Tirpitz was the largest battleship in the German Kriegsmarine and a sister to the Bismarck, built in 1939 and named after the deputy admiral Alfred von Tirpitz Freiherr. In March 1943 Turpitz was berthed in Kåfjord in Alta with the role of threatening Allied convoy traffic in the Barents Sea. The Germans built a massive navel base in Altafjord, as in addition to Tirpitz the battleship Scharnhorst and cruiser Lützow were stationed in Alta – a total of 20,000 German troops lived the in areas I have been exploring on the bike over the last two days. It has been fascinating to see the object of attraction for Easy Elsie, stumble across historic artefacts and sobering to remember the tragic loss of life on both sides in this conflict.
Category Archives: City Profiles
Kinne-Vedums Kyrka
I am not sure why I did it… but riding west on the E20 from Skara out of the corner of my eye I saw something in the hillside and rode for a while arriving at Kinne-Vedums. This masterpiece of 12th Century building is as fresh and dominate as the day it was erected by the Master Stonemason Othelric. I wandered a little in the immaculate grounds seeking shade in the shadow of the surrounding trees and took refuge in the quite calm of the cross vaulted ceiling and frescoes from CG Hoijst and Johan Laurell comissioned in 1754. 
BUGN DRHQ FPNE QXVN IKPV HYSD
If you get a chance go to Bletchley Park. Its a haunting place that was the location of the UK Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), and perhaps most famously the site that allowed Dilly Knox and the team including Alan Turing to build the Bombes which helped crack the German Enigma and Lorenz ciphers. I had to double check my facts after my first visit as I just could not believe that in the UK homosexuality remained a criminal offence until 1967. Turing committed suicide on June 7th 1954 after begin persecuted for being gay. It is little recompense that the UK government officially apologised to him for the “the appalling way he was treated”, but on the 24th December 2013 Turing was pardoned posthumously by the Queen – its not the finest moment for our democratic system and tolerant culture – live and let live.