Tea With Hitler

A strange tourist attraction dubbed the 'Tea with Hitler' venue is in the news. It's the Eagle's Nest, the mountain retreat in Germany near the Austrian border, where Adolf Hitler took time off with mistress Eva Braun while World War II was on-going. German tourist officials say it had about 300,000 visitors last year, up 30,000 from the year before. Apparently, there are a lot of people who prefer to remember Hitler than forget him.

I remember long ago passing through the Eagle's nest compound while on a European train and seeing it from the train. But I had no inclination to stop and gawk at Hitler's retreat. What is there to see? Most of it was destroyed at the end of the war, and unless one admires Hitler why walk through his vacation home? I did some checking on line to find other "weird travel venues' and here are some you might (if you have lost your taste) or might not (if you have retained good taste) want to check out during your next vacation.

* Chernobyl and Pripyat- Yep! it's the same place in the Ukraine where a nuclear meltdown happened in 1986- a growing number of tourists are showing interest in spending some days in the highly radioactive zone. I guess they are "glowingly excited" about being radiated.

* Bubble gum Alley- Can you imagine a 20-meter-long stretch in San Luis Obispo, California where you will find the used bubble gums pasted on one another creating a colorful canvass? If you can, be ashamed of yourself because you probably are the one who put all that bubble gum under my desk in school.

* Catacombs- If in Paris, you might want to look at he catacombs located under a church there. I confess to having toured it and had a "bone chilling" time. It was once a stone mine, but the tunnels these were used in the 19th century as a burial site to avoid the high cost of burying above ground in Paris. So it houses human skulls and bones that are stacked to the walls.

* Giant Hockey Stick- Located in the small town of Eveleth in Minnesota, this is a metallic hockey stick is 107 feet long and is 3 tons of weight. There is also a hockey puck at the base of the figure which, matching to the massive stick weighs 700 pounds. I guess anyone who likes dull hockey would be fascinated by this. But having to spend time in Minnesota is such a bad idea the tourist going there should be beaten with a hockey stick as punishment for his or her bad judgment.

* Carneval di Ivrea- This is about one thing...throwing oranges at one another in the tiny town of Ivrea, Italy. It's part of that town's Mardi Gras celebration and continues for three days in late February or early March. Every body can take part in the orange fight, but that one seems more kid friendly, given kiddies probably do this on their own more times than the once a year Ivrea festival

* Waitomo Cave- I included this one because I have seen it myself. In this cave in New Zealand it looks as if the stars shine underground! Well they don’t really, in actuality what you are seeing is thousands of glow worms. I have only "glowing reports" about that place.

* Museum of Bad Art- It is allegedly the world's only museum dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition and celebration of bad art in all its forms. This one is in Boston, Massachusetts, a city known for it's crude residents. Maybe the Bad Art museum inspires their bad behavior.
Enjoy a weird vacation soon...