Thursday, September 9--Goritsky We were in Goritsy right after lunch. The homes in the smallish village of Goritsy were very interesting with cut out, lacey fretwork above and around the windows and along the eaves. Houses were brightly painted and villagers allowed tours of their homes. The couple whose home we looked in/and through were painfully proud of their home. They had three kinds of heat in the house—radiators, gas heat and wood stove. He had built the home himself and was the local carpenter. She was the town’s vet. The older homes we saw as we walked along had all the same decorations but none of the new paint. Many of the homes had lovely flower gardens—the dahlias were especially nice. Veggie gardens were also abundant. This couple also kept a goat and some sheep ... read more

Tuesday, September 7th—Cruising Lake Lagoda and Verchnie Mandrogi We started our day with a buffet breakfast as we have had every day. Valerie and I both had eggs Benedict. I thought it was quite good except for some egg shells. Each day they have had a different hot cereal. This morning it was buckwheat, which I didn’t try as I don’t care for the sour taste. Yesterday, however, I did tried some millet cereal. It was ok–sort of looked like grits, but not as smooth in texture. After breakfast we went back to sleep as we were just crossing an uninspiring lake and we were really tired after the two days prior going full out. At about 11:30 we docked with the other boats at the reconstructed village of Verchnie Mandrogi. It had been a real ... read more

Sunday, September 5th--Saint Petersburg, Russia After breakfast aboard the ship, all of Polina’s charges boarded a tour bus at the dockside. The bus drove through the city and the local guide pointed out the various buildings, churches, historical places, etc. and told the history of the city. She kept saying to look at the yellow facade on the right or around the next corner--the buildings were mostly painted yellow or cream or some similar light color. Apparently, since the days are short, someone--Peter the Great or Catherine, decreed all buildings in St. Petersberg were to be painted a bright yellow. The day was warm and clear even though they predicted rain--in fact rain was predicted almost every day, but it was short-sleeve-warm and mostly sunny the whole time. Every so often on the tour, we would ... read more

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 What a difference a day makes! Went from a capital city (Reykjavik, Iceland) that is smaller in public buildings than most small towns in US that are county seats to a CITY with narrow trams, HUGE railroad station like in Vienna and Frankfurt, buildings more than 5 stories etc., and many people rushing everywhere. Iceland with a total population of 300 thousand for whole country and its mostly pastoral setting was left far behind. (To see the blog for Iceland, the first part of our trip, go to: http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/blog-590551.html Walking from the train station to the hotel (Scandic Marski)---local bus from airport dropped us off there---we cam... read more