THE HERMITAGE The museum complex known as the Hermitage consists of five buildings. The first is the Winter Palace built by Peter the Great but never lived in by him. Empress Elizabeth was it’s first Royal resident. The Palace is in the Baroque style so loved by Elizabeth, with grand staircases and elaborately gilded walls and painted ceilings. Catherine the Great was Elizabeth’s daughter-in-law and a great art collector. She commissioned agents all over Europe to purchase collections as they came to market. Her first acquisition consisted of 250 pieces that had been owned by a German merchant. When it arrived in Russia, she realized that the Winter Palace was not suitable to display art as the walls were marble and silk. So, she built what is now known as the Hermitage, attached to the Winter ... read more

St. Petersburg - Day one. It will be difficult to describe the city of St. Petersburg without the overuse of “awesome”,” beautiful”, “spectacular” and other superlatives. It is a city of contrasts and it is vibrant and busy. As our tour bus leaves the port we see huge apartment blocks built in the Soviet era. Laundry can be seen hanging in front of the windows and some of the windows are covered with newspaper and plywood. The cement is crumbling and it is a depressing welcome, all the more so since the weather is cloudy and threatens rain. Shortly we see masses of new construction, huge apartment buildings but built with style and faced with brick and stone. We are on Basil Island, the largest of the 42 islands that make up the city. Planned by ... read more

Tallinn, Estonia Yippee!!!! Marion and John are onboard. And the luggage is here too. Once they settled in, we left to explore Tallinn. The city has been an important commercial port throughout its long history. It is located fifty miles from Helsinki, Finland and many Finns come across by ferry to party and pick up cheap liquor. Tonight, Madonna will be performing so we expect to see Madonna fans as we tour. We board a Hop-on-Hop off bus, HOHO, and ride through the modern lower town. The weather is sunny and Tallinn sparkles. The real gem is the Upper Town, an amazingly well preserved medieval town. Estonia has been under the rule of the Russians, Germans, Danes, Sweden, Russia and finally independent in 1991. The language of Estonian is similar to Finnish and Hungarian but most ... read more

8/1 Awoke early and wrote my blog and enjoyed a breakfast buffet before leaving for the port. The Eurodam is the newest and largest vessel in the fleet. I was checked in and on board by 11:45 and directed to the dinning room for lunch. Met Alison from Toronto who is on CruiseCritic and Madelyn and Gerry from Michigan. All three were exhausted as they flow in last night and just arrived this AM. Just confirmed my decision to come across one day early. Sitting in the Crow’s Nest and enjoying the view of the harbor while all around me passengers are sacked out for a rest. Expect the cabin to be ready soon and found out that I was up-graded from an inside (NN) to an outside (C). A visit from the upgrade fairy is ... read more

July 30-31 Flying east into morning is a strange experience. Our plane was full and the seats so close together that I was trapped the minute the person in from pushed her seat back. While an eight hour flight should have provided enough time for a good sleep, the fact that I couldn’t move made sleeping impossible and napping an iffy situation. Still, as we flew past Gander and near Iceland, the sky remained light and the remnant colors of sunset were always at the horizon. It seems that lately I have been blessed with flying in the “nursery”. On this flight there was only one little one (not three as on my flight from CA) and she was clearly distressed when she cried which wasn’t very often but coincided with my naptime. The connection in ... read more

Napier On February 3, 1931 at 10:43 am, the world shifted for the citizens of a sleepy little town on the hills of eastern New Zealand. An earthquake measuring 7.9 leveled the town and the broken gas lines ignited fires that roared across the rubble. More than 250 people were killed, crushed under the rubble or burned to death in the fire. The earth rose up 3 meters and what was once a harbor became in an instant a fertile plain. Once the shock was over the town with the help of the NZ government started to rebuild. Since it was at the start of a global depression, architects from all over descended on the town and rebuild using the latest technology and in the predominate style of art deco. Until the mid 80’s, when a ... read more

Picton OK. Enough with the weather! A SE Arctic wind that keeps the temperatures low and the rains coming is haunting us. That didn’t dampen our welcome by the local population where each passenger going ashore was presented with a small boutonniere. Since we carry approximately 1600 passengers, the work that went into this lovely greeting is extraordinary. Today I head to Ships Cove where Captain Cook first landed in 1770 and then returned again and again as it provided everything he needed to reprovision and careen the vessel. A natural spring provided fresh water and the Maori were friendly and helpful. There was a shallow slope where the vessel could be beached to clean the hull of barnacles and apply tar and pitch to the hull. On the way we saw shags (cormorants), gannets and ... read more

Christchurch Awoke to another blustery day, and off to the Botanic Gardens. The Flower Festival starts tomorrow. The gardens and the city were well prepared for the event decked out in flags and flowers. I wandered through the garden enjoying the sounds of birds and fragrance of beautiful plants and flowers. The river Avon meanders through the city and the gardens. Tourists were enjoying a “punt ride” on the river, poled by a fellow in suspenders and a boater. Very picturesque. I noticed something flying through the air and discovered the lads at the adjacent Christ College practicing either javelin throwing or spear chucking. It was quite disorderly but fun to watch. We boarded our coach for a ride into the mountains. The first half of the across the Canterbury Plains passed farming and grazing land. ... read more

March 10, 2009 Here is a long delayed report of the last few days. March 8 dawned over and dismal as we sailed into Milford Sound in Fiordlands National Park on the southwest coast of New Zealand. Our crossing of the Tasman Sea was rough but I found out that I am a pretty good sailor. The bonus of a rainy day in Milford Sound is the hundreds of cascading waterfalls. There is little topsoil and the runoff from rain in quick and brief. We benefited from the rain but also suffered from the low clouds and mist and did not sea the glacier. Given my choice I think I prefer the waterfalls. I would attach some pictures (I’m sure they are magnificent) but my digital camera died. No downloads and for the last two days ... read more

The animals. I can truthfully report that I have seen all the major Australian creatures. In Melbourne, the zoo is home to a nice collection, and the duck-billed platypus was very, very active. Much smaller than I expected, about 12” long”, he (or she) was swimming back and forth, nibbling on river grasses and making a real spectacle of itself. I would have loved a picture but they ask us not to use a flash and it didn’t come out without one. Again it was the aviary that blew me away. There were so many birds in this gigantic structure that is like playing that children’s game “How many birds can you find in this tree”. The answer is dozens. One parrot greeted us all with “hello”. Everywhere I looked there were wonderful colorful strange birds. ... read more