Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • Flights – London City Airport to Florence (British Airways)

    Flights – London City Airport to Florence (British Airways)

    This is the first time that I’ve flown from London City Airport, an accessible and easy to reach airport in east London with its own DLR stop. And I’ve liked the DLR ever since I lived next to one of the network’s stops a few years ago.

    One of the advantages of London City is that it’s relatively small and compact, so it’s possible to roll up around 45 minutes before a flight and still board in time. I can’t be taking those sort of chances though, but I didn’t go through security until two hours before my flight, which is cutting it very fine for me. The airport was comfortable and clean throughout, with an almost endless supply of power points and places to work from for those who needed that.

    There’s an extensive views of the airfield from the departures building.

    The walk to the aircraft went by the side of a building, with the nature of London City Airport meaning that there aren’t air bridges routinely used.

    Approaching the aircraft.

    I started off on an aisle seat on the seventh row, but there were some empty seats ahead, so a crew member said that I could move to a window seat on the fifth row. The aircraft was clean and comfortable, feeling slightly tired though, with this aircraft being G-LCYI which is an Embraer 170 which BA have owned since new in 2010.

    This flight left at 15:50, so there were some spectacular skies visible from the other side of the aircraft, they almost looked photoshopped in on this photo. But they’re not, I can’t use Photoshop….

    The CityFlyer service still comes with free food and drink, although I was unsure exactly what the choices were before boarding. They actually seemed to be generous, with Speedbird available which pleased me. I think there was Heineken as well, but the Brewdog/BA partnership that has led to Speedbird is IMO much better. And BA are releasing a new beer soon in partnership with Brewdog again, so hopefully this venture has been a useful one for both parties.

    The food was much better than I had expected, it was salmon on rice, along with a side salad, roll, cheese & crackers and a chocolate dessert. There was also a water thing served with it, although it was easy to get extra drinks from the bar from passing crew members.

    The crew were friendly throughout and their announcements, as well as those from the pilots, were professional and appropriate. The aircraft landed into Florence slightly early, with the whole process being seamless and well managed. It was a reminder of how BA used to be across their short-haul fleet though with the free food and drink, as it allowed an engagement between the crew and customers. Now, that engagement has been nearly entirely lost, and on most flights there’s nearly no connection between customers who don’t buy anything and the crew. It’s a shame, the crew are one of the best assets that BA have in my view, but I’m sure that Alex Cruz knows what he’s doing…..

    This, incidentally, is my 2,000th post on this blog. How lovely….

  • Bucharest – National Village Museum (Half Buried House)

    Bucharest – National Village Museum (Half Buried House)

    This half-buried house dates to the beginning of the nineteenth century and it was brought to the museum in 1949 from Drăghiceni, a town in the south-west of Romania. There are two functions to this sort of property, with the primary one being that this helps with keeping the temperature under control, so it would preserve the cold in summer, but also the warmth in winter. I’d note that Ibis have some hotels like that, although they preserve the heat in winter and the heat in summer, which can be most annoying. There was also a defensive element as well though (to the half-buried house, not Ibis), there were occasional Turkish raids and this sort of property was easier to defend. It wasn’t though a cheaper construction option, as building a half-buried property apparently uses more wood than building a traditional structure.

    This house was popular with children at the museum, who enjoyed climbing down into the property. The roof was constructed with oak planks and there would be a straw type finish on the top.

    That’s the step down.

    And there’s the entrance room. Behind this would have been the kitchen, and further into the structure would have been the living room. It seems to me to be quite a fun place to live as well, something a little different.

  • Bucharest – People’s Salvation Cathedral

    Bucharest – People’s Salvation Cathedral

    Work on this religious building started in 2007 and it’s starting to come to an end now and it will be the Romanian Orthodox Church’s Patriarchal Cathedral, replacing the current Metropolitan Church in Bucharest. It’s an enormous building and is visible from throughout the city, standing at 135 metres in height and it will be the largest Orthodox Church in the world by area. It has cost €400 million all told, a significant sum of money for any religious building.

    Its location is next to the ridiculous Palace of the Parliament building that was the pet project of Nicolae Ceaușescu, with this being a deliberate choice. Nicolae Ceaușescu had demolished great chunks of the city to build his new building, which included the demolition of three Orthodox churches and the moving of two other Orthodox churches. It’s sited on Spirea’s Hill, which is for the same reason that the Palace of the Parliament was built there, it’s at a high point of Bucharest and the project can be seen from far and wide.

    The cathedral is though controversial, there have been links made with the excesses of the Palace of the Parliament building and the cost is not insubstantial for a country that still has a long way to go on its economic road. However, there has long been a demand for this building within the church, they’ve faced economic difficulties, the Second World War and then communism, so it’s not as though they haven’t been patient.

    Inside the cathedral is going to be impressive as well in numerous ways, not least because it will have the world’s largest free-swinging church bell in it, but also because of a one-million piece mosaic standing 16 metres in height. The Pope came to visit the cathedral on 31 May 2019, and it will likely be a popular site to visit for tourists and locals. The cathedral will be able to seat 7,000 people, or 10,000 people can stand within it, with the wider site being able to cope with 125,000 visitors. There’s still a lot to do though, the full opening isn’t expected until 2023 or 2024, when this enormous construction project finally comes to an end.

  • Bucharest – National Village Museum (Swing)

    Bucharest – National Village Museum (Swing)

    This nifty swing is from Zăpodeni, in eastern Romanian near to the border with Moldova. It’s relatively modern for this museum, dating to the early twentieth century, and it was primarily used on major holidays. Traditionally, two boys would start the contraption going and they’d be rewarded with a gift, such as Easter Eggs at Easter. If I had a garden, perhaps I’d create something like this for Dylan and Leon, although I suspect they’d take one look at my handiwork and refuse to go on it.

  • Bucharest – Capitoline Wolf Statue

    Bucharest – Capitoline Wolf Statue

    Known locally as the Statuia Lupoaicei, this statue was given to the people of Romania in 1906 by the Government of Italy and is a copy of a similar one in Rome. The Italians gave statues like this to numerous countries and it depicts a wolf nurturing Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome.

    For many years this was located at the Piata Romana (the Roman Square seemed an appropriate place for it), but it’s now at the intersection between Bulevardul Ion C. Brătianu and Strada Lipscani. There are over twenty-five Capitoline Wolf statues across Romania and I can’t imagine that any other country, with perhaps the obvious exception of Italy, has more.

  • Bucharest – Bucharest Airport (TAROM Business Lounge)

    Bucharest – Bucharest Airport (TAROM Business Lounge)

    There seem to be two airport lounges that Oneworld status customers can use, but apparently they’re very similar and this is the one that I found first. It’s clearly signed when walking towards the gates, up one set of escalators. The staff member at the reception desk was helpful and the sign-in process was quick and easy.

    The main corridor of the lounge, there is food and drink on both sides with the seating area at the rear.

    The lounge interior, all quite modern and airy in its decoration. I thought that the temperature was just a touch too hot when I visited, which was mid-February, so I suspect that it might be quite challenging in the summer months, unless they have some excellent air conditioning.

    There were some spirits, wines and soft drinks.

    The bulk of the food offering was really crisps and snacks, with a choice of three different flavours of crisps.

    I didn’t turn the crisps down, that would have been rude. The coffee was rather bitter, but the orange juice was flavoursome. There were also some sandwiches, which weren’t particularly a taste sensation if I’m being honest.

    This was the only beer available and I decided to give Ursus just one more chance, having had it at the Ibis hotel as the welcome drink. I’m pleased that it is consistent, it’s a truly awful beer in a can as well as on draught. Entirely devoid of flavour, taste or any complexity at all, it’s slightly pointless.

    In terms of dining, the airport has quite a strong array of options in their food court, so anyone wanting something more substantial would probably be better heading there. However, the selling point of this lounge is the relaxing environment and a place to get work done, with some excellent views of the runway. There weren’t very many power points around the lounge, although they did have charging stations where people could leave their phone to charge. Unfortunately, I’m not very good at leaving my phone, I worry about it…..

    There’s a smoking room at one end of the lounge, which was fortunately nowhere near me, although for reasons unknown to me, they allow vaping anywhere in the lounge. There aren’t any toilets within the lounge, but they are just a short walk around the corner and given that closeness, I’m surprised that they weren’t part of the lounge’s footprint to save guests leaving and returning.

    Anyway, the lounge was clean and comfortable, although certainly not exceptional in many other ways. The staff all seemed friendly and helpful, that added to the warmth of the atmosphere somewhat, so it was a comfortable place to spend a couple of hours. I’m not sure that I would have paid to get in the lounge though, unless someone wants a little privacy and quiet, it would probably be better to find a table at one of the restaurants in the airport’s food course. But, since this was free (well, as part of my ticket), I was entirely content.

  • Bucharest – National Museum of Art (Beheading of St. John the Baptist)

    Bucharest – National Museum of Art (Beheading of St. John the Baptist)

    This cheery little number was painted in the fifteenth century in the Tuscan area of Italy, later becoming part of the collection owned by King Carol I of Romania. I assume that the viewer of the artwork is meant to appreciate the sacrifice made by St. John the Baptist when he was killed by Herod Antipas, but it’s all a bit unpleasant for my liking.

    Caravaggio painted a well known artwork on the same subject, which is in St. John’s Cathedral in Valletta, Malta, but at least that one is a little less dramatic in terms of the head being cut off. Unfortunately, as with many other artworks in this gallery, there’s nearly no background information to the painting.

  • Bucharest – National Museum of Art (Hall in the Hradcany Palace by Aegidius Sadeler the Younger)

    Bucharest – National Museum of Art (Hall in the Hradcany Palace by Aegidius Sadeler the Younger)

    A rather lovely painting of the interior of the Hradčany Palace, or Prague Castle. It was painted by Aegidius Sadeler the Younger, who lived between 1570 and 1629, when he died in Prague. This is another mildly frustrating effort by the National Museum of Art, with no background offered to the artwork at all, other than it was part of the collection acquired by King Carol I of Romania. Beyond that there’s no provenance, no date of painting or anything to tell more of the artwork’s story.

    My photo of this artwork is pretty poor, but there’s a lot going on in the painting, it makes the castle seem like quite the hive of activity in the early seventeenth century.

  • Bucharest – National Museum of Art (Hercules and the Nemean Lion by Pieter Paul Rubens)

    Bucharest – National Museum of Art (Hercules and the Nemean Lion by Pieter Paul Rubens)

    This is one of the highlights of the National Museum of Art, although there’s not much made of it in terms of providing a background to the painting, even on the museum’s web-site. The artwork was painted in 1608, although the gallery don’t mention that, and it was part of the collection purchased by King Carol I of Romania. There seem to be copies and sketches for this painting located in numerous galleries dotted around the world, but none of them make reference to this artwork in Bucharest. All moderately confusing….

  • Bucharest – Dying for Freedom

    Bucharest – Dying for Freedom

    Aici s-a murit pentru libertate means “here he died for freedom”, a reminder of the revolution which broke out in this area of Bucharest on the 21 and 22 December 1989. The sign is placed on what is now known as Piața 21 Decembrie 1989, the day it all went a bit wrong for Nicolae Ceaușescu.