Daily Archives: September 17, 2012

A Long Overdue Beginning…

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I’ve just posted some details of my recent trip to Munich and southern Bavaria. It’s my first post on the website, which has been parked in stationary mode for over a year. To all of you who’ve left comments or, more importantly, asked questions and received no reply, my apologies: I wasn’t ignoring you, just notgoing anywhere near the site.

I’m still trying to figure out the best way to use the site – I’ll be posting photographs and notes from my travels, plus the odd non-travel-related musing, but I also considered developing it as a forum where people could ask questions and I’d try to respond. But to do the latter would be enormously time-consuming, especially if the answers were to be of any use whatsoever, so if you do have a question, please continue to submit it to therighthooktravel@newstalk.ie or text the travel slot on 53106 between 6.20 and 7pm on Tuesdays, when I’m on with George.

In the meantime, here’s a photo taken this weekend in Tayto Park, Co Meath:

Munich

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I was in Munich and Obersalzburg last weekend, as part of an organized tour called the Secrets of the Third Reich run by Group Travel International (www.gti-ireland.com). Absolutely brilliant trip – the itinerary was very well planned, cost €739 and included the following:

  • Return flights from Dublin to Munich including airport taxes and charges of €106
  • 3 nights at the 4* Europa Hotel on Dachauer Strasse, a 10-minute tramride from Marienplatz
  • Tour Manager and Professional Historian guide for the duration of the tour
  • Executive coaching for the duration of the tour
  • Guided sightseeing tour of Munich, capital of the Third Reich. The tour includes where the Nazi party was formed, Hitler´s Offices (where the Munich agreement was signed), key parade grounds and much more. There are even a few surviving eagles tucked away
  • Guided tour of Dachau Concentration Camp, the only camp open for the whole duration of the Third Reich. A broad range of different aspects of camp life are discussed during its different periods of operation right through to the liberation in April 1945
  • Visit Berchtesgaden, Obersalzberg and the infamous Eagles Nest. This area high in the Alps was Hitler’s mountain retreat, home to the Nazi-leadership and Hitler’s second seat of government
  • Guided tour of the WW2 Aviation section of the impressive Deutsches Museum. Free time following the guided tour to explore the remainder of the museum at your own pace
  • Free time for sightseeing and shopping at leisure.

The tour was one of the best I’ve ever been on; the itinerary was superb and gave me an in-depth view of Munich and Bavaria’s links with Nazism and WWII. But the real treat (besides the excellent weather) was the guide – Stephen Whitehorn (probst2011@hotmail.com) – who wasn’t just immensely knowledgeable about virtually every facet of Hitler’s life, the rise of the Nazis and every single site associated with Nazism in Munich and Bavaria – but knew how to impart that vast knowledge in an engaging, understandable and even witty way. Absolutely brilliant stuff.

The upstairs dining hall at the Hofbrauhaus, where Hitler rallied people to the cause of National Socialism

 

 

 

The main entrance to Dachau

 

 

 

 

 

The view from the Eagle’s Nest at Obsersalzburg, southern Bavaria.