Blogs from Saint Petersburg, Northwest, Russia, Europe - page 7

It's raining...off and on. Thankful for Gett (Russian uber) not to have to walk so much. A four mile ride is 204 rubles ($3.50), tip included. Started the day at the Russian Naval Museum. Many many models of ships from wooden sailing vessels to modern aircraft carriers. Most of them at least four feet long and many longer, lots of detail. The period 1900 to 1940 seems to be the favorite. During that time was the Russo-Japan war and the revolutions of 1917. There was a full scale version of an early one man submarine; I took my time considering how brave (drunk) a person would have to be to climb into that thing. Touring took the entire morning and into early afternoon. Then to the Cruiser Arora for a visit. Arora is the full scale ... read more

OH MY GOD WHAT FUN! Went across street from hotel to a outdoor stage performance (musicians, magicians, kids shows, etc). While waiting for their appearance, the girl troop was dancing to "Shake, rattle and roll", so I went over grabbed a clown and did the jitterbug. She followed well. When it came time for their act, they called all the kids in the audience up to dance...and me! The toy soldier was my interpreter. Can't get the video to upload, I'll try facebook.... read more

Amsterdam was peaceful and the plane ride over was perfect. Getting through customs and luggage retrieval was a breeze. Then the pleasure trip took a little market correction. My transfer from the airport to the hotel was a no show. Glad I had a hard copy of the contract. With details left out, I ended up taking an airport taxi (at three times what I paid for the service). Orbitz made a mistake sending me an email asking how everything was going. I plan to tell them. Got to the hotel and just like the market, there was an upswing. Yanina at the front desk has been more than helpful with little details. She is now elevated to 'niece' position. I'll miss her on her days off. Walked around the neighborhood past McDonalds and Burger King ... 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

Today we sail into St Petersburg, Yea! You can only leave the ship if you have a visa or are taking a tour with a government approved tour guide or company. Since the visa costs as much as a tour, we will take a two day tour. Our tour was supposed to start at 6:45 and it is 7:41 and customs has not cleared our ship. Hurry up and wait will be the order of the day, welcome to Russia. Our first stop is Moira Palace where Rasputin was murdered. Rasputin was a Russian mystic, it was believed he had undue influence over the Tsar and his wife Alexandra. He was invited to the palace and killed by a group of men. We saw public and private rooms. Next on the agenda is St Isicas Church, ... read more