Blogs from Russia, Europe - page 21

Yekaterinburg was founded in 1721 by Peter the Great as the area is rich in iron ore and, as at this time, Russia was embroiled in the Great Northern War with Sweden, Peter gave instructions for new sources of iron to be sought. He named this city after his new wife Catherine (not to be confused with Catherine the Great who came later!) Yekaterinburg is the 4thlargest city in Russia after Moscow, St Petersburg and Novosibirsk. The population is just over 2 million. Yekaterinburg is technically in Asia at the foot of the Ural mountains that is traditionally the border between Asia and Europe. The temperature in Yekaterinburg was much colder than Moscow at a fresh 6 degrees Celsius. I have decided to wear two watches to try to beat the confusion of Moscow time versus ... read more

It’s full steam ahead in Moscow. Today we met bright and early, at 9am, for our next excursion. All excursions on this trip are fully included. That doesn’t make you feel so bad if you decide to drop out of any part of it. Natalia, our Moscow guide, did mention that yesterday’s sightseeing would be by car but today’s excursion around the Kremlin and Armoury, followed by a tour of the most elaborate metro stations, would all be by that dreaded word in Roisin’s vocabulary, the MOSCOW METRO!! As our hotel is about an hour’s walk from the Kremlin and it was unlikely that we would be piling in to a bunch of taxi’s at ‘Go Russia’s’ expense, the next most convenient and by far the cheapest mode of transport is the metro. As we were ... read more

It’s amazing how many people we know or have met who have experienced the diverse adventure of the Trans-Siberian railway. From a friend I met through following Liverpool and England’s (lack of) fortune who started the long trek by train from the UK to Moscow via Belarus to friends we met whilst at sea (although we only found out quite recently) who journeyed back in the day when the Russian words perisroika and glasnosthad yet to make it in to the Oxford English dictionary!! This trip has always been near the top of our bucket list (along with being zoo keepers for the day!!) However, it was our good friends Donny and Marie who convinced us to step up to the plate. They provided the name of the company and in doing ... read more

We set the alarm clock for 5AM and when I awoke I realized that I had a real problem with the big toe on my right foot. It hurt… a lot; but only when something touched it. It was red, slightly swollen and it did not like it when I put my red sneakers on. We caught a bite in the Lido, and I got a couple of cold-cut sandwiches just because I know how much it bothers Sharon; but, also because they are pretty good. But one thing was certain, I wasn’t going on any tour today wearing these red shoes. Back in the cabin a changed into a pair of Sketchers; which, at least solved the big toe problem constantly complaining and I thought, maybe I could survive today’s 17 hour tour after all. ... read more

St. Petersburg We had no problems with our flight to St. Petersburg. We were a little apprehensive about going to Russia as in the Scandinavian countries we knew that English was spoken as a second language and it would be easy to ask for directions and information on transport options from the airport to hotels. But we were not even sure if using ATM’s to get currency would be straight forward here and we knew that signs would be in Cyrillic and that few Russians would know English. So, this was an experience that has not really happened for many years, that of arriving in a very foreign environment. However, our fears were allayed when we spotted a MacDonald’s and Starbuck cafes at the airport. In fact, one of the disappointing things about travel these days ... read more