It’s not just the amazing suits of medieval armour in this collection that make this small museum so special. It’s the way they were meticulously displayed and catalogued in the middle of the 16th century, that makes this and the castle’s other curiosities, the world’s oldest museum!...
Well, actually more than a doll’s house – a museum display of scenes of an Edwardian country estate in 1/12th scale. It’s a bit twee for me to be honest, but I’m a sucker for models and miniature dioramas, and some of these scenes are astonishingly detailed...
The French town of Saint Omer in the Pas-de-Calais, is marking its role in the 100th Anniversary of the formation of the RAF, with a guided tour of the local sites linked to the famous WW2 fighter ace and double-amputee, Group Captain Douglas Bader. The name Douglas...
The Royal Air Force (RAF) may be British, but the French consider it a dual-citizen since it was born during World War One in the Pas-de-Calais, and they too are celebrating its 100th Anniversary with special exhibitions and a Douglas Bader trail. The RAF was formed in...
The home of the Netherlands Mariniers (‘Marines’) has always been Rotterdam, so no surprise that the corps’ museum should be in the historic heart of the city. It hasn’t there long. The first attempt to create a collection of historic Mariniers artifacts was at their barracks on...
Efteling – the fairytale* theme park in the south of Holland – has launched a new virtual experience on one of the park’s main attractions, the dark ride Droomvlucht, making the ride accessible to disabled visitors. To be honest, Droomvlucht (“DreamFlight”) is a little bit dated these...
The Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers (REME) museum re-opened in June 2017 at MOD Lynham in Wiltshire. The corps has had a museum since 1958. It was originally a small collection located in a few rooms at Moat House in REME’s base at Arborfield outside Reading. It...
Bristol’s latest attraction, ‘Being Brunel’, a new museum dedicated to the genius of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was opened to the public this weekend. The £7.2m museum sits on the dockside next to his marine masterpiece, SS Great Britain on Bristol’s Harbourside, and incorporates his Dock Office from...
The home of the Museum of the Infantry Regiments of Berkshire and Wiltshire is The Wardrobe* – one of the splendid 15th century buildings on The Close that surround Salisbury Cathedral. For that reason, and because British Army regiments have a habit of amalgamating, merging, emerging and...
This year is the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, and that moment finally came with the signing of the Armistice in a railway carriage in the middle of a wood 80 kilometres north east of Paris on 11th November 1918. Yesterday, after...
The long-awaited reopening of The Museum of War and Peace took place in Novion-Porcien in the French Ardennes at the end of last month, in this 100th anniversary year of the conclusion of The First World War. The French Ardennes has been at the heart of European...
Soviet leaders and Pollitt Bureau chiefs had the luxury of travelling around the USSR in style whilst the rest of population were lucky to have any petrol powered transport at their beck and call. Now a fine collection of vehicles from that Communist rule era makes up...
The Grassmayr Bell Foundry in Innsbruck, Austria, is one of the world’s oldest factories, and they do factory tours! “We think of bells as living things, each with its own personality”, says Monika Unterholzner, whose family, the Grassmayrs have been making bells in Innsbruck since 1599, “and...
When it opened to the public on Thursday (1st Feb), the Jebel Jais Flight zip line in Ras al Khaimah leapt into the record books as the World’s Longest. Who is now second? Well, the zip line business is full of superlatives – Fastest, Biggest drop, Highest...
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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