Jul 20, 2018 - We join the cruise ship

We came by high speed train from Helsinki to St Petersburg to join our cruise ship. We have now been moored here for two nights and will be leaving later this afternoon. Have had two very busy days here in St Petersburg. Yesterday we spent the morning at the Hermitage Art Gallery before doing a city tour of some of the highlights. We had an early morning start today to visit Peterhoff and tour the palace and the water gardens. It was wonderful and very similar to Versailles. Wi-fi is a problem on the boat and is restricted to a few areas (...

Jun 15, 2018 - .......Go on I trust U

June 15, Friday Last night when we came into our room there was a snack plate sent from the dining room in case we were hungry after our long day. We slept late, had a small breakfast, and Dick decided he would rather have a nap then get on another bus. So off Mary and I went to see Panaramic St Petersburg. Our guide was an older Russia woman who much preferred her city over Moscow. There was a lot to see. Every building has history. Museums everywhere, parks, statues, cathedrals, and the river. It is hard to absorb that much...

Jun 14, 2018 - Longest Shore Trip On Record-Our record

June14, Thursday Up at 5:30am and in the theater at 6:45am for bus assignment. Entered room at 12:45pm in what they call a white night. It never really gets dark just dusk. The northern lights this time of year are rare but showed off just for us. So what did we do for 17 hours? We were tour group #28, went through customs got a visa, had our passport stamped,and Got On the Bus. When we arrived at the train station we were told our seats & were joined by bus #29. The train was very modern, clean, plenty of leg room and it had Stewart’s...

May 29, 2018 - St Petersburg

Dear all, Well here we are again doing two blogs on the one day. Our visit to St Petersburg was two long tiring and comprehensive days. Our days were full of visits to palaces and churches. Both palaces and churches were very decorative with gold leaf covering lots of the items. The Amber room was all decorated with Amber stone, very plush. The walls and ceilings of the palaces were painted, covered in plush material hangings, tapestries or portraits of the various nobility. Some rooms were quite overwhelming. The churches had the gold on...

Dec 28, 2017 - Saint Petersburg

Cold temperatures but no snow welcomed us into the gorgeous city of Saint Petersburg. Things did warm us up a little after realising our cab driver had ripped us off big time. Not only that, but Igor the devilish Russian, delivered us to the wrong hotel. Similar name but !!! Piss be upon you Igor. Reception kindly got us sorted with a new cab and we were soon at the right address....or were we ? It was a shocker. Maybe Igor was right afterall. After one night we were out of there and into another. With closeness to Nevsky Prospect, Saint...

Oct 7, 2017 - Metro to Red Square

Well we got off to a slow start this morning. Denise slept until 10:00 a.m. trying to get better but to no avail. We missed breakfast and spun our wheels for awhile trying to figure out what to do. Wanted to go to the Kremlin Armory but no tickets were available. We decided to take the metro to Red Square as the weather was better today. The problem with the metro is that most of the signage is in Russian with its different alphabet. But to the adventurous there is enough English hidden here and there and some of the train announcements...

Oct 6, 2017 - Moscow

Finally risen from the dead. Have been unable to get out of bed for more than 1-3 hours the last three days. Mike has been sick too, but has been functioning better. The entire ship has been sick and it sounds more like a Typhoid cruise than a pleasure cruise. The doctor on board is a big fan of homeopathics which did nothing for my fever which finally broke today, enabling me to go on a 5 hour tour of Moscow (in the pouring rain). Tried to join the tours the last three days, but ending up sleeping on the back of the bus or returning to the...

Oct 5, 2017 - Uglich

Attempted another death bed rise to see the quaint town of Uglich. Was able to walk a bit, but then crapped out and had to return to the ship. That said, it was awfully cold - low of 39 and high of 45 and wet. Others were able to visit the home of a local family and really enjoyed the visit.We did walk around and see a local church but then that was it and we soloed back to the ship. As we walked back to the ship through a series of local vendor stalls, Denise saw a sweater/pancho she liked. After we got back to the ship and about 50...

Oct 4, 2017 - Yaroslavl

Stayed in bed all day and then attempted the City Tour and Governor's House tour. Made it through the Governor's house - wanna be period costume and music - eh. Went back to the bus and fell asleep while others went to the farmers' market which Mike said was really nice. Another basically lost day for me - viewing the waterways from the "comfort" of my sick bed - yuck!

Oct 3, 2017 - Coughing and sneezing

We are cruising again today. Denise is feeling worse than Mike. Mike went to breakfast and brought Denise some fruit and bagel (she is obviously under the weather). We finally felt good enough to go up and look at a very old church as we cruised past. Then we went to a Russian history presentation given by Misha, one of the guides. It covered the late 1930s to 1985. Denise is napping and Mike is on the shipboard computer. Today we cruised the scenic Volga-Baltic waterway. The waterway connects the Volga to the Baltic Sea. It is over 229...

Oct 2, 2017 - Kizhi and cruising Lake Onega

We docked this morning at Kizhi. It is an island inLake Onega and houses some of the oldest wooden buildings and churches in Russia. We walked around and explored the buildings with our local guide. It was cold and a little windy and drizzly. The temp was 45 degrees.The site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.The church of the Transfiguration was built without a single nail. It has five concentric circles of onion domes. We went back to the ship around 10:00 a.m. and set sail. Lake Onega is the second largest lake in Europe. As we cruised. we...

Oct 1, 2017 - Mandrogi

Sailed out of St. Petersburg last night. Sailed through the largest lake in Europe - Lake Ladoga - 6,900 sq. miles - last night and landed in Mandrogi around 12:30 today. Beautiful little community on the river. An old village with many craftsman and log cabin buildings. There were artists painting enamel, carving various items from birch bark, a blacksmith, laquer painting, Many Matroyshka stacking dolls, candy, felted items and other types of art. Leaving soon and I believe we will be at sea all day tomorrow, and ending up at Kizhi on...