GERMANY: HITLER'S MUNICH

 May 25, 2025

Our very last joint activity on our family trip to Germany was a guided tour of Hitler's Munich. But before I get to that, I just have to throw in this photo of a silver lion that we passed in the Old Town square. Munich has several statues of lions, once a symbol of Bavarian strength. Besides the Old Town Square, they can be found flanking the entrance to the Munich Palace, on the top of the triumphal arch, and at the Lowenbrau Brewery. My high school mascot was a lion, and I'm a big fan of the books The Wizard of Oz and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, both of which prominently feature a lion, so I am always drawn to statues of lions. This one looks powerful. I like it!

Munich is considered the birthplace of the Nazi Party (aka National Socialism or NSDAP), and a visit to Munich is not complete without seeing a few of the sites involved with the Nazi Party, especially in the 1920s and 1930s.

Our first stop on the tour was the Hofbrauhaus, a historic beer hall that started as a supplier for the Bavarian court. 

Our guide took us up a long stairway . . .

. . . to this dining hall. It was here in February 1920 (so early!) that 30-year-old Hitler, the propaganda chief of the National Socialist Party, announced the party's official program to a gathering of about 2,000 people. Seventeen months later, on July 29, 1921, he was elected to be the head of the Nazi Party here.

NORTH CAROLINA: RALEIGH

 October 2022

On my last day I had several hours to kill after my son went to work and before I had to head to the airport, so I decided to take a look at North Carolina's capital city, Raleigh, named after Sir Walter Raleigh of Roanoke Colony fame. With a population of about 475,000, it is the 41st largest city in the United States, the 2nd most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte, and one of the fastest growing cities in the country. In 2011 was ranked by Time as the third most-educated city in the US. 

Andrew Johnson, the 17th President of the US, was born here in 1808. Other notables include Olympic figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi, American Idol star Clay Aiken, and writer David Sedaris.

I was headed for the capitol building, but I detoured when I saw Christ Episcopal Church, built in 1848 to 1853. I love this sculpture entitled Peaceable Francis.

Down the street and around the corner is the First Baptist Church, completed in 1859.

ASHGABAT, TURKMENISTAN: THE HALK HAKYDASY MEMORIAL COMPLEX

The grandiosity of the "tourist sites" in Ashgabat is hard to describe. Everything is SO over the top. 

Take, for example, the Halk Hakydasy ("People's Memory) Memorial Complex, a vast park that covers almost 7,000,000 square feet or 160 acres. It is 3,000 feet long and 2,000 feet wide. By comparison, the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is just 146 acres, and Tienanmen Square in Beijing is a puny 4,700,000 square feet. 

It took only two years to build this memorial park, which was opened in 2014. So far it features three monuments to the dead: one to honor the victims of the 1948 earthquake, one to honor soldiers killed in World War II, and one to honor those killed in a 19th century battle. There is also a museum, which we did not have time to visit.

The earthquake memorial is the most outlandish of the three monuments. A 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck 15 miles southwest of Ashgabat in October 1948 at 2:17 AM, causing extensive damage and many deaths in the city. As Turkmenistan was under strict Soviet control at the time, the actual death toll was never disclosed, but estimates are as high as 110,000, which would be over 20% of the population at the time. One website lists it as the 6th most deadly earthquake in the history of the world. Casualties included the mother and siblings of the future president of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, leaving him an orphan (his father had died in World War II). 

How did eight-year-old Saparmurat survive when the rest of his family did not? One source I looked at said he was out taking a walk. What an eight year old is doing taking a walk at 2:17 AM is a mystery to me. There is also a rumor that the earthquake was caused by the first testing of an atomic bomb by the Soviets. Who knows?

The 110-foot-tall earthquake memorial, a marble podium topped by a bronze and gold sculpture, was created in 1998 during Niyazov's presidency to be part of an earthquake memorial located elsewhere in the city. It was moved to its current spot in 2014. It shows a large bull shaking the world between its horns and a dying mother lifting her golden child above the rubble-covered globe. The child is said to be none other than (guess who!) the future president, Sapamurat Niyazov. Though unlikely, this divine rescue is more believable that the early morning walk theory.

ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN: PANFILOV PARK WAR MEMORIAL AND THE SILK ROAD EXPRESS TRAIN

A large park surrounds the Ascension Eastern Orthodox Cathedral, and in that park is a war memorial that honors both the Bolshevik Revolution (1917-1920) and World War II (1941-1945).

The memorial is a long, stone-paved mall bordered by dense foliage and containing several interesting works of art.

This is the entrance on one end of the park. On the other side of this brick wall . . .

. . . is a giant relief of fifteen World War II soldiers (one for each Soviet republic) who seem to be bursting out of the wall. The inscription on the base translates to something like, "Great Russia will never turn back; Moscow is behind us!"