Blogs from Russia, Europe - page 13

We were making our way through the entrance to St Petersburg as we awoke this morning. The sky was heavy with dismal looking clouds and we thought it was wintery but by 10am the sun had burnt the cloud off and it was a gorgeous blue sky day. We breakfasted in La Terraza and then found some more parts of the ship we hadn’t seen before, making our way up to the library lounge at the top of the front of the ship. We spent some time in there before wandering back down to our suite. I’ve been madly reading my book and just want to sit and read (The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton), but this is not to be done. We had an early lunch up at the pizzeria above the pool deck - ... read more

After a big day yesterday we had breakfast at the hotel and headed for the hop on hop off bus at St Isaac’s Cathedral and headed along the Main Street to Victory Square where there is a huge granite column commemorating the 900 day siege of Leningrad from 1941 to 1943 which without the bravery of the citizens of Leningrad would of almost certainly fell to the Nazi’s and the city destroyed. Around the perimeter of Victory Square, we visited the “Moscow“ Railway Station (main train line to Moscow) which is the last surviving structure by a famous French architect as well as a brand new western style shopping mall “The Galleria” which included most of the high end fashion labels in Andrew’s Wardrobe except for Harris Scarfe says Tish. We visited a number of shops ... read more

Yay! My visa was approved and I'm official to travel to Russia in the month of October. How stressful to send your passport away in the mail, fingers crossed that the company that you are using is legit and that it will make it to the Russian consulate and back? Whew. Glad that's done. I used a private company because the process to obtain the visa from the US is a little daunting and I didn't want any room for error. I basically paid my fee and filled out an application that contained the info they would need to file for the visa on my behalf. They also took care of the invitation letter that I needed, so I didn't have to go through one of my Airbnb hosts because I'm not staying in a hotel. ... read more

So my birthday did not finish as expected, President Putin did not send a undercover agent to pick me up for a meal in the Kremlin - I am sure it was because a major event was happening and he just could not spare the time in his busy top secret world. Anyway we decided to go to Gorky Park which to be honest was a BIG mistake I really did not want a birthday meal of eating a pizza or burger in a take-away (yes you guessed it Mike forgot to book a restaurant). Anyway we decided that we would walk back to the district named as Red October - yes that's correct Red October and no Sean Connery was not there waiting to wine and dine me for my birthday either (things are going ... read more

So it's day 2 in Moscow and we have a private tour booked - why are you having a private tour I can hear you ask! Well if you have ever been on a tour with me you will know the one person who asks so many questions and you are thinking not again!! Well that's me so that is why we have a private tour just to save everyone else the misery of another question. Before this we have booked breakfast in the hotel which is a novelty for us as I normally say no way let's eat like the locals. Anyway would you believe the breakfast room is situated around a fountain and that is not the best bit whilst eating your breakfast from an around the world buffet who walks out but a ... read more