13.1.2010 by Traveler.

A wonderful little jewel from the Golden Age of Sci-Fi, complete with “Buck Rogers with Sparklers” look’n'feel scenery and spaceships:

What I find especially endearing is the more than blatant product-placement aimed at 1950’s teenage boys… Those were the days.
And the machismo; this is so quaint in retrospect.

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7.1.2010 by Traveler.

Watch it and think about it:

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6.8.2009 by Traveler.

So this part of my report on our expedition to the Zeppelin Museum is a bit more technical, or, to be more exact, a bit more on the engine side. Up on the first floor of the museum in the main exibition area are quite a number of different engines (some original, some replicas, I guess) which powerd the propellers of the various Zeppelin and airship models, so, here are some photos I took:

This is the actual “nose-hook” of the Hindenburg:

And here’s another (burned out) engine and a propeller:

And another Zeppelin Engine (I guess this one was actually from a French or Italian airship but don’t quote me on it) :

Yawn! OK, so much for todays’ entry, there is still more to come but I am really sleepy now.

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2.8.2009 by Traveler.

Finally another steampunk expedition that is really worth mentioning here in my blog. I would not want to bore you with my more or less common travels which I undertake every now and then. This expedition has quite a large number of documentary photographs so I will most definitely split the tale into a number of entries here in my blog.

As you very likely have noticed by now (if you follow this blog on a regular basis), I have a thing for Zeppelins, I have expounded on my reasons why I very nearly have a Zeppelin fetish on numerous occasions in this blog, so Ishall not repeat myself here now.

But you can imagine how delighted I was when we decided to take a Sunday trip to the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen a few weeks go. This particular expedition already took place on the 19th of July 2009 but being a rather busy steampunk and also rather busy in the real world, I did not come round to write any sort of lengthy article or traveller’s tale until today.

So let me relate this tale in boring, minute detail (the times given below are atually correct, since I used the notepad on my iPod Touch to take notes during the trip).

So here we go:

Sunday, July 19th 2009 - Expedition to the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen, ETA: 11:30

08:40 Put on my goggles

08:49 Buckled up, car starts (Timo is driving)

09:02 We hit the Autobahn

10:06 Breakfast at the Golden Arches

10:42 Break in the Autobahn (road Construction)

10:46 Alps come into view

10:49 The Autobahn continues

11:09 We are now right in the center of extremely scenic sourroundings, or, as we Germans say “Gegend”, on the E54

11:16 Arrived in Friedrichshafen, 14 minutes ahead of ETA

11:31 Now on foot, we stroll along the banks of the Bodensee and notice the natives being outnumbered by heavily equipped tourists (large caliber cameras, sandals, shorts, you get the idea…)

11:32 We enter the museum

And now for the first set of fotos:

Entry Hall 1 (the names are oviously cities visited by a Zeppelin during the Golden Age of Zeppelin Travel, the time every steampunk and dieselpunk out there would have enjoyed being part of):

Entry Hall 2:

And here is a bust of the father of the Zeppelin: Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin and another image of his very own goggles:

And the goggles, his very own goggles, now this is what I call a steampunk relic:

This image concludes the first entry concerning the expedition to the holy steampunk site, the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen.

There are plenty of images still waiting to be uploaded.

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25.7.2009 by Traveler.

Another official Steampunk Holiday

One hundred years ago today, French aviator Louis Blériot (very impressive mustache) succeeded in crossing the English Channel in a motor-powered airplane. Let’s raise our glasses and give three cheers to Monsieur Blériot.

Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!

And here are two images of the aviator and his plane:

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21.7.2009 by Traveler.

So the historic landmark was 40 years yesterday…Here’s an image:

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16.7.2009 by Traveler.

Hmmm…

Just stumbled upon this game by accident…

Here’s the trailer:

And a video about the gameplay:

Actually, I do not think that steamgunners is the sort of game I would enjoy much and so I am unlikely to purchase it, but still, it is definitely Steampunk so it is worth mentioning here on this blog.

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15.7.2009 by Traveler.

So, there was this concept of a nuclear powered Zeppelin brought forth by the mind of a Russian engineer. I am not sure if this was an idea that was at any time seriously considered or just some sort of Soviet Futurism, still… quite a cool concept I have to say…

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27.6.2009 by Traveler.

So, after many years of Microsoft OS grief and some rather appaling experiences concerning Vista I have finally decided to switch. The money returning from Iceland was a big help. So, after almost 10 years I am finally once again working with a Mac! This time, it is my very own and not a company owned.Since I am a modest guy I went for the simple white model, which is performing most amiably. I measured the time it takes from pressing the button o being fully operational: 34 seconds!

 My less than a year old Vista notebook with the same RAM and processor speed sometimes needs about seven minutes! This was the right investment at just the right time and I guess I shall stick to MacBokks for the next few years to come. 

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20.6.2009 by Traveler.

OK, so this is my second article in this blog for today and I stick to the space theme:

Virgin Galactic and the State of New Mexico are building the first commercial spaceport for space tourism!

Yes!

Finally! The 21st Century is here! We still do not have jet packs (which are a stupid idea of sorts anyway and rather impractical) but there is a space tourism industry that is finally picking up momentum! Private funding for things in space. Another source of financial back-up for adventuring along the final frontier. So if NASA doesn’t get the funding… Private companies jump in… OK… I’m dreaming again.

Read the report on CNN.

I will propably never have the money, but what an adventure for a traveler that would be!

Well, maybe one day it will no longer cost 200.000$… I can still dream.

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