The disused coal mine Zeche Zollern in Dortmund is one of the most architecturally remarkable pits in the Ruhr area. The park-like facility with its impressive Art Nouveau buildings still shows today that it was built as a model colliery around 1900 and was intended to show both economic strength and progress.
We visited the facility with our friends from Herne, the photographers Renate and Jürgen Saibic, whom we met many years ago on Easter Island in Chile.
The archipelago of Norway at the Skagerrak form a very relaxed landscape. The glaciers have not only smoothed the original rocks here, but also produced a special feature - large "Potholes (Jettegryte)" with circular, reflective water surfaces.
In Rjukan, everything revolves around electricity, just as we like it :-) The Vemork hydroelectric power station, built in 1911, was the largest in the world at the time and right in town you can see the Såheim hydroelectric power station today.
The Gaustabanen take you up the 1,900 meter high Gaustatoppen. We are lucky, the railways and access have just started seasonal operation and our summit ascent leads first over serpentines to 1170 m, then with railway 1 horizontally 850 meters into the mountain and from there with a funicular at 39° 1050 m wide and 850 meters high.
The rock formation of Kirkeporten is a highlight that is easy to hike from Skarsvåg. Once you have reached this stretch of coast, Kirkeporten offers a very special view: through it you can see over the Mefjord to the North Cape plateau, about six kilometers away, with its famous North Cape Horn.
The second atomic bomb dropped by the Americans over Japan was nicknamed Fat Man and when it was dropped on August 9, 1945 in Nagasaki, it killed 36,000 people immediately and countless later, who ultimately died as a result of the radioactivity.
Nagasaki was chosen by the Americans because, in addition to its economic importance, the location of the city and its surrounding mountain slopes promised the maximum destructive effect of the dropped atomic bomb.
Originally an insignificant fishing village, Nagasaki experienced a sustained boom with the arrival of the Portuguese in the mid-16th century. This is considered to be the first contact between Europeans and Japanese ever. The missionary F. Xavier founded the basis for the Jesuit missionary work there and soon Christian churches and nursing homes were established. This went hand-in-hand with the growing prosperity of the small town, which did not go unnoticed by the mighty of Japan, and thus not without consequences for the peaceful community of Nagasaki.
