Travel to Ankara for a meeting of The European Library. The planes and an early pre-meeting mean I have to get there on Saturday night, so I have some time to see Ankara. But it's wet and cold and Ankara is a difficult city for a pedestrian - steep kerbs and footbridges over road junctions. It's a bit like Washington - long boulevards and state buildings - but with lots of barracks and minarets Ankara. I spend three hours in the The Museum of Anatolian Civilization and learn about the Hittites, neo-Hittites, Phrygians and Galatians - I'm impressed by a metal deer ornament to be mounted on a ceremonial pole, small gold mother-daughter tokens and the Gilgamesh reliefs from Eastern Turkey.
The meeting next day is largely about the relationship between TEL and Europeana. The National Library of Turkey are our amiable hosts and look after us.
The journey back is difficult - a boy racer taxi driver (and the seat belts don't work), and a long queue for the connecting flight in Munich. I get home after 10.00 and discover winter has arrived - time to put on the central heating.
