Germany
Baden-Württemberg — 12 nights
- Heidelberg — 5 nights
- Accommodation ibis Heidelberg Hauptbahnhof
- Day 1 Technik Museum Speyer (day trip)
- Day 2 Technik Museum Sinsheim (day trip)
- Day 3 BASF Visitor Center: company-history exhibition spanning the Nazi-era IG Farben period, with a Stolperschwelle memorial outside (day trip to Ludwigshafen)
- Day 3 Gedenkstätte KZ Osthofen (Osthofen Concentration Camp Memorial): one of the first Nazi concentration camps, established March 1933 (day trip)
- Day 4 Museum für Kommunikation Frankfurt (Museum for Communication Frankfurt) (day trip to Frankfurt)
- Day 4 Historischer Ort Adlerwerke (Historical Site Adlerwerke): memorial to the Katzbach concentration camp, a subcamp of Natzweiler-Struthof (day trip to Frankfurt)
- Stuttgart — 4 nights
- Accommodation ibis Stuttgart Centrum
- Day 1 Memorial at Hotel Silber
- Day 1 Stauffenberg-Erinnerungsstätte (Stauffenberg Memorial): exhibition on brothers Claus and Berthold von Stauffenberg and the 20 July 1944 plot against Hitler, in the Altes Schloss. Open Thu–Sun only.
- Day 1 Birkenkopf
- Day 2 Straßenbahnmuseum Stuttgart
- Day 2 SWR Fernsehturm Stuttgart
- Day 3 Palais Thermal: historic thermal bath with spa-palace architecture (day trip)
- Baden-Baden — 3 nights
- Accommodation TRIBE Baden-Baden
- Day 1 Caracalla Therme: modern thermal spa day with indoor/outdoor pools and sauna areas.
- Day 2 Friedrichsbad: Roman-Irish bath house and historic thermal spa experience.
Bavaria — 10 nights
- Berchtesgaden — 2 nights
- Munich — 8 nights
- Accommodation ibis München City
- Day 1 Zugspitze (day trip)
- Day 2 Neuschwanstein Castle (day trip)
- Day 3 Reichsparteitagsgelände (Nazi Party Rally Grounds): former Nazi Party rally complex, including the Documentation Center in the Congress Hall's north wing and the Zeppelin Field parade grounds (day trip to Nuremberg).
- Day 3 Memorium Nuremberg Trials (day trip to Nuremberg)
- Day 4 KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau (day trip)
- Day 5 DB Museum Nuremberg (day trip to Nuremberg)
- Day 5 Museum für Kommunikation (Nuremberg) (day trip to Nuremberg)
- Day 6 Therme Erding: world's largest thermal spa complex (day trip)
- Day 7 Deutsches Museum (Munich)
- Day 7 Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism
- Video Germany's Frankfurt and Nürnberg
Berlin
- World War Two
- Allied Museum
- Berlin Story Bunker — Hitler: How could it happen?
- High Priority House of the Wannsee Conference
- Museum Berlin-Karlshorst
- High Priority Soviet War Memorial
- High Priority Topography of Terror
- Cold War / GDR
- asisi Panorama — The Wall
- Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial
- Berlin Underworlds Association
- Berlin Wall Bike Trail
- Checkpoint Charlie
- High Priority DDR Museum
- Tempelhof Field
- Karl-Marx-Allee
- Mauermuseum — Haus am Checkpoint Charlie
- High Priority Museum for Communication
- Museum in der Kulturbrauerei
- High Priority Palace of Tears
- High Priority Stasi Museum
- Teufelsberg
- The Wall Museum: multimedia exhibition on Cold War and Berlin Wall history at the East Side Gallery.
- Queer / LGBT history
- Eldorado memorial plaque: marks the former queer nightclub and Nazi persecution site
- Magnus-Hirschfeld-Ufer: queer cultural promenade along the Landwehr Canal
- Nollendorfplatz / Motzstraße: historic heart of Berlin’s gay district
- Schwules Museum
- Technology / science
- Computerspielemuseum
- Futurium
- Deutsches Technikmuseum: includes the Deutsche Telekom Science Center Spectrum interactive exhibit; also check out the Bahnpark railway museum section
- General / urban experience
- Reichstag
- Vabali Spa
- Timeride
- Deutscher Dom: free Bundestag exhibition on German parliamentary history.
- TODO: check the Berlin Welcome Card for free public transport and 170+ discounts on attractions.
Brandenburg — 5 days
- Brandenburg an der Havel — 1 day trip from Berlin
- Brandenburg-Görden Prison Memorial: former prison memorial covering Nazi and post-war political repression
- Memorial to the Victims of Euthanasia Murders: documentation site on the Nazi "euthanasia" killings at Brandenburg an der Havel
- Eisenhuettenstadt — 1 day trip from Berlin
- Oranienburg — 1 day trip from Berlin
- Memorial and Museum Sachsenhausen: major former concentration camp memorial site
- Potsdam — 2 day trips from Berlin
- High Priority Cecilienhof Country House: site of the 1945 Potsdam Conference
- Glienicke Bridge: Cold War prisoner-exchange bridge between Berlin and Potsdam
- Leistikowstrasse Potsdam Memorial: former Soviet/KGB remand prison in the early Cold War period
- Lindenstrasse Memorial: former prison and courthouse memorial documenting political persecution under Nazi, Soviet, and GDR rule
Bremen — 2 days
- Bremen — 1 day
- Denkort Bunker Valentin (Bunker Valentin Memorial Site)
- Universum Bremen
- Bremerhaven — 1 day trip from Bremen
- U-Boot Wilhelm Bauer (Submarine Wilhelm Bauer)
Hamburg — 2 days
- Accommodation ibis Hamburg Alster Centrum
- Miniatur Wunderland
- Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial
- St Nikolai Memorial
Hesse
Hesse's destinations are now covered as day trips from Heidelberg (Baden-Württemberg) and Koblenz (Rhineland-Palatinate).
Lower Saxony — 2 nights
- Hannover — 2 nights
- Accommodation Novotel Suites Hannover City
- Day 1 Gedenkstätte Bergen-Belsen (Bergen-Belsen Memorial): day trip via train to Celle, then taxi or bus (limited service, none Sundays) for the last 25km.
North Rhine-Westphalia — 11 nights
- Duisburg — 3 nights
- Accommodation Mercure Hotel Duisburg City
- Day 1 Wunderland Kalkar (day trip to Kalkar)
- Day 2 Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Steinwache: former Gestapo police prison, now a memorial on resistance and persecution in Dortmund, 1933–1945 (day trip to Dortmund). Closed for renovation, planned reopening mid-2028.
- Köln (Cologne) — 4 nights
- Accommodation ibis Köln am Dom
- Day 1 Schwebodrom: exhibition on the history of the Wuppertal Suspension Railway (day trip to Wuppertal)
- Day 1 Wuppertal Suspension Railway (day trip to Wuppertal)
- Day 2 Deutsches Museum (day trip to Bonn)
- Day 2 Haus der Geschichte (day trip to Bonn)
- Day 3 NS-Documentation Centre
- Paderborn — 4 nights
- Accommodation ibis Paderborn City
- Day 1 Gedenkstätte Möhnetalsperre (Möhne Dam Memorial): memorial to the victims of the 1943 "Dambusters" raid, including the forced labourers who died during reconstruction (day trip to Möhnesee)
- Day 2 Gedenkstätte Stalag 326 (VI K) Senne: memorial and documentation centre at the largest Soviet POW transit camp in the Third Reich, near Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock (day trip to Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock)
- Day 3 Kreismuseum Wewelsburg: exhibition on the ideology and terror of the SS, at the former SS ideological centre and concentration camp site (day trip to Wewelsburg)
Rhineland-Palatinate — 5 nights
- Koblenz — 5 nights
- Accommodation Mercure Hotel Koblenz
- Day 1 Deutsches Eck (German Corner): Rhine/Moselle confluence with Kaiser Wilhelm monument and Berlin Wall fragments
- Day 1 DB Museum Koblenz
- Day 2 Rhine Valley Scenic rail journey: train from Koblenz to Bingen.
- Day 2 Rhine Valley Scenic boat journey: KD boat from Bingen to St Goar.
- Day 3 Government Bunker Documentation Site: Cold War continuity-of-government bunker museum (day trip to Ahr Valley)
- Day 3 Ahr-Thermen: historic thermal spa (day trip to Ahr Valley)
- Day 4 Gedenkstätte Hadamar (Hadamar Memorial): former Aktion T4 euthanasia killing centre, with preserved gas chamber and crematorium (day trip to Hadamar)
- Website Rails down the Rhine - the scenic route by train
- Video Rails Down The Rhine: Cologne to Basel by EuroCity train EC9
- Remagen — stopover en route to/from Cologne
- Peace Museum Bridge at Remagen: museum on the 1945 Ludendorff Bridge battle and its aftermath
- Trier — stopover en route to/from Saarbrücken
Saarland — 2 nights
- Saarbrücken — 2 nights
- Accommodation Mercure Hotel Saarbrücken City
- Historisches Museum Saar: permanent exhibition on the Saar region's history 1870–1959, including the Nazi era and the 1935 and 1955 referenda on unification with Germany
Saxony — 6 days
- Bautzen — 1 day trip from Leipzig
- Bautzen Memorial: former prison memorial and museum-style site
- Chemnitz — 1 day trip from Leipzig
- Karl Marx Monument
- Museum of Industrial Culture: industrial history and socialist-era context
- Dresden — 1 day trip from Leipzig
- Kulturpalast
- Soviet War Memorial: memorial to Soviet soldiers who died in the Battle of Dresden in 1945
- Zeitgeschichtliches Forum
- Leipzig — 1 day
- Accommodation ibis Leipzig City for a practical stay near Leipzig Hbf.
- Runde Ecke: Memorial Museum
- Stasi Bunker Museum: former Cold War bunker and museum-style site
- TODO: check the Leipzig Card for free public transport and discounts on attractions.
- Torgau — 1 day trip from Leipzig
- Memorial Site Torgau: former prison and memorial site
- Halle-Neustadt — 1 day trip from Leipzig
- Josep Renau mosaic murals: "Unity of the Working Class and Founding of the GDR" and "The Forces of Nature and Technology Controlled by Man", a restored 1974 Cold War-era mosaic (36m x 7.25m, 11,136 tiles), Am Stadion 5.
Saxony-Anhalt — 4 nights
- Wernigerode — 4 nights
- Accommodation Altora Eisenbahn Themenhotel
- Day 1 Brockenbahn (Brocken Railway)
- Day 1 Nationalpark-Besucherzentrum Brockenhaus (National Park Visitor Centre Brockenhaus)
- Day 2 "Richard" — Buchenwald subcamp memorial: former forced-labour camp on Veckenstedter Weg, converted to a Buchenwald concentration camp subcamp in 1943; memorial established 1974/75 in the former barracks.
- Day 2 Langenstein-Zwieberge Memorial: Buchenwald concentration camp subcamp where 7,000+ prisoners from 23 countries dug a 10km tunnel complex for secret weapons production; includes mass graves, an exhibition building and a guided tunnel tour (day trip to Halberstadt)
- Day 3 Grenzmuseum Sorge: free open-air inner-German border museum, preserving an original section of border fence, patrol road and a watchtower (day trip)
- Website How to visit the Harz Railway | Times, prices, tickets
- Video Harz Railway Part 2: Brocken to Wernigerode
Schleswig-Holstein — 1 day
- Kiel — 1 day
- Flandernbunker (Flanders Bunker)
- U-Boot-Museum U 995 (U-Boat Museum U 995)
Thuringia
- Erfurt
- Gedenkstätte Andreasstraße: former Stasi remand prison where over 5,500 GDR citizens were held for political reasons; site of the first occupation of a Stasi district office during the 1989 Peaceful Revolution.
General Information
Check city cards and museum prices for savings.
Contact details
- Email: james@pole.net.nz