(no, not the Integrated Woz Machine of Apple fame, but: ) the Imperial War Museum. Which I visited with Paul, and is a grand collection of tanks, guns, mines, chunks of aircraft and the like, from 1914 onwards. It’s not as interesting (for me) as Duxford, where they keep the big aircraft, but it’s free [...]
Tagged london, warHaving now seen all of series one (years after everyone else, but never mind), I’m in full agreement that it’s awesome, despite the historical liberties taken. I don’t understand why the BBC haven’t promoted it more heavily, since their name is prominent in the credits, and presumably they stumped up a fair chunk of cash. [...]
Tagged bbc, hboFinally watched Topsy-Turvy, the film about the infamous duo’s creation of the Mikado, and the events leading up to it. While watching the film I was nervous about how many liberties had been taken with accuracy, but apparently a fair amount of research went into it. The film is jam-packed with excellent performances from all [...]
Tagged eusogDithering in a (well-stocked) foreign-language bookshop in Moscow, I felt compelled to pick up something (for the trains) at least vaguely related to either Russia or China. Apparently 1421 is not that great, and I really didn’t want to lug around War & Peace, so settled on 1812, a factual review of Napoleon’s march on [...]
Tagged russiaApparently central Beijing was a place be avoided in summer, even before the smog. So the later emperors would escape to a pleasant country retreat a few miles to the north west. It’s a sprawling collection of buildings dotted around a lake and hill, now filled with locals and tourists. None of the structures are [...]
Tagged beijing, china, trans-siberianOn a Monday morning, after three hours on a bus escaping Beijing and climbing into the hills, spent a few hours at Simatai walking on the Great Wall. I was delighted that the wall really does live up to expectations, and was almost deserted, even with a cable-car providing access to the top. Walking [...]
Tagged china, trans-siberianYonghe Gong, aka the Lama Temple, is the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple in China – it’s an impressive, if predictable, site (tiled roofs, red columns, gates, halls) which somehow survived the Cultural Revolution without being bulldozed. The exact details of how this occurred seem to be slightly mysterious and not dwelt upon by the literature. [...]
Tagged architecture, beijing, china, religion, trans-siberianThe Forbidden City is really quite big, and unlike in the films, full of tourists rather than ninjas. Sadly two of the largest halls were closed for rennovation, but it doesn’t really matter – it’s not the individual places that impress, so much as the continuity of style, repetition of elements and overall scale of [...]
Tagged architecture, beijing, china, trans-siberianVisited the State History Museum in Moscow, it’s extremely typical in terms of the exhibits, though with some quite fantastic external and internal architecture – each room has a different theme, concept or historical inspiration. The exhibits commence with prehistoric artifacts (flint axe heads) and progress through to nomadic times, then on to the [...]
Tagged moscow, russia, trans-siberianArrived in Moscow at 6am1 and crashed out at the hostel which thankfully has comfy couches and other useful amentities, such as fast, free internet. The hostel is another converted apartment (actually two) but the scale of such apartments as originally built is pretty impressive, the ceilings are actually higher than in Edinburgh or Glasgow. [...]
Tagged moscow, russia, trans-siberian