Give me a good history book and a glass of wine and I’ll be a happy man. She-Wolves by Helen Castor turned out to be a particularly good read, the story of three of England’s great medieval queens and their various battles to make a mark in a male-dominated world. But it also introduced me…
Tag: Museums
A journey of discovery at Hong Kong’s history museum
Hong Kong’s Museum of History is a fantastic place to spend a couple of hours, learn about the territory’s past and kill time before the flight back home. It was our last day in the city, and one that dawned with us suffering the after effects of a marathon drinking session the night before. Fortunately the museum…
Istanbul: A long weekend in Sultanahmet
Sultanahmet is the historic heart of Istanbul, the most famous of Turkey’s cities. It may not be the capital but it’s the only city in the world that sits astride Europe and Asia. Just a few months after we visited Istanbul in 2013, it was gripped by the worst riots in years. Historic Sultanahmet escaped…
A few days in Quimper, Brittany
Colourful Quimper is the oldest city in Brittany and many of its handsome medieval buildings remain intact, making it an attractive stop on the tourist trail. But it wasn’t exactly throbbing with life when we arrived at the start of our week-long holiday in the north-west of France. In fact, much of Quimper had shut…
A return to the Cutty Sark, London
The Cutty Sark is one of the most famous ships in the world. I first visited her as a boy on an outing to London and although I’d lived not far from her over the years, it wasn’t until the ship had undergone a multi-million pound restoration that I returned. The famous tea cutter has been…
The Vasa – Stockholm’s star attraction
As a teenager I watched on TV as the battered remains of the Tudor warship Mary Rose was rescued from the muddy depths of the Solent. Some years later we visited Portsmouth to see her skeletal remains, now preserved and the centrepiece of a museum. Hers was a remarkable story of survival beneath the seabed,…