Te Papa Museum is the Museum of New Zealand and would have to be one of the best museums found anywhere in the world located on Wellington’s beautiful waterfront the Te Papa has an amazing range of exhibits which will educate young and old and a great way to learn about New Zealand, its people, its land and its culture.
There are spectacular animal exhibits which show some of New Zealand’s unusual wild life, a dinosaur hall and very interesting earthquake exhibition. There are always special exhibits showing and the museum and kids will love the discovery centres which are specially tailored to the young.
The museum building itself is an amazing structure, taking over four years to construct making it one of the largest museum projects in the world. Interestingly the building is built on huge shock absorbers to protect the centre’s priceless collection from ground movements during regular New Zealand earthquakes.
The American Queen is a magnificent paddleboat on the which sales the mighty Mississippi. This vessel has 222 state rooms and is 6 decks high, 418 feet in length and 89 feet wide. The 160 crew on board cater for the436 guests on board offering luxury service and an experience to remember. The huge exhaust stacks can be lowered to allow the boat to go under low bridges and the 45 ton paddle wheel is powered with the help of authentic steam engines and a little help from some state of the art diesel engines.
The small island country of Singapore is one of the Jewels of Asia, with cutting edge technology, cleanliness like no where else, great food, friendly people and a balmy tropical climate- a perfect place for a holiday. The Singapore Tourist Board has just launched their latest campaign promoting their country titled Beyond Words, this week’s Tripandom YouTube video of the week… enjoy the Singapore experience.
It can be quiet expensive to see some of the more popular West End shows in London, but there is a cheaper way if you are quick and lucky. Look for the TKTS booth which you can find on the south side of Leicester Square and you might be able to see you favourite show for a fraction of the price. Usually offerings on Mondays are cheaper and easier to get hold of you sometimes get tickets as low as 7 pounds 50. Not all shows are on sale at TKTS, there are some other bargain ticket places around the west end so a few laps on foot may really pay off, and it’s a really good chance to see all the different shows on offer.
Capsule hotels are all the rage in Japan where space is limited and people just want a place to spend the night. Well some ingenious people have decided to open up a similar style of accommodation inside London’s Gatwick Airport. Now there is no need to wait hours for flights trying to catch a few minutes sleep on those horrible plastic chairs in the terminal you can book into a luxury capsule and get some proper rest. Read the rest of this entry »
Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner will make its premier tomorrow at 3:30pm local time at Everett in Washington State USA. Boeing are expecting over 100 million viewers to watch the largest corporate telecast in history in 9 different languages. The premier will in front of 15,000 guests who will all get to see the first of Boeing’s new airliner.
The Chelsea Flower show held every May is one of London’s premier events in fact it is more than a flower and garden show it is more a society event to be seen at. Everyone who is everyone (or wants to be anyone) attends from TV and film stars, Lords and Dames even the Queen pops in to smell the roses. The show is all in the name of Charity the Chelsea Royal Hospital is the benefactor. Every year dozens of new flowers make their world premier and there are some spectacular gardens on display from the world’s best landscape designers.
Stuttgart is the home of Mercedes Benz and in 2006 the company opened what is probably the best automotive museum in the world. This magnificent building is a piece of art as its self but houses a priceless collection of Mercedes Benz memorabilia with one of the finest auto collections on the planet. The centre is set out on a time line with the horse and buggy at the start of the journey and the future at the end with all periods of its 100 plus year represented along the way. Highlights include a celebrity gallery where vehicles owned by famous people are on display here you can see a Mercedes Benz ‘Pope Mobile’ owned by Pope John Paul II, Princess Diana’s convertible Benz, Ringo Stars Car and a range of other huge names including kings, presidents and movie stars. The centre also boasts a huge new car display area where you can see every product they produce.
It’s the 4th of July so today we take a look at one of the worlds best zoos, the San Diego Zoo in Southern California. This zoo has one of the worlds finest collections of animals and plays an important role in conservation and the breeding of endangered and threatened species. One of the most popular animal exhibits is the Giant Panda’s which are truly magnificent. The zoo has recently opened a Monkey Walk which is also very popular here visitors can get very close to a selection of interesting primates in a very real environment. Visitors to Los Angeles can visit visit the zoo in a day trip but San Diego has so much to offer including a historic townships, waterfront precincts, great shopping and the Zoo’s wild animal park adventure… and the Mexican border is only minutes away on the train.
The Subway system of Moscow is truly a must see. Mostly built during the Starlin era, the stations are more like museums than subway stations. Many of the Metro stations feature ornate artworks and statues that depict images of the bygone communist era, in a form of artwork often described as Socialist realism. The video above is a few short shots of many stations, hit the next page for a slide-show of various other magnificent stations.
