European Museum of the Year Award, 2009

A week ago, I travelled to join 200 delegates at the European Museum of the Year Award 2009. The same day, I set up my first blog. Which subsequently disappeared into the ether. So bear with me while I copy my first memorable entry from that day. 

I started this trip at 4.30 this morning in Peckham, south east London. It is now 11.45 pm local time (London +2) I am in Asia Minor. So far today I have taken three taxis, one ferry, one plane, one train and one minibus. I have crossed the River Thames by car, the English Channel by plane and the Bosphorus by ferry. I am not sure how environmentally friendly that makes me, but it is a pleasure to be here for the opening of this year's European Museum of the Year conference and ceremony. 

This annual celebration of the best in European museums is an occasion I look forward to every year, and this one promises to be an interesting one, with museums on the shortlist ranging from the Museum of Brittany in Rennes to the City Museum of Ljubljana in Slovenia to the St Petersburg Avant-Garde Museum to the Hilversum Sound and Vision Experience in the Netherlands. As the conference gets under way, I shall be able to report on some of the more exciting ideas in the sector.

For now, I bid you good night, having tasted two glasses of Turkish raki - an aniseed cloudy aperitif of which I dare not ask the exact alcoholic content - with an excellent dinner of grilled seabass...