Munich Airport’s Christmas and Winter Market is open – so here’s hoping you have a long layover here.
For the 19th consecutive year, the large covered space between the Munich Airport terminals has been transformed into a winter wonderland with more than 40 kiosks in among 450 real Christmas trees and plenty of seasonal treats and local handicrafts.
Better yet, at the center of the market is a free ice-skating rink (with low-cost skate rentals) where visitors can try out Eisstockschiessen, Bavaria’s broom-free version of curling.
Entertainment is offered daily, except Mondays, starting at 6 pm, with a wide range of live musical acts, including jazz, swing, gospel, rock and pop bands and, every Thursday at 6pm, a DJ spins tunes for the skaters on the ice. Each Wednesday starting at 4 p.m. an evening of family-oriented fairytale performances and magic shows is scheduled.
Sound like fun at the airport? Munich Airport’s Christmas and Winter Market is open daily from 11am – pm through December 30.
Journey – an Illustrated History of Travel, published by DKin association with the Smithsonian Institution, arrived in the mail a few weeks back and our household has been leafing through it since then.
It’s a big coffee table-style book – 440 pages, in full color and pretty heavy – and is separated into 7 chapters, or “ages,” each tackling advances, experiences and the means by which humans have made their way around the world.
Chapters 1 through 3 tackle the Ancient World (including travel in ancient Egypt and the travels of Odysseus and Alexander the Great), travel that powered trade and conquests, including the travels of Marco Polo, and The Age of Discovery, when explorers set out to find “new” parts of the world.
Chapters 4 through 7 dig deep into the ‘The Age of Empires’, ‘The Age of Steam,’ ‘The Golden Age of Travel,’ and “The Age of Flight,’ with lots more achival images, historic maps, artifact images, bits of journals, and works of art.
I was delighted to find a spread on the Wunderkammern – or curiosity cabinets – that collectors began putting together in the 16th century to show off souvenirs such as shells, preserved animals, scientific and mechanical obects, and other odd tidbits they’d picked up on far off journeys or purchased from others who had gone on adventures.
The three voyages of Captian Cook are detailed, as are the inventions and inventors that brought the world flight.
There are sections on the rise of the manufactured souvenir, World’s Fairs, Grand Hotels, luggage labels, national parks, efforts to create maps that accurately reflect the world and parts of it, camping, Route 66, travel to every corner of the world, the Jet Age, space travel – and much, much more.
Towards the end of this big book there’s a section of biographies stretching from Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen, to Amelia Earhart, Thor Heyerdahl, Ernest Shackleton, and Amerigo Vespucci.
This one is a keeper and a good gift for anyone interested in travel or history.
Earlier this week, Miami International Airport shared a very short sample of the longer reels of film clips now showing on old-style flight display monitors in Concourse F at the airport.
The reels were put together by the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives at Miami Dade College and the reel filled with celebrities arriving at MIA from the 1950s through the 1980s is especially fun to watch.
Looks for Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner, Liberace, Ed Sullivan, Susan Hayward, The Beatles, Bob Hope, Jane Mansfield, Eleanor Roosevelt, Spiderman, Sylvester Stallone, and Elizabeth Taylor, among others.
By showing this reel of clips – and the other below, “We are hoping that passengers and airport staff would be delighted to see how the airport and city looked years ago. It’s a real treat to contemplate, through these images, that Miami has a long history of aviation and airports, especially when you consider that Miami is a relatively young city – founded in 1896,” said Gendry Sherer, MIA Fine Arts and Cultural Affairs Director, “Also, I think it’s quite enjoyable to see for instance the Beatles, Frank Sinatra and all these other celebrities arriving and departing from MIA, but most interesting is just seeing everyday people at the airport or seeing families enjoy a day at the beach – normal activities locals and travelers still enjoy today.”
Here’s a great new amenity to look for at Miami International Airport:
Rather than rip out some outdated flight display monitors, MIA is using them to play vintage film clips starring the airport from the 1950s and 1960s; celebrities arriving at the airport from the 1950s to the 1980s; home movies filmed in Miami between the 1920s and 1960s; and the 1940s promotional film Florida: Land of Perpetual Sunshine.
On July 1, San Francisco International Airport will Kick off an exhibition exploring the history of United Airlines through over 300 artifacts and images.
The items date from the 1920s to the present and include model aircraft, cabin and cockpit equipment, meal service wares, promotional items and more, so here’s hoping you have a long layover at SFO.
Here are some pics from the exhibition. All images courtesy SFO Museum.
Mechanic roll-up tool set late 1920s. Courtesy SFO Museum
Ford Tri-motor passenger seat c. 1928. Courtesy SFO Museum
DC-3 Douglas Sleeper Transport sleeper service late 1930s
Flight dispatch clock. C. 1940
Flying the Main Line: A History of United Airlines is located post-security, in the Terminal 3 Boarding Area F Upper Level at San Francisco International Airport from July 1, 2017 to March 4, 2018.
