44 | Viking Explorer Society News
This page:
Houses line
the canal in
Amsterdam
Rhine
GETAWAY
The combination of historical sightseeing and modern-day comfort
is a winning formula, says travel writer John Wilmott.
S
ettle down behind your desks,
because you are about to enjoy a
short lesson in European history.
1248: Work starts on the colossal Gothic
cathedral in Cologne. The builders take their
time – its soaring twin towers are not
finished until 632 years later, although they
did take a tea break in the 16th century.
1439: Strasbourg genius Johannes
Gutenberg introduces the printing press to
Europe with the first machine using
moveable type, thereby starting a revolution
in mass communication.
1542: The Brömer family build their glorious
aristocratic residence in Rüdesheim. It now
houses the wonderful Siegfried's Mechanical
Music Museum where around 350 musical
instruments are on display.
1629: Nobleman Philipp Hainhofer is the first
to describe a cuckoo clock. Then architect
Domenico Martinelli mentioned using the
bird's call to note the hour in his horology
book. But the first known examples came out
of the workshop of a Black Forest mechanic
in the 18th century.
1740: The perpetually soggy Dutch polder-
keepers at Kinderdijk embarked on the
construction of an ingenious series of 19
windmills to pump excess water off the
low-lying land, enabling them to reclaim
tracts of land for agriculture.
1828: Twenty-seven years after
the French blew up the hilltop fortress of
