Blogs from Saint Petersburg, Northwest, Russia, Europe - page 4

New laws recently inacted in Russia and highlighted in our paperwork before we disembarked. 1) NO waving of rainbow flags 2) NO Conspicious displays of same sex affection 3) NO Pride Parades Punishment includes jail and or expulsion from the country.... You get the idea of how forward thinking and inclusive Russia is.... These were just a few of the rules highlighted to us in the Princess Patter before we disembarked for St Petersburg Russia. We have spent the last two days here and this blog will cover both days. Firstly, I love Russia, St Petersburg and the incredible architecture from the opulant churches in the city centre to the stalin-esq stone buildings which lined the streets on our coach journey to see those churches. These stone buildings are actually high rise flats, grey and dank ... read more

On a Baltic cruise, prepare to sample a delightful diversity of cultures and history and bask in the rich natural beauty of the region. You'll enter a tapestry of stories which include the lore of the Vikings, the Hanseatic League, Peter the Great, and Catherine the Great. Discover the lands of Hans Christian Andersen and Alfred Nobel. Cruise highlights can include ports of call in Helsinki, Finland; St. Petersburg, Russia; Tallinn, Estonia; Stockholm, Sweden; Copenhagen, Denmark; and the breaktaking fjord country of Norway. Visitors to Helsinki, Finland can revel in its cosmopolitan flair as well as its historical past. Finnish cultural touchstones include the Senaatintori, or Senate Square; Temppeliaukion, the Church of the Rock; the Helsinki Cathedral, Tuomiokirkko; Ateneum Art Museum, and the National Museum; the medieval Hame Castle; and the sea fortress of Soumenlinna, built ... read more

I am in Russia! St. Petersburg, to be specific. It's been a long and eventful twenty-nine hours since I climbed off the plane in Helsinki, Finland yesterday afternoon. Now it is bedtime; I can read the time on my clock, but my body is very confused and quite tired. This time I am travelling with Trafalgar, and so far I am very relieved that everything has been excellent. After Bill's and my less than pleasant trip with Cosmos this summer, I didn't know what to expect with this company and worried a bit that this might be another mistake. But so far all is very well. Much information is given during our bus travels, and the hotels are located perfectly in city centers. There are 47 of us on this tour, filling a whole bus, but ... read more

Wow! What a huge day today! We were up early because our first tour was leaving at 9, and we’d gotten to bed after midnight last night! So after a quick brekkie, we were off, through border control and onto our tour bus with the great Andrey, the local tour guide. So we were off to the Hermitage. We were very lucky because the museum, which is usually seen by 30,000 people each day, but is closed on Mondays, was opened particularly for us. The Hermitage was built as a private museum for Catherine the Great and if you spent a minute in front of each exhibit you would take 8 years to go through it. So we toured the highlights of the highlights tour!! We went through the Winter Palace, the Small Hermitage, the Old ... read more

Our last full day in St Petersburg was spent taking a 3 hour walking tour from the Anichkov Bridge on Nevsky Avenue Where we met our tour guide Glenn. It was a rainy start to the day so we were the only ones that turned up so we ended up having a personalised 3 hour tour of St Petersburg. Glenn took us around the back streets of St Petersburg where we learned that St Petersberg is a young City mostly built in the 1800’s by 5 Italian and French architects who left their imprint on this city on a big way. St Petersburg has borrowed its sense of place from all the great European cities so there are parts of St Petersburg which make you feel like you are visiting Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, Venice, Florence. We ... read more