St. Annaberg Thingstätte, one of Europe's largest man-made, stone amphitheaters - a monument among the infamous ruins of the Third Reich, with a capacity of up to 50,000 - sits at the foot of a pilgrimage site atop a tiny Polish hill.
Nazi Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, inaugurated the "Thingstätte" or "Thingplatz" movement in 1933, drawing on a vague Germanic Volk tradition of large outdoor gatherings for public festivals and religious rituals. Though never completed on the scale Goebbels envisioned, the "Thing" movement left scores of imposing stone amphitheaters carved into the former Third Reich, many of which still stand. With a capacity reaching 50,000, one of the largest Thingstätte stands in Góra Świętej Anny, or St. Annaberg, Poland - a town with a population of just under 600, though this swells well into the thousands during four peak holy days during the year, particularly on the feast of St. Anne - the patron of the village, whose relics are enshrined in the Franciscan monastery there.
The Nazi regime constructed the Annaberg Thingstätte in an abandoned quarry at the base of Góra Świętej Anny, the hill which shares its name with the town, between 1934-1936; by 1938, they had completed a circular fortress-like mausoleum on an abrupt cliff overlooking the amphitheater, honoring the Freikorps who had fallen in the 1921 Battle of Annaberg. One can still buy postcards in St. Annaberg showing the "Thing" as it stood then - stark and deforested, with long swastika banners flapping over the empty seats.
The locals dynamited the original Nazi mausoleum in 1945 and replaced it ten years later with an open-air monument to the Polish rebels who fought and died throughout the 20th century, designed by the sculptor Xawery Dunikowski. This still stands - as does the Thingstätte, slightly weed-choked and not regularly repaired, but just as impressive in its sweeping scope as it must have been in 1936.
Three weeks ago I wrote about the frustrations of a frequent flyer program fraud detection unit gone off the rails. Air France KLM’s Flying Blue shut down the account of someone who simply transferred points in from American Express Membership Rewards and redeemed those points for a ticket. The American Express account, Flying Blue account, […]
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I receive compensation for many links on this blog. You don’t have to use these links, but I am grateful to you if you do. American Express, Citibank, Chase, and other banks are advertising partners of this site. I do not write about all credit cards that are available — instead focusing on miles, points, […]
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News and notes from around the interweb: American Express Membership Rewards is offering a 20% bonus on points transfers to Aeromexico through March 6. (HT: Points, Miles, & Martinis). Travel Summary highlights some of the best values in the Aeromexico award chart. I find dealing with their call centers frustrating enough that no matter the […]
The post The Best Values from An Obscure Award Chart (Plus a 20% Transfer Bonus!), Discounted Hyatt Gift Cards, Plus The Onion on Loyalty! appeared first on View from the Wing.
The Chase Ink Plus card is reportedly back with an offer of 60,000 points after $5000 spend within 3 months ($0 fee the first year, $95 thereafter). This offer is said to be available in branch only. I haven’t verified this year, whether it’s in all branches, and I don’t know how long it will […]
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MegaDO frequent flyer charter trip organizer Tommy Danielsen (‘tommy777‘) emails to say that the next ‘Star MegaDO’ goes on sale Monday at 1pm Eastern / Noon Central / 11am Mountain / 10am Pacific. Details of the program are posted on Megado.com. The event will be held in May and the itinerary is Stockholm – Toulouse […]
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Cloud backup solutions are seemingly a dime-a-dozen these days. There are so many different flavors, it can seem overwhelming to pick just one. I’m not a hardcore computer nerd and picking The Absolute Best Backup Service is like trying to pick out the prettiest prom dress (I speak from experience). But after trialing a variety […]
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For the most part I find Dubai to have a great taxi infrastructure in place. Taxis are readily available, clean, cheap, and I usually find the drivers know where they're going (of course there are exceptions, but there are much worse cities in terms of drivers and their knowledge of the city).
Even though I've been to Dubai well over a dozen times, I faced a bit of a scam the most recent time I arrived and tried to get a taxi. Maybe I've just gotten too used to Emirates Chauffeur, whereby I don't even have to grab my own taxi on arrival.
But upon arrival from Muscat on Oman Air, we tried to grab a taxi to the Grand Hyatt. There was virtually no one in the taxi queue, and there seemed to be two separate "lanes" of taxis. One with the metered taxis I'm used to, and one with black cars (commonly also found at some hotels).
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On Friday (you always dump bad news on Fridays), Delta eliminated their award charts — just pulled them off the website — without telling anyone. When asked they said that members now get all they need to know from the award calendar. Instead of telling you in advance what their price list is, Delta will […]
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There's no arguing that Malaysia Airlines has 99 problems, and too many passengers on their planes ain't one of them. ;)
Malaysia Airlines has announced changes to their Enrich frequent flyer program, which kick in as of February 16, 2015. They're changing both their earnings rates as well as changing their redemption rates, but ironically only for travel on their own flights, and not for travel on oneworld partners -- that's the opposite of what most airlines seem to do nowadays!
Malaysia's Enrich program will be following the industry trend whereby they'll be offering more miles on higher fare classes, while they'll be offering fewer miles on lower fare classes.
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I don’t rely on Travel + Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, et. al. as the sole arbiters of what’s great in travel. But when a hotel is consistently ranked among their Top 10 lists year after year, it’s hard not to notice. Such is the case with Hacienda Encantada Resort & Spa — a lovely, all-inclusive […]
The post Hacienda Encantada: A Stunning, Luxury Resort on Mexico’s Baja Peninsula appeared first on Vagabondish.
American AAdvantage is renowned for being tight-fisted with premium cabin availability to Europe on its own flights, something that really exacerbated with the introduction of their new lie flat business class. And since their primary transatlantic partner is British Airways, that’s where most of the availability is, but that comes with hefty fuel surcharges. (Iberia […]
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Travel writers always talk about what to do when you travel. It’s all must-sees and things not to miss. Go here, do this, see that, and act this way. But what about all the things you shouldn’t do on the road? There are plenty of mistakes travelers make on the road that lead to wasted money, lost time, and missed opportunities. It is easy to say what to do but we writers sometimes to forget to mention the don’ts. A […]
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I wrote that you can receive 1150 free miles for joining Etihad Guest and reviewing a hotel. At first blush most of you are thinking, what in the world do I want to bother with Etihad Guest miles for? They’re a Citibank ThankYou points transfer partner so you may wind up using Etihad Guest at […]
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