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My History Tours

Been to someplace of historical interest? Planning a trip? Have a question? Post here!
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Gabriele Campbell
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My History Tours

Post by Gabriele Campbell » Wed October 7th, 2009, 9:27 pm

I got a digital camera in 2006 (it was one of the best birthday presents ever) and it has been my faithful compagnon since then.

Besides a lot of local stuff - living in Germany means you step into history when you go out of the door - including a number of castles, Romanesque abbeys, pretty half timbered houses and beautiful landscape, I've also been on longer trips, from a few days up to two week tours in Scotland and Wales.

The German tours:
Braunschweig
Quedlinburg (and Gernrode Chapter Church)
Goslar
Magdeburg (including the reconstructed Medieaval settlement at Tilleda)
Trier (Roman)
Speyer
The Roman Limes forts Saalburg and Osterburken, and a Roman villa
The Varus exhibition in Haltern am See (and the reconstructed Roman ship Victoria)
Romanesque Abbeys at the Weser river: Fischbeck, Lippoldsberg, Bursfelde
Harz Castles: Harzburg, Regenstein, Falkenstein, Scharzfels, Arnstein
other castles: Hardenberg, Krukenburg, Kugelsburg, Weidelsburg, Plesse, Hanstein

NEW 2010:
Mainz (Roman and Medieaval)
Xanten (Roman, esp. Archaeological Park, Mediaeval)
Worms (Cathedral)
Boppard (aka Baudobriga, Roman walls)
more Harz castles (Hohnstein, Ebersburg)
churches: Cathedral Bad Gandersheim, Walkenried Monastery

NEW 2011
Castles in Thuringia: Wartburg, Brandenburg, Runneburg, Creuzburg
Münzenburg Castle in Hessia
reconstructed Germanic settlements: Opfermoor and Funkenburg
Remains of Göllingen Monastery

NEW 2012
Naumburg Cathedral
Memleben Monastery
Saale / Unstrut Castles: Neuenburg, Rudelsburg, Saaleck, Eckardsburg, Querfurt
some smaller castles and churches in the Meissner Nature Park

NEW 2014
Bamberg / Nuremberg / Regensburg (Romanesque and Gothic churches, town places, Nuremberg Castle)
Roman Aalen and Weissenburg (plus Roman remains in Regensburg)
Coburg Fortress, Castle Donaustauf

Paderborn (Carolingian remains, churches etc.)
Castles: Falkenberg, Dringenberg, Iburg
Open air museum Oerlinghausen (houses from the Neolithicum to the Saxons), Extern Stones

Halberstadt (with trips to Stolberg and Wernigerode)
Harz castles: Westernburg, Lauenburg
Cave houses in Langenstein

NEW 2015
Hansa Towns: Lübeck, Wismar, Stralsund (churches and pretty gabled houses, Hansa Musuem, sailing on a cog and more)
Schleswig and Haithabu (reconstructed Viking settlement Hedeby) plus tons of fun stuff in the museum, Flensburg
Schwerin Cathedral, Ratzeburg Cathedral
reconstructed Slavic settlement and fortress Gross-Raden, Neolithic stone settings in Everstorf

Hadrian's Wall and York (2007):
Corbridge and Chesters
Hexham Abbey
Vindolanda and Roman Army Museum (Walltown Craigs)
Housesteads, Birdoswald, mitraeum at Brocolita
Segedunum (Wallsend near Newcastle)
Carlisle (Abbey church and castle)
York (Minster, Yorkshire Museum, Roman bath, Jorvik, Clifford Tower and more)

NEW 2013: Yorkshire and Northumberland:
Scarborough Castle, Richmond Castle
Castles of Alnwick, Warkworth, Bamburgh, Dunstanburgh
Whitby Abbey, Rievaulx Abbey, Lindisfarne, Ripon Cathedral

Wales and Chester (2008):
Cardiff
Caerwent and Caerleon
Caerphilly Castle, Chepstow Castle
Pembroke and Manorbier
Aberystwyth
Caernarfon Castle, Segontium Roman fort
Dolwyddelan and Criccieth castles
Beumaris Castle
Conwy Castle and town
Chester (all the Roman stuff and then some)

Scotland (2009):
Edinburgh (Castle, St. Giles Cathedral, Old Town)
Inchcolm Abbey, Dunfermline Abbey
Linlithgow Palace, Craigmillar Castle
Stirling (Castle, Wallace Monument, Bruce Museum and monument, Doune Castle)
Dunkeld
Antonine Wall (Falkirk area)
Glasgow (Cathedral, Roman bath at Bearsden, Hunterian Museum)
Oban (with Dunstaffnage Castle)
Kilmartin Glen and Dunadd
Inveraray Castle, Kilchurn Castle
Mull (with Duart Castle), Iona and Staffa
-- and on the way back to Newcastle: Tynemouth Priory and Arbeia Roman fort

NEW 2013
Dunottar Castle, Urquhart Castle
Clava Cairns
Orkney: Skara Brae, Maes Howe, Broch of Gurness, Broch of Midhowe, Ring of Brodgar, Kirkwall Cathedral

Norway (and some Denmark; 2011):
Copenhagen (town tour)
Roskilde (Cathedral, Viking Museum)
Helsingör (Hamlet's Castle - Kronborg)
Bergen (the Hansa quarter of Bryggen, Haakon's Hall, other Medieaval stuff)
Trondheim (Cathedral, Museum in the Bishop's Seat, Trondelag Open Air Museum, views of the town)
Oslo (Viking Ship Museum, Fram Museum, Akershus Fortress, Gol Stave Church)
-- during the Hurtigruten cruise: Art Nouveau houses in Alesund, Arctic Cathedral Tromös, Viking finds in Bodö Museum, Stone Church in Trondenes, Snow Hotel Kirkenes (plus dog sleighing), Vardohus Fortress, Vesteralen bus tour, Hammerfest and other small towns along the way, plus TONS of landscape

Baltic Sea Cruise (2012):
Gotland / Visby (High Cliffs, ship burial, Visby cathedral and town fortifications)
Stockholm (Old Town, Vasa Museum, Stockholm archipelago)
Helsinki / Porvoo (cathedral, Porvoo town tour)
St. Petersburg (town tour with the most important sights, evening canal cruise, St. Isaac's Cathedral, Peter and Paul's Fortress)
Tallinn (old town)
Riga (old town)
Klaipeda and Curonian Spit
Gdansk (town and cathedral) and Malbork Castle (Marienburg)
Kiel Canal
Bremen (cathedral, old town)

Some of the photos and essays are up on my blog (check the links on the sidebar under Peregrinationes), but there is still a lot of material I need to turn into posts. In case you are interested in a particular topic, feel free to ask me - I should usually be able to put up a blog post within a few days.
Last edited by Gabriele Campbell on Sat December 12th, 2015, 5:35 pm, edited 16 times in total.

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michellemoran
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Post by michellemoran » Wed October 7th, 2009, 9:48 pm

Gabriele, your photos are amazing! I think I've seen every last one. I have a gallery of my tours as well. Every year, my husband and I go on an historically themed trip. In 2008, we retraced the journey of Odysseus, and this summer our theme was Revolution, starting in Boston, going down through Philly and Virginia, and then crossing over to Paris (my next book is on the French Revolution).

I love the picture you took of Magdeburg. The image of Ioan Gruffudd isn't bad either ;]

Perhaps you can add a "signature" to your profile. That way people can just click over to your blog whenever they want.
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Check out Michelle's blog History Buff at michellemoran.blogspot.com

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Gabriele Campbell
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Post by Gabriele Campbell » Wed October 7th, 2009, 10:09 pm

Thank you, Michelle. Wow, you must either have been following my blog in secret for a long time, or you spent a few hours browsing through my archives right now. :)

Lol, the actor pics are the result of a thread on a writer forum where I'm a member. It was something along the lines: if your novel were made into a movie, who would you cast? Just a bit of fun.

I'll check your site out. Traveling on the traces of Odysseus sounds like a lot of fun though I suppose most places are still disputed, aren't they? I read a book some years ago that sent the guy all the way up to Scotland, probably one of the more exotic interpretations. ;)

I have my blog linked in the sig, though I should perhaps add a line or so. Visit my blog at ....

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michellemoran
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Post by michellemoran » Wed October 7th, 2009, 10:19 pm

I have a lot blogs where I lurk, and yours has been one of them for - well, a loooong time!

Yes, Odysseus's journey is open to quite some interpretation. But this was through the Archaeological Institute of America, so all along the way there were lectures from archaeologists about where the sites might have been and follow-up debates. It's definitely not for everyone (none of my gfs would have survived it, for example. They all prefer margaritas on a Jamaican beach), but for anyone who is a history buff it was phenomenal.
Visit MichelleMoran.com
Check out Michelle's blog History Buff at michellemoran.blogspot.com

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Gabriele Campbell
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Post by Gabriele Campbell » Wed October 7th, 2009, 10:36 pm

Hi Michelle, now you've made me blush. ;)

The problem with that tour would not be the lack of margaritas (I prefer single malts anyway) but the heat. Anything above 25°C is too hot for me. It's one of the reasons I prefer to travel in the north. I've lived in Sweden and Norway back in the late 80ies, but that was during the time of film rolls, and I could only scan in some old photos, a lot of them black and white to boot (I love the effects you can get with black and white photography and I still bring my analog camera along for that sometimes).

And wow, you really got around. I wish I had the money to travel that much and to such exotic locations. One of my dreams is a journey with the post ship along the coast of Norway - anyone got next weeks lottery numbers? :D

I've been to Scotland before, and to Vienna and Salzburg, the Normandy, Helsinki, and a number more places in Germany. I took a tour to the German Hansa Towns of Lübeck, Wismar, Rostock and Stralsund in 2004 - maybe I'll scan some of those pics because I had a mirror reflex camera then and the photos turned out really well.

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michellemoran
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Post by michellemoran » Thu October 8th, 2009, 3:02 am

Oh yes - the heat. It is brutal. We've learned to pace ourselves. My husband is a redhead and was not made for the heat (although ironically, he was born and raised in Zimbabwe). Our best solution has been to sight-see in the mornings and evenings, and do the bulk of the traveling by car or bus during the heat of the day.

You are so fortunate to be able to step out of your door into history! I LOVE the German and Austrian countryside. Have there been any HF novels sent in Germany? There's Witch's Trinity by Erika Mailman. But I'm not sure I can think of anything else.
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Ash
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Post by Ash » Thu October 8th, 2009, 3:41 am

Hadrian's Wall was fantastic! We stayed in Hexam (not far from the Abbey) and found a local tour that took us along the wall to all the major sites. The guide was a professor of Roman History at Newcastle. We were his only passengers. It rained, but we didn't care - we were soaking in his tour along with the scenery. He even had a picnic lunch packed for us - we ate in the car, being watched by many many sheep...

Ive also been to many of the same Welsh places as well, using the Welsh triology as a guidebook!

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Gabriele Campbell
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Post by Gabriele Campbell » Thu October 8th, 2009, 3:23 pm

[quote=""michellemoran""] You are so fortunate to be able to step out of your door into history! I LOVE the German and Austrian countryside. Have there been any HF novels sent in Germany? There's Witch's Trinity by Erika Mailman. But I'm not sure I can think of anything else.[/quote]

There are a lot of books in German - historical fiction is really popular here. But they never get translated which is a pity.

And which is one of the reasons I write in English.

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Gabriele Campbell
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Post by Gabriele Campbell » Thu October 8th, 2009, 3:25 pm

[quote=""Ash""]Hadrian's Wall was fantastic! We stayed in Hexam (not far from the Abbey) and found a local tour that took us along the wall to all the major sites. The guide was a professor of Roman History at Newcastle. We were his only passengers. It rained, but we didn't care - we were soaking in his tour along with the scenery. He even had a picnic lunch packed for us - we ate in the car, being watched by many many sheep...

Ive also been to many of the same Welsh places as well, using the Welsh triology as a guidebook![/quote]

That sounds like a wonderful trip, Ash.

Lol, sheep are the new garrisons at the Hadrian's Wall. :D

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robinbird79
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Post by robinbird79 » Thu October 8th, 2009, 7:56 pm

Oh I am so jealous.

Michelle, what you said about taking a history themed trip each year is fantastic! I'd LOVE to do something like that...

I really need to win the lottery now....
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