Lynda and Henry

Well here we are at the end of our time in the Ukraine, we have been to Kiev, the Crimea and the last few days in Lviv. It was very emotional to think we were here in the birth country of Henry's mother and grandparents while his sister Anita was being buried in Adelaide. We are both very tired after a week of 5 hour guided walking tours. The guided tours are a great way to see lots and learn something of the history and you lose a lot less time getting from one point to the next. Asking questions yields more information - the guides have been very well trained. The apartment we are in is a renovated C19th era, 4th floor, no lift, but at least the renovations include a toilet/bathroom with the communal ... read more

Our cruise has come to an end but as we had very poor Wifi we have not done many blogs, so this will be a short up date. Highlights of the cruise first days-: walk around small village which seems to survive on souvenirs sold to wealthy tourists, wooden architectural village, vodka tasting, lots of beautiful views along the way. I will publish this while we have good access then try some more blogs. ... read more

The last day of our tour of the Baltic states, what an amazing diversified day in medieval Talinn. Some sights of medieval buildings and narrow passages such as St Catherines passage. Then of course it was time for morning tea, with hot chocolates and fresh blackberry cake, what else can you do when you find a lovely courtyard with a famous chocolate shop, yes it seems to be about food! Then we went off to the tower of St Olaf's church for some amazing views from the tower of St Olaf's church, I managed to cope with the 258 steps and my fears of heights quite a challenge. We saw several groups of tourists from cruise ships and I think HK is wondering how he will cope being in a large group after being a free ... read more

We spent the day wandering around the wonderful old town of Kuldiga, it is not visited by many OS travellers as it is a little off the beaten track so a hire car makes it a bit easier, it was well worth the drive. We drove on to Jurmala, we decided to stay in the Latvian resort town and make a 30 min train ride into Riga. We stayed at the lovely Jurgas Banga 2 mins from the main mall and 1 min from the beach. The next day we spent the day in Riga old town and the area with all the art nouveau buildings particularly Albert St. Henry wanted to go for a drink of Latvian real beer in a place called Alberta Pipes it was a specialist pipe shop where people particularly men ... read more

We were traveling from the Hill of Crosses to Kuldiga in Latvia,we had taken a different route to the original plan and I suddenly realised we were only 50K west of Rundale Palace so we did a U turn and went east. It was late in the day we had 1 hour to look inside at the 40 renovated of 128 rooms, but we were not told we had to pay an extra lat to take photos inside, we had paid by card as we had no cash yet so we missed out on side photos. It was well worth the visit. The same architect as the winter palace in St Petersburg so it will be interesting to compare. The cost of renovations and the effort after it had been left in the Soviet era is ... read more