In the city of Ansbach, in the state of Bavaria, Germany

 "Ever since reading Jean Plaidy's 'Queen in Waiting,' I've felt deep admiration for Caroline of Ansbach." — Lauren Willig

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(In Ansbach, Germany — The year 2025 marks two major milestones for the U.S. Army and the city of Ansbach: 250 years of U.S. Army service and 80 years of enduring German-American friendship.
To honor this meaningful year, U.S. Army Garrison Ansbach and the city of Ansbach each host a series of events commemorating a complex and often painful history, while also celebrating the shared values and longstanding partnership between the American military community and the people of Franconia.
Since the arrival of U.S. forces in the region during the final days of World War II, Ansbach has played a key role in the Army’s presence in Europe.

Over the decades, Soldiers, civilians, and family members have forged deep connections with the local community, working side-by-side, raising families, and building a future together rooted in mutual respect and cooperation.

“This year is a tribute to the friendships that have stood the test of time,” said Col. Aaron Southard, commander of USAG Ansbach. “It’s a chance to honor the legacy of all of our Soldiers, remember the victims of war and tyranny, and reaffirm the deep bonds between the U.S. Army and the Ansbach community.”
Throughout 2025, events will highlight the Army’s 250-year history and 80 years of German-American relations in Ansbach, offering moments for both reflection and celebration.

From remembrance ceremonies and reflections on the destruction wrought by war to historical exhibits and the Army’s 250th birthday, the year 2025 acknowledges both the hardships of the past and the strength of reconciliation.

Together, the U.S. Army and the city of Ansbach invite residents, Soldiers, and visitors alike to take part in this historic celebration — a reflection of 250 years of Army legacy and 80 years of partnership, unity and friendship.

In the island of Corsica, in the Mediterranean Sea, France

 Corsica is the fourth-largest island (after Sicily, Sardinia, and Cyprus) in the Mediterranean.

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(in Corsica, a territorial collectivity of France and an island in the Mediterranean Sea embracing (from 1976) the départements of Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud.) It lies 105 miles (170 km) from southern France and 56 miles (90 km) from northwestern Italy, and it is separated from Sardinia by the 7-mile (11 km) Strait of Bonifacio. (Ajaccio is the capital.)

+ Mount Cinto attains an elevation of 8,890 feet (2,710 meters). Mountains descend steeply in parallel ranges to the west, where the coast is cut into steep gulfs and marked by high cliffs and headlands. To the east, the mountain massif falls in broken escarpments to extensive alluvial plains bordering a lagoon-indented coast. In the northeast, a separate mountain formation reaches heights not exceeding 5,790 feet (1,765 meters).

The island’s principal rivers are the Golo, Tavignano, Liamone, Granove, Tarova, and Profiano. A Mediterranean climate prevails on the coasts, where the average temperature is 51 °F (10.5 °C) in winter and 60 °F (15.5 °C) during the rest of the year.

+The flowers of the maquis produce a fragrance that carries far out to sea and has earned for Corsica the name the “Scented Isle.” In all, forests cover about one-fifth of the island. Bastia and Ajaccio, on the coast, are the largest towns and home to about half of the island’s population. In the early 21st century, some four-fifths of Corsica’s population was urban. In northern Corsica, the Balagne (once called the “Garden of Corsica”) is also densely populated. In contrast, sparsely populated rural villages, mostly situated at elevations between 650 and 2,600 feet (200 and 800 meters), have experienced much migration to the coast and to continental France.

+ The island’s economic life is based primarily on tourism as well as the raising of sheep for ewe’s milk, which is used to make fine-quality cheeses, and the cultivation of citrus fruits, grapes and olives.

+ Corsica has outstanding assets in its climate, scenery, and magnificent coastline, all of which promote tourism. Corsu, which is akin to Tuscan. Traditional folk music is performed by groups in the towns, and traditional handicrafts have been revived. (Corsica also has many museums.) The recorded history of Corsica begins about 560 BCE, when Greeks from Phocaea in Asia Minor founded the town of Alalia on the east coast. Carthaginian domination followed in the early 3rd century BCE, until the whole of the island was conquered by the Romans in a series of campaigns from 259 to 163 BCE.

+ Shown here is a Statue of Napoleon Bonaparte in Ajaccio, Corsica, France.
Some weeks after Paoli had fled to England, Napoleon Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio on August 15, 1769. Corsica became a province of France that same year. Except for brief periods of occupation by the British (1794–96) and the Italians and Germans (1942–43), Corsica remained a French territory thereafter.

At Buckingham Palace, royal residence in London, located in the City of Westminster, United Kingdom

 “I long to go through the crowded streets of your mighty London, to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity, to share its life, its change, its death, and all that makes it what it is.” Bram Stoker, Dracula.

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(at Buckingham Palace, a royal residence in London, and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom.) Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the center of state occasions and royal hospitality. It has been a focal point for the British people at times of national rejoicing and mourning.The palace has 775 rooms, and the garden is the largest private garden in London. The state rooms, used for official and state entertaining, are open to the public each year for most of August and September and on some days in winter and spring.

+ In the Middle Ages, the site of the future palace formed part of the Manor of Ebury (also called Eia). In 1531, Henry VIII acquired the Hospital of St James, which became St James's Palace, from Eton College, and in 1536 he took the Manor of Ebury from Westminster Abbey. These transfers brought the site of Buckingham Palace back into royal hands for the first time since William the Conqueror had given it away almost 500 years earlier. Eventually, in the late 17th century, the freehold was inherited from the property tycoon Hugh Audley by the great heiress Mary Davies. The next owner was George Goring, 1st Earl of Norwich, who from 1633 extended Blake's house, which came to be known as Goring House, and developed much of today's garden, then known as Goring Great Garden.  In 1698, John Sheffield acquired the lease. He later became the first Duke of Buckingham and Normanby. Buckingham House was built for Sheffield in 1703 to the design of William Winde. It was eventually sold by Buckingham's illegitimate son, Charles Sheffield, in 1761 to George III, Sheffield's leasehold on the mulberry garden site, the freehold of which was still owned by the royal family, was due to expire in 1774.

+ Under new royal ownership, the building was originally intended as a private retreat for Queen Charlotte, and was accordingly known as The Queen's House.

+ The last major structural additions were made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the East Front, which contains the balcony on which the royal family traditionally appears to greet crowds. A German bomb destroyed the palace chapel during the Second World War; the King's Gallery was built on the site and opened to the public in 1962 to exhibit works of art from the Royal Collection.

+ During the Second World War, the palace was bombed nine times. One bomb fell in the palace quadrangle while George VI and Queen Elizabeth (the future Queen Mother) were in the palace, and many windows were blown in and the chapel destroyed. The King and Queen were filmed inspecting their bombed home, and the newsreel footage shown in cinemas throughout the United Kingdom to show the common suffering of rich and poor.

At Alhambra palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Spain

 The Alhambra, one of the most famous landmarks in Spain, is the world’s last and greatest Moorish fortress.

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One of the most visited sites in Spain, and even in the world, the orange-toned Alhambra sits on a stunning piece of real estate -- a high, mountainous location on Sabika Hill -- with sweeping views over Granada. Alhambra became a UNESCO site in 1984. A deeply affecting place, it is so beautiful and enchanting that it’s difficult to process. The complex is Spain’s most beautiful monument. It’s so vast, there are four must-see sites: the Nasrid Palace, Charles V’s Palace, the Alcazaba, and the Generalife Gardens.

+ The Nasrid Palace (shown here) is the finest example of the refined, intricate, and elegant architectural style of the Moorish civilization. Every inch of its rooms is decorated, top to bottom, with ceramic tiles, elaborate plaster work, calligraphy, filigreed windows, and stucco stalactite ceilings.

+ The Nasrid sultans didn’t limit themselves to building within Alhambra’s ramparts. Just beyond the walls lie the Generalife Gardens, one of the best preserved Nasrid estates. Generalife was the lush leisure villa of the last dynasty of Moorish sultans. They spent their summers here to escape the intense heat. (Generalife is considered one of Europe’s most beautiful formal gardens.)

+ The Alhambra is said to be Granada’s – and Europe’s – love letter to Moorish culture. Set against the brooding Sierra Nevada peaks, this fortified palace started life as a walled citadel before becoming the opulent seat of Granada’s Nasrid emirs. Their showpiece palaces, the 14th-century Palacios Nazaríes, are among the finest Islamic buildings in Europe and, together with the Generalife gardens, form the Alhambra's great headline act.

+ The origins of the Alhambra, whose name derives from the Arabic al-qala’a al-hamra (the Red Castle), are mired in mystery. The first references to construction in the area appear in the 9th century but it’s thought that buildings may already have been standing since Roman times. In its current form, it largely dates to the 13th and 14th centuries when Granada's Nasrid rulers transformed it into a fortified palace complex.

At Bran Castle, in Transylvania, a historic eastern European region, is now in Romania

 Bran Castle is a medieval stronghold in the Transylvanian Alps in the Southern Carpathian Mountains of Brașov County in central Romania; it's popularly- if inaccurately- identified with the fictional Castle Dracula. Bran Castle remains one of Romania’s top tourist attractions.

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(in Transylvania, a historic eastern European region, is now in Romania.) After forming part of Hungary in the 11th–16th centuries, it was an autonomous principality within the Ottoman Empire (16th–17th century) and then once again became part of Hungary at the end of the 17th century. It was incorporated into Romania in the first half of the 20th century. The region, whose name originally appeared in written documents in the 12th century, covered a territory bounded by the Carpathian Mountains on the north and east, the Transylvanian Alps on the south, and the Bihor Mountains on the west. The neighboring regions of Maramureș, Crișana, and Banat have also, on occasion, been considered part of Transylvania. In addition to its Hungarian and Romanian heritage, Transylvania retains traces of a Saxon (German) cultural tradition dating back to the arrival in the Middle Ages of a population of German speakers. Seven historically Saxon villages that feature well-preserved medieval fortified churches were inscribed on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites between 1993 and 1999. (The historic center of Sighișoara, also a Saxon settlement, was inscribed in 1999 as well.)

+ In 1920, the city of Brașov turned Bran Castle over to Queen Marie of Greater Romania, who restored the castle as a royal summer residence and lived there both before and after the death, in 1927, of her husband, King Ferdinand I. She also built the castle’s principal modern outbuilding, the Tea House, which later became a restaurant. Marie died in 1938, and her daughter, Princess Ileana, was forced out of the country by the new communist regime in 1948. Communists opened the castle to the public as a museum in 1956. Ileana died in 1991, and the post-communist Romanian government handed over the castle to her son, Archduke Dominic of Habsburg, in 2009. (The castle continued to operate as a museum.)

+ When Austria-Hungary was defeated in World War I, the Romanians of Transylvania in late 1918 proclaimed the land united with Romania. In 1920 the Allies confirmed the union in the Treaty of Trianon. Hungary regained some two-fifths of Transylvania during World War II (but the entire region was ceded to Romania in 1947). Bran Castle also hosts some atmospheric events around Halloween.

+Bran Castle holds visitors in thrall. An industry has sprouted around Dracula’s Castle, though connections to either the historical Vlad Ţepeş or Bram Stoker’s fictional vampire are thin. The liberties taken with Bran’s reputation are quickly forgotten on a visit: you’ll climb up its conical towers, admiring views over thick forest, and stroll through creaky-floored rooms furnished with bearskin rugs and 19th-century antiques.

In Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon

 With a gorgeous coastline, colorful culture, and low prices, Sri Lanka is a tropical travel gem.

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(in Sri Lanka, which lies about 18 miles (29 kilometers) from the southeastern tip of India.) The waterway separating Sri Lanka from India is called the Palk Strait. Flat or hilly plains make up most of Sri Lanka’s land. There are high mountains and deep river valleys in the south-central part of the country. The longest river is the Mahaweli.

Because Sri Lanka has warm weather year-round. The southwest receives heavy rainfall. The rest of the island is much drier. The wet areas of Sri Lanka have tropical evergreen forests. Trees that shed their leaves grow in the drier regions. The driest areas have thorny shrubs and other plants that can survive without much water. Leopards, bears, wild pigs, elephants, peacocks, and monkeys live in the forests. The government has created some national parks to protect the country’s wildlife.

+ The Sinhalese people make up nearly three-fourths of the population. They speak the Sinhala language and practice Buddhism. Tamils form the next-largest group. They speak Tamil, a language also spoken in southern India. The Tamils practice Hinduism, the main religion of India. Muslims, who are also called Moors, make up Sri Lanka’s third major group. They follow Islam and mostly speak Tamil. (Many Sri Lankans also speak English.) Most people live in villages.

+ Services (including telecommunications, insurance, and banking) have become key parts of Sri Lanka’s economy. Manufacturing and mining are also important. Sri Lanka produces clothing, tea, rubber products, processed foods, tobacco, and chemicals. The country mines graphite (which is used to make pencils) and gems.) Many Sri Lankans grow rice and other crops to feed their families. (Tea, rubber trees, and coconuts are grown on large farms called plantations.)

+ The first people on the island were the Vedda. In about the 400s BCE, they began to mix with settlers from India. The island’s people came to be known as the Sinhalese. They later built an advanced Buddhist civilization. Beginning in the 900s CE, Tamil invaders from India pushed the Sinhalese to the southwest. In the 1300s the Tamils set up a kingdom in the north.

+ The Portuguese arrived in 1505. By 1619, they controlled most of the island. The Dutch took over beginning in 1658. In the late 1700s, the British took the island from the Dutch. The British called the island Ceylon. Ceylon gained independence from Great Britain in 1948. (The country adopted a new constitution in 1972 that changed the name to Sri Lanka.) The Sinhalese supported the Sinhala language and Buddhism. The island’s Tamils soon wanted to set up a separate Tamil homeland in the northeast. (In the 1980s, heavy fighting broke out between Tamil groups and the Sri Lankan government.)

+ (In 2004, a tsunami struck Sri Lanka. Tens of thousands of people
were killed. Fighting between the Tamils and the government came to an end in May 2009.

In the town of Bamberg, in Upper Franconia, Bavaria, Germany

 The German town of Bamberg has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993.

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Bamberg extends over seven hills, each crowned by a church. A town in the Upper Franconia district of Bavaria, on the Regnitz River; it dates back to the 9th century, when its name was derived from the nearby Babenberch castle. After a communist uprising took control of Bavaria in the years following WWI, the state government fled to Bamberg and stayed for almost two years before the Bavarian capital of Munich was retaken by Freikorps units. After WWII, Bamberg was a base for the Bavarian, German, and then American military stationed at Warner Barracks, until 2014.

During the post-Roman centuries of Germanic migration and settlement, the region encompassed by the Diocese of Bamberg was predominantly inhabited by Slavs. The town, first mentioned in 902, grew up by the castle Babenberch, which gave its name to the Babenberg family. The area was Christianized by the monks of the Benedictine Fulda Abbey, and the land was under the authority of the Diocese of Würzburg. In 1007, the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II made Bamberg a family inheritance, the seat of a separate diocese. His purpose was to make the Diocese of Würzburg less unwieldy, to give Christianity a footing in the districts of Franconia, east of Bamberg. In 1008, the boundaries of the new diocese were defined, and Pope John XVIII granted the papal confirmation in the same year. Henry II ordered the building of a new cathedral, which was consecrated on 6 May 1012. The church was enriched with gifts from the pope, and Henry had it dedicated in his honor. In 1017, Henry founded Michaelsberg Abbey on the "Mount St Michael," near Bamberg, a Benedictine abbey for the training of the clergy. The emperor and his wife gave large temporal possessions to the new diocese, and it received privileges out of which grew the secular power of the bishop. Pope Benedict VIII visited Bamberg in 1020 to meet Henry II for discussions about the Holy Roman Empire. While he was there he placed the diocese into dependence on the Holy See. For a time, Bamberg was the center of the Holy Roman Empire.

+ From the middle of the 13th century onwards, the bishops ruled Bamberg. In 1248 and 1260, the see gained parts of a territory extending from Schlüsselfeld in a northeast direction to the Franconian Forest, and possessed estates in the Duchies of Carinthia and Salzburg, in the present Upper Palatinate, in Thuringia, and on the Danube. As a result of the Reformation, the territory of this see was reduced by nearly 50%. In 1647, the University of Bamberg was founded. The possessions of the diocese in Austria were sold to that state. Bamberg thus lost its independence in 1802, becoming part of Bavaria in 1803.

After a communist uprising took control over Bavaria in the years after World War I, the state government fled to Bamberg for nearly two years before the Bavarian capital of Munich was retaken by Freikorps units.