Three Famous Burial Grounds

The three famous cemeteries portrayed here contain the remains of Russia’s most notable artists, politicians, military leaders, elite class members and the Czars–including the reburial of the last Czar, Nicholas and his family who were assasinated in 1918 and finally reburied in St Petersburg in 1991. More inspiring are the sites of the great artists

Leo Tolstoy’s Estate Yasnaya Polyana

Yasnaya Polyana was the home of the writer Leo Tolstoy, where he was born, wrote War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and is buried. Tolstoy called Yasnaya Polyana his "inaccessible literary stronghold,". It is located 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) southwest of Tula, Russia and 200 kilometers (130 miles) from Moscow. In 1921 the estate formally became

Random Views of Cologne 2010

Cologne is Germany’s fourth-largest city (after Berlin, Hamburg and Munich), and is the largest city  within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants. It is one of the oldest cities in Germany, having been founded by the Ubii in the year 38 BC. The name

Rhine River Castle Cruise 2010

One of Europe’s most picturesque trips is a boat ride down (north) on the Rhine River, from Rudesheim to Koblenz, part of the ‘Middle Rhine’ (from Mainz to Cologne). Between these two destinations there are about twenty-five castles and more charming villages. Tour boats share this part of the river with large cargo barges, cross-river

Gay Games in Cologne 2010

The Gay Games were started in 1982 by Tom Waddell, an Olympic athlete who wanted to have a similar event for the LGBT community worldwide. The eighth version, 2010, of the Games was held in the gay-friendly city of Cologne, Germany. There were about 9000 athletes who participated in 35 sports. In addition there were

Images of Gay-Friendly Cologne City 2010

Cologne is one of Europe’s gay capitals and was host to the 2010 Gay Games . For a busy and energiized week, July 31 to August 7, the city bubbled with 35 sports events, cultural events and colorful parties, as well as two enertainment/social/eating ‘villages’ in the central area. In addition to the many usual

Verdun Region Memorials of World War 1

Around and in historic Verdun there are numerous monuments, cemeteries, memorials and battle sites from the First World War that are preserved in remembrance of those whose lives were shattered by the horrors and bloodshed of that war. In this gallery are photos of the Douaumont Ossuary, the French National Cemetery in Verdun, the Douaumont

The ’14-’18 Museum in Romagne-sous-Montfaucon

Gallery introduction by David Laskin, New York Times, September 30, 2007 and Richard Ammon, GlobalGayz.com, 2010 In the tiny village of Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, adjacent to the Meuse-Argonne Cemetery and the Montfaucon Monument, a dedicated Dutch couple, Bridget and Jean-Paul de Vries, have opened the intirguing 14-18 Museum to display their extraordinary collection of World War I

Meuse-Argonne Villages and Memorials

The Meuse River–Argonne Forest region in eastern France is a hilly area with forests and rivers that forms a natural barrier between the Champagne and Lorraine regions. The Argonne Forest is about 40 miles long and 10 miles wide (65 by 15 km). The highest massif rarely exceeds 650 feet (200 m) in elevation but

Meuse-Argonne Military Cemetery

This gallery displays photos of three war memorial locations in remembrance of American troops who fell during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive 1918. (1) The Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial is a 130.5-acre (0.528 km2) World War I cemetery in France. It is located east of the village of Romagne-sous-Montfaucon in Meuse. The cemetery contains the largest

Gay Pride Attacked in Belarus

Richard Ammon GlobalGayz.com May 15, 2010 Saturday May 15 2010, gay Pride day in Minsk, Balarus, arrived and there were no unusual surprises: trouble was anticipated and trouble there was. The gay participants knew the police would try to stop them. The police knew where the marchers were and intercepted them–but not before the combined

King Ludwig’s Castle Neuschwanstein, Bavaria

In 1869, King Ludwig of Bavaria oversaw the laying of the cornerstone for Schloss Neuschwanstein on a breathtaking mountaintop site overlooking his childhood castle home at Hohenschwangau. The walls of Neuschwanstein are decorated with frescoes depicting scenes from many of Richard Wagner’s, operas, especially the swan-themed Lohengrin. Obsessed with Wagner’s, music, in 1872, he began

A Friendly Trip into Gay Cornwall

By B.J. Epstein Autumn 2009 As my partner and I were planning our recent trip to Cornwall (in the far southwest of the English mainland), I was surprised by the number of B&Bs there that claimed to be “gay-friendly.” The last supposedly gay-friendly place we’d stayed at was a hotel in cosmopolitan London where, when

UK Government Aplogy to WW2 Hero Alan Turing

Westhampton, MA – September 11, 2009 Richard Ammon – GlobalGayz.com On September 10, 2009, the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown officially apologized to Alan Turing for the UK Government’s persecution of this WWII hero because of his homosexuality. Turing brilliantly invented his ‘Turing Bombe’ that crucially helped crack the German Enigma coded messages (sometimes thousands