Category: Germany
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Strasbourg, or the day Europe split in two
Strasbourg, with its quarter-million souls, has a curious small-town feel to it. Intersecting the street grid is a parallel network of picturesque canals. Bridges crossing the waterways are in summer adorned with magnificent floral decorations, and along the banks lie centuries-old half-timbered houses, as colourful as the flowers. The atmosphere is as much that of…
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Leipzig, or the rise and fall and rise of a European kingdom
Four or five kilometres south-east of Leipzig lies a war memorial: the Monument to the Battle of the Nations. The far more efficient German can do in one word what English does in seven: the Völkerschlachtdenkmal. It is a massive construction in rust-red granite, 91 metres tall, flanked at the top by gigantic, primeval warrior…