Museum

On Nov. 11, 2011, 93 years after the Armistice was signed in Europe, marking the end of the First World War, Musée de la Grande Guerre du Pays de Meaux (rue Lazare Ponticelli, 77100, Meaux, France; phone +33 [1] 60 32 14 18) opened in Meaux, France.

The 75,000-square-foot museum houses 50,000 artifacts, including uniforms, weapons, art made from bullets, photographs, a Renault FT 17 tank, two aircraft and a 75mm field gun. Its emphasis is on life at home and on the front during WWI and on the war’s legacy.

At Singapore’s Maritime Experiential Museum & Aquarium (8 Sentosa Gateway, Sentosa Island, Singapore 098269; phone +65 6577 8899), visitors can explore five floating, full-size replicas of historic ships, including a Han Dynasty-era Chinese junk and an eighth-century Indonesian sailing ship.

Other exhibits include a replica of one of Admiral Zheng He’s 15th-century treasure ships, a gallery of maritime artifacts and objects from historic Asian trade routes.

Many people travel across the Atlantic in search of “Old World” Europe and to witness traditional culture in action, but with most of Europe firmly entrenched in the modern world, travelers are getting fewer opportunities to glimpse the old way of life.

by Yvonne Michie Horn

For many years throughout the British Isles, the “parish holidays” program was a fund raiser for Anglican churches. For many American visitors, it offered a joyful way to participate in local life and customs at a very reasonable cost. Since 2005, my husband, Lou, and I have enjoyed three parish holidays. The program officially came to an end in 2010, but I was happy to learn that in 2011 an independent parish holiday was being offered in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, July 5-12.

REPORT ON JORDAN… For our November-December 2011 trip to Jordan, we hired a private driver, Jehad Abu Saeed, whom we highly recommend.

Amsterdam’s Het Scheepvaartmuseum, or Maritime Museum (Kattenburgerplein 1, 1018 KK Amsterdam, Netherlands; phone +31 [0] 20 52 32 222), closed in 2007 for what was supposed to be a two-year renovation; it reopened on Oct. 2 with exhibits ranging from whales to Amsterdam’s Golden Age.

Two life-size replicas, the three-masted East Indiaman Amsterdam and the steamship Christiaan Brunings, are moored alongside the museum, which was built in 1656 as a warehouse for the war fleet.

From 1821 to 1914, more than 44 million people left Europe heading for North America, and, of those, over seven million sailed from Bremerhaven, Germany. To trace their travels, in Bremerhaven the Deutsches Auswandererhaus, or German Emigration Center (Columbusstrasse 65, 27568 Bremerhaven, Germany; phone +49 [0] 471/9 02 20 0 or fax 9 02 20 22), has been open to visitors since 2005.

I spent three weeks in Amsterdam and the Netherlands in August ’11. If you have the pleasure of spending more than four or five days there, here are some ideas for saving money.

In the Auvergne region in south-central France, the museum L’Aventure Michelin (32 rue du Clos Four, 63 100, Clermont-Ferrand, France; phone +33 [0] 4 73 98 60 60) is dedicated to the more than 120-year history of the Michelin tire company.