Why yes, that IS a zeppelin

As you might have gathered from the blog title and image, I visited a zeppelin museum over the weekend. But not just any zeppelin museum–THE zeppelin museum.

You see, only a hop, skip, and a jump from where I live in Deutschland is Friedrichshafen, the birthplace of the zeppelin. And, because this monstrous flying machine makes an appearance in Something Strange and Deadly book 2 (which is not titled…yet…but soon! Soon, I say!), the Frenchman and I decided to pay a visit over the weekend.

And we saw some pretty cool stuff.

Me stepping onto a life-size replica of the Hindenburg. I pretended I was Indiana Jones in the Last Crusade boarding the zeppelin he and Dr. Jones Sr. cruise on.

Ahem, yes, I know my imagination is overactive. That’s why I’m a writer (duh).

A stateroom on the Hindenburg. Very cool but also VERY small.

Um, how cool and steampunk-y does THAT look? Navigating a zeppelin?? Yes, please. And even though it’s about 30+ years ahead of Something Strange and Deadly book 2, I’m totally modeling the zeppelin bridge after this one (well, if it works in the story).

All in all, it was a nice break from the usual Sunday of cleaning the house and being lazy.

And all in all, it wasn’t somewhere I would have normally had any desire to visit–but was pleasantly surprised by how cool it was. Plus, the engineer husband was in heaven. It was 100% WIN all around.

You tell me: has your research for books or projects ever led you somewhere you wouldn’t normally visit?