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...
This clock in Salisbury Cathedral is thought to be the world’s oldest… that is still working! Once again it was the Dutch who were working at the cutting edge of technology (remember, their engineers were all over the UK at the start of the middle ages building...
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...
The Henry Ford had a record-setting year in 2017, welcoming over 1.77 million visitors. What is it? Well, it’s not exactly a museum or attraction. It describes itself as a “history destination that explores the American experience of innovation, resourcefulness and ingenuity that helped shape America”. Located...
This is one of the latest variations of Supermarine Spitfire and this particular one was built right at the end of WW2, in June 1945. Spitfire TE462 can be found on static display at The National Museum of Flight, Scotland. Truthfully, she’s my least favourite version of...
Work is starting this year on a £5m museum to tell the story of the Royal Navy in Plymouth. It’s part of a 12-year plan by the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) to highlight the role and heritage of its branches in their key locations....
The movie industry news media are talking about Tom Hank’s latest project, a World War 2 movie about the Atlantic Convoy War called Greyhound, to be shot on board the WW2 destroyer, USS Kidd. Hanks has written the screenplay and will play the lead character. His script...
The Royal Navy decommissioned its last Westland Lynx helicopter in March last year, and the British Army Air Corps is about to do the same. The twin-engined multi-role Lynx began service with the Army in 1979 and the Fleet Air Arm in 1981. Its ability to hunt...
After six years of planning and construction a new state-of-the-art cable car made its inaugural journey today on the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest mountain. The new cable car replaces the old Eibsee cable car* that has been taking up to half a million passengers a year up the...
Perfect for petrol-heads! Saxony in Germany is highlighting new developments at two of its automobile visitor attractions for 2018. They suggest 2018 is the right time to explore Saxony as a place where automobile history was written, by heading first to the small town of Zwickau, which...
A bedding manufacturer is planning a commuter bus fitted with sleeping pods. Remember Harry Potter’s Night Bus? Well this could be a little less…wild! The idea is to give bleary-eyed Brits some shut-eye on their ride home at the end of a long day. The “snoozliner” is...
It’s hard to get a grasp on just how significant the Lumière brothers were to cinematography, how tirelessly creative, and what astonishingly brilliant engineers they were. A visit to their spectacular family home in Lyons certainly helps. Auguste and Louis Lumière were the firstborn sons of Charles-Antoine...
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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