Bonus - a low down of my months long trip around europe

Warsaw

Trinblinka 

Gdansk 

Wolfs lair 

Eagles nest 

Bosnia 

Sarajevo 

Austria 

Vienna 

Saltzburg 

Frankfurt 

Erwin Rommel 

Red baron 

Ramgen 

Bastogne 

Waterloo 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome to Beat to Battlefield. I've been back in the UK just over two weeks after a month-long trip away, and I think I'd better catch up on what's happened. So this is the quick little bonus episode to tell you how I got on, and of course I'll be doing various podcasts about all the locations I went to. So here's something for you to look forward to in the future. And of course, if you've got any questions or you've got any suggestions, because I am going to do a series too, I'm going to go and visit some more places here, there, and everywhere, all over Europe. So if you've got any suggestions, I'd highly recommend just send us a message, and it would be really great to for you guys to uh really interact. And we have got a bit more of a following now, since uh we've only been going for about a year, and there is a regular people who listen to it, so I'll carry on doing this podcast, and hopefully one day I can monetize it and we can do a lot more work. So for the whole month of June, I travelled across Europe and parts of the Mediterranean and various other places which some people don't get a chance to go to, and that was the whole idea to go and take part in this and tick off a lot of places on my military bucket list. I've been a tour guide now for just over 22 years, and for the majority of it, I've done the same sites week in, week out. And being a tour guide isn't my full-time job, but I enjoy it so much that I do it as a hobby. But sometimes when you're looking after people, you don't get a chance to see what is around you. So I took a month off work, unpaid, and thankfully, through the success of TikTok, it managed to pay for most of my trips over there. So I'm not completely out of pocket, but it's always good to have a bit of extra money when travelling. So I started off in the city of Gdansk, which we have already got a podcast out about, so I won't go into much detail, but um it is the site of the first shots of the Second World War. The Westerbrook site, sorry, not Westerbrook, yes, Worcester, West, sorry, Westerplatz, where the first shots were fired by the German Navy onto that little depot sticking out with the sea. And the Poles being as stubborn as they are, held it for many mu many hours, but sadly would be beaten. And then the post office, where the first shots were fired, and where the postman saw off the Germans for several hours, and sadly would be executed. Outside the city of Gdansk, we went to the Stutthof concentration camp. This would be one of the first concentration camps within Poland, located by a beautiful coastline. It's terrible to think of the horrors that were seen here. And it was just a fleeting visit to Grodansk, where I got a train four hours across country. I went to the town of Kerzen. Here in Kerzen, it was a short walk to the Wolfslayer. Here Adolf Hitler would spend a majority of his time during the Second World War planning his battles out in the east. And it's an amazing place to go to, and it has several megastructures, a lovely calf, camping site, and you can also buy your Wolf Slayer towels. It did resemble a little bit of a Disneyland experience, but to stand there in that spot where, in July 1944, the bomb plot could have nearly ended the war. I also walked across the First World War battlefields on the Eastern Front. On one side of the wood you find graves of soldiers who died during the First World War from the German army, and then you take a short walk up on the road, and in the tiny little corner of a crossing, you find the graves of eight Russian soldiers who died there in 1914. And of course, I had to go and visit a little sideshow. I went to Hitler's garden. I saw this advertised all over the place and I thought, what on earth is this? Is it some sort of Second World War related, World War II related tea room? But in fact, it was a brilliant museum where you had Hitler's vegetable patch. We then moved from Kurzen and I made my way down to Warsaw. I visited the Warsaw Train Museum, which, top tip, is free on a Monday, and I saw three armoured trains from the Polish, Russian and German armies. It was then a case of wandering around Warsaw and seeing what else it had to offer. Warsaw is an amazing place for any history buff in relation to the Second World War. Of course, its large uprising in 1944, every single street is dedicated to a memorial for those in those terrible times. And the Warsaw Uprising Museum I couldn't recommend higher, as well as the Pityev Prison, and also there is an amazing display of the relics that have been found from the Catian massacre. But my main reason for coming to Warsaw was to spend a day travelling out to the Troblinka concentration camp. This is quite a hard one to get to, but the easiest city to go to is from Warsaw, and it can you can do a private tour which will cost you about £200. But for me, on my legs, because I wanted to get myself a little bit fitter, I walk there. There are no taxis, there are no buses that take you there, and I ended up doing a 25-mile walk on that day. So it's entirely up to you how you feel about travelling around these sites. So if you are planning on going there, I will do an entire podcast on how to get there and also some travel tips. With a fleeting visit to Warsaw, I made my way down to Krakau. Now originally I was going to go to Auschwitz, but the journey was far too long and I wouldn't be able to get enough time there. And of course, my leg isn't particularly good at the moment, so on my first night I went to Krakow and I enjoyed a lovely beer bath spa and a massage, which was brilliant. But then I spent a whole day wandering around Krakow. Now I've done several tours of Krakow throughout the years, but there are several sites that I've always wanted to go to, which sometimes when tour guiding people, sometimes their legs, a bit like my legs at the moment, aren't particularly good. So I've made my way to the Paschau concentration camp, made famous during Shinda's List. Here you can walk around the Plushov concentration camp, and it is just a national park, but there are amazing information posts which show you what there is and what was there at the time. And I finally made my had a chance to get myself to the quarry, which was a part of the concentration camp during the Second World War, but would also be part of the set of Shinder's List in 1993. And you can go into the bottom of that quarry and you can still see the graves that were used as part of the film set during that time. Then from Klakow, I flew out to Sarajevo. This was the proper first time on the bucket list I always wanted to do. Normally when I do my own trips, I go for three or four days, but getting to Sarajevo is a bit of a pain. There isn't that many flights going out there, so I managed to get a nice cheap flight from Poland, and then I'd have to fly from Greece out then to Austria. But Sarajevo, an amazing site to stand on the spot where in June 1914 the first shot rang out of the First World War. An amazing city where East meets West. It still has its Austro-Hungarian architecture along with the Eastern culture. If you love kebabs, this is the place to go, though I did manage to find some nice Austrian food whilst I was out there, and it was a great time of reflection. As when you still wander around Sarajevo, you can see the horrors what occurred here in the early part of the 1990s. It was quite emotional at some point, and there are several museums within the town which tell a more modern history. I then took the train out to Mostar. This is an absolute immaculate and exquisite place to go to. But if you go beyond the main bazaar, you can see the battle damage from that war in the early 1990s, and there is an amazing uh partisan cemetery for those who fought against fascism in the hills during that time. Sadly, it's been destroyed in several other conflicts where the people and obviously the changing borders of the former Yugoslavia have had a major effect. It was then the case of flying from Sarajevo out to Thessalonica. Here, on the former Macedonian front, it was the greatest extent of one of the unknown battles of the First World War. Here, French, Italians, and Serbians would come together to try and fight against the Austro-Hungarians. There is an amazing military museum here, and also a rather large Commonwealth Wargrave Cemetery. There are several Commonwealth Wargraves cemeteries in the local area, but I can only make it to one, and it's not just Commonwealth Wargraves. We have the French and the Italians and the Serbians who died on this little known front. And of course, I will do a main podcast about all these places that we're going to. This is just a rough guide of what happened. After two nights in Greece, I flew out to Vienna. Here I'd meet up with my friend Danny, who has been an amazing inspiration throughout the years. Visiting on the way, I went to the Vienna Central Cemetery. For those who are Tatithile, someone who enjoys walking around cemeteries, there are many different places you can see in this cemetery, some celebrities of Austria, but also many of those who died during the First and Second World War. Then into Vienna, I went to the Military Museum, where I managed to bring two of those sites I've been to together. Of course, I went to the site where Archie Ferdinand was assassinated. But in the Vienna Army Museum, you can see the car, still bullet ridden, from that day in June 1914, which would spark a whole century worth of warfare. And of course, it's got an amazing tank museum, and I just about managed to get there in time for the opening of their new World War II exhibit. And of course, there'll be another podcast, all about this. Leaving Vienna, I travelled across country and went to the Matthausen concentration camp, where I met Marlene. She is the social media ambassador for Matthausen. Having worked there for ten years, she's also an amazing guide. Matthausen, this concentration camp was completely different to all those I've seen. High on the hill, it is a rather impressive camp built almost like a fortress, and visiting its quarry, it's a real thought and aspect of the horrors what happened in these concentration camps. Not too far away from it is a subcamp of Gusen. All that remains there today is a memorial which is based around the crematorium. However, when you look beyond it, you can see the site where the camp once stood, and it's now a housing estate. From here, I would travel onto Salzburg. Reliving the days of the sound of music, Salzburg is a beautiful city. But I came here for one known reason. Taking the bus from Salzburg, you can travel to Birchers Garden, wander around the town, and then take the bus up to the Eagle's Nest, where you can go and have a cup of tea. In Hitler's former tea room, ascending in the amazing immaculate lift. You can stand on top of this hill and look over some of the greatest views you will ever see. Then it was a case of hopping across the border deep into Germany, where I went to the city of Ulm. Here I would walk in the final footsteps of Erwin Rommel, visiting his house, the site where he would have to kill himself, and then to his grave. From Ulm, you can also wander around the several other sites within this beautiful city, before travelling to the town of Ingolstadt, a town that I'd never heard of before, but this fortified city has much history to go and see, as well as an army museum, the Bavarian Police Museum, and the only First World War Museum I've seen outside of the Western Front, dedicated solely to the German army. With a quick stop-off in Frankfurt, and I can't believe how much of a of a crack alley place this is. Staying not too far from the train station, I had to bunker down in the hostel I was staying at, as the city is completely riddled with people just doing crack on the side of the streets. But this was just a stop-off before I would travel out to go and find the grave of Manfred von Victorfen, where I also found many more graves related to the Second World War, as well as a British cemetery that I've never seen before. This cemetery was for the men of the British Army of the Rhine who looked after the city from 1926 and 1929 and would die in the local area. By this time I was getting to the end of my tour, and I'd set myself a couple of days spare to go and see other sites. So I went to the city of Dusseldorf, a place that I'd never been to, but I am going to go round those Rhineland cities eventually. But the main reason for coming to this area was to go to the Ramagen Bridge, where I stood on that bridge made famous by the film, and it is an immaculate, amazing place to see. Not too far from it is also a memorial to remember, the Rhine Meadows. These were German, these were American camps, for German prisoners of war, where thousands would die in those fields as millions of them were brought out of Germany. I then returned to Dusseldorf, where I'd visit an unknown air raid shelter. By this time it was one of the hottest days of the year, so I had to slow down a little bit before moving it deep into Belgium, where I then stayed in the town of Bastogne. This was an amazing experience, though it is a little bit like a World War II Disneyland, surrounded by French-speaking Belgians, the worst type of Belgium. I'm more used to going to the places of Flanders, where they speak Dutch and are very polite. Then from Bastogne, I went out to Waterloo, considering we won at Waterloo, and of course William of Orange would be given control of this area. It's still located in Wallunia, where they speak French, which I wasn't particularly happy about, nor sp nor spending £28 to go and stand on a mound where once the British soldiers saw off and stopped Bony in that little area. And of course I will do more podcasts about these areas individually, but this is just a rundown, and I know I'm I've been going on for 16 minutes now, but we're nearly at the end. So from there, from Waterloo, I went into Brussels. And my final night, my final day before I travelled back home, after a month's worth of travelling, a month's worth of travelling and reflecting, I'd go to the Belgium Army Museum on my final day out of this area. And it was from here that I saw one of the most amazing museums of military technology that I've ever seen. Before jumping on the Eurostar, after a long month's worth of travelling, and finally returning home. To the severe heat that we've had over this summer. It was an amazing trip, and I will do a season two. But over the next couple of months, you've got all to look forward to of me telling you these each and individual places I went to on my journey around Europe. And I really want to thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. If you follow me on TikTok, thank you so much for following my journey. We're also on Instagram and on the Facebook, and of course file this podcast. So thank you so much for listening.