As claimed in my previous post: I am an aviation enthusiast, or an #avgeek as we are called on Twitter. As a kid I had an aviation history book, with photos of all milestones until then. One of the last pages in that early 1970’s book showed pictures of the first flight of a revolution in passenger transport: the brand new Boeing 747. With its two-storey and double aisle design it was the first truly large capacity airliner, aptly named “Jumbo Jet”. An image that I remembered for the rest of my life. Years later I ended up flying many variants of the 747 as a passenger, from the early -100 to the stretched upper deck -300 and -400. A few years ago I had the opportunity to spend a day in Seattle, which I dedicated to finding this first Boeing 747, named “City of Everett”, after the home town of the Boeing company. Continue reading
Travelblog
Since 1970 I have traveled the world for work and pleasure, visiting over 50 countries. This travelblog tells some of my stories.
First in Flight: Kitty Hawk NC
The United States is a great destination for history lovers. Perhaps surprising, as its modern history is not that long compared to other places in the world. Americans are masters of preservation and maintain their heritage better than in any other country. Much of modern history happened in the US, so if your interest is in the 18th, 19th or 20th centuries, there are many very well-kept must-sees. One of my areas of interest is the history of aviation. In this blog I will describe some of my expeditions to find special aviation places and objects. The first expedition is to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Continue reading
Beijing for Business
Most of the time a businesstrip doesn’t leave a lot of time for sightseeing. I spent a week at a conference in Beijing, China in September 2013. Despite a very full schedule I managed to squeeze in some time for wandering around the Northern part of town. With the conference at the 2008 Olympic Park site, most of the wandering took place there. So what does an Olympic Park look like five years after the Olympics? Continue reading
Winterhike blog – Skarvan og Roltdalen 2013
Intense Arctic Expedition III
This was the third Intense Arctic Expedition that we organized since 2011. The ‘intense’ concept means that participants have a very short, but intense arctic experience. Three nights of hiking and camping in the snow of a challenging wilderness is enough to have a lifelong impact. It is also intense because it brings you from inside your comfort zone to ‘outside your comfort zone’ – there where the magic happens – in just a few hours. Our favorite location is the rugged Skarvan and Roltdalen National Park in Central Norway. It is close to the Trondheim-Vaernes Airport, which offers several daily direct flights from Amsterdam, by KLM. It is also the northernmost destination you can fly directly from Amsterdam. Perfect for this short experience!
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Stonehenge, from the inside out
Social media have brought me to all kinds of special places around the world. I have been invited to conferences, expositions and even space launches, meeting the most wonderful and passionate people you can think of. I am really lucky to live in a vibrant online community, where my virtual friends are also my real friends. It was through one of these communities that I received an invitation to visit Stonehenge in England, several months ago. I had been to Stonehenge before and remembered it as a crowded place, where tourism had taken over from magic and history. A tourist trap, hardly recommendable to traveling friends. This invitation was different though. It was for an after hours visit in a small exclusive group of social media friends. And even more special, it was outside the season where they normally organize these VIP visits. So obviously I accepted, but still without fully realizing what this meant. Continue reading
Winterhike blog – Pyhä-Luosto Lapland 2013
The annual Arctic winterhike took us to the Pyhä-Luosto National Park in Lapland, an area that we started exploring back in 2009. This park is one of the southernmost Arctic tundra plains. Southernmost is relative, it is still located 100 kilometers North of the Arctic Circle. To reach it we fly from Amsterdam via Helsinki to Rovaniemi. There we take the skibus to the Luosto ski resort, on the foot of the ‘Tunturi’, the treeless hills that form the National Park. We spend the first night in a very comfortable and typical Lappish cabin, which is part of the the Luostotunturi Hotel.
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Greenland 2012 blog – Ice
The title really describes the essence of Greenland: Ice. We know it was a big mistake to call Greenland green. Even Iceland is greener than Greenland. If you like green you go to Ireland. But if you like white, this is your destination. 82% percent of the vast landmass of Greenland is permanently covered by a thick icesheet. Glaciologists don’t refer to this ice as a glacier, but rather call it an icesheet. Officially this refers to an ice covered area larger than 50,000 km2. There are only two icesheets on the planet: one in Antarctica and one here in Greenland. Continue reading
Greenland 2012 blog – Icebergs in Ilulissat
As you have seen in my previous post, it takes a while to get here. But it is totally worth the long trip. Ilulissat is the center of Greenland tourism for a reason. The third largest city in the country is located on the shores of the famous Icefjord, a Unesco World Heritage site. The iceberg-laden ocean is clearly visible from every corner of the small town. Continue reading
Greenland 2012 blog – Traveling to Greenland
In the summer of 2012 a colleague and I were asked to organize a tour to Greenland for a children’s TV show. They wanted to see global warming in the Arctic in action and visit the top locations where climate change is most visible. We had organized a similar tour in 2010, so no problem. We had six days for the entire trip, in which five episodes of the show had to be filmed, each with a different theme: language, icebergs, life of the Inuit, the inland icesheet, and sea level rise. So we proposed an itinerary to the world capital of Icebergs: Ilulissat, followed by a real Arctic expedition to the inland icesheet at Kangerlussuaq. I will divide this blog in similar parts. Continue reading
SpaceTweeps meet in Cologne: #SpaceKoelsch
After the great success of the first European #SpaceTweetup, a bunch of European spacetweeps, led by DLR social media editor @HenningKrause, decided to start the new year with a new tweetup. More a networking event than a tweetup, it became the sequel to #SpaceKoelsch. Last September this was the pre-party to the ESA/DLR #Spacetweetup. Now the event in a typical Cologne beerhall became the main event itself. #SpaceKoelsch 2 was born! Continue reading