Japan to the UK overland - closing thoughts

And with this entry, the end of my posts regarding my Trans Siberian and European adventure. After leaving Paris, I took a rather expensive Eurostar train to London and then an overnight sleeper up to Scotland. Ending the journey on a sleeper train in the Highlands of Scotland was a poetic finale.

Japan to Scotland was long, often uncomfortable, sometimes a bit scary, but entirely fascinating. I am conscious that it was possibly a once in a lifetime journey which will never be repeated. I also realise that I am extremely privilaged to have had the opportunity to complete the adventure.

So many wonderful sights - I am now able to look at the map of Asia and Europe in a different and informed light. It is difficult to pick a highlight from the journey. Baikal? Moscow? Paris? Warsaw? The ferry?

One aspect that I am more sure about as time goes on is that it was completely the right decision to leave Japan in this manner. Because of the gradual parting with the country, I actually do not really feel I have left. Sometimes I still have to remind myself that I am waking up in the UK and not in western Tokyo.

Thanks for taking the time to read of my travels. Forthcoming updates on my life in the UK will be a bit shorter and perhaps a tad more mundane.

Paris

My few days in Paris were essentially the last hurrah before my return to the UK. Having only driven through Paris by bus on a high school trip to Venice 25 years ago, I was naturally eager to explore the French capital.

Sacre Coeur

I booked into the Hotel Audran, which appeared to be more reasonable than other hotels advertised on internet booking sites. Despite being more reasonable, it was still not cheap.......and the hotel itself was very basic with an unworkable wifi connection.

Montmartre cafe

However, the hotel's saving grace was its location, Montmartre, only a few minutes walk from the Sacre Coeur and the Moulin Rouge. Oddly enough, my fondest memories of Paris were not the famous sights, but sitting outside a small cafe near my hotel having brunch each day. The weather was extremely pleasant and tourists from all corners of the world would amble past. It also felt a novelty to be able to read a UK newspaper for the first time during my travels.

The Sacre Coeur was better and more beautiful than I anticipated. The location overlooking Paris was memorable and I was surprised not to be bothered by the notorious scam artists that are known to prey on tourists.

Notre Dame Cathedral

After ticking off the Sacre Coeur, I used my invaluable iPhone map application to navigate on foot around Paris. Notre Dame Cathedral was splendid, but my aversion to queueing prevented me from venturing inside. Instead, I circled the Cathedral and walked along the Seine, looking at stalls selling bric a brac and at the numerous bridges.

Seine

By pure chance, I crossed the river and walked through the gates of a rather old and impressive building - it turned out to be the Louvre Museum. Again there were long queues, but I was happy enough to take in the outside views and sit by one of the fountains. The Mona Lisa will have to wait until next time. The best photo I took came from my iPhone, a rather nice panorama shot.

The central glass pyramid attracted a lot of controversy after it was completed in 1989. Personally, I think it looks fantastic and successfully marries the old with the new.

Louvre and glass pyramid

As far as I recall, the Louvre represented the end of my formal sightseeing on my first full day. Although I had refreshments along my route, it was time to return to Montmartre for dinner and a few drinks.

The next day followed pretty much the same pattern as the first. Brunch and then more walking (about 15 miles in total) to the final sights I wished to see - the Eiffel Tower, L'Arc de Triomphe, and Pere Lachaise Cemetery.

Scams in Paris are the same as those in Berlin. Girls pretending to be deaf and dumb approach you with a clipboard requesting you sign a petition. Once the girl has you distracted, a fellow scam artist will attempt to rifle through your pockets. Perhaps next time I'll place a mouse trap in my pocket and allow myself to be distracted.

The L'Arc de Triomphe reminded me of my visit to Pyongyang. Although smaller, the workmanship and detail of the French version makes it clearly superior. A military ceremony was about to begin in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Next to Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Despite an incredibly long walk through Paris, my final destination was well worth it - the Pere Lachaise Cemetery, home to the remains of many leading lights.

Jim Morrison's grave

I visited the rather modest and ill kept grave of The Doors singer Jim Morrison, and the tasteful grave of Frederic Chopin. Sadly, I did not manage to find Oscar Wilde. The weather was warm and because of its scale, the cemetery did not feel crowded.

Paris, I loved every minute!

Some (short) final thoughts regarding my mammoth journey from Japan to the UK will appear over the next few days. After that, I'll have more mundane matters to report on. Thanks for reading my unprepared jumble of recollections.

Rustic Warsaw

No headroom

Apologies for not completing my blogging for my epic overland journey from Japan to the UK. I'll try and finish the remaining blogs over the next few days so that I can start posting more up to date news.

From Moscow, I took the overnight sleeper train through Belarus to Warsaw. Arranging the Belarus transit visa in Moscow was a frustrating and time consuming task. It was also strange to be continuing my journey alone, having left Joep in Moscow so he could catch his flight back to Scotland.

Once again, I found myself crammed into a small compartment, although the quality was superior to the Trans Siberian trains - there was even a little table in the corner which contained an internal wash hand basin. The overnight journey was for the most part uneventful, with the exception of being woken up at an unusual hour by  a rather nice Belarusian female border guard who checked my passport and visa before asking me if I was transporting illegal narcotics.

Atmospheric square

I eventually found my hotel with the assistance of a local taxi. It was in the centre of the old Warsaw city - beautifully rustic with horses and carriages trundling past outside my window. For the two nights I stayed in Warsaw, I stayed well within the the old city. I did hardly any sightseeing - I just loved walking around the old cobbled streets finding cafes to have lunch, a coffee, or a beer.

Hotel in heart of old Warsaw

Warsaw experienced terrible suffering during WWII. By the end of the war, most of the residents were gone - either massacred by the Nazis or displaced because of the total destruction. The city rebuilt itself successfully and managed to rebuild much of the historical centre, hence the reason why it is known as the Phoenix City by some.

Night scene

I enjoyed being by myself in Warsaw. The people were generally friendly and the food, beer, and accommodation were all at a reasonable price. From Vladivostok to Moscow, there was hardly any time to catch breath - we were always moving from one place to another. In Warsaw, I had no concrete plans or any great desire to do much - it was a welcome chance to catch up on my thoughts by looking back at my journey from Japan and forward to the impending end in Scotland.

Coming soon will be blogs detailing the last couple of legs of the journey - a couple of nights in Berlin followed by a couple of nights in Paris. Thanks for reading!

Russian Air Force Museum - Monino

Kane and Yak 141 'Freestyle'

WARNING: This blog may not be of much interest to non-aviation enthusiasts.

Tu 95 'Bear'

On my final day in Moscow, I took a gamble and decided to visit the Monino Air Force Museum, about 30 miles east of the city. As my train for Warsaw was scheduled to depart at 5pm, it was a little risky trying to get to Monino and back due to unpredictable public transport links.

MiG 25 'Foxbat'

The risks paid off handsomely and I was extremely lucky with the Russian public transportation system on my journey back into Moscow. On the way to Monino, I decided to have a stress free and speedy journey there by taxi. It was anything but - the taxi driver got completely lost and spent expensive minutes driving around fields and forests trying to find the museum.

MiG 29 'Fulcrum' and Tu 144 'Charger'

Monino has to be a Shangri-la for aviation fans. I absolutely loved seeing the exotic planes on display - real legends of aviation. Wonderful! I spent around 2 hours there and did two circuits of the outdoor exhibits. The first circuit using my wide angled lens and the second was reserved for zoom lens shots.

Yak 130 and Sukhoi T4

The only disappointing aspect of the museum was seeing such remarkable exhibits slowly rotting in the open air. Clearly very little money is spent preserving these aircraft and it can only be a matter of time before some are sent to the scrappers yard. If it had been a museum in the USA, these aircraft would be in pristine condition within a hanger.

Tu 22 'Blinder'

After my successful return to Moscow, I met Joep for an hour and then found my train bound for Warsaw via Belarus. Apart from being woken up and quizzed by Russian and Belorussian border guards, the journey to Warsaw was quite uneventful. It was a little odd not having Joep around with his regular guidebook sourced km-by-km updates of the route. Inspired by all the MiGs I saw that day, I watched about half of 'Top Gun' in my upper bunk before nodding off.

Su 27 'Flanker' prototype

The biggest problem with this blog entry is that I can only put a small sample of pictures up showing my visit to Monino and the amazing aircraft on display.

Selection

Moscow

St Basil's Cathedral

Joep and I arrived early Thursday morning in Moscow. I was fortunate to be able to check into the hotel early, shower, and then head out to collect my train tickets for Warsaw. Unfortunately, I forgot to arrange a transit visa for Belarus, so had to spend a good deal of time over the 2 days getting that organised.

After collecting my tickets on Thursday morning, I had time to spare before the Belarus Embassy opened so decided to go for a walk. I walked for about 10 minutes and stumbled across Red Square with St Basil’s Cathedral in all its’ glory. To stumble unplanned up to such an iconic building really took my breath away. A building I had yearned to see for many years was right in front of me – wonderful!

I strolled a bit around the cobblestones of Red Square and saw the exterior of Lenin’s Mausoleum, the imposing Kremlin behind a tall wall, and the palatial GUM Department Store.

St Basil's Cathedral and Kremlin

Unfortunately, the view around Red Square was blemished by the construction of temporary seating for an upcoming event.

The Bolshoi

Both evenings, we enjoyed dining al fresco. In fact, both full days I also enjoyed sitting outside with a beer watching Moscow life pass me by. Despite such wonderful sights, I took remarkably few photos. Carrying a large camera around with me was becoming a very onerous task.

Marshal Zhukov

Moscow impressed me a great deal!

Trans Siberian Express - Yekaterinburg to Moscow

Free lunch

The final leg of our journey on the Trans Siberian Express lasted almost exactly 1 day and was much more comfortable than our previous trains. The restaurant car could be described as plush, the cabin attendants wore smarter uniforms, we received proper mattresses and an in cabin charging point, and the toilets were much more pleasant to use.

Perhaps, as we were nearing the Russia – Ukraine border, people were much more suspicious of foreign travelers. Many of my fellow passengers stared at my SLR camera with suspicion and as I left the restaurant car, a Russian by the name of Ruslan, enquired whether or not I was taking photos along the way. When I confirmed that was correct, he shook his head in disapproval.

Wooden shacks

Not long after leaving Yekaterinburg, we crossed into Europe from Asia. The gateway to Europe is the Ural mountain range. In my mind, the Urals were mighty mountains possessing challenging peaks. In reality, this mid-point between two continents was barely noticeable and was made up of small rolling hills. It was a mild disappointment to have missed the obelisk which represents the boundary between the two continents.

Blog writing

On the final night, there were no whisky swilling Russians to interrupt my sleep. I felt some foreboding as we approached Moscow, apprehensive of what I thought would be a dangerous city full of pick pockets.

Scenery

Yekaterinburg

City Hall Spire

The further west we travelled, the more prosperous things appeared. Yekaterinburg looked a fast modernizing city with world famous companies residing in swanky new business centres. People demonstrated their individual wealth by driving around in big engined BMWs, Range Rovers, and Porsche Cayennes.

There were only two things I had planned on accomplishing during the short stay in this city. The first was to visit the Church on the Blood, the site where the Russian royal family, the Romanovs, were massacred in 1918. The second was to observe a more recent part of the history of the city – the graves of Mafiosi who were gunned down during the 1990s as the two mafia groups, the Uralmash and the Centralniy, wrestled for control of the city.

The Church on the Blood, despite being less than two decades old, was well worth it. With its numerous golden cupolas and intricate artwork and gilding, it was clear a lot of investment went into its construction. No photos were allowed inside.

Trams

Almost 100 years ago the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas, the Tsarina, his children, and 3 servants were executed in the basement of a palatial home belonging to a wealthy Yekaterinburg resident. Perhaps to prevent the home becoming a catalyst of unrest in the then USSR, a local politician, Boris Yeltsin, demolished the house in the 1990s. It was a special moment to have visited a place with such great historical significance.

Church on the Blood

The Soviet name for Yekaterinburg was Sverdlovsk, named after the man who reputedly ordered the execution of the Romanovs. 

City Hall

After a steak lunch, it was off to a cemetery in the west of the city to see the graves of members of the Centralniy mafia group. In the years after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, two gangs fought each other for the influence and assets once possessed by the former Communist government.

Gangster Kingpin

Most of the graves were for young men in their 20s. Intriguingly, there was also a grave for a woman in her 30s – I have no idea who she is or what happened to her. I speculate she was somehow acquainted with the mafia gang and was in the wrong place when a shooting occurred.

Mystery woman