Posts under ‘Europe’

We have all seen vending machines serving soft drinks, coffee and chocolates and even vending machine restaurants in Japan, but here’s a first, sitting quietly on a subway station in the German City of Berlin is this amazing machine – it cooks and serves hot chips or pommes as the Europeans like to call them. You put your Euro in the slot press a button, a lot of noises go on then in 45 short seconds (and hopefully before your train arrives) a bucket of crisp freshly fried hot steaming chips appear… Delicious

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Wolfsburg is a city in northern Germany that is home to the huge Volkswagen factory which produces the Golf. At their factory the company has what could only be described as a theme park called the AutoStadt with attractions, car displays and beautiful gardens plus a great factory tour. Many people flock to the park to pick up their new VW which they collect from a huge 20 story silo which looks like something from the Matrix or some other Sci-Fi film. Here brand new cars are stacked 20 high and giant lifts move up a central shaft placing the vehicle in position; it is quiet an engineering feat. VW have a similar silo at the Dresden factory where they assemble the Bentley and Phanteom luxury range of vehicles. Read the rest of this entry »

This public urinal was spotted in the canal city of Amsterdam. Amsterdam does things a little different to the rest of the world, they allow hash in cafes, they like tulips and they wear clogs. Well they also like to take a wizz in the open air with only a small surrounds to avoid the embarrassment. Not sure how dwarfs would go here, but its a lot of fun watching the world go by while you are doing what comes naturally. Read the rest of this entry »

Mount Saint Michel is one of the most spectacular buildings you will ever see. Built on a rocky tidal mountain in Normandy France this UNESCO World Heritage Site is an amazing architectural feat dating back centuries. The inhabitants of the mount were called the Montois, and the buildings were primarily used as a monastery and later a prison throughout its rich history. One interesting piece of trivia, the Mount is said to be the inspiration for the design of Minas Tirith in recent film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Read the rest of this entry »

The Sinsheim Auto & Technik Museum is the home to the F-BVFB Air France Concorde which proudly sits upon their museum roof and is open to the public. This Concorde made its maiden flight in March of 1976 and had its final flight in June of 2003. Over this time it had made 5473 landings and flown 14771 hours. The last flight was from Paris’s CDG airport to Karlsruhe-Baden Baden where it was disassembled and put on a barge for a trip up the Rhine and then trucked the rest of the journey to the Sinsheim museum. The museum also has Russia’s version of the Concorde the Tupolev TU-144 this sits beside the Air France Concorde. Sinsheim is about an hour’s drive south of Frankfurt and a little longer from Stuttgart and Munich, it opens 265 days a year.

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Olympia Looping is the worlds largest portable steel rollercoaster and is one of the more notable rides found at Oktoberfest in Munich each year. The huge ride features 5 loops- the Olympic rings which give huge g force to the rider. The structure is monstrous it weighs over 875 tonnes and takes up a space 85 metres by 36. The highest point is about 32 metres off the ground and it has a 26m drop. Speeds are in excess of 83 km per hour. Usually people queue for hours to ride the 1.45 minute ride, but the exhilaration is well worth the wait. Read the rest of this entry »

Skoda now owned by the VW Audi group is the Czech Republic’s own car and very popular throughout Europe. They have a factory about an hours drive from Prague in a town called Mlada and a great museum which is open to the pubic. Here you can see some fascinating Skoda vehicles and get an insight into their products and history. They have a very good display on their rallying and racing vehicles and plenty of historic cars all beautifully restored. Next door to the museum their is a Skoda new car showroom where you can see some of the exciting new models the company sells today. Read the rest of this entry »

Sick of the standard hotel room on your tour of Europe, well here is the answer, a Botel- its a hotel but its a boat. This one is in Prague in the Czech Republic on the Vltava River. It is a stationary vessel which has bar, restaurant, lobby and all the things you would expect in a budget hotel only it is a boat. on the It might not be 5 star luxury (or even 2 star for that matter) but it sure is fun and good value. The cabins are fairly small and sparse but for novelty value who cares and lets face it your only sleeping there as there’s so much to do and see in Prague you will hardly find time to sleep. Prague has a few different botels to choose from and you will find them in other European cities including Amsterdam.

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A Munich delicacy is the this Kartoffel a shredded potato Pattie which is fried in hot oil until golden brown and then served with apple sauce. It is a great snack and goes well with a nice cold beer.

This photograph was taken at the Kartoffelhaus stand at Munich’s Oktoberfest where thousands were served every day and for only one Euro its not hard to see why. No visit to Munich would be complete without trying one or two of these tasty treats. Read the rest of this entry »

The Munich Toy Museum is a novel attraction which will entertain young and old for a few minutes. The museum building itself is interesting it is? built in a tower at the end of the city gate at Marienplatz. This building has 5 rooms all about the size of a bed room but they are connected via a? narrow windy stone staircase which is very difficult to navigate. Only one person can fit up or down at any one time and you wont want to be too big. The toy museum itself is quiet interesting there are a large collection of old toys heaps of crusty old bears, dolls, early puzzles and some? mechanical toys, model cars and lots of childhood memories. Threes a tiny gift shop at the bottom where you can pick up something interesting? too. Read the rest of this entry »