Tag Archives: museum

The Polytechnic Museum in Moscow is a fascinating place with unique science and technology exhibits – some preserved as the only surviving examples. Alas, it’s been closed now for renovations since 2013 – so they’ve been building and changing things there for 13 years now. I hope it’s for the better and that someday the museum will actually reopen to visitors. In the meantime, you can view its exhibits at VDNKh and in the museum’s storage facility at Technopolis Moscow. So, since I’ve always been drawn to technical things – especially unusual ones – when I was kindly invited to tour the latter facility, I immediately accepted. And I’m really glad I did…

There’s pretty much anything and everything you could imagine here! All kinds of technical devices, gadgets, cars and motorcycles, photo and video equipment, televisions and radios, calculators, space artifacts – and even a mock-up of… an atomic bomb. To my surprise, there’s one thing they don’t have at all – agricultural machinery (why?!). But everything else is represented – maybe not in vast quantities (so not quite like the “Encyclopedia of Technology” in Verkhnyaya Pyshma), but still plenty…

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Hi folks!

Since my tales from the Altai side are many and lengthy, today – an interlude in-between two of them for a breath of fresh air. Not that you can get air (or river water) fresher than that in Altai, but, I digress…

And so, just the other day, I finally managed to visit the RKK Energiya Museum in the town small city of Korolyóv (often spelled Korolev) just outside Moscow. The museum is dedicated to both the company’s own story and the history of the Soviet and Russian rocket-and-space industry as a whole. My impressions? Absolutely amazing! And with all due respect to the Museum of Cosmonautics, this place is better!

This is the very spot where all these technologies were invented and assembled, and – for those that returned from space – brought back to again. That’s what makes this place truly unique: the spacecraft you see here were typically produced in just two or three identical “copies”. One would fly into space, while the others stayed on Earth. So even if these specific pieces never made it to orbit, everything here is original – not mock-ups.

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Ok, no messing about: let’s get stuck straight in with Karl Bryullóv‘s most famous painting:

Yes, that’s my photo of the original masterpiece – taken at Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery, where I was on Monday checking out the Bryullov exhibition with some colleagues to boost our collective cultural knowledge fund )…

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Hong Kong. Must-see – by everyone – obviously. However, from the sightseeing-tourist point of view, there isn’t actually all that much to do: in just two nice-weather days you can take a ferry ride and get up to the Peak, check out Hong Kong’s Big Buddha (more on that later), take an evening boat ride (more on that later too), and stroll along the promenade – and that’s basically it: you’re just about done; well, that is – if you or the party you’re with aren’t shopaholics. Oh – but if you want to see the “other side” to Hong Kong – the one away from the tourist traps and the famous skyscrapers and the large digital screens – that’s a bit diferent, and for that you need a really good local guide.

I’ve been to HK plenty of times: according to my photo archive, this was my 13^th trip. My first was way back in 2001, for a Virus Bulletin conference. (Woah: I thought Virus Bulletin was no more, but having just looked it up – turns out it’s still alive and kicking!) Wait – another mix-up: it wasn’t for the Virus Bulletin conference; it was for the AVAR conference.

Fast-forward to 2025, and Hong Kong’s Museum of Art made it clear all over again why there are so few tourist attractions in Hong Kong.

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If you’re not in the know, the words Louvre and Abu Dhabi might seem incongruent. But it turns out there’s an art museum in the latter that’s renting just the name Louvre off the famous Paris museum for 40 years (2007–2047) for US$500,000! What?! Just goes to show: never underestimate the value of a brand name!

Sure, I was curious – and in town. So of course – we just had to get ourselves over to the Louvre Abu Dhabi!…

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My previous post about Cairo turned out a bit gloomy, so let me lighten the mood with something upbeat! Today’s post is all about the Grand Egyptian Museum, aka the Giza Museum ->

This place is absolutely mind-blowing.

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Privyet folks!

My February and March passed unusually quietly – without any particularly long trips. Was it fate preparing me for upcoming heroic feats? Fate or no – here those feats come: the rest of April, and both May and June, are shaping up to be quite eventful.

In the meantime I’ve had the chance to visit a few cool places closer to home. One of them was the Museum of the Special-Purpose Garage.

And it turned out to be a most curious place! It houses both vintage and more modern cars that over the years have been used to chauffeur around the top officials of the country – since 1921 to present day. So for fans of the history of Russian state limousines, this place is simply must-see. Or even if you just like checking out luxury retro cars – it’s a great place to visit:

Read on: A VIP-car museum in Moscow – I just had to go!

The UMMC Museum Complex is an absolutely unique and astonishing collection of all kinds of machinery. This includes cars, airplanes, railway transport, and much, much more – both civilian and military, and from antique to modern-day. There’s even a submarine! An incredible place – and I’ve said that many times but never get tired of repeating it. The museum has over 10,000 (!) exhibits, so you won’t be able to see everything in just one visit, so don’t even hope for that. For a thorough and comprehensive tour of the exhibition, set aside two or even three days.

I’d already been here three times, walked around a lot, observed, was amazed – and then shared my photos and impressions. This time, I managed to carve out a couple of hours for a visit (which, of course, is categorically insufficient) – just to rush through and see the latest additions to the collection. Yes, yes, despite the enormous number of exhibits there are already, the museum continues to actively expand with new ones.

First, we head to the “Wings of Victory” exhibition hall, where aircraft and other aviation-related exhibits are mainly displayed. Wow! Another Douglas DC-3 in the collection ->

Aha, they were built in the USSR under license until as late as 1952.

So what else is new in the halls?

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At the weekend, I visited the highly recommended ATOM Museum at the VDNKh exhibition complex in northern Moscow. And I can report that it’s an absolute delight! Simply must-visit for the whole family – if you find yourself in the Russian capital, that is…

In the entrance hall – straight down to business: a scale model of… can you guess which element?*

From the beginning of the nuclear arms race through to the modern-day achievements of Russia’s (peaceful) nuclear-energy industry – there’s a lot covered here (and in great detail). The main downside: no history of the early research (Marie Curie, Pierre Curie, and all that). But everything else is well-organized and informative.

In we go – and downward: to the minus-third floor…

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Hi folks!

Earlier this week I took a whirlwind trip up to St. Petersburg; however – I did not go on a walkabout around this particularly beautiful city. What?…

Sure, I normally get out and about in St. Pete, but that’s because I tend to go there during the summer months – or at least in spring or fall; rarely in the depths of winter. But I’m no fan of bad, wintry weather – all gray and damp and the days being real short. So, like I say – no walkies. But we had something else planned – indoors: a visit to the Hermitage! ->

First up: see these pics? All as per (historically significant, beautiful, intricate, grandiose, opulent…) – right? But there’s one thing missing; can you guess what?…

Come on… worked it out yet?

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