Hot Air Balloons, San Diego. Photo author Jon Sullivan in Wikipedia.
Problem
Which museum/event? How many are there?
USA
1 Balloon Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
An all jumping American museum, open all year, with a shop.
Also October ballooning festival.
USA
2 National Balloon Museum, Iowa, USA
http://www.nationalballoonmuseum.com (Iowa, USA)
Great little website. This handy website, gave me links to others.
Their home page picture shows what you get on arrival:
The museum is shaped like a gondola, which is the basket for a couple of people to stand in when being lifted off the ground in a hot air balloon.
The cute building has knee-high colourful sculptures of hot air balloons leading up the path.
Inside the national Balloon Museum are:
The Ballooning Hall of Fame with photos of balloonists,
Women balloonists,
Scale models of balloons,
A Union Jack balloon. A real feel-good museum website.
WATCH NOW
Watch the National Balloon Museum, Iowa's online videos including the one with the background song, sounds like Sinatra singing, 'Fly Me to the moon ...', with a virtual tour around the interior of the museum.
Such smart people. They answered my question: How many such balloon events/festivals' museums in the USA? Two.
TAIWAN!
CAN YOU READ CHINESE/JAPANESE? Speak Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka?
Are you on holiday or business with a walking talking guide or a smart phone to translate?
3 Balloon Museum, Taichung, Taipai
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g297910-d6554431-Reviews-Taiwan_Balloon_Museum-Taichung.html
Not hot air balloons but hand-held party balloons.
https://www.prolloon.com.tw/#!prettyPhoto
(This website is mostly in Chinese but you can see the pictures and cartoons; also the phone numbers and email are in clear English or numbers.)
Science Museum, London, England
The Science Museum in London receives 3.3 million visitors a year. The main collection is free although you must pay a fee to see exhibitions. You can see the model of the Montgolfier Brothers' balloon.
Read about it in Wikipedia. It's fascinating. Joseph Montgolfier was watching a pocket in a piece of cloth drying by a fire.The cloth billowed up. He had been reading about a besieged city and thought that somebody could get lift-off and rise over the walls. He then enlisted one of his many brothers to help create a balloon shape which would rise up in the air.
Science Museum, Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London SW7.
British Balloon Museum and Library
The British Balloon Museum and Library has collections which go to various museums such as Berkshire (now closed) and Bristol. You can become a Friend or buy items such as t-shirts, and gilets online. The Website is interesting. For example, a seasonal picture of Santa in a balloon is their greeting card.
You can also buy a ticket to their annual dinner, about £26. The last one had cupcakes with balloon logos which you could buy and the cupcakes sold out.
The Model of the Montgolfier Brothers' Balloon.
UKScience Museum, London, England
The Science Museum in London receives 3.3 million visitors a year. The main collection is free although you must pay a fee to see exhibitions. You can see the model of the Montgolfier Brothers' balloon.
Read about it in Wikipedia. It's fascinating. Joseph Montgolfier was watching a pocket in a piece of cloth drying by a fire.The cloth billowed up. He had been reading about a besieged city and thought that somebody could get lift-off and rise over the walls. He then enlisted one of his many brothers to help create a balloon shape which would rise up in the air.
Jolly Joseph who watched the drying clothes billowing and thought of making balloons. Photo from Wikipedia.
Science Museum, Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London SW7.
British Balloon Museum and Library
The British Balloon Museum and Library has collections which go to various museums such as Berkshire (now closed) and Bristol. You can become a Friend or buy items such as t-shirts, and gilets online. The Website is interesting. For example, a seasonal picture of Santa in a balloon is their greeting card.
You can also buy a ticket to their annual dinner, about £26. The last one had cupcakes with balloon logos which you could buy and the cupcakes sold out.
They are looking for funding to set up a permanent museum. (Or maybe another museum could build on a room or allocate a room to permanently house their collection.) Their collection includes postal envelopes showing balloons. Membership (when I looked in Oct 2017) is £10 and that includes four magazines a year.
They need help to get a permanent site. So look at their website . (Or leave them something in your will. A bequest. That's what helped secure the USA's Iowa balloon museum site.
http://www.bbml.org.uk/shop/
They need help to get a permanent site. So look at their website . (Or leave them something in your will. A bequest. That's what helped secure the USA's Iowa balloon museum site.
http://www.bbml.org.uk/shop/
Professor Charles who took the balloon flight in 1783. Photo from Wikipedia.
FRANCE
The International Balloon Museum, Calvados, France
The chateau's historic building is beautiful and amazing with a spiral staircase and a trompe l'oeuil ceiling. You see the history of ballooning back to the famous French balloonist, Professor Jacques Charles in 1783. You can also read about his flight in Wikipedia.
Château de Balleroy - Musée des Ballons
F-14490 Balleroy
Tél. : 02.31.21.60.61 - Fax : 02.31.21.51.77
E-mail : reservation@chateau-balleroy.com
Here is his balloon flight with the huge crowd below watching. Photo from Wikipedia.
Other Balloon Museums:
www.Anderson-AbruzzoInternationalBalloonMuseum (New Mexico, USA)
http://www.nationalballoonmuseum.com (IOWA, USA)http://www.cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr/en/international-balloon-museum-balleroy (FRANCE)
http://www.bbml.org.uk/shop/ (UK)
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g297910-d6554431-Reviews-Taiwan_Balloon_Museum-Taichung.html (TAIWAN)
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g297910-d6554431-Reviews-Taiwan_Balloon_Museum-Taichung.html (TAIWAN)
Balloons, bits and pieces
Smithsonian national air and space museum
https://airandspace.si.edu/visit/museum-dc
https://www.si.edu/museums
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_balloon
FLIGHTSSmithsonian national air and space museum
https://airandspace.si.edu/visit/museum-dc
https://www.si.edu/museums
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_balloon
Flights from £127 for one from this website:
https://www.virginexperiencedays.co.uk/hot-air-balloon.
https://www.buyagift.co.uk/flying-experiences/hot-air-balloon
https://www.balloonintuscany.com/en/
https://www.viator.com/USA-tours/Balloon-Rides/
https://uk.viator.com/Spain-tours/Air-Helicopter-and-Balloon-Tours/
WEATHER & DELAYS
NB Hot air balloon rides, like boat trips, could be cancelled or postponed because of weather conditions.
Make sure you arrive on time, in advance, because there's a safety briefing first.
If you are joining a group, the basket may look empty but the other people might already be inside.
https://www.virginballoonflights.co.uk/blog/late-arrivals-for-your-balloon-flight/
SAFETY
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/01/health/hot-air-balloon-safety/index.html
FOR READING On the plane or at bedtime:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Aviation_novels
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
See the previous post on the International Balloon Festival in Albuquerque. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts. My books are on Amazon and Lulu.com and you can link to me on LInkedIn and Facebook. Tourist boards, please get in touch.
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