A famous black-and-white film made Vienna’s ruins look like a city of shadows and crooks. This walk follows the film to its doorways, squares and sewer hatch, and then tells what it left out: ten years in which four armies ran one city. A Soviet soldier on a column that Austria is bound by treaty to keep. Four generals at one table, deadlocked over a paragraph. A black market a short walk from the film’s sewer entrance, and the real trade in penicillin, kept apart from the film’s fiction. An opera house that burned and waited ten years. Four soldiers of four armies in one jeep. People taken by the occupiers and brought home years later, one of them on a stretcher. And a foreign minister whose famous words were said indoors, not where everyone remembers. No film clips, music or quotations; no tickets needed.

The stops

1. Schwarzenbergplatz: The Soldier and the Generals
2. Karlsplatz: The Hatch and the Market
3. Behind the Opera: Requisitioned
4. Josefsplatz: A Dead Man’s Front Door
5. Schreyvogelgasse 8: The Doorway
6. Am Hof: The Kiosk That Never Was
7. Maria am Gestade: The Newest Old Steps
8. Hoher Markt: Free, Indoors

Finding the start

Start on the west sidewalk of Schwarzenbergplatz, level with the middle of the Haus der Industrie (Schwarzenbergplatz 4) across the square, with the Soviet war memorial visible down the square to the south. Trams D and 71 stop at Schwarzenbergplatz nearby; the U-Bahn station Karlsplatz (U1, U2, U4) is about 600 meters west.

Terrain and access

About 3.7 kilometers, almost level, on paved sidewalks and, from Josefsplatz on, cobbled squares and lanes. The main route is step-free: the stairs at the Mölker Steig and at Maria am Gestade are optional and never needed. Busy crossings with lights and acoustic signals at Schwarzenbergplatz, Karlsplatz, Friedrichstrasse and the Ring; quiet lanes after the opera. No admissions needed; everything is seen from outside.

Tickets

No admissions needed; everything is seen from outside.

Keep going

• Inside the Ring: One Square Mile That Ran an Empire

What you get

• An email from tours@the3dtravel.com with a link and an access code.
• Use it on your phone or tablet in an up-to-date web browser, no app store needed. There is no account to set up before you start.
• Download it on Wi-Fi before you go. After that it works offline: audio, text, map and pictures.
• Your booking includes 2 phones, so two of you can follow along, each on your own. Extra phones are $2.95 each, or a group can share one phone on its speaker.
• Play, pause and replay every part, skip back and ahead, or change the playback speed. Keep the screen on or tap play at each stop.

How it was made

Every fact in the narration is checked against a cited source, and legends are told as legends. The narration is written from that research. How our tours are made.

Image credits

• Photo: Mike Peel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Photo: C.Stadler/Bwag, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Photo: MrPanyGoff, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Photo: Buchhändler, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Photo: Michielverbeek, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)

The post Four Powers, One City: Vienna 1945 to 1955 appeared first on The3DTravel.

On one balcony in February 1948, a Communist leader spoke as his party took power, and the photograph of that day was later retouched to erase a man who stood beside him. On another, in November 1989, a playwright just out of prison and the exiled reformer of 1968 stood side by side above a square full of people jingling their keys. This walk goes from the first balcony to the second and on to the top of Wenceslas Square: the student march of 17 November 1989 and its bronze hands, the theater that became a revolution’s headquarters, the museum front still patched where soldiers fired on it in 1968, and the two students, Jan Palach and Jan Zajíc, whose protest in 1969 Prague took twenty years to honor by name. Every claim is sourced and every dispute labeled; the record speaks, not the guide. No tickets needed.

The stops

1. Jan Palach Square: Named Twice
2. The Kinský Balcony: A Photograph and a Hat
3. Národní 16: Bare Hands
4. The Adria Palace: The Magic Lantern
5. Můstek: A Lorry and a Square
6. Melantrich: The Borrowed Balcony
7. Wenceslas Square 39: Jan Zajíc
8. The Statue and the Scarred Museum
9. The Cross in the Pavement: Jan Palach

Finding the start

Start on Jan Palach Square (náměstí Jana Palacha) at the corner of the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, by the bronze Jan Palach memorial plate, with the Rudolfinum across the tram street. Staroměstská metro station (line A) is about 100 meters away; trams stop at Staroměstská on 17. listopadu.

Terrain and access

About 2.9 kilometers on city streets and squares, step-free, with cobbles on most of the route and a gentle climb up Wenceslas Square at the end. No admissions needed; everything is seen from outside. Tram tracks are crossed on zebras and at one unmarked crossing; the only traffic lights are in front of the National Museum. The upper half of Wenceslas Square is a tram construction site until about mid-2027, so the last three stops may need small detours along signed walkways. The tour ends beside Muzeum metro station (lines A and C, with a lift at one entrance).

Tickets

No admissions needed; everything is seen from outside.

Keep going

• Down from the Castle: Kings, Habsburgs and the Window of 1618

What you get

• An email from tours@the3dtravel.com with a link and an access code.
• Use it on your phone or tablet in an up-to-date web browser, no app store needed. There is no account to set up before you start.
• Download it on Wi-Fi before you go. After that it works offline: audio, text, map and pictures.
• Your booking includes 2 phones, so two of you can follow along, each on your own. Extra phones are $2.95 each, or a group can share one phone on its speaker.
• Play, pause and replay every part, skip back and ahead, or change the playback speed. Keep the screen on or tap play at each stop.

How it was made

Every fact in the narration is checked against a cited source, and legends are told as legends. The narration is written from that research. How our tours are made.

Image credits

• Photo: Filip Troníček, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Photo: Daniel Baránek, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Photo: Ondřej Žváček, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Photo: MartinVeselka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Photo: Paul Korecky, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)

The post Two Balconies: Communist Prague 1948 to 1989 appeared first on The3DTravel.

In May 1913 a young Austrian, dodging his own country’s army, rented a room on a quiet Munich street. Twenty years later his party held Bavaria, its police and a camp at Dachau. This long walk follows the whole road and what came after it, on fifteen public sidewalks and squares: the beer hall where Ernst Röhm’s men gathered on the night of the putsch, the war school where a friendly judge gave Hitler a stage in 1924 (and why the trial was never on the radio), the square where the regime laid its dead in temples, the palace of the political police and the Sinti and Roma families the Munich police deported in 1943, the disputed photograph of the Odeonsplatz in 1914, the site of the main synagogue torn down five months before the pogrom, the police headquarters, the bombed cathedral and the soldiers who rose against the regime in April 1945, the city hall where denazification was signed, and the new synagogue on St.-Jakobs-Platz. Told in three parts with a natural break halfway. Sober and sourced: the dead and the persecuted are named as people, disputed counts are labeled, nothing is shown that the law forbids. No tickets needed.

The stops

1. Part 1. Schleißheimer Straße: The Lodger
2. Stiglmaierplatz: The Beer-Hall City
3. Pappenheimstraße: The Courtroom
4. The Propyläen: The Long Road Back
5. Brienner Straße: The Takeover, March 1933
6. Part 2. The Königsplatz: The Square of the Dead
7. Arcisstraße: Munich, 29 September 1938
8. Brienner Straße: The Square of the Victims
9. The Odeonsplatz: The Photograph and the Shots
10. The Viscardigasse: The Way Around
11. Herzog-Max-Straße: June and November 1938
12. Ettstraße: The Police Headquarters
13. Frauenplatz: Bombs, a Rising and Liberation
14. Part 3. Marienplatz: Judgment and Rebuilding
15. St.-Jakobs-Platz: Return and Remembrance

Finding the start

Start on the west sidewalk of Schleißheimer Straße in the Maxvorstadt, across the street from No. 34, a few minutes north of Stiglmaierplatz (U1 Stiglmaierplatz about 400 m; U2 Theresienstraße about 500 m). No. 34 is a private apartment house: stay on the far sidewalk.

Terrain and access

About 6.3 kilometers on flat city sidewalks and pedestrian streets, with no steps on the route; about three hours with listening. A natural break point after stop 8 near the Odeonsplatz (cafés; Odeonsplatz station, U3, U4, U5, U6). Cobbles in the Viscardigasse and in parts of the old town. No admissions needed: everything is seen from outside, including the NS-Dokumentationszentrum, the police headquarters and the synagogue. Busy crossings with lights at Stiglmaierplatz, the Königsplatz and the ring road. The Feldherrnhalle is under scaffolding until about 2028. The tour ends on St.-Jakobs-Platz, about 450 meters from Marienplatz station (U3, U6, all S-Bahn lines).

Tickets

No admissions needed: everything is seen from outside, including the NS-Dokumentationszentrum, the police headquarters and the synagogue.

Keep going

• Dachau: The Camp, the Town and the View

What you get

• An email from tours@the3dtravel.com with a link and an access code.
• Use it on your phone or tablet in an up-to-date web browser, no app store needed. There is no account to set up before you start.
• Download it on Wi-Fi before you go. After that it works offline: audio, text, map and pictures.
• Your booking includes 2 phones, so two of you can follow along, each on your own. Extra phones are $2.95 each, or a group can share one phone on its speaker.
• Play, pause and replay every part, skip back and ahead, or change the playback speed. Keep the screen on or tap play at each stop.

How it was made

Every fact in the narration is checked against a cited source, and legends are told as legends. The narration is written from that research. How our tours are made.

Image credits

• Photo: Flocci Nivis, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Photo: Gamsbart, CC BY 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Photo: Ricardalovesmonuments, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Photo: Ricardalovesmonuments, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)

The post How It Happened: Munich from 1913 to Today appeared first on The3DTravel.

In November 1918 Munich had a revolution and a Jewish socialist premier. In 1935 its city hall, run by the Nazis since 1933, asked for, and got, the title ‘capital of the movement’. This walk follows the road between the two, on the places where it happened and through what stands there now: the steel outline in the sidewalk where Kurt Eisner was shot on his way to resign, the beer hall where the far left proclaimed a republic and the far right announced a program less than a year apart, the Feldherrnhalle where four police officers died stopping the putsch of 1923, the lane people used to dodge a compulsory salute, the square across from the Gestapo palace where Hans and Sophie Scholl were questioned, the party quarter where the Munich Agreement was signed after midnight, and the overgrown plinths of what the Nazis called temples of honor for their dead. Sober and sourced: the dead and the persecuted are named as people, disputed counts are labeled, local stories are told as local stories, and nothing is shown that the law forbids. No tickets needed.

The stops

1. The Plate in the Sidewalk: Kurt Eisner
2. The Platzl: One Hall, Two Proclamations
3. The Feldherrnhalle: Twenty Dead and Sixteen Names
4. The Viscardigasse: The Way Around
5. Brienner Straße: The Palace of the Political Police
6. The White Cube: Where the Brown House Stood
7. Arcisstraße 12: The Agreement Signed After Midnight
8. The Königsplatz: Stone, Grass and Two Plinths

Finding the start

Start on Kardinal-Faulhaber-Straße where it opens onto Promenadeplatz, in front of the Palais Montgelas (part of the Hotel Bayerischer Hof), by the steel floor plate in the sidewalk. Marienplatz station (U3, U6 and all S-Bahn lines) is a few minutes’ walk away.

Terrain and access

About 3 kilometers on flat city sidewalks and pedestrian streets, with no steps on the route. Cobbles on the Platzl and in the Viscardigasse. No admissions needed: everything is seen from outside, including the NS-Dokumentationszentrum, which you can visit afterwards. Busy crossings with lights on Brienner Straße. The Feldherrnhalle is under scaffolding until about 2028. The tour ends at the Königsplatz, a few minutes from Königsplatz station (U2; the step-free entrance is about 450 meters away).

Tickets

No admissions needed: everything is seen from outside, including the NS-Dokumentationszentrum, which you can visit afterwards.

Keep going

• Beer and the City: Five Hundred Years of Munich in a Glass
• Salzburg 1938 to 1945: The Road from Sarajevo and the Years Under Hitler
• How It Happened: Munich from 1913 to Today

What you get

• An email from tours@the3dtravel.com with a link and an access code.
• Use it on your phone or tablet in an up-to-date web browser, no app store needed. There is no account to set up before you start.
• Download it on Wi-Fi before you go. After that it works offline: audio, text, map and pictures.
• Your booking includes 2 phones, so two of you can follow along, each on your own. Extra phones are $2.95 each, or a group can share one phone on its speaker.
• Play, pause and replay every part, skip back and ahead, or change the playback speed. Keep the screen on or tap play at each stop.

How it was made

Every fact in the narration is checked against a cited source, and legends are told as legends. The narration is written from that research. How our tours are made.

Image credits

• Photo: Guido Radig, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Photo: Bbb, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Photo: © Pierre André, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Photo: Bayreuth2009, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Photo: Burkhard Mücke, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)

The post The Capital of the Movement: Munich 1918 to 1945 appeared first on The3DTravel.

This walk tells the history of the Dachau concentration camp along the public Path of Remembrance, the road the prisoners were driven along, from Dachau station to the entrance of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. It does not narrate anything inside the memorial grounds: there, use the memorial’s own audio guide and guided tours (entry to the memorial is free). Part of the route is by local bus, from the memorial to the old town, where the walk continues to Resistance Square, the town hall and its terraces, and ends on the palace hill with the view across the plain to Munich. That is about 4 kilometers on foot plus a short bus ride, about 100 minutes, not counting your visit to the memorial, for which most visitors need half a day. On the way you meet the people behind the names: the four prisoners shot in April 1933, a boy on the death march freed by Japanese American soldiers, the townspeople and escaped prisoners who rose against the SS on 28 April 1945, a blind musician and his family driven out before sunrise in 1938, and the painters who made Dachau famous long before the camp. It also tells how the town has dealt with its past, honestly and with sources. Content advisory: this tour tells of imprisonment, forced labor, murder and death marches, plainly and without graphic detail; the memorial recommends a visit for ages 13 and over.

The stops

1. Dachau Station: Where the Road Began
2. The Death March: 26 April 1945
3. The Siding: A Train from Buchenwald
4. The Villas: Neighbors of the Camp
5. Spring 1933: The First Names
6. The Threshold: Here the Memorial Speaks
7. Resistance Square: The Morning of 28 April 1945
8. The Town Hall: Before Sunrise
9. The Terraces: A Painters’ Town
10. The Palace Hill: The View Toward Munich

Finding the start

Start on the forecourt of Dachau station (S2 from Munich, or the regional train from Munich main station), at panel 1 of the Path of Remembrance. The walk follows the public path to the entrance of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site and does not narrate inside the memorial grounds; there, use the memorial’s own audio guide and guided tours (entry is free). Part of the route is by local bus, from the memorial to the old town, and the walk ends on the palace hill. About 4 kilometers on foot plus a short bus ride, about 100 minutes, not counting your visit to the memorial (most visitors need half a day). Content advisory: imprisonment, forced labor, murder and death marches, told without graphic detail; ages 13 and over.

Terrain and access

About 3.6 kilometers on flat sidewalks and footpaths along the signed Path of Remembrance, from the station to the memorial’s entrance, step-free. Then a local bus ride of about a quarter of an hour plus waiting (bus 726, change to bus 722) up to the old town, and about 400 meters on foot on cobbles, gently uphill to the palace, step-free. No admissions on the route. The tour does not narrate inside the memorial grounds; entry to the memorial is free, and its own audio guide and tours are available at the visitor center. Headphones only: the memorial grounds ban loudspeakers.

Tickets

No admissions on the route.

Keep going

• The Capital of the Movement: Munich 1918 to 1945

What you get

• An email from tours@the3dtravel.com with a link and an access code.
• Use it on your phone or tablet in an up-to-date web browser, no app store needed. There is no account to set up before you start.
• Download it on Wi-Fi before you go. After that it works offline: audio, text, map and pictures.
• Your booking includes 2 phones, so two of you can follow along, each on your own. Extra phones are $2.95 each, or a group can share one phone on its speaker.
• Play, pause and replay every part, skip back and ahead, or change the playback speed. Keep the screen on or tap play at each stop.

How it was made

Every fact in the narration is checked against a cited source, and legends are told as legends. The narration is written from that research. How our tours are made.

Image credits

• Photo: Dguendel, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Renardo la vulpo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
• Photo: Chris Light, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Photo: High Contrast, CC BY 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Photo: Chris Light, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)

The post Dachau: The Camp, the Town and the View appeared first on The3DTravel.

The stops

1. Residenzplatz: The Emperor’s Building
2. Mozartplatz: Every Window
3. The Chiemseehof: Dreadful, Dreadful
4. Kajetanerplatz: The Courthouse
5. Franziskanergasse: The Friary
6. The Staatsbrücke: Beyond Recall
7. The Linzer Gasse: Together, Anywhere
8. The Kurgarten: Spaces for Names
9. The Synagogue: Set Back From the Street
10. The Station Square: Hidden, But Not Invisible

Finding the start

Start on the Residenzplatz in the old town, facing the Neue Residenz. The walk ends at the main station, which is handy if you are leaving by train.

Terrain and access

• Almost level, with no mapped steps. Gravel paths in two parks.
• The last leg to the station is about 1.1 km.
• GPS can be weak in the narrow lanes; you can start those stops by hand.
• The synagogue is seen from the street.

Tickets

No tickets needed.

Keep going

A bonus after the ending takes in Stefan Zweig’s view from the Kapuzinerberg, and it leads into Across the River.

Questions about this tour

Why does a 1938 to 1945 walk start in 1914?

Because 1938 has a long road behind it. The walk starts with the monarchy and the shots in Sarajevo, and follows the war, the collapse of Austria-Hungary and the years between, to show how 1938 became possible.

How long is it?

About 4.3 km and about two hours ten minutes, of which about 72 minutes is walking; the total includes the optional stories. The last leg to the station is about 1.1 km.

Where does it end?

At the main station forecourt, which is handy if you are leaving by train.

Is it suitable for children?

It is not made for young children. It describes persecution, deportation and murder under the Nazi regime, including the murder of children, without graphic detail.

Will GPS work everywhere?

GPS can be weak in the narrow lanes, so you can start those stops by hand. The synagogue is seen from the street.

What you get

• An email from tours@the3dtravel.com with a link and an access code.
• Use it on your phone or tablet in an up-to-date web browser, no app store needed. There is no account to set up before you start.
• Download it on Wi-Fi before you go. After that it works offline: audio, text, map and pictures.
• Your booking includes 2 phones, so two of you can follow along, each on your own. Extra phones are $2.95 each, or a group can share one phone on its speaker.
• Play, pause and replay every part, skip back and ahead, or change the playback speed. Keep the screen on or tap play at each stop.

How it was made

Every fact in the narration is checked against a cited source, and legends are told as legends. The narration is written from that research. How our tours are made.

Image credits

• Photo: Strubbl, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Photo: Leonhard Lenz, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
• Photo: 1971markus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)
• Photo: Eweht, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (license)

The post Salzburg 1938 to 1945: The Road from Sarajevo and the Years Under Hitler appeared first on The3DTravel.