history

Hiding in plain sight, in the middle of El Raval, there is a small wooden door that was once attached to the Provincial Home for Maternity and Foundlings of Barcelona. Nowadays, that small round door looks more like a decoration than anything else, but that is the infamous Barcelona's baby drop-off. And, when we were in Barcelona, we had to visit the location and take pictures of it.

Barcelona’s Baby Drop-off in El Raval

Barcelona
3 min read
17/07/201907/05/2024

It weighs more than three tons, and it was buried and almost forgotten deep in a forest around Berlin. But nowadays, you can visit the head of Lenin at the Zitadelle Spandau in an exhibition focused on German history.

The Unearthed Head of Lenin at Zitadelle Spandau

Berlin
5 min read
10/07/201903/07/2023

When I visited the Texas Embassy Memorial Plaque in London, I had a plan to visit some places around the city. A Sunday was walking around before I could do the check in on my hotel. The plaque was the first visit since I felt like there 'wouldn't be much to see besides the plaque, and I was right. Even though the location is historical for reasons that 'I'll be talking about later, there is not much to see. Keep that in mind if you want to visit it.

Texas Embassy Memorial Plaque in London

London
4 min read
24/05/201923/05/2019

Back in 1988, one year before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Tilda Swinton took her bike and cycled round the Berlin Wall, together with the filmmaker Cynthia Beatt. What they created came to be known as Cycling the Frame and it’s a beautiful and surreal document that shows a city scarred by a wall that cut it in half.

Cycling the Frame: When Tilda Swinton cycled by the Berlin Wall

Berlin
3 min read
19/03/201915/04/2025

Hidden in plain sight, next to the Europa Center in Budapester Strasse, there is a clock that looks like it comes from out of space. Called Mengenlehreuhr, this clock is famous for being the first timepiece that measures time with lights, colors, and set theory. And I bet you will take some time to learn how to read the time in it.

Mengenlehreuhr on Budapester Strasse: Can you tell the time?

Berlin
4 min read
12/03/201926/11/2023

Panorama Mesdag is the oldest 19th-century panorama painting in the world that it’s on its original site. The art is cylindrical, and it’s more than 14 meters high and 120 meters in circumference. It’s so big that it’s hard to describe the experience of visiting the monument in words. This is a place you have to attend to see by yourself.

Panorama Mesdag: a trip back in time to a fishing village in the 19th century

Netherlands, The Hague
5 min read
18/02/201929/01/2025

The House where the Wannsee Conference happened during the Second World War belonged to Reinhard Heydrich, who got the house as an entertainment center for those who belonged to the SS and their families. And Reinhard Heydrich was an essential man inside the Nazi Party. Above him, only Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler. He used the house as a meeting place for 15 other officials that got together to decide something that was described in a bureaucratic way. But, without any euphemistic terminology, those people had lunch while they talked about how the Holocaust would happen.

A Visit to the House of the Wannsee Conference in Berlin

Berlin
6 min read
04/01/201920/01/2025

Close to the center of Lviv, there is a makeshift museum of sorts. This unlikely tourist spot can be found on a typical urban courtyard, but this is far from ordinary. The Yard of Lost Toys in Lviv is an unbelievable exhibition and could be described as the toys the world left behind.

The Yard of Lost Toys in Lviv

Lviv, Ukraine
5 min read
18/12/201821/12/2023

Edifício Copan, known in English as Copan Building, is one of the most important and memorable buildings in São Paulo. Located at Avenida Ipiranga number 200, it was open to the public in 1966, and it’s one of the symbols of the modern Brazilian architecture.

Edifício Copan: Exploring One of the Largest Buildings in Brazil

São Paulo
6 min read
15/11/201814/01/2024

The Lübecker Salzspeicher are six historical building, wholly made of brick, that used to function as salt storehouses from 1579 on. Salt was mined around Lüneburg and brought to Lübeck over the Stecknitz Canal. From there it was shipped around the Baltic region. This trade was one of the reasons why Lübeck was so influential in the Hanseatic League.

Lübecker Salzspeicher: The Historical Buildings where Nosferatu was filmed

Germany, Lübeck
5 min read
13/11/201804/12/2024

Located in the western outskirts of Berlin, the Berlin-Grunewald station was used to deport Jews to ghettos and extermination camps in the east. Today, where all of this happened, there is the Platform 17 Memorial inaugurated in January 1998 to commemorate the deportation done by Deutsche Reichsbahn during the years of Nazi Germany.

Platform 17 Memorial Berlin: A Site of Holocaust Remembrance

Berlin
5 min read
30/10/201812/03/2024

Workers of all lands unite, this is what you can read when you approach the tomb of Karl Marx at the Highgate Cemetery in North London. These are the final words of the Communist Manifesto, and this is the last resting place of Karl Marx, so they match really well.

The Tomb of Karl Marx: A Place of Pilgrimage for Leftists in London

London
5 min read
14/10/201812/11/2024

One of the most important sights in Kaliningrad is Immanuel Kant's Tomb, the most important citizen of Königsberg. The philosopher never left his hometown and everywhere you walk around in the city, you’ll see tourist souvenirs mentioning his importance to the area.

In the Footsteps of a Philosopher: Visiting Immanuel Kant’s Tomb in Kaliningrad

Kaliningrad
5 min read
28/09/201815/01/2025

The public transport system in Berlin is quite complete and includes ferries, buses, trams, and trains split into the S-Bahn and the U-Bahn. But, for a brief moment in time, there was also the Berlin M-Bahn, and we will always regret not being able to take a ride in one since it was made out of service back in 1991, a little after the reunification of Germany.

Berlin M-Bahn: The Brief History of the First Maglev train in Germany

Berlin
3 min read
25/09/201814/11/2024

Hidden along the streets of Alt-Hohenschönhausen there is a memorial that seems to be long forgotten by people. This Soviet War Memorial is a grim reminder of the pain and struggles that the Red Army went through when it liberated Berlin from Nazism.

The Soviet War Memorial in Alt-Hohenschönhausen

Berlin
4 min read
21/09/201811/04/2024

It’s 2018, and there are still some Lenin statues left around Germany. We visited one of these statues in Berlin, and we continue looking for them around the country. One day we got lucky, and we managed to find two of them on the same day. That blessed day was back in October 2016 when we took our bikes north and went to Fürstenberg to do some urban exploration.

Hunting Down Lenin Statues in Fürstenberg

Urbex
6 min read
14/09/201810/12/2023

Highgate Cemetery is a large burial place in the North of London where more than 50.000 graves where 170.000 people are buried. The area has the status of a nature reserve and is known about a large number of famous people buried there. Like Douglas Adams, Malcolm McLaren, Michael Faraday, George Michael, and Karl Marx.

Highgate Cemetery: A Visitor’s Guide to London’s Most Famous Cemetery

London
6 min read
08/09/201812/11/2024

The Bunker Museum in Kaliningrad is, technically called the Blindage Museum, and it tells the history of the last days of the Second World War. These are the last days of Königsberg and inside you can see how the city fell to Soviet Forces.

Bunker Museum in Kaliningrad: Documenting the last days of Königsberg

Kaliningrad
5 min read
20/08/201812/11/2024

The original Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is known in German as Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche. It was built in the 1890s by a Kaiser Wilhelm II and his consort Augusta Victoria as an initiative to counter the German socialist movement by a return to traditional religious values.

Understanding the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the Heart of West Berlin

Berlin
6 min read
17/08/201827/04/2024

Exploring the Abandoned Flugplatz Rangsdorf Close to Berlin

Urbex
6 min read
29/07/201821/02/2025

Sometimes I go on Youtube and search for movies related to Berlin in any way. This is how I discovered some of the youtube videos I have written about here, and this is how I found out about Background to Berlin, a NATO Information Service movie that explains, in a little less than 30 minutes, the history of the German capital from 1945 to 1961.

Background to Berlin: A NATO Information Service explaining everything about Berlin from 1945 to 1961

Berlin
3 min read
25/07/201808/10/2024

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