Shallow travellers

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Its hard to say that we were in St Petersburg because so much of it was seen through the windows of a bus and as far as I am concerned unless I can mooch into whichever street/restaurant/shop or museum I please and make some sort of connection with the people then it seems fairly pointless to be there at all. I would have got much the same impression from a travel programme on TV. Anyway the guide, a Russian called Vladimir, fixed us all up with headsets and then put his own on " Ladies and Gentlemen, can you hear me?" We all shook our heads. So he told us to press the button at the top repeatedly which we all did with no effect. Then someone asked him if he had got himself properly plugged in .... and then we were all deafened! But........ we went to the Hermitage and Vladimir was very sympathetic to our riduculous predicament in that we only had about 3 hours to whizz round it an get some sort of overview. So: this is the Gaugin room: yes it has some of the best examples anywhere but sorry we have to move on to the Picasso and Matisse rooms and somehow make time for Rembrant, Titian, Poussin and Caravaggio! Oh dear me that was frustrating! But I had a nice little wander on my own when everyone else went to the loo because we had been told to meet up again by the sculpture room and I found some beautiful carvings like the Three Graces and several others in that lovely Carera marble.

Back on board our Captain was in jocund mood (and this has to be read with a very slow but deliberate Norwegian accent: "A very good evening to you Ladies and Gentlemen. This is your chauffeur. Here on the bridge everything is ready but our Chief Engineer is reporting a little problem with his engines so our departure will be delayed for a little while........" If only we had known; we actually had an extra 3 hours sitting in the crappy old docks which could have given us a little more time to gaze at the Ladies of Tahiti in the Hermitage - hey ho!

On to Tallinn and here may I give that little capital of Estonia a ten out of ten. It was beautiful. Exquisite. We stepped off the ship and wandered into a mediaeval city which was every bit as beautiful as Prague but much much smaller and the black beer (dare I say it?) easily rivalled the Czech version. This is a place which would be worth visiting for a romantic weekend to celebrate something special. Oh and I had sweet peas for lunch! Really .. they were the garnish on my stovies and we were told to eat the leaves! Something for Glyn's supper!

Getting very fond of this cruising business - love our ship where it looks like a ship and love walking the decks with the big wool blanket late in the evening to watch the sunset. It is very exciting to wake up in a new place nearly every morning but as the beautiful Estonian girl said to us this afternoon this way we see everything and we see nothing. It is shallow travelling on the deep blue sea!

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