The following may not be applicable to this particular case, but there’s another reason why someone might be knee-jerk insulted if you mix up the less famous European countries: They’re, you know, completely different countries. They have different languages, cultures, cuisines and identities. They may have had entirely different historical experiences. Heck, they may have fought wars against each other. And this goes even if they size-wise can fit into the pocket of some U.S. states. They’re not just “some countries in Central or Eastern Europe.”
(Not that I should be the one talking, mind you. There are countries in Asia, Africa, or South America that I wouldn’t even have the first clue where to place on a map.)
There’s even a golf course nearby and riding stables for tourists. Once you get past the whole Giza area out on the Desert Road going north to Alexandria, it quickly turns to desert, which is common for most north African cities. In sub-Saharan Africa, there is some of that also, but it’s more a matter of zero amenities and no electricity once you leave a large city/town, rather than desert.
I stood in the trees where Pickett’s Charge began and shuddered at the thought of those men riding across the flat, treeless fields towards the armed men.
Yesterday I drove past Waterloo. There 's probably nothing there but a ginormous Hill- like monument with a lion on top that can be seen from tje highway. I still wanted to visit, though.
If you ever get back, have the time, and are physically able, I’d encourage you to walk it. It’s not quite as flat as it looks. You mostly are under observation and artillery fire from the high ground despite the gentle rolling. Walking it gives an idea of just how long you are exposed and the effort (imagine doing it in wool during the summer carrying a typical combat load). There is an area of lower ground a good chunk of the way across where the Confederates paused briefly to redress lines without being directly under observation/fire. Stepping out from that position knowing that canister and rifled musket range, instead of just long range artillery, was to their front was more stunning to me than leaving the woods.
If you didn’t see it and get back, the spur off Little Round Top where the 20th Maine fight happened is also impressive because of it’s unimpressiveness. Range would have been limited by the vegetation and the spur at the far left of the line was down to almost nothing. Both the importance of the action and the “high ground” have seen much hyperbole.
It’s hard to escape Civil War history around here. I grew up near Chickamauga, went to college a stone’s throw from where Johnston surrendered to Sherman in North Carolina, and now I live within spitting distance of the Battle of Atlanta. The hill behind my house was part of the easternmost fortifications of the city during the war.
I guess Chickamauga didn’t really resonate with me as a kid. I knew it was a Civil War battlefield, of course, but to me it was mostly just a pleasant green space we occasionally drove through to get to somewhere else. Only during college and afterwards did I really develop any interest in the war. Now when I drive through the battlefield, I can visualize what was happening where during the battle. But as a kid, it was all just scenery.
And this is how mundane it is to live “near history”: My house (the house I live in; where I am sitting right now) is a designated historical landmark (albeit, a fairly minor one), and I completely forgot to mention that in my earlier post.
I remember my first office in Tokyo located in a building just 150 meters from Edo Castle built in 1457. Just walk a few minutes south and you reach the Dai-ichi Seimei Building, where MacArthur had his HQ after WWII.
In Gettysburg, there are many houses/buildings with plaques on them describing their historical significance. Some people have put up their own plaques on their houses stating that nothing of any importance whatsoever ever happened there. Mildly amusing.
Interesting thread…although sometimes, I think too much of the past is a problem. Take old houses-New England is loaded with them, from all eras. The other thing is places of minor interest (like presidential birth homes)-what is the big deal? I know that JFK bas born in a house in Brookline, MA-but really, what is so significant about that?
here also, every house that Mary Baker Eddy (founder of the Christian Science Church) is now a museum-I guess i don’t understand the importance.
I like places like Surbridge Village, and Williamsburg VA-you get a sense of history by seeing the whole community as it once existed. But houses? not so much.
A little off topic, but there was one thing that really shocked me on a tour of Poland my SO and I did last November. We drove down to see Auschwitz I and II. The former was situated in the middle of the city, I knew that prior but was a bit surprised to see how close some of the houses were.
The really eye-opening bit was Auschwitz II. The area it covers is enormous. Just two blocks away from the infamous gate house where people would be separated forever from their loved ones was a whole area of brand new McMansions. They had views that just overlooked on the atrocities just across a narrow street.
You’ll probably be aghast to find out that people have picnics on Omaha Beach and little kids play in the water.
That thought is kind of the point of the thread; I’d love to see what some of those Poles who live in eyeshot of Auschwitz-Birkenau feel about living there. I suspect it’s something atrocious that happened long ago, but that they live there, and the camp/museum is just another historical site.
Isn’t there a big debate in Poland over the fate of these camps? they are falling apart, having been built hastily with cheap materials-is some sort of restoration being done? How do you restore a death camp?
There was a bit of a stir a few months ago when Ray Bradbury’s former house in Los Angeles was torn down. A lot of his fans were upset about it, but in the end I do wonder just what was really lost? None of Bradbury’s possessions or papers were there anymore, and as houses go it was apparently nothing special. Some people suggested that it should be made into a museum or something, but really, what would there have been to see? Sure, Bradbury was in those rooms at one time, but does that alone somehow imbue them with history?
I do. It’s just 47 miles to Edinburgh from where I live, but I rarely make the effort. Stirling is about 27 miles, and that’s a whole day gone, travelling up to see the in-laws and home again.
Of course, it doesn’t help that I don’t drive and have to relay on trains to get around.
Looking at a Scottish journey of just over 100 (road) miles that I do a couple of times a year, from the northern ramparts of the central belt to Fort William. It’s 2.5 - 3 hours by car depending on traffic/weather, and looking at the Traveline Scotland website it’s about 5 hours on public transport. Those times for that 100 miles would make it quite a long way even in the US, I suspect.
