"Favorite Non-Battlefield You've Visited" Topic

DOM and I both have a penchant for things WWI. It was both a pivotal point in modern politics and warfare. She got a game Versailles at a Black Friday sale put on by her FLGS. Players took roles of different sides in negotiating a treaty. There are sliding and elusive victory conditions that evolve during the game. (I really want to integrate a joke about "Germany loses.") Great game. DOM beat me. Twice.

This reminded me that I have been to the Hall of Mirrors. And a few other warfare related locations that are not battlefields – headquarters, war rooms, POW camps, etc. We have had and are likely to continue to ask about battlefields. This time the poll is asking for your favorite of the non-war war locations. Some options may be more "most poignant" rather than favorite.

I'm asking not to include monuments and museums, but to focus on where the war happened, but not the warfighting.

I'm going to stick with the Hall of Mirrors as my pick.

Andersonville – as a POW camp as well as some of the death camps from WWII – not my favorite places – but probably the most impactful

2nd for Andersonville

Also Valley Forge

If ships count, I've been aboard the USS Olympia and the USS Beluga, both at the time docked in Philadelphia. I recall a few years ago that the Olympia was underfunded and in danger of sinking; never knew what became of her. In any case, less poignant than interesting, especially as a contrast on the war footings at the differing times of their service.

Old warships are great to visit, but aren't they just floating battlefields?

Valley Forge, would be hard not to.

A vote for Versailles – also the Schönbrunn Palace where the Hapsburgs spent their summers scheming on how to marry their way into every dynasty in Europe

Edinburgh Castle is up there too, as well as the British Ministry buildings along Whitehall

I've done Olympia, HMS Victory, Valley Forge and German and US WWII barracks, not to mention Cold War bunkers. (Does it count if the Cold War was still going at the time?) But me for the Cabinet War Rooms.

I had a really enjoyable visit to Cleve Castle forced upon me by a delay at the nearby Weeze Airport (aka RAF Laarbruch). It explained why Henry VIII was so upset on meeting Anne of Cleves for the first time. Henry had met Anne's elder sister and had been assured that Anne shared her sister's beauty judging from painting at the castle this was far from the truth.

3rd Andersonville

Monument valley. Pay the extra and get a native guide with a truck. Warning it can be very dusty. About 3 minutes into the tour, I was happy I didn't take my own car and at 10 minutes I was happy I didn't bring in a rental.

I did see at least two convertibles (with the top down). Did I say dusty. I'm still getting that fine grit off my boots.

HMS Victory
York Minster
Versaille
Tower of London

How about a Titan missile silo? Toured one of them near Tucson, and I believe there's a Minuteman silo you can tour near Cheyenne, WY

A 2nd for the Cabinet War Rooms.

I'm with Col Durnford. Did a Gouldings all day quided tour. Saw Mystery Valley, Anatszi ruins, had a barbeque. It was great. It was also dusty as he said.

I was astonished at how close Valley Forge was to Philadelphia. If the British in Philly had chosen to get up at oh-dark-hundred one morning, they would have been in Valley Forge in plenty of time to fight a battle. I understand Washington's idea was to stay close enough to keep the Brits from spreading out to forage and live off local supply sources, but wow! was that one brave way to do it!

The National History Museum in Athens. This is in the old parliament building. It was so cool to get to peer in the windows and see where Greek parliaments met for a century or so. It's where the Lazarus Parliament met (so called because they didn't like the newly elected parliament, so they brought the old one back from the dead). To some degree, I think knowing something about the place makes it special--otherwise, it was just a big meeting room with lots of desks and chairs.

Grelber

Landgrafenschloss Marburg or Marburg castle in Hesse, Germany. Our German friends turned it into a giant museum.
When I was in the US Army I used to go there as much as possible.

Valley Forge
Andersonville
Air Force Museum in Dayton Ohio
Chicago Museum of science & industry with the U-505

Forgot U-505, White House and Capitol Hill. Still go with CWR. Second place might be the Pentagon.

Chatham Historic Dockyard
Fort Nelson
The Huascar at Tulcahuano

Fort Monroe, Hampton, VA.

Prague & anywhere in Scotland.

Grelber you haven't had the pleasure of traveling the Schuylkill expressway to often I see, the pot holes, traffic backups and having to get around the work crews the British would have tossed up their hands and went back.

The parade grounds at Nurenberg where Hitler held his rallies. It gave me goosebumps.

Prague is beautiful! Scotland is wonderful.

Valley Forge, Fort Union, Fort Stanton, USS Constitution, USS New Jersey, USS Olympia, USS Intrepid, USS Texas.

@ Grelber

"I was astonished at how close Valley Forge was to Philadelphia. If the British in Philly had chosen to get up at oh-dark-hundred one morning, they would have been in Valley Forge in plenty of time to fight a battle."

Sure, but even then the Schuylkill Expressway was a disaster so maybe not ; )

Jokes aside, everyone does remember how much smaller Philly was back then? Population maybe 25,000 and from the docks to farmland was a comfortable walk. The National Park Service says 18 miles from Philadelphia, which is probably right in 1777. If the British could form up in a city teeming with rebel sympathizers and spies and make an 18 mile approach march over dirt roads without giving Washington sufficient notice to decide to fight, pick his ground and form up, GW should have wanted a long word with his spies, dragoons and pickets.

Wife and I once stayed at Wentworth by the Sea Resort in Newcastle NH. Once known as the Hotel Wentworth, it was where the Japanese and Russian delegations were ensconced during negotiation of the Treaty of Poptrsmouth that ended the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. Still a lovely old antique.

Fore River Shipyard in Quincy MA, which built a number of US dreadnoughts.

Used to drive the Lexington-Concord Road back and forth to work for a while – famous for its connection to "The Shot Heard Round the World".

- all largely as a matter of pure happenstance in the course of my life.

B

Royal Tank Museum in Bovington, England.

I have gotten "tours" of the Pentagon and subterranean levels of NSA at Fort Meade.

Wolfhag

One other moment in time occurred when my wife and I were touring the coast of Devon back in the late 90s. We were driving a quiet little two-lane seaside highway when I spotted a Sherman tank set up as a monument by the nearby beach. Curiosity compelled me to stop and read the accompanying commemorative plaque.

We had accidentally stumbled upon the site of the Slapton Sands disaster. Prior to that moment, I had been totally unaware of the event.

B