Most people know that the famous airborne glider attack on Pegasus Bridge just after midnight on 6th June 1944 marked the start of D-Day, but I suspect many are a little confused about where exactly this dramatic action took place. At the east end of the landing...
The British Normandy Memorial lists the names of 22,442 servicemen & women serving under British command, who died in Normandy. It was conceived during the 71st D-Day Anniversary reunion in 2015, in a chance conversation between a British veteran, George Batts, and the BBC broadcaster Nicholas Witchell....
The Laatzen-Hanover Aviation Museum (Laatzen-Hannover Luftfahrt Museum), to give it its full name, is not a huge museum but it’s a really interesting aviation museum and it packs a lot – some 4,000+ artefacts – into its 3,500 m² of display space. The museum was founded by...
Arromanches-les-Bains is the site of the famous Mulberry B Artificial Harbour and home to the D-Day Landing Museum, known locally as the ‘Musée du Débarquement, Arromanches’, which focuses on the astounding piece of engineering that still dominates the seascape today. My last visit to the museum was...
The Radar Museum 1944 is on the site of the Germans’ largest radar station in the Calvados region of Normandy. The original top-secret site covered a huge 10 hectares on the plateau outside the town of Douvres*. However the museum and its bunkers cover only a small...
The Nevada State Railroad Museum in Boulder City will receive more than $23 million to build a new visitor centre as part of a capital bill passed earlier this week by the state legislature. The museum operates a historic train experience on 4½ miles of the old...
Under project name Sea Zero, Hurtigruten Norway has unveiled plans for its first zero-emission ship, but we’re not going to be cruising around the fjords on it any time soon. The cruise ferry company, together with a consortium of 12 maritime partners and the research institute SINTEF,...
What exactly is Volkswagen’s Autostadt? Is it a brand museum? Is it a theme park? Or is it something else? It’s hard to get a grasp on it, and I suspect that for many potential visitors, while that might not put them off visiting, it might lose...
In the 55th anniversary year of the much-loved film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, two of the vehicles that starred in the film are due to return to one of the filming locations as part of a commemoration service for Sally Ann Howes, who played Truly Scrumptious. On...
The Hamelin Automobile History Museum (Museum der Hamelner Automobilgeschichte) may be small but it gives a fascinating insight into the history and development of the German automobile industry in the early 20th century, and in particular into local car makers who developed two important and popular brands...
A World War II Vickers Wellington bomber has been restored to its former glory after 12½ years of conservation at the Royal Air Force Museum Midlands (Cosford)*. The Wellington, one of only two remaining in the UK (the other is at Brooklands Museum), was finally moved last...
Wow! The Golden Globe Race 2022 #GGR2022 is turning into a real nail-biter! It’s been 225 days and 16 hours since 16 solo sailors set off from Les Sables d’Olonne on 4th Sep last year, in their tiny 30+ foot yachts to race non-stop around the world...
The Port of Kiel in northern Germany has a packed programme of 221 cruise ship visits for this 2023 cruise season*, starting today (14 Apr) with Fred. Olsen Lines’ Balmoral. The port says that being a pioneer in sustainability means it continues to enjoy high popularity among...
The sole surviving Alvis Grand Prix racing car, once abandoned in a scrapyard in Coventry, is being revived by The Alvis Car Company, and will be making its first public appearance tomorrow (14 April) in Chiba City, Japan at Automobile Council 2023. Its unveiling comes 96 years...
This is a niche blog about technically-minded travel. It reflects my own interests in the mechanical, technical, historical, engineering, transport and military world.
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