Blogs from Russia, Europe - page 14

Saturday morning, after a sleep in and breakfast, we arrived in the city of Irkutsk at 10-45. We were met by our local guide, Larisa, who was to be with us for two days. We first drove across the river, Angara, and stopped at a beautiful park containing two churches and monuments to other saints and heroes. I immediately felt drawn to this place, it has a life and spirit to it that we had not seen in the other three cities we have visited along the way. St Saviour’s church was an imposing sight with a tall bell tower and icons painted as mosaics on the outer walls. In front was a memorial to people whose graves had been found when they rebuilt the church after its destruction by Communists during the Soviet era. Unfortunately, ... read more

We arrived in Krasnoyarsk about 10am on Friday. We were met and immediately taken off for a city tour. Unfortunately the weather had turned and it was misty, grey and threatening rain. We drove into the city centre and the main square, where predictably there was a theatre .There were some intersting "dancing" fountains which were amusing a lone small child in the centre of the square. To the left we were told to look at the clock tower. This was described as Krasnoyarsk's Big Ben. On the side of the square was another fountain which would hve been very pretty, but it was undegoing repair and restoration. This depicted the local rivers as maidens and the god of the river in the front accepting his guardianship. At the bottom was also a statue to Anton ... read more

The train sped through the night and we slept pretty well. We stopped at Kirov for about 20 minutes and were able to walk along the platform. Nice to have a break and breathe the fresh air. Breakfast was fine with cereal, fruit and yoghurt and omelettes and eggs cooked to specification if wanted. The view from the window was mainly of birch tree forests with small towns containing wooden houses and unmade roads. We did go through some larger cities and our next stop was at Belezino station. Here we watched as they changed engines. The train is very comfortable. We have a cabin to ourselves but it could be a four person with two sleeping on fold down bumk beds. There are many Italian speakers in our carriage and they are all crammed in, ... read more

Your trusty travelers had two exhausting days in St. Petersburg. A ton of walking, but most thankfully the city is flatter than a pancake. Pete usurped the land upon which the city was built from the then powerful country of Sweden who attacked him through Poland and the Baltic countries. He eventually defeated Sweden during the summer campaign of 1709 and continued construction of his magnificent city. Indeed the city is magnificent. The roads are wide and arrow straight. Buildings majestic, yet we wonder their condition and use during the soviet era. Our street is the very long Nevsky Prospekt, which is filled with commercial enterprises interspersed with historical buildings and monuments. These capitalistic shops were not here in 1955, we feel sure. We have a couple of pictures as we walked "a gazillion miles" according ... read more

(Ok, I added some pics in to yesterday's post) Another busy day today! Thankfully customs went waaaaay quicker - not even 5min. We started with a quick photoshop at St Isaac's Cathedral - it wasn't open yet, but we got pictures from outside at least. It's the 4th largest domed church in... Europe? World? I forget. Regardless, it's big lol. We drove out to another summer palace - Peterhof - but instead of going inside we enjoyed the gardens. It was a long drive, I think most of us napped lol. It's still quite hot, so def makes you sleepy. Anyway, Peter the Great built this palace/garden after he visited Versailles in France. Its main attraction is the system of cascading fountains - they don't use any electricity or pumps, it's all through gravity which is ... read more