Leader: Dr Len Fisher
Date: Saturday, September 22 – Saturday, October 6 2007
Extension: Saturday, October 6 – Thursday, October 11 2007
The programme below is an outline, with final details depending on the interests of the group.
Saturday, 22 September 2007
We arrive from our international flight to Vienna, where we will spend the next four nights. We meet as a group to introduce ourselves and discuss what we hope to get from the tour. In the evening we have dinner together and discuss our options for the next two days. We are spoiled for choice when it comes to sites of scientific historic significance and technological fascination in the Vienna area. We will select from some (not all!) of the following:
The world’s biggest climatic wind tunnel, big enough to hold a complete TGV train, and fitted with sun-lamps and a snow-making machine for climatic testing! Admission by personal connection – few outside the industry get to see this.
Sigmund Freud’s house, now a museum with original sound and film recordings of the founder of psychiatry
The Vienna clock museum, whose collection includes mediaeval "Braters" or "roaster" clocks, resembling a spit and the outstanding astronomical cum astrological clock created by the Augustinian friar David a Sancto Cajetano in the 1760s. It goes up to the year 9999, so we can all learn our fortunes.
The unique Globe Museum, where we can follow the development of cartographic and cosmographic knowledge through 240 different original globes of the earth and the sky, the moon and the planet Mars.
A visit to the kitchens of a top Vienna coffee house to explore the science behind the apple strudel and other Viennese delicacies, with a tasting to follow.
A visit to the Vienna Sound Museum (next to the Vienna State Opera), where we will be able to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra from a virtual conductor’s podium.
Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Today we travel from Vienna to Brno in the Czech republic, where will visit the Abbey that was the home of Abbot Gregor Mendel when he performed his experiments with peas that became the basis of modern genetics. We will explore his recently reconstructed garden, and enjoy some fine dining in the monastery cellars before travelling on to Budapest, where we will spend two nights. The city has produced many famous scientists, including John von Neumann, inventor of many concepts used in the modern computer and probable model for Dr. Strangelove.
We have a choice of interesting things to do and places and things to see in Budapest, including:
A visit to one of the city’s Turkish baths, where we may go behind the scenes to see the hot springs where the waters come from and test their beneficial effects for ourselves with a bath and a massage. One of the benefits claimed is that they are “slightly radioactive” (!)
The Budapest Millenium Park, where we will get to ride a Segway, hopefully more successfully than U.S. President George Bush, who fell off.
Friday, 28 September 2007
Today we travel to the beautiful city of Split, capital of the Croatian coastal province of Dalmatia, where we will stay for the night in the perfectly preserved mediaeval town of Trogir, only 2km from Split airport. In the afternoon we go into Split to explore the architectural masterpiece of the Roman Emperor Diocletian's palace. Just outside Split lie the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Salona, whose antique water supply still services part of the city of Split through beautiful Roman aqueducts which will see along the road connecting Split to Salona. Hopefully we will be able to visit and talk to engineers who work with this supply.
Saturday, 29 September 2007
Today we first visit the city of Sibenik, half an hour up the coast from Split. This was the home of Faust Vrancic, the first parachutist, who elaborated the design developed by Leonardo DaVinci and tested it (successfully!) by jumping from a tower in Venice in 1617. We will visit the museum 'Wells - Secrets of Sibenik', where Vrancic’s story is told. If there is time we will also visit the lovely Cathedral of St. Jacob, built by the world famous Croat, architect Juraj Dalmatinac.
In the afternoon we travel on to the Plitvice Lakes National Park (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) with its sixteen lakes, inter-connected by a series of waterfalls, set in deep woodland populated by deer, bears, wolves, boars and rare bird species. We will stay here for two nights. The rest of our afternoon is free to enjoy the sights of the park.
Sunday, 30 September 2007
Today we visit the nearby tiny village of Smiljan, birthplace of the most famous Croatian scientist, Nikola Tesla, whose name is honoured in the modern unit for the strength of a magnetic field. Magnetic resonance imaging machines (MRIs), for example, produces a magnetic field of 5-6 teslas.
Tesla’s home has recently been converted into a museum. He is best known for his invention of the alternating current (AC) motor, whose first design he drew in the sand of a Budapest park with a stick. He migrated to America when he was 28, and successfully promoted the use of AC in opposition to Edison’s less efficient DC power supplies, harnessing the power of Niagara Falls in the process. He eventually produced over 700 patents. Perhaps his inventiveness stemmed from his mother, who was an inventor of kitchen appliances in her own right.
We return to Plitvice for our second night in beautiful natural surroundings.
Monday, 1 October 2007
We fly from Split to London and travel by coach to our base in the countryside between London and Oxford. The afternoon is free, but in the evening we will be joined at dinner by one or more mystery scientific guests, who will talk to us about their activities.
Tuesday, 2 October 2007
Today we visit Bletchley Park, home of allied code-breaking efforts in WWII. We look through the ornate Victorian Mansion that was headquarters to intelligence staff during the War, inspect the Enigma Machines used by the Germans to encode their communications, and check out the tales of spies and strategic deception. We may even be the first to discover a clue to the mystery of mathematician Alan Turing's silver collection, supposedly buried in or near Bletchley Park.
Wednesday, 3 October 2007
In the morning we visit the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute outside Cambridge, home to the human genome project, the modern realisation of the genetics revolution that began in Mendel’s garden. We will visit the project, and find out about the Institute’s work on the Cancer Genome Project, human genetics and disease, and the genetic study of human origins.
We then travel north to the village of Skillington, near Grantham, for lunch at the renowned Blue Horse pub, after which we visit Woolsthorpe Manor, where Isaac Newton was born. His house is now a museum where will try out replicas of some of his experiments, as well as taking the opportunity to sit and be photographed under a descendant of the famous apple tree, still growing in the garden.
Thursday, 4 October 2007
Today we travel South-West through the Cotswolds to Wiltshire We will visit Bowood House, where Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen, and where his laboratory is still preserved. We will then move on to Lacock Abbey, where William Henry Fox-Talbot performed the first experiments in photography, and where we can visit the museum of early photography and try our hand at photographing the glazed window that was the subject of his first photograph.
Friday, 5 October 2007
Today we travel to South-West London and the Kew Bridge Steam Museum, which houses a collection of giant pumping engines in a Victorian waterworks on the River Thames. The engines include the largest running beam engine in the world. Afterwards we will make a visit to the world-renowned Kew Gardens, where we will be introduced by the curators to the botanical research that they are doing. In the evening we will return to our base for a farewell dinner for those who are leaving the tour here.
Those who are leaving the tour at this stage will travel to Heathrow by coach, while the rest of the group will take the Optional Extension to North-West England and Britain’s Industrial Heritage.
Tour cost
Aus $ 6,405 for the Main Tour –
Extension is an extra Aus $ 1,510
(both on a shared-room basis)
Included:
- Accommodation in 3* hotels (with local character and avoiding the high cost of unnecessary 4* accommodation) on Half Board basis (Breakfast and Dinner) in Vienna, Budapest, Plitvice and Split, together with Dinner on day of arrival in the UK and Lunch in The Blue Horse Pub, Skillington
- Full-time leader Len Fisher
- Services of local guides where indicated
- Accommodation sharing twin-bedded rooms with private facilities
- All transfers and transportation between the cities as specified in the itinerary
- International flights between Split and London
- Programme and entrance costs as indicated
Not included
- Insurance
- Items of a personal nature (eg laundry, drinks, gifts)
- Single room supplement of Aus $ 571 for main tour and Aus $ 267 on the extension
- Optional tips for the guides, drivers and hotel porters
- International flights between Australia and Europe.
Extension Programme
Aus $ 1,510 based on shared-room basis in 2*/3* hotels with Breakfast and Farewell Lunch in Banbury
Saturday, 6 October 2007
We will be based in the glorious Peak District. On the way we will visit The Derwent Valley Mills. Snaking 15 miles down the river valley from Matlock Bath to Derby, the World Heritage Site contains a fascinating series of historic mill complexes, including some of the world's first 'modern' factories. No less important are the watercourses that powered them, the settlements that were built for the mill workers, and the remains of one of the world's earliest steam railways – all nestling within a stunningly beautiful landscape that has changed little over two centuries.
Over the next four days we will visit four fascinating centres of Britain’s Industrial Heritage:
Sunday, 7 October 2007
Wigan. One of the centres of the industrial revolution, and particularly interesting to us because of Wigan Pier Museum, with one of the largest steam driven engines used for powering cotton looms and still running daily.
Monday, 8 October 2007
Birmingham, where we will focus on The Black Country Living (Outdoor) Museum, with replica of Newcomen’s first engine, canal boats and even a proper coal mine. Here we can see demonstrations of metal-working, sweet-making and glass-cutting, enjoy a pint at the Bottle and Glass Inn, and even have a lesson in the old-fashioned schoolroom.
Tuesday, 9 October 2007
Manchester, where our focus will be on the Museum of Science and Industry with its working replica of “The Baby”, the world’s first digital storage computer. The museum is situated in the oldest passenger railway building in the world, and tells the story of the history, science and industry of the world's first industrial city. It’s not the only attraction of Manchester, but the rest is a surprise.
Wednesday, 10 October 2007
The pièce de résistance of our tour of the North-West – Ironbridge and the Ironbridge Gorge Museum, which tells the story of the building of the world’s first iron bridge, a remarkable structure which was cast in the sand beside the river that it spans. We will also visit the nearby Blists Hill Victorian Town, where visitors can experience the atmospheric way of Victorian life in the late 1800's. Life is re-enacted by townsfolk, who wear the attire of the day and who go about their daily lives in the shops and workplaces of this authentic Victorian community. Many have been specially trained with specific skills and crafts and are ready to demonstrate to visitors, exactly how certain tasks would have been done a small industrial town towards the end of Queen Victoria's reign.
Thursday, 11 October 2007
After a farewell lunch, we reluctantly travel to the airport of our choice for the journey home, there to organise our photographs and relive our memories.
Currency and Air Fares
Local costs are based on Australian$ 1 = £0.39 as published in the Financial Times on 30 January 2007 and airfares as at 30 January 2007.
Booking
Please download, complete and forward our booking form from the website.
 Return to Tours
|
