END OF THE LINE: MOSCOW STATION

LAST DAYS OF AUTUMN: LAST POST

Have spent most of the last 2 weeks visiting "old" haunts.
A visit to the British Library to do some family research in the India Archive yielded the unexpected thrill of seeing the original scroll of Kerouac's "On the Road" (normally in private hands).
The re-vamped William Morris Gallery/museum at Walthamstow was fantastic...the millions of pounds spent on it has been well considered and the big contrast with my last visit was the haords of people visiting there...including vast numbers of excited schoolchildren (interactive displays for kids are a new feature)...thanks must go to all those gamblers in the UK whose lottery ticket purchases funded this.
The Shakespeare exhibition at the British Museum was sensational...well the Brits do have access to it all: between the Bodleian and British Libraries they pretty much have it covered.

The Avins cousins

The visit to meet the Avins (my paternal grandmother's lot) cousins in Leicestershire was a great experience and they were most welcoming and made me felt like part of the family and as this is a family I have never met (except my dad) it was pretty special.
Then off to Norwich to Shirley & Robbie's for the weekend....great to see them again and as with good friends it felt like I had only seen them yesterday.
Norwich as the second most important city after London pretty much up until the industrial revolution, has great Medieval and Georgian streetscapes as well as a Norman castle, magnificent medieval cathedral and a great museum. Oh..and miles of shops too...as Isobel (aged 12) can attest as we spent hours trawling them to find (in vain) a dress for a wedding they are attending this weekend.!
A visit to the seaside at Sothwold was included and we caught the "ferry"(a rowboat) to the other side of the inlet to the pub for lunch (fish chips and mushy peas of course)....and I did see A SEAL!!!...and rows of beach huts, a pier and a medieval church (after 5 weeks here this is becoming the norm but never mundane).

Another visit to The Tate yesterday and the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition...foolish me thinking that it would be a bit less crowded than my last visit!...well worth it though and the last chance to see all those great works under on roof.

Last breakfast...at The Wolsley

Royal Academy tomorrow with Ben to see an exhibition on Bronzes and lunch together and home to pack and catch the plane at Heathrow at 9pm....not looking foward to the 24 hours in an upright position in a confined space!
It will be good to be home to sleep in my own bed and change the same 3 changes of clothes I have been wearing for 8 weeks and to never have to hand wash again (well not for some time anyway)...and to see family and friends again.
Ben has been a great host and his cooking will be especially missed.(he is an amazing cook)..but I'm sure he will be glad to have his floor back and see the airbed permanently deflated(this is  a very tiny flat)
See ya soon and thanks for listening to my rants
Kath xo

ISTANBUL & BEYOND

Sue & I returned the car safely (wonder of wonders) to Oxford and caught the train back to London a bit over a week ago. We managed to pack in a few more things in around here (including Simon Callow's fantastic one man show on the life of Charles Dickens by Peter Ackroyd,trips to Cambridge and the British Museum) before Sue flew home 5 days ago.
Ben and I then took the short trip to Istanbul..when you are in London most places are a hop, skip and a jump (except Australia of course).

Istanbul is an amazing city. The landscape is dominated by the most glorious mosques with the crowning glory Haghia Sophia and it's 1500 year old history ....truely breathtaking...
The people are lovely and language no problem...so it was generally very easy. The only drawback was the immense volume of tourists (enormous tour buses disgorging thousands of passengers every day)..but.since we were one of their number we can hardly complain!

Turkish icecream maker

Turkish tea, Turkish icecream and the best (fresh) figs I have ever tasted along with Gozleme (Turkish pancakes) meant the food experience was bloody good too! ...and then there was the Cretan restaurant with it's 16 plate Mezze "starter"......we did eat very well indeed....
Back in London now and the woolies and wet weather gear have been pulled back out of the luggage!
Kath

GETTING LOST 2



me and my gggg grandparents Sourton Devon

 The last day of the road trip has arrived and we will both heave a sigh of relief when the car is finally returned in Oxford. Admittedly it has enabled us to get to see so many things that are inaccessible by public transport but navigating the minutia of the roads has been very tricky at times (most of the time truth be known). We spent two days in Devon on the edge of Dartmoor in Sourton ..where my Pellow ancestors emigrated from in the 1850s....my cousin (6th mind you)Mark Pellow treated us to a tour of Pellow "sites" and some wonderfu home cooking. I met Pellows still farming in Sourton although "our" farm(Beatdown)was no longer in use and the old farmhouse was a ruin. We wanted to do some walking on Dartmoor but it was very wet so that was a shame....it is very beautiful country and loads of history (bit like the rest of England really)....but the Iron Age sites are the most extensive in Europe. On the way here (Kelmscott) we crossed the Salisbury Plains so stopped in at Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles.....both were astonishing! Now we are in the Cotswolds staying at William Morris's old watering hole The Plough Inn. This is a Tudor hamlet, little changed since the 15th century and we will visit William Morris's Kelmscott Manor this morning (a 2 minute walk from here)...what a treat!! The sun is shining for the first time in 5 days so we will make the most of it... back to London and Ben this arvo on the train.... Kath xo

GETTING LOST

Great Dixter

Charleston

We will be glad to get back to train travel after the travails of deciphering the AA Road Atlas,negotiating the intermnable number of roundabouts and getting lost inumberable times. As it is taking 3X as long to travel the same distance it would at home we have had to modify the itinerary somewhat. We have travelled the lanes and hedgerows of Kent and Sussex, visited some great gardens (Sissinghurst and Great Dixter) and a medieval manor house(Igtham Mote) and Bodian Castle....as well as visiting the seaside "idyll" Of the Burnes-Jones's and their nephew Rudyard at Rottingdean. The car,however,has enabled us to visit Batemans (Rudyard Kipling),the amazing Charleston (Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant),Chawton(Jane Austen) and Selborne(1700's naturalist Gilbert White) ....so the trauma of driving in a strange and very busy place has it's benefits.....The English are very polite drivers and lessen the difficulty of the whole thing. We are in Bath now for a whole day and will take up the Mayor's offer(she/he sponsors these each day) of a free walking tour this morning, despite the rain that has just started to fall....and then on to the Roman Baths..... Sorry no photos as yet...still trying to work that out..Kathxo

THE PALACES OF CATH & LIZ

Catherine's Palace just outside St Petersburg with it's restored Amber Room (the Nazis stole the original and then it was destroyed by allied bombing)was a great experience...although the gardens were a bit easier on the eye...all that gilt was a bit much and I expect just a bit too much on the already overburdended taxpaying peasants of Russia (as we have seen).

We made it to London although it felt pretty weird getting here after a good night's sleep in only 3 hours....how civilised! Sue and I are camped on Ben's floor in Kensington and have been out sightseeing every day (of course)..straight out after depositing our bags to catch the last warm sunny day of summer & have a Pimms by the Serpentine and then on to Fortnum & Masons for a cuppa(as you do).....so far a fantastic Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at the Tate Gallery and a play at The Globe Theatre (As You Like It)...The Globe is such a hoot as everyone including the actors are out to have a good time and the atmosphere is like one big party. Hampton Court Palace yesterday and caught the boat back down the Thames to Westminster....and today caught the bus to South Kensington and visited it's museums(Natural History & V&A)....great stuff... ...and home to another gourmet dinner from Ben's kitchen (his mother did teach him well)....life in Katoomba will seem pretty dull after all this.... pick car up tomorrow in Kent..... Kath and Sue

ST PETERSBURG

The Hermitage

Well St Petersburg is very different to Moscow ...the wealth is not so evident and the pace is much slower. The architecture is very gentile(Stalin's monolithic and grand buildings are not here) and with the rivers and canals it has a elegant and cultured feel.
We are just a 40 minute walk from the Hermitage in a lovely apartment which we have to ourselves as Marina the only other guest is at work all day... a real luxury to have so much space after the cramped conditions of hostels and trains.
The walking tour we did with Dimitri took us to the backstreets and his knowledge of the city was vast ...so we got our bearings on arrival rather than as we leave! Dimitri's grandfather lost his parents and 3 siblings in the Seige of Leningrad (the only brother to survive was at the front)...so the horror of that time was brought home to us....and the impact of the war was so great on Russia (20 million dead)that the bravery and resillience of it's people is treated with the respect and reverence it is due.

Dostoyevsky's window

Statues of writers are here in abundance and their museums (as in Moscow) ... Dostoyevsky and Akhmatova are the only 2 I have been able to fit in.....I must say the bright and comfortable flat of Dostoyevsky's was not the dark and depressing place I expected (obviously I read too many Russian novels).
The Hermitage was sumptuous and decadent( no wonder there was so much unrest) ...and it was great to be in a room of Van Goghs' and not have to jostle for a position as we would for any visiting exhibiton at home.
Today we are tackling the Metro to get to Catherine's Palace to meet with the restored Amber Room(the original was destroyed in the war after the Nazi's removed it).
Sorry the postcards have been absent but you have no idea how hard it is to find a post office here let alone find someone in the PO willing to sell you a stamp!!...so they shall be sent from London which is were we are heading tomorrow morning.....dasvidanya Kath et al xo

MOCKBA 2

                                                  Tolstoy's grave

Tolstoy's Yasnaya Polyana was worth the 4 hour traffic jam it took to get there....it was very beautiful and inspiring. It has been kept just as it was during his lifetime despite the fact that the contents had to be evacuated to Tomsk in Siberia during WW2 as it was occupied by the nazis and only saved from a torching by some  valiant locals.The grounds were full of brides paying pilgrimage and looking for  photo opportunities.  Unfortunately the traffic deprived us of Chekhov's country house but Oleg our guide was very patient and as his English was so good we could ask him many questions about Russia so now have a better understanding of how things are here.

Gulag Museum

Lenin's tomb yesterday was a sobering experience as was the wonderful and comprehensive Contemporary History  Museum which covered the 19th and 20th centuries.Despite the fact all the signage was in cyrillic it was an enriching experience and not to be missed. Some things were glossed over though...in particular Stalin's horrendous crimes ,although The Gulag Museum goes some way to redress that I suppose.
Then on to Gorky's art nouveau home and the odd French pastry and cuppa tea......
I might add that nothing is easy to find as the street signs are all in cyrillic and maps do not seem to match reality...well that is how it appears to us and to find each of these venues requires (it seems)hours of walking and map gazing and attempts to find a Russian who speaks a little English!

Today it was a walk to the river and some tasty blinis and honeyed tea from the local monastry cooks selling by the side of the river....then on to St Basils....  more French Pastries ...train at midnight tonight for St Petersburg (so it is just as well we have all those pastries to fortify us)...will save the Kafka meets Godot experience at the PO for later!!

dasvidanya Kath et al xo

                                                             Red Square porta-loos

MOCKBA

Mixed feelings abound......this place is not at all what I expected and The Revolution is all but a distant memory for the under 35s it seems who are embracing conspicuous consumption as the new mantra.
Lenin (as far as I can ascertain) is a marketing tool for the tourists who flock to Red Square in droves to shop at Gum(now a very swanky shopping complex on the edge of the Square).and eat at Macdonalds!

The (small considering the millions interned) Gulag Museum hemmed in by Dior and Chanel(oh my god) was only opened fairly recently (60  years after Stalin's death!!) and was very moving..particulary as it had a few references to Nikolai Bukharin (my Bolshevik hero...shot by Stalin in 1938) and his noble wife Anna Larina.....I found the whole thing immensely moving and was quite overcome......and by the whole feeling of the place (Moscow that is) ....that the ideals of The Revolution have been trashed (having been brought up in a commie household with the noble beliefs of my grandfather ruling the day I have found this whole experience pretty shattering).

Went to the Kremlin today and a pretty impressive piece of history it is too.....the basilicas with their golden domes and medieval wall frescos are breathtaking (atheist sentiments aside of course).....

Found a vego restauarnt and yoga centre underneath this apartment block we are staying in which felt very 70s and hence deja vue...this place is pretty weird at times..and never what you expect....
...and yesterday we conquered the metro but am doing all I can to avoid going back there (walking  kms in other words).....pretty challenging when you can't read the signs as they are in cyrillic and NOBODY understands what you are asking/saying (of course it does not help that owing to my pathetic language skills I can still only say thank you and goodbye in Russian ).........another day tomorrow and out into the country with Chekhov and Tolstoy (hope they are ready for us)...
dasvidanya Kath and the Komrades xo

SIBERIA TO MOSCOW Triumph: thousands of kilometeres and a lot of birch trees later we have finally made it to Moscow. The Mongolian steppes ringed by mountains and peppered with the occasional yurt were breathtaking. The border crossings were not a high point,however,always in the middle of the night and always taking hours and with the toilets locked for the duration a challenge on more than one level. Siberia too was beautiful. The landscape from the border to Moscow pretty much the same...a lot of birch and conifer forests and ploughed fields peppered with Russian villages...dark wooden houses and immaculate vegetable gardens and always a greenhouse or two. The odd industrial city breaks the mould....and no cattle or sheep to be seen(except for the odd cow in a village)..I would think the -50C temperatures of winter are the reason for this. The people are friendly and helpful and willing to engage despite language difficulities. We visited Lake Baikal(the largest lake in the world) briefly and regreted not having more time here..it is very beautiful and unspoilt. Will and I were lucky enough to see the 2 Decemberists (1825 attempt to free the serfs and overthrow the Tsar which met with exile to Siberia) houses in Irkutsk which are now museums (while Sue and Jane valliantly looked after the bags at the station)...having miscalculated the train departure time by 5 hours as the train (not the staion) runs on Moscow time we had a lot of time to fill in here. Well finally we are here ...the city is elegant and impressive and teeming with nouveau riche in their flashy cars but as Lenin(a large statue of course) was at the station to greet us we sort of felt at home.Red Square is a 10 minute walk away and the Stanislavsky Theatre at the end of the street(this hostel is new and cheap and so well situated..as it turns out a real find).....we are ready for it after days of sitting! dasvidoniya Kath and the Komrades xo

MONGOLIAAfter a rather hairy ride to Beijing Main Station with the sticky tape the driver used in an attempt to keep the boot shut over our big bags (mind you the boot was very small)detaching itself after 5 minutes and the underside of the car grating on the road with the combined weight of luggage and people...we made it ...all wondering if this was setting the tone for the train ride...and as Sue's bag was the one that would have joined the Beijing traffic jam as it was on top she was particularly anxious! The train was waiting for us as was a stony faced railway employee at each carriage entrance and that pretty much set the customer service standard... the men on our carriage who presumably were there for the passengers, spent the whole time smoking (non smoking signs were pasted up on each wall)eating and sleeping and when we kicked up a stink about the smoking they just shut their door and the smoke seeped into the carriage through less direct means...I am sure they were glad to see the back of us(by the end of the trip we even had nicknames for 2 of them Mr Pork Bun and Mr Cane Toad...well after 30 hours in a confined space obviously we had nothing better to do).And the taxi driver in Ulaan Baatar who wanted 4 times the price for the fare is another story..we did feel bloody relieved to get to our hotel and have the hot shower that was absent from the train.After the vast panorama of the Gobi Desert with its camels and yurts the chaos and size of Ulaan Baatar was a shock....capitalism and all it's ugliness has taken hold here and a local taxi driver (a second one) after telling us how much he liked 'Crocodile Dundee" said things were not so good after Communism with rich and poor,homelessness and the class divide taking hold....more later Kath xo

BEIJING TO ULAAN BAATAR Sorry it has taken so long to get to the blog but China has put restrictions on what you can and cannot do on the internet and the site was blocked....so now we are in the capital of Mongolia all possible(well theoretically). Beijing was fantastic and I am dying to go back. The people are so friendly and welcoming and easy to deal with. The big drawback of course is that the air pollution is horrendous as is the traffic. We visited the Forbidden City (the size of a small city which makes Buckingham Place look like a shack),Tianmen Square graced by Mao's portrait ...then on to Jingshan Park opposite in which hundreds and hundreds of Chinese were collected in small choral groups singing as loudly as possible and having a great old time...it was amazing! Considering the size of the population the police and army presence is very minimal and the place has a prosperous and cheerful air. Went with Jane and Sue to The Great Wall and did a lot of climbing..it is amazingly steep and high. Luckily Jane had read about a place about an hour and half's drive from the city which is not frequented by tourists (maybe this was because the sign said this part of the wall was no go too dangerous)..really it wasn't in that bad a state and the ladder we had to climb was steep but in good nick and hey we had it all to ourselves. Gorgeous old man selling red books and Mao badges at the base of the wall reminded me of my grandfather...then on to the Ming Tombs(those Mings liked to splash out with taxpayer's yuan just a little). Staying in the old Hutong district of Beijing and enjoying great food....off to the train station early in the morning for the 30 hours to Mongolia.....stay tuned... Kath and the comrades xoxo

Getting ready

Five weeks out 2 visas down and one to go..lucky last I hope.All the organising under the belt weeks ago..fingers crossed the train tickets(the powers that be will not let the tickets out of their respective countries) arrive at our hotels in Beijing and Irkutsk. Still hard to believe we are doing this....comrades Sue, Will and Jane will be good travelling companions(for me it is 100 years of friendhip between the 3)....Leningrad here we come!!!!..next post from Beijing