Day 8-9 (May 10-11) A four hour journey by local bus took us from Klaipeda to Vilnius the capital of Lithuania. Vilnius is a place with many churches and preserved buildings. It has one of the oldest universities (1500’s). The next day we visited the old capital at Trakai about an hour away, and it’s feudal castle and museum surrounded by a lake. Rather amused by the three dimensional picture of a royal speaking from one of the rooms. My room-mate and I found a great place by the river for a leisurely lunch of local fare - a zeppelin. This [View Full Entry]

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Day 6-7 (May 8-9) The following day was another bus journey to our next destination, Klaipeda on the Curonian spit in Lithuania, but not such an early start. We travelled through more amazingly green countryside. We arrived to find that we had a converted guest house which had two adjoining rooms sharing a small lounge area. More importantly it had a kettle so we were able to make our own coffee. Kettle’s in rooms is not the norm in Europe, apparently, so this was a real treat. (it’s funny how small things please when you don’t have them). Dinner was local [View Full Entry]

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Day 4-5 (May 6-7) Next morning we had an early star leaving by 6am. Our hotel kindly packed us a breakfast, and then we were off to Riga by coach. About a 5 hour journey. Coming into Riga it seemed quite a depressing looking city with old Soviet style buildings or older buildings that had been neglected under Soviet rule. The bus dropped us off at the bus station next to the local food market, which was outside and inside 5 large aircraft hangers. The produce looked wonderfully fresh. After settling into our hotel we headed out to get a quick [View Full Entry]

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Day 2-3 (May 4-5) Arriving in Tallin, Estonia around 2pm we had about a 15 minute walk to the hotel, which is a sports hotel and has full gym, pool etc. Our orientation walk around Tallin was really informative. We learned how for the last 6 or 7 hundred years Estonia has been ruled by various countries, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, and Russia mutltiple times. Spending very little time being independent. One of the main parts of the economy is tourism, and the old part of town is certainly geared toward that, but it hasn’t detracted too much from the charm of [View Full Entry]

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Day 1 - May 3 Early morning taxi to Finland Station. The taxi was an ordinary new car (no taxi markings) but the driver was friendly and had some English, we even managed a joke over the exchange of fare and receipt. The train journey was 6 hours, including the hour for the Russian and Finland immigration checks (the Finnish officials wanted to know why I was travelling alone, a rather odd question I thought from the broad minded Finnish people). On the train we were given an unusual breakfast of yoghurt, chocolate coated sponge cake with jam and cream, and [View Full Entry]

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Day 20 -28 (April 23-May 2) Our overnigh train is a breeze with a 7am arrival St Petersburg and a 10 minute walk to our guest house, where we stored our bags while we went out for breakfast. Like most restaurants/cafes there isn’t an English menu and which is where travelling with a leader makes all the difference. With a coffee and good breakfast inside us we met our local guide who took us on a walk of the backstreets of St Petersburg. She was a really enthusiastic guide, wanting us to understand that St Petersburg is more than just the [View Full Entry]

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Day 17 -19 (April 21-22) Catching the bus in Vladimir is interesting in that the buses run so regularly that you don’t need to book, they run as soon as the bus is full or every half hour whichever comes first. It is a four hour journey, but finally we have arrived in the modern and current Russian capital. We transfer to the amazing Moscow metro and four stops later we have arrived (metro trains run every 2 minutes, and the stations are works of art). To get to our hotel is a short walk but made longer as it feels [View Full Entry]

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Day 15 -16 (April 19-20) Vladimir is an old capital, but we move on from here by local bus to the nearby town of Suzdal (also an old capital). Because it is that bit further from the Trans-Siberian train line it hasn’t been developed as much and retains it’s old charm. Suzdal is a town of so many churches (over 50) for a population of only 12,000. Most of the churches are actually two buildings, a smaller one for winter to save on heating, and a larger one for summer (to impress). It is a Unesco World Heritage area and not [View Full Entry]

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Day 12 -14 (April 16-18) Trans-Siberian We boarded our train late afternoon and were soon travelling through birch forest and snow. Every now and then little villages would appear and then they are gone. We stop at larger stations, the closer we get to Moscow the larger the towns, including some impressive bridges over the passing rivers. Irkutsk to Vladimir is 4,943 kilometres and taking almost 74 hours. The journey was surprisingly quick with reading, games of cards and yahtzee, stops at stations where we could get off for 20 minutes. We were careful to make [View Full Entry]

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Day 10 -11 (April 14-15) We head off in a private bus without staying in Irkutsk and go straight to our guest house in Listvyanka. Breakfast was waiting, wonderful sweet cottage cheese things, pancakes, bread and cheese and meets, porridge and juice and coffee. Fantastic food, and a ideal place to stay. It is not too cold only -2. with our warm gear on we head out for a walk in the surrounding hills. A circuit involving some steep and slippery parts up and down brings us back a spot overlooking the township where we can see the frozen lake - [View Full Entry]

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