Local Inspiration

Trying to avoid well known castles and cathedrals, most of them you could just google and get a ton of high resolution pictures no doubt better than the ones I took.
The ruins of a lesser known tower in Normandy, also the location of a small US paratrooper unit killed during the war.

Something else from the UK, Waverley Abbey, the ruins of which were used for a scene in 28 days later, but have plenty of room for inspiring interesting fantasy locations.

Yeah, it's honestly a little hard to believe if you haven't seen it in person, Lake Geneva looks like sewage water in comparison.

A small town in Austria (sorry, forget the name) where half the houses were decorated with murals like this.

There is a disused train tunnel not far from where I live. It's bricked off at both ends now.

When I was younger it was an illegal gambling and drinking den. There was even a bar, if you're feeling generous, set up with tables and chairs. The whole place stank of paraffin from the lamps.

If anyone ever mentions the words "thieves guild" I can still taste the illegal booze and small the paraffin.

Not sure if that counts.

Thanks for sharing all of these, they really are something else.

I'd say it absolutely does! That's a really evocative little snippet that I could absolutely see getting some good use.

Very underrated country, Austria.
Pic is just a lake up in the Austrian Alp's, nothing special but they were quite nice and I could see them inspiring some locations

I was in Kanderstag several years ago. That lake was astounding!

Now Mexico isn't a place most people would associate with most tabletop settings (mainly being fantasy based) but you gotta remember a lot of the country was built by the Spaniards, you have a lot of old school European charm if you look around.

You check out Chillon Castle while you were there? Personal favourite of mine out of all the castles I checked out.

It is basically impossible to avoid cathedrals in that country, you throw a stone in any direction and it's going to hit a cathedral. I believe pic related was from Durango.

This one I know is from Aguascalientes

I know I said I'd avoid cathedrals but the ones in Mexico don't really have a lot of pictures on google oddly enough.
Last cathedral, I believe if was in Amecameca but I'm not entirely sure about that, I know Iztaccíhuatl was visible from it.

Those are all really interesting, it does remind me of spanish architecture but with its own flair.

In Burnley (Lancashire, England) there was some 40ish years ago some roadworks being done became when the fuck is there not. It took a lot longer to do than it should have and required a large tent and a discrete police presence. At the time it was claimed that they had run into a hollow space worn out by the river and they were worried that the entire crossroad would disappear into a hole. It wouldn't be the first time this shit had happened, Burnley is basically hollow underneath due to the mine working and water. No mention was made about the police that I can remember.

It wasn't until some years later someone working for the council let it slip.

Back in the day there had been a contingency plan for if the Nazis ever invaded. Weapon stockpiles were buried about the nation, unmarked on any map. After the war the people who knew where they were retired and died and they were forgotten.

Then a road worker with a pick axe fell through the ceiling into one.

We really went the whole nine yards when it came to contingency planning. I'd never heard about that, but it's honestly fascinating. I wonder what they did with all that old hardware?

That's pretty much all I got that you couldn't just google so I leave you with this, Blue Lake in Switzerland again, they put a statue of a grieving woman at the bottom of the lake to honour the legend.

I'm a bit sad that I didn't take more pictures in Normandy or Czech along the roads, there are an absolute fuckton of overgrown ruins of old houses there, especially Normandy, lot of centuries old houses were just abandoned because of the war and were never reclaimed by anyone.

Colorful Lakes in Karkonosze Mountains. Their unusual colour is due to post-mining resiudue of Fe and Cu

Probably covertly disposed of in a controlled detonation. Or dumped into the North Sea. Shit would have been obsolete and degraded with time and damp.

another one

Chapel of Skulls in Czermna-Kudowa Zdrój, near the Polish-Czech border. The local priest gathered the bones of victims of war and plagues and placed them in chapel.

Reminds me of the Sedlec Ossuary in Czech

Szczeliniec Wielki in Góry Stołowe (Table Mountains), Sudetes. It's known for it's labiryth-like rock structures.
Another similar place is Skalne Mesto in Czech Republic.

Manchester has a bunch of densely packed tunnels under the city centre from the 19th century and newer ones from a cancelled subway. Some of these tunnels lead into the guardian telephone exchange which contains an underground bunker intended for the city council during the cold war

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardian_telephone_exchange

A bit more boring but theres also an old earthwork wall thats over 1000 years old, you wouldn't know what it was unless you knew already though

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nico_Ditch

Theres a similar place near where i live. Its a partially flooded tunnel (just above your shins maybe) that leads to a door, theres some local folklore about it being an old witches den but it was built in the 19th century. It's spooky and we'd dare each other to walk into it then ditch that person