Aurora Expeditions, who specialise in expeditions to the polar regions, yesterday named their new ship, the Greg Mortimer, in a ceremony set against the snow-capped mountains of Ushuaia, Argentina. The new ship has a striking profile because she is the first passenger vessel in the world to...
The coastal artillery battery at Longues-sur-Mer is one of the key Normandy D-Day battlefield sites to visit, for a number of reasons – it’s in the midst of the landing beaches (between Omaha and Gold); it’s an open site, free to visit; and it still has its...
From tomorrow there’s a new way to travel to the Grand Canyon in style. The Rail Baron Charter, a private luxury train comprised of three 1940s and 1950s railcars, will be operating on the Grand Canyon Railway. The train set comprises The Kansas – a rear open-aired...
You’ve gotta love it! What a spectacular piece of engineering the Napier Sabre is! At least, what a spectacular engineering concept. Sadly its early iterations at the start of WW2 weren’t always the finest examples of engineering quality control when they went into production. So they weren’t...
The Hillman bunkers, on a hill 3.7 kms inland from Sword beach, were German command bunkers. Now they are a memorial and battlefield site. The site was the regimental headquarters for Colonel Ludwig Krug, commander of the 736th Grenadier Regiment. From here he controlled all the infantry...
One of Hamburg’s World War Two giant flak towers (Flakturm) is to have a 136-room hotel built on the top three floors. The NH Hotel Group has won the tender to operate the NHow hotel, which will have a bar, cafe and a spectacular roof-top garden with...
Boeing and Porsche have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore the premium urban air mobility market and the extension of urban traffic into airspace. The plan is, to start by studying the future of premium personal urban air vehicles. The companies will create an international team...
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...
Electric safari vehicles are a bit of a no-brainer really. Not only does the pristine bush wilderness and wildlife cry out for a low-to-zero carbon footprint, but silent electric safari vehicles are perfect for sneaking up on, and observing, animals in the wild. Makanyi Lodge in South...
I recently came across this small event in Patrick Delaforce’s book, Churchill’s Desert Rats*. It illustrates how, sometimes, there can be brief moments of honour & decency – even involving the SS – in the midst of total war. It was during the opening stages of Operation...
Energy Observer will be the first hydrogen vessel to sail around the world when she completes her 6-year mission to test a range of eco-friendly, zero-emission, marine power technologies, and at the same time, inspire people in the 101 stopovers in 50 counties along the way. Energy...
Memorial 14-18 is not one, but three sites on, and next to, the dramatic Notre-Dame-de-Lorette hill just southwest of the town of Lens in the Pas-de-Calais region of northern France… The National Necropolis of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette is the largest French military cemetery with the remains of over 42,000...
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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