In our travel roundup this week: the Japanese city firebombed by the US just hours before the end of World War II, the mysterious origins of the world’s only non-rectangular national flag, plus four lifetime friends recreate the photo they took on a UK beach more than 50 years earlier.
Norwich Castle
East Anglia was selected by Lonely Planet as one of its top places to visit in 2025 and now there’s another reason to visit this underexplored English region just three hours from London.
After a five-year-long, $37 million makeover, Norwich Castle Keep has reopened with all five floors open to the public for the first time.
The 12th-century castle was commissioned by William the Conqueror, and more than 900 Norman artifacts have been loaned by the British Museum to create its first medieval gallery outside of the UK capital.
Norwich Castle Keep was one of the first castles built after the Norman Conquest of England – that’s the battle depicted in France’s Bayeux Tapestry (currently undergoing its own refurb) – and was a show of dominance and prestige.
Its sturdy 900-year-old walls were built with Caen limestone imported from Normandy, France, in a lasting testament to Norman power. If you’re wanting to explore beyond the UK’s most popular tourist hotspots, this could be a good place to start.
Bodrum Castle
Bodrum Castle, on Bodrum Peninsula in southwest Turkey, is a Matryoshka doll of historical marvels.
The 15th-century castle was built by the Knights of Saint John, who fortified it using stones from the nearby 4th-century BCE Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Since the 1960s, it’s also been home to one of the world’s few Museums of Underwater Archaeology, with more than 3,000 years of seafaring exhibits and historic shipwrecks on display. Dive in deeper with our interactive timeline of Bodrum.
And if you’re visiting the seaside anytime soon, you might be interested in this roundup of the best water shoes of 2025, from our partners at CNN Underscored, a product reviews and recommendations guide owned by CNN.
Kodak moments
At one point in the 1970s, Kodak was responsible for 90% of film and 85% of camera sales in the United States, giving the company a huge stake in people’s vacation mementoes in the 20th century.
Kodak introduced the first digital camera in 1975, but failed to keep up with the technology that it invented, with the 133-year-old company this week announcing that it might have to cease operations.
In honor of the heyday of print photography, here are a couple of our favorite stories of vintage photo recreations.
Four young women wearing mini-skirts and flip-flops posed at an English seaside resort in 1972. More than 50 years on, the lifelong friends gathered once more to recreate it. Check it out here and admire the attention to detail.
Three US couples met on vacation in Mexico in the 1990s and became close friends for 30 years and counting. The male halves of the couples recreated their favorite photo from the 1994 trip at the exact same spot on the beach at Cabo San Lucas. This one’s a little treat for our CNN subscribers: Take a look at the wraparound sunglasses and fanny pack.
Lessons from war
Twelve hours before World War II ended, the US firebombed the Japanese city of Kumagaya. Eighty years on, the scars remain of this air raid, which one survivor describes as “utterly foolish.” To mark the anniversary, CNN visited the city and met with the people who lived through the bombing.
Deep in the forests of Lithuania, an abandoned secret nuclear missile base reflects the political dynamics of the Cold War and the nuclear arms race. This once-classified site was visited by some 35,000 people from all over the world last year and the dim underground maze still gives off an eerie feeling.
“Dark tourism,” the visiting of sites associated with tragedy, is an oft-debated topic, with a fine line being walked between commemoration and sensationalism. The UNESCO World Heritage list recognizes places considered important to humanity and scenes of atrocity are sometimes part of that.
The debate was ignited once again in July when Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge torture sites were added to the list, 50 years on from the Communist government’s rise to power.
From CNN
