In 1961 you either had to have a vaccination certificate or quarantine for fourteen days if you arrived in the US from the UK. But you know that, because you read it here in 2017. It looks like next year that’s what will happen again; that’s if an effective vaccine is found. It’s a funny… Continue reading Catch a Clipper
Category: Travel
Coronavirus Chronicle X
Trieste
A Russian Ramble
Let’s go for a virtual walk round St Petersburg. Jean-François Thomas de Thomon is a French neo-classical architect who designed the Stock Exchange in St Petersburg. Come over to Alexander Park and look at this fine bronze group, The Architects, installed in 2011. Do you recognise Thomas de Thomon? No you don’t because the sculptor… Continue reading A Russian Ramble
The Easter Egg
The Hibernian Catch Club
Members of White’s are proud that their club is the oldest gentleman’s club in London, founded in 1693. The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge are members. Across the Irish Sea the Hibernian Catch Club was already thriving – it was founded circa 1680 – and I never knew of its existence until… Continue reading The Hibernian Catch Club
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Everybody loves a Rembrandt. They go mad for him. Pre-blog I went to the Rijksmuseum at opening time on a Sunday morning. It was almost empty until we got to The Night Watch where the crowd was five deep. You can dangle his contemporaries, Anthony van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens, Peter Paul Rubens and get a nibble… Continue reading Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
From the Banks of the Neva
This is the beginning but it’s in Finnish: “rakentaa kuin Iisakin Kirkkoa”. Put it into Google Translate, unless you speak Finnish, and you get: “to build like the Church of Isaac”. A Finn might use this expression referring to the Heathrow expansion plans or the construction of Crossrail and HS2; in fact any project that… Continue reading From the Banks of the Neva
From Russia …
The Romanov Tombs You need to know your iconostasis from your elbow and not muddle them up with a reredos in Russian churches. But let’s get back to my childhood at Barmeath. My grandfather was a fount of knowledge and I lapped it up, like I slurp gin now. The general sense of the story… Continue reading From Russia …
Midnight in Minsk
y Every Picture Tells a Story Sveltana Alexievich has a flat in this apartment building. She knows how to tell a story. She has written about the Second World War, sorry The Great Patriotic War, the war in Afghanistan and Chernobyl. Her technique is to interview people and tell the story through their words. This… Continue reading Midnight in Minsk