The Freedom Museum in Groesbeek, the Netherlands, has been awarded the Architecture MasterPrize for 2022 in the ‘Cultural Architecture’ category. The museum covers a wide range of WW2 experiences and stories, such as the famine endured by Dutch civilians in 1944/5, but the focus is on the...
The Dutch Mining Museum (Nederlands Mijnmuseum) re-opened in May this year (2022) in the old Kneepkens department store in Heerlen, south Netherlands. Heerlen is in that panhandle that extends south to Maastricht along the Meuse between Belgium and Germany, and includes the Limburg region, famous for its...
EcoClipper have published the 2022 sailing schedule for their first cargo & passenger sailing clipper, De Tukker. EcoClipper is a Dutch startup who believe that climate change has created a demand for emission-free shipping using traditional sail ships on regional and global routes. They plan to create...
These so-called Strandbeesten, ‘Beach Animals’, are the work of artist Theo Jansen from The Hague in the Netherlands. They are extraordinary ‘animals’ built out of electrical tubing and cloth… with a few squillion cable ties holding things together! They can regularly be seen walking on one of...
The long-awaited new sea lock at IJmuiden opens on Weds (26 Jan). This massive marine engineering project at the gateway to the North Sea Canal (Noordzeekanaal) which leads to Amsterdam, got underway back in 2016. Now, finally* the new lock, which replaces the old North Lock (Noordersluis)**...
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...
The National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam (Het Scheepvaartmuseum) will open two brand new semi-permanent displays of its collection in May: Republic at Sea and Maps & Marvels. The museum’s Main Gallery will host Republic at Sea, which will display paintings, ship models, instruments, and weapons illustrating how...
So where do old Boeing 747 Jumbos go to die?¹ Well, most of them wind up in the aircraft “boneyards” scattered around the world, some are cannibalised for parts, and a few end up as ornaments, attractions or exhibits. Yesterday, I reported on one that is destined...
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...
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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