Home Again

We are now at home and to recap St. Petersburg and our trip in general.  St Petersburg needs more exploring on our part.  The city seemed congested and busy a completely different feel from Moscow.  It is considered the Venice of the North.  Lots of bridges and waterways but not nearly as many as Venice. 

We chose to do a walking tour with our river cruise and feel this was the wrong choice since the bus tour was able to explore some of the more famous churches that we viewed from a distance.  Many feel St. Petersburg is a much prettier city when compared to Moscow, most likely due to the palaces that were built by Catherine the Great.  We disagree we seemed to like the feel in Moscow more.  We were able to see a ballet and Faberge eggs up close at the museum as well as getting some extra steps and flights of stairs in to counteract dessert and wine each night with our walking tour. 

River cruising is the ultimate in pampering and no stress travel.  The river is totally flat and the scenery is forest and trees.  Great food, interesting people easy to meet and talk with during meal time.    The weather in general was cooperative and only a few episodes of rain and one cold day.    Jet lag and long flights remain a continued problem and  could discourage traveling although as we speak I am looking at our next trip.

Will we go to Russia again?  Maybe, but it will be after we have seen a lot more of Europe and South America.  There is still so much more of the world to see. 

Some views of some of the fountains

Today is our last day in Russia. We toured Peterhof Palace. The first post is of the interior. Again Dan and I have a billion pictures of the floors. The claim to fame is the gardens and the fountains. The fountains are all gravity flow with the water going into the Sea of Finland. More photos of the fountains at the next post

Scenes from our Hermitage tour. We were more interested in the parquet on the floors. There are some great paintings that were collected by the Tsars but we were most intrigued by the architecture Oh how shallow we are!

Views on our walking tour. The restaurant receipt is from a glass of wine and a beer. Of course the wine was more!!! The total was about $10. The bus is actually a mobile bathroom to go to where the crowds are The hermitage is the green and whit e building.

Catherine’s Palace was our morning outing. We were most impressed with the floors in the palace. It is amazing that it has been almost totally restored after the WWII destruction.

Sunset from the boat on our way to St Petersburg. Lake Ladaego we crossed on our way to port. This is the largest lake in Europe and the 14th largest in the world.

The small village of Mandrogy. We stopped for 3 hours. It was a town similar to those in Alaska. There were only shops but Dan and I loved this town since they had craftsman painting, jewelry making, glass, weaving, and ceramics. Needless to say we helped the local economy after we walked the town being eaten alive by all the mosquitoes. Maybe we should have listened to the old Russians lady that said don’t go that way. Not only were we bug bitten on the way to the dead end road but on the way back. I guess the locals do know best

Kizhi Island

Today we continued up river to Kizhi Island.  The area is close to the Artic Circle.  We were expecting cool weather and had a glorious short sleeve day. Dan and I continue to support the local economy and we are in good company with other people on our cruise. Kizhi is an area that they created and moved all the log houses to to create a tourist attraction demonstrating how Russians in the far north lived and subsisted. Winter is up to 25 Celsius below for weeks or months in end. The island sits in the 2nd largest lake in Europe, Lake Onega.  Everything on the island is created of wood including the shingles on the turrets.  Island churches were built without the use of nails and all the residents used summers to prepare for the long winters.  There are shuttles that bring visitors from neighboring islands to spend the day. This is part of the regional waterways that allows transportation of goods between Europe or Iran

We have only a few hours here enough to explore see some of the craftsman, the shops, and the church.  We have a sail away party with happy hour appetizers and champagne and of course Vodka shots since it is Russia.  Of note we did skip the on board Vodka tasting, but did do the wine and we were a little disappointed. No worries about shipping home a case of Russian wine that is for sure.

On the River

Being on a guided tour takes some of the excitement out of our travel days although being catered to has some great benefits.  As we travel north the scenery in Russia is nothing like what I expected. It is mostly all forests with a few houses along the Volga or you will see a isolated group camping. It is devoid of industrialization and few roads are visible. Along the river we go up and down a total of 16 locks most of them done at night.

On board we have had Russian history updates which are informative but I still find it hard to keep everyone straight   There were language lessons and cooking Pelmeni. Napping in the afternoon is my new favorite thing to do since we seem to be getting up early since sunrise is at 3:30AM. Although it has been overcast so really not a great sunrise with blue skies

Along the river the towns we stop at are getting smaller and less populated although the area caters to the river boat traffic in the town of Yaroslavl the guides had 9 boats stop in one day. No wonder the market vendors were aggressive

In the town of Kuzino the monastery sits on the edge of a beautiful lake and was founded in 1397 with the cathedral completed in 1494. Lots of history as the monastery was a place of pilgrimage or tsars until Catherine the Great stripped it of the land and turned it into a prison. The church icons were saved and are still present in the Monastery museum dating back to the 1400’s

The highlight was a visit to the school to hear the students talk about there normal course of study and life for a typical student in this very tiny town

Shipboard. Lot of great food wine meeting new people. Sunrises and sun sets

Views from our tour of Kirillov. Does our student guide look like anyone you know. Also views of the Monastery