London and mappy maps

17/18 January 2026

Last weekend, JC and I popped up to London, lured by the British Museum's exhibition on secret maps.  We stayed near Southwick and, on our way out on the Saturday, discovered this exciting place, Maths World, which I would have certainly dragged the girls to when they were young.  Or maybe I still could...?

As it was a last minute visit, I hadn't pre-booked a slot in Caitlin's diary.  Fortunately, she was able to jog past our hotel first thing, so we had a quick catch up on the South Bank.

We caught the Thameslink (my first time I think) up to the British Library for the Secret Maps exhibition.  As expected, it was fascinating and I enjoyed getting up close to maps I usually only read about.  

The exhibition was categorised into groupings.  First up was 'Imperial Secrets' showing how colonising powers from western Europe used maps as they conquered other nations, such as this 1946 map of British India with proposed borders for the partition.  

This is an extract of a beautifully intricate maps of Kowloon Walled City, before it was torn down in 1994.   

Then it was 'State Secrets' which demonstrated how maps since the 16th century have been used by governments to consolidate power and conceal strategically important information.  This excerpt, showing the River Exe, is from a 1540 map of the South Coast of England drawn for King Henry VIII in response to threatened Spanish and French invasions.  The atlas was produced ~1542 by John Rotz for Henry VIII - Rotz was a Franco-Scottish map maker and secret agent who shared French secrets with the English before switching sides and working with the French.

This 1558 atlas was commissioned by the English Queen Mary I as a gift for her husband Philip of Spain.   

Willem Blaeu's 1616 globe was probably the first publication to show Le Maire Strait, the passage under South America into the Pacific.  The Dutch East India Company has sought to keep existence of this a secret to protect its trade monopoly.

I was quite taken by this - lingerie made from WWII escape maps.  

Next were 'Secrets in Society' illustrating the dual role of maps as cartographic artefacts but also reflecting society values and priorities.   For example, there was a road atlas of apartheid-era South Africa that only showed towns and cities with white populations.  And this Spanish map, which simply refused to acknowledge the existence of Gibraltar until the 1944 edition. 

Finally, there was 'Personal Secrets' showing how mapping can publicise private lives.  

I am probably an old fashioned cartographer, but I do like my maps in chronological order so I can follow the journey of map development - having the maps themed didn't work for me as well as for others.  It was, though, still a really interesting exhibition.

We spent nearly 2.5 hours in there and emerged ready for a cuppa in their lovely cafe, before walking down to Russell Square to meet my aunt for more tea.  We had a lovely couple of hours catching up and then wandered into Foyles.  I picked Sebastian Faulk's latest, Fires Which Burned Brightly, which I'm looking forward to.

We had supper in a wonderful Indian restaurant, Chettinad, before walking 3.5 km back across London to our hotel.  

On Sunday we spent a couple of hours in the Imperial War Museum. 

I'd wanted to see their Emergency Exits exhibition.  It was a very sober affair as you can imagine (you don't go to the IWM for light relief).  It was absorbing to read the horrific stories of how brutal the colonial powers were as they exited the colonies they had controlled.  Absolute carnage.

A quick wander around the WWII section.  This Lancaster bomber must have been pretrifying to sit in and shoot from.

We collected our luggage from the hotel and, as we left Southwick, JC spotted this Low Line marker.  In fact, there was more than one.  It didn't seem like a survey related thing, and then we found the sign which explained all.

That is on the list for my next visit (Caitlin take note).

We trundled back home down the Waterloo line without too much drama.  There was a train replacement bus thing from Crewkerne but not a problem.

Christmas, New Year and a bit of snow

Wednesday 24 - Tuesday 30 December 2025

Christmas this year was a little different as Riona was working on Christmas Day so we adjusted the celebrations.  In anticipation Flo (the penguin Riona made me years ago) got into the festive mood.

On Christmas Eve, after working at mine, Caitlin and I hopped over to Roger's, admired the tree, and went up for Pinhoe carols. It was very nippy!

On Christmas Day, Caitlin was keen to have a Christmas dip.  The Exmouth swim looked a bit choppy, but we mainly avoided it because of the numbers of swimmers expected - neither of us had patience to get there an hour early to stand on the beach until the 'off'.  Instead we headed to Sidmouth.  The forecast was poor and the when we got to Jacob's Ladder the waves were the most energetic we'd ever seen so Caitlin, sensibly, just edged in for a paddle up to her shins.  

When we got back we found out about the tragedy at Budleigh Salterton, a few km east to us.  The sea is always is much more powerful than you think - take care!

Riona finished her shift which, apparently, was full of food and tidying up, and arrived chez Roger's around 2100.  Let Christmas begin :-)

Boxing Day began with a tree full of gifts.  We had a lot of fun opening them in between eating various delights from the Roger kitchen. 

On Saturday (27 Dec) we lazed around and did a jigsaw.  Riona and I walked to Sainsbury's for an Argos return which gave us both a much needed leg stretch. We then did craft stuff which apparently was Riona keeping me occupied - at one stage she said to Rog and Caitlin, "I am entertaining your guest here!".  

 

The girls stayed with me on Monday 29 Dec (Overcooked!) and on Tuesday 30 Dec they dropped me at Exeter St Davids where I started my trip to Luxembourg.  Despite Eurostar and the Channel Tunnel going belly up that day I managed to get to Stansted, and subsequently Luxembourg, without too much delay.

Wednesday 31 December 2025

The last day of the year and it was very cold.  JC and I did a 11 km circuit around Bettembourg and were delighted the coffee shop @9 km was open for coffee and warm up.

That evening we spent, as we usually do, courtesy of JC's cousin, Malou who wined and dined us perfectly.  

Friday 02 January 2026

We visited Luxembourg City today as the Christmas market was still running, unlike Exeter where it closes before Christmas.  The snow had started which was kind of atmospheric but also very slippy.  There is a cut off in age between finding snow cute (under 50) and finding it trepidatious (over 50).  I am sadly in the 'if I slip will I break something?' category.

Saturday 03 January 2026

There was snow overnight. 

We had originally planned to pop to Germany but figured the roads were dicey so we stuck to the safe option and just did a 11 km walk around Bettembourg.  It was pretty snowy - we had two coats on each - but beautiful.

I loved the bird tracks!

Monday 05 January 2026

Home day.  Knowing the roads would be more icy than usual, we left at 0730 and crossed the Belgium border in the dark.  

The bits of Belgium we saw glistened with snow and ice, and the sunrise turned the clouds pink.

We got to Calais promptly and were put on an earlier ferry.  I've never seen it so empty and perhaps we should always head home on a weekday in the future.  Roads were all kind to us and by the afternoon we were on the home straight.

Back to work and reality on Tuesday - holiday is over :-(

On Chinese toilets

We met a whole variety of toilets in China and, as an essential part of daily life, it's important to devote a blog to them.  

Most Chinese toilets are squat ones which I don't mind at all as they are quite hygienic.  I did, however, always have to ensure that my sunglasses weren't balanced on head before using these - I certainly didn't want to loose my shades down one of these.  (Picture below of outside of pleasant version).

Less pleasant is that, due to inadequate sewage plumbing, you couldn't throw paper down them, and had to place it in a basket next to the toilet.  Starting, as we did, in the north western side of China, the further west we headed, away from urban influence, the worse the toilets got.  This was mainly because they were quite remote and weren't cleaned regularly.  The pile of used toilet tissues stacked up in horrendous, smelly heaps at the more remote regions.  There were occasions when Chinese women refused to enter cubicles and I just strode past them.  There is a time and a place to be fussy, and halfway up a mountain pass isn't one of them.

As we turned back and headed east they improved km by km.

Our hotel toilets were, in contrast, particularly glam.  In Tashkurgan we encountered our first heated toilet seat.  We had encountered these last year too - strange and not terribly comforting.  There was an array of functions to improve the experience - needless to say I steered clear of most of the buttons (the baby one - do you wash your kid in these?).

One of our toilets had a remote control.

Alongside the build of the toilet, I amused myself taking photos of helpful signs associated with toilets.  

I wasn’t sure why the toilet paper was useless, then I realised it was missing a space - “use less”. 

The most high tech toilet event I saw was at airports.  There was a screen outside each bathroom with a floor plan layout and red/green lights showing if a unit was occupied or not.  It was kind of cute but kind of weird at the same time.

I apologise if you were expecting more photos but there is only so much I need to subject you all to ;-)

 

Chengdu - a little bit of everything (and farewell China)

Friday 31 October 2025

It was very wet first thing so we needed to find an indoor activity.  JC really wanted to visit the Sanxingdui Museum which hosts a plethora of bronze masks, but it was an hour+ each way on the metro and pretty niche in my eyes (history museums were one thing, but an ancient mask museum was a notch up I wasn't born for).  So we compromised and went to the Chengdu Museum. We spent most of our time on the ancient history floor which did have a bronze mask or two. 

I really was quite ancient history-ed out by this stage.  On the left is a bronze zhan from the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period (770-221 BCE).  I liked the stone rhino.

And there were plenty of pottery figurines.

After a couple of hours here we headed down to a food street next to Chengdu Wu Hou Shrine.  It was touristy (said we the tourists) but it was interesting to shuffle through.  I do like an old door.  I found some random veggie skewers to eat which I thought would be hot but they were raw.  Crunchy lunchy.

We enjoyed a stroll around Wu You Shrine/Temple.  The gardens were remarkably peaceful on the whole, as the tourists congregated around the main entrance and a bit of the red wall.

We left and walked up through a local park then realised we couldn't get out except by retracing our steps, so we had to loop back via the food alley.

We headed up to People's Park to a tea room JC remembered from his last visit, spotting live fish for sale on a bridge as we passed.  We could have also picked up a live terrapin from the vendor.

Heming Tea Room was a large, busy establishment. We settled in and people-watched, which was a lot of fun.  

We'd gone for a cheap cuppa, 30 RMB each (~£3) but if you wanted to splash out you could be served your drink by the tea master from a long spouted kettle, which was certainly a performance.    

You could also get your ear wax removed whilst you sat. We saw this happen in other tea houses and is definitely a thing to do over a cuppa.

People's Park was a pleasant stroll.

Next up was 'wide and narrow alley', which are 3 parallel pedestrian alleys crammed full of (mainly) tourist shops  It was heaving with tourists, unsurprising for a Friday evening, but glitzy sparkly ;-).  Chengdu is famous for its panda breeding centre so there are pandas everywhere.  JC discovered a Starbucks in all the hustle and bustle and popped in for 15 mins of peace.

Once we'd had our filled of tourist retail we hopped on the metro to find a confluence of rivers that looked worth visiting.  I did enjoy the metro card designs (I think I blogged similar excitement last year).

The Jinjiang River was nicely lit up and quite picturesque.  Parts of the waterfront were rammed with Chinese celebrating Halloween - there were some amazing costumes!

 

The walkways and vista was certainly fun to explore.

As it was our last night, we splashed out on a final hot pot.  I was fascinated by the DNA-esque look of the tofu. 

Saturday 01 November 2025

Home time.  For once, we didn't have an early start so pottered around the Wenshu Monastery for a bit before catching the train to the airport.  We checked in OK and, once on the plane, discovered we had been allocated two seats in a row of 3, with the middle seat empty.  How lovely. It became incredibly handy when, very early into the flight, I chucked yoghurt over myself, the seat and seatbelt: I had to move across to the empty seat as mine was too wet to sit on.  I took about 6 hours to dry too.

Our in-flight map got stuck over Russia - we were in our final descent, it stated "landing in 26 minutes" but the display suggested we were nowhere near!  Never trust a map...