Being usually one of the hottest cities on earth you wouldn’t expect to be able to play in the snow year round or even have an encounter with a penguin. Well in Dubai just about everything is possible. Ski Dubai is an amazing snow theme park that is located in the giant Mall of the Emirates and has about three football fields worth of snow, a chair lift, five different runs and even a 85 metre high man made mountain. There a areas for skiing, toboggan runs and just kicking back enjoying the cold and playing in the snow. The temperature in the complex is set to around -1 degree Celsius, this could be up to 5o degrees colder than the outside temperature during Dubai’s hot summer. The park opened in 2005 and is one of the premier attractions in this incredible desert city. Read the rest of this entry »
This large aerospace museum is an annex of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. Located in Chantilly Virginia this museum features some of the most impressive collection of spacecraft and aircraft found anywhere in the world.
The highlight of the museum is the Space Shuttle Discovery, when we took these photos in late 2011 the test Space Shuttle Enterprise was on display but this has since moved to New York. The museum is home to a Air France Concorde, the only surviving Boeing 307 and the Enola Gay the Boeing B-29 Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima during World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
The Seattle Museum of Flight is located on King County International Airport better known as Boeing Field on the outskirts of Seattle, Washington. This aviation museum opened in 1965 and is one of the premier museums of its type in the United States, being home to the largest private air and space museum in the world.
The museum is spread over two large annexes and also features a large outdoor area where some of the larger aircraft are on display.
Highlights include the the City of Everett, the first ever Boeing 747, a British Airway’s Concorde and the first presidential jet that served the US President between 1959 and 1996.
New York City’s Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum is a wonderful display set upon the USS Intrepid a Essex class aircraft carrier that was built during World War II. The ship forms part of a spectacular museum that features a wide range of military, civilian and passenger aircraft. The two biggest iconic attractions are the Concorde and the Space Shuttle Enterprise that made its home at the museum in July of 2012.
The Intrepid is located at Pier 86 off 46th Street on the west side of Manhattan within walking distance of many of New York’s major attractions.
Any city we visit we always like to find a cool bar to have a refreshing beer at and they don’t come much cooler than Rudy’s in New York’s Hells Kitchen. Read the rest of this entry »
Today it often hard to imagine how badly some European cities were destroyed during World War II. Most cities and towns were quickly rebuilt after the war but there is one village that has been preserved as a memorial to the victims that once lived in the small village.
On the 10th of June 1944 the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane was destroyed by the Nazi Waffen-SS division. A total of 642 people were massacred as the Nazis burnt the village and shot anyone who dared escape the flames. Following the war, then French President, Charles de Gaulle decided the original village would be left untouched, and that’s how the village stands today. Read the rest of this entry »
Coney Island was once considered one of the world’s best amusements parks, but that was a very very long time ago. Today there are a few small attractions, a few shops, food vendors and a large boardwalk and beach. Before World War II Coney Island was the biggest amusement park in the United States, today the area is a shadow of its former self and in some places looks very run down. There have been various plans to restore or redevelop the area over the years but none have gained too much momentum. Â We think this is probably not a bad thing as some of the venues of the area have a quaint charm about them that would be a great loss if destroyed. Read the rest of this entry »
Amongst the skyscrapers of Lower Manhattan tucked in on the Lower East Side is the South Street Seaport, one of the New York City’s thriving heritage villages. The precinct was once an important trading port between the 1820 and the 1860’s but like most cities around the world modernisation and the need for more space moved the port facilities away from the heart of the city.
In 1967 the South Street Seaport Museum was founded and helped remind people of the important heritage and value of the area. Then in 1998 a 12 square block historic district was designated by Congress forming “America’s National Maritime Museumâ€. This protects the area for ever and the South Street Sea Port is one of New York City’s great treasures.
The precinct now houses museums; libraries craft centres and dozens of galleries, boutiques and some great dining including bakeries, breweries and marketplaces.The centrepiece of the seaport is Pier 17 which is a huge shopping and entertainment complex with lots of tourist based shopping, river view dining and a large festival food court with great selection of cuisine.
In the area around Pier 17 there is a wonderful collection of historic ships, this collection is the largest privately owned historic fleet in the USA and has as its centrepiece the Peking which is a four masted barque built in 1911. Other notable sea craft include the Wavetree which is a rigged cargo ship dating back to 1885, the Ambrose a 1908 lightship a 1900 Tugboat called Helen McAllister.
