England’s Lake District
My husband, Lou, and I spent a sunny week in England’s Lake District in June ’10, taking advice we’d read in a Rick Steves column to make Keswick a home base.
Museum
Sinsheim Technik Museum
The Auto & Technik Museum in Sinsheim, Germany, about 30 miles south of Heidelberg, is easy to find. My husband and I visited it twice in the last few years.
This place is huge! You could spend the whole day there seeing the automobiles, airplanes, locomotives, household machinery and models, including model trains that you can operate by putting a euro into a slot.
On the roof were a French Concorde jet and a Russian Tu-144 (the “Concordski”) in takeoff position. We could walk through these aircraft.
Toy museum in Malta
The Pomskizillious Museum of Toys (10, Triq Gnien Xibla, Xagħra; phone +356 2156 2489) in Xagħra, on the Maltese island of Gozo, displays toys from around the world in a converted 18th-century farmhouse. The earliest objects include a late-18th-century Maltese doll and some Italian Presepio (nativity) figurines from the 1790s. Open hours and days vary year-round.
Hitting the highlights on a guided tour of Turkey
by Diane Harrison, Creve Coeur, MO
Using Globetrotter Guides’ “Turkey Travel Guide” to compare the itineraries offered by several large tour companies, my parents and I started planning our 2010 vacation. We decided on smarTours’ 14-day “Treasures of Turkey.”
Antwerp history museum
In the Eilandje district of Antwerp, Belgium, Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS), or Museum on the River (Hanzestedenplaats 1, Antwerp; phone +32 3 338 44 34), will open May 17.
The new home for the collections of the Ethnographic Museum, the National Shipping Museum and the Folklore Museum, it will have exhibits showcasing the port city’s relationship throughout history to the rest of the world. (An information point is currently open.)
I Love London
We are pleased to present, below (in random order), the winning entries to the latest essay contest announced by ITN Publisher Armond Noble in his October ’10 “Departure Lounge” column. The topic was “I Love London” and the challenge was to communicate that in up to 300 words.
Each winning entrant will receive a 50-dollar gift certificate for Magellan’s Travel Supplies (800/962-4943).
Netherlands museums
During the 13th National Museum Weekend, April 2-3, 2011, more than 500 museums in the Netherlands can be visited for free or at a large discount, with many organizing special activities.
OMEGA watch museum
In Biel (Bienne), Switzerland, the OMEGA Museum (Rue Stämpfli 96; phone +41 [0] 32 343 91 31, www.omegawatches.com/spirit/history/museum) reopened in May after extensive renovation. The Swiss watch company’s collection includes about 4,000 watches plus movements, clocks, tools and photos. Some items are new to the public, including a pocket watch used by Albert Einstein.
Free entry. Open 9-5 Monday-Friday, except public holidays. Guided tours, to the first 20 people, are in English (2 p.m. Wed.), French (2 Thurs.) or German (2 Tues.).
Yuan Dynasty scroll
“Dwelling in the Fu-ch’un Mountains,” a 14th-century, 22½-foot-long and one-foot-tall Chinese scroll painting, was the magnum opus of Yuan Dynasty painter Huang Gongwang.
A taste of London
by Randy Keck (Part 1 of 2 on the UK)