Wingsch Real Estate Investments   

The European Union: European Sky Shield Initiative

12 September 2023 | Author/Destination: Knut Wingsch | Rubric: General, Editorial, European Union Reading Time:  6 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI) is a project to build a ground-based integrated European air defense system which includes anti-ballistic missile capability. As of July 2023, nineteen European states participate in the initiative. ESSI is part of the Common Security and Defense Policy and as such is designed to complement and relieve the burden on NATO.   read more…

The Viking Octantis

1 May 2023 | Author/Destination: Yachting and Spa | Rubric: Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  5 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post The Viking Octantis is a Polar Class 6 purpose-built expedition ship completed in December 2021 for Viking Expeditions Cruises, a subdivision of Viking Cruises. The ship has a capacity of 378 passengers with 189 staterooms. Named after the Sigma Octantis, the south star, the ship’s primary routes include Antarctica and the Great Lakes where the ship carries out scientific research during its cruises. The ship was joined by an identical sister ship Viking Polaris in fall of 2022.   read more…

National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo

2 December 2022 | Author/Destination: European Free Trade Association | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time:  7 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post The National Museum of Art in Norway, also known simply as the National Museum, shortened NaM (Norwegian: Nasjonalmuseet for kunst) is a Norwegian state-owned museum in Oslo. It holds the Norwegian state’s public collection of art, architecture, and design objects. The collection totals over 400.000 works, amongst them the first copy of Edvard Munch’s The Scream from 1893.   read more…

The Roald Amundsen

1 November 2022 | Author/Destination: Yachting and Spa | Rubric: Cruise Ships, Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  6 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post MS Roald Amundsen is a new hybrid powered Hurtigruten expedition cruise ship. She was built by Kleven Yards of Norway and started her maiden voyage on 3 July 2019 from the Norwegian port Tromsø to Hamburg. She and her sister ship Fridtjof Nansen are the first hybrid-powered ships in the Hurtigruten fleet.   read more…

The Viking Sea

1 September 2021 | Author/Destination: Yachting and Spa | Rubric: Cruise Ships, Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  4 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post MV Viking Sea is a cruise ship built by Italian shipbuilders Fincantieri for Viking Ocean Cruises. It is the second ship to grace the name Viking Sea, the first being Viking Sky which was originally assigned this name. Homeport is Bergen.   read more…

The European Free Trade Association: Bon voyage!

9 March 2019 | Author/Destination: European Free Trade Association | Rubric: General, Editorial, European Union, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  57 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is a regional trade organization and free trade area consisting of four European states: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. The organization operates in parallel with the European Union (EU), and all four member states participate in the European Single Market and are part of the Schengen Area. They are not, however, party to the European Union Customs Union. EFTA was historically one of the two dominant western European trade blocks, but is now much smaller and closely associated with its historical competitor, the European Union. It was established on 3 May 1960 to serve as an alternative trade bloc for those European states that were unable or unwilling to join the then European Economic Community (EEC), which subsequently became the European Union. The Stockholm Convention, to establish the EFTA, was signed on 4 January 1960 in the Swedish capital by seven countries (known as the “outer seven“). Whilst the EFTA is not a customs union and member states have full rights to enter into bilateral third-country trade arrangements, it does have a coordinated trade policy. As a result, its member states have jointly concluded free trade agreements with the EU and a number of other countries. To participate in the EU’s single market, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway are parties to the Agreement on a European Economic Area (EEA), with compliances regulated by the EFTA Surveillance Authority and the EFTA Court. Switzerland has a set of bilateral agreements with the EU instead.   read more…

The European Free Trade Association: Bon appétit!

4 September 2018 | Author/Destination: European Free Trade Association | Rubric: General, Editorial, European Union Reading Time:  62 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is a regional trade organization and free trade area consisting of four European states: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. The organization operates in parallel with the European Union (EU), and all four member states participate in the European Single Market and are part of the Schengen Area. They are not, however, party to the European Union Customs Union. EFTA was historically one of the two dominant western European trade blocks, but is now much smaller and closely associated with its historical competitor, the European Union. It was established on 3 May 1960 to serve as an alternative trade bloc for those European states that were unable or unwilling to join the then European Economic Community (EEC), which subsequently became the European Union. The Stockholm Convention, to establish the EFTA, was signed on 4 January 1960 in the Swedish capital by seven countries (known as the “outer seven“). Whilst the EFTA is not a customs union and member states have full rights to enter into bilateral third-country trade arrangements, it does have a coordinated trade policy. As a result, its member states have jointly concluded free trade agreements with the EU and a number of other countries. To participate in the EU’s single market, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway are parties to the Agreement on a European Economic Area (EEA), with compliances regulated by the EFTA Surveillance Authority and the EFTA Court. Switzerland has a set of bilateral agreements with the EU instead.   read more…

Portrait: Cnut the Great

22 March 2017 | Author/Destination: Editorial / Redaktion | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  12 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post King Cnut the Great, also known as Canute, was King of Denmark, England, and Norway, together often referred to as the Anglo-Scandinavian or North Sea Empire. The North Sea Empire was one of several forerunners of the European Union and the Eurozone. After his death, the deaths of his heirs within a decade, and the Norman conquest of England in 1066, his legacy was mostly forgotten. The medieval historian Norman Cantor stated that he was “the most effective king in Anglo-Saxon history”, although Cnut himself was Danish and not a Briton or Anglo-Saxon. Cnut is popularly invoked in the context of the legend of King Canute and the waves, but usually misrepresents Cnut as a deluded monarch believing he has supernatural powers, when the original legend in fact states the opposite and portrays a wise king.   read more…

The Statsraad Lehmkuhl

1 December 2015 | Author/Destination: Yachting and Spa | Rubric: Tall ships, Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  5 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post The Statsraad Lehmkuhl is a three-masted barque rigged sail training vessel owned and operated by the Statsraad Lehmkuhl Foundation. It is based in Bergen, Norway and contracted out for various purposes, including serving as a school ship for the Royal Norwegian Navy.   read more…