Shanghai, 3 C, clear with chilly wind, GMT +8 I apologise if I have misled you with the name of this post, as it refers to the nickname for the Shanghai World Financial Centre (SWFC) rather than any beer drinking paraphernalia. You can understand why when you see the design of this building (above centre) by the architect Kohn Pederson Fox. Last night I could feel my hotel (the Pudong Shangri-La) vibrate slightly in the strong gusts of wind. When I spoke to the concierge at breakfast, he said that this is normal, and that’s why there are no lights […]
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Distance covered so far: 12,430 km, distance to go: 30 km, 3C, GMT +8. G15 High Speed Train, Beijing South – Shanghai Hongqiao Sad to be leaving the Kerry, but up early for my journey to Shanghai. In the Shangri-La way, everything was a whir of efficiency at check out and I was soon deposited in a wifi enabled car and accompanied by Chris, the hotel concierge. I discovered on the short journey to the station that this blog is actually blocked in China, but the hotel route their internet via Hong Kong, so as a result I have had […]
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Distance so far: 11,112 km, distance to go: 1,318 km. -10 C, dry & sunny. I know you don’t need a “tourist diary” from me in Beijing, but I do have a couple of updates as I down tools (or should that be “trains”?) for Christmas. First of all, for the record, my Christmas dinner – a rather special whole duck carefully prepared at Da Dong, suppliers of the best Peking duck in the city. (No Christmas pudding, but you can’t have everything!). Leaving the train and getting back into civilised living is an odd experience. Once I left the […]
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Today I visited Monino for a pre arranged trip to what was part of the Gagarin Air Force base, but it has actually recently been placed into non military hands. It’s about 40km to the North East of Moscow – it took me about an hour and a half to get out there by car. It’s actually hidden on the outskirts of a suburb, and there are few signs. I had high hopes for this trip, and they were met in every respect – it is a truly amazing place to visit if you have a passing interest in Cold […]
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Moscow, GMT +4, -10 C (high), -19 C (low), sunny You might think from the above that its warmer today, but having spent a couple of hours out, I’m coming round to the view that the temperature is just a number and I can confirm without consulting a thermometer that its nippy enough to freeze solid any exposed bits. I spent the morning shopping at the Ismailovsky outdoor market, where they seem to sell all the tourist stuff you would ever need at reasonable prices. There is also an area here that sells Soviet militaria – plenty of interesting stuff […]
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Distance covered so far: 150km. Time zone: GMT. Weather: 3 C, sunny. This afternoon I travelled to Newcastle, where I am getting the DFDS ferry to Amsterdam tomorrow. It was a small step – just 150km out of 12500km, but my first taste of life on the rails! It was immediately apparent that I have too much baggage. People stare at me like I am some sort of demented human pack horse or mad English Sherpa. I managed to cart it about (just), but the real killer is going up flights of stairs, which feels like a heavy work out […]
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