Still sailing for the island of Mandrogi on the Svir river. A number of locks to negotiate including one very large one. Mandrogi was occupied by the Finns in WWII and the villagers were expelled. In the 1990s Russian businessman Gutzeit constructed a replica village in the old Russian style which is visited by both Russian and international tourists. Today it is a living museum. There are demonstrations of old crafts such as doll painting, jewellery making, wood carving and pottery. There is also a vodka museum which contains 2800 brands. For lunch we had a traditional Russian BBQ of shashlick, vegetables and salads . A traditional band of musicians played for us for over an hour. There was a female singer and two males who played the balalaika and accordion. They played traditional music and ... read more

Our trip to Helsinki was a brief one unfortunately. We left Tallinn and boarded the ferry, Business Class of course. Free food and drink for the entire trip. As it was early morning we started with coffee. A smooth ride and a look in the duty free store. We had lunch before we left the boat, as we started our city tour from the pier when we arrived. We visited the abstract Sibelius monument which was very controversial as it looks like organs but Sibelius wrote very little music for organs. The artist placated people by adding the face of Sibelius next to the sculpture. Next we visited the Temppeliaukio “rock” church which was quarried out of the ground. No gold, no icons, just a copper dome, exposed rock walls and concrete beams. It is used ... read more

On the way today from Lithuania we visited the Hill of Crosses. One of those “if I hadn’t seen it I wouldn’t have believed it” moments. The hill began as an alter for Pagan rituals worshipping nature but when Lithuania concerted to Christianity people started to bring crosses. It is a site where people met during periods of danger. People place crosses there for any special occasion such as births, deaths, marriage. During the Soviet occupation it became a symbol of Christian resistance and the crosses were repeatedly bulldozed and raw sewage was left on it a number of times but each time the locals cleaned it up and then the Soviets gave up. Some wit had placed a special message for Harry and Meaghan’s marriage. Crossed the border into Latvia and our next stop was ... read more

Our Baltic adventure begins. We travelled by train from Berlin to Warsaw in comfortable 6 berth cabins. First class fare included free instant coffee, tea , juice or water once we had crossed the border from Germany to Poland. We passed through mainly rural countryside with vast areas of produce including cherry trees laden with fruit. From the train we saw a Statue of Christ in Swiebodzin, cost $1.5million. The figure is 33 metres tall ( Christ was 33 when crucified), the crown is 3 metres tall and it sits on a mound, so all up it is 52.5 metres overall. Completed in 2010. After a long day we arrived in Warsaw and were taken to our hotel for a quick checkin and change before we went to ... read more

We left Kolkata on our flight to Singapore. It was uneventful . After arriving at the airport we changed our Indian rupees for Singapore dollars and I was about to order coffees while we waited for our flight. Instead we were called to the Singapore Airlines desk. Our flight was overbooked and as we had a connecting flight in Sydney to Canberra they asked us if we would like to be moved to the direct flight leaving later that night. The compensation would be an upgrade from Premium Economy to Business, access to the Business Lounge, accommodation and meals at the Crowne Plaza airport hotel for the day. We decided to say yes as we had been awake for over 24 hours ( not counting small naps on the plane). We also asked for our bags ... read more