We were on the road before 9, leaving the peaceful haven of Pertisau behind, Sinsheim Technik Museum was in our sights.
It’s been on John’s wish list for a while and we’d driven right past it on our way to Stuttgart. It’s the largest privately owned museum in Europe and hosts an eclectic collection of planes, cars, motorcycles…in fact anything that is powered in any way and takes the fancy of the association that runs it. There are over 5000 exhibits, spread over two sites. We only had time for the original site in Sinsheim.
Amongst many items, one claim to fame is that it exhibits an Air France Concorde alongside a Soviet Tupolev TU-144. The story is that Soviet spies (Operation Brunnhilde) stole some plans, from the French, but not enough to recreate the whole design, so they had to try and fill in the blanks. It was given the name Concordski by the British press.
The Tupolev was actually launched a couple of months before Concorde, becoming the Worlds first commercial supersonic aircraft. It’s afterburners were required almost constantly making the cabin deafeningly loud, while consuming vast amounts of fuel. In addition to a high profile crash at the 1973 Paris Air Show, there were numerous reliability issues leading to a commercial failure.
Tonight we are in Bingen am Rhein and have swapped the silence of Pertisau for the sound of the mainline railway below our window.
braysabroad 
Oh dear you have gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. Never mind it is breaking you in gently for returning to England .
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