denise
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Post by denise on Aug 12, 2017 5:20:28 GMT
DAY 1
I flew into Warsaw from Australia the day the tour started. My flight landed at 12.15p.m. and the free transfer to the hotel was to depart at 12.30p.m. It was 12.45p.m. by the time I had cleared immigration and customs and fortunately the Tour Director Gennady (from Moscow) along with a couple from Sydney had waited for me. The next transfer wasn’t till 3.30p.m. so my tour certainly started on a good note!
The Sheraton is a very nice hotel, a big room and importantly tea and coffee making facilities in the room. All hotels we stayed at had tea and coffee making facilities, some also included 2 bottles of water and all but the last hotel in Moscow had an iron and ironing board.
6.30p.m. meet in the lobby and we took the coach to a restaurant. Champagne on arrival, share plates for entree and dessert and a choice of cod, chicken or vegetarian for main. 2 glasses of wine/beer and tea/coffee.
A nice meal, introductions were made and name badges handed out. I was very fortunate in that I made instant friends with a fellow female solo traveller from Brisbane.
There were 29 on tour, mainly from Australia, 2 couples from USA, 1 couple from NZ, 1 family of 4 from Philippines and 1 family of 3 from Singapore. 2 other female solo travellers although 1 was travelling with her brother and his wife.
This is 2 tours in 1 (Warsaw and The Baltic States plus Easy Pace Russia).10 people left in Tallinn with another 8 joining us in St Petersburg: 2 couples from Australia, 1 couple from UK and 2 female solo travellers from Canada.
I did all the optional tours except 2 (Chopin concert in Warsaw and the ballet in St Petersburg).
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denise
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Post by denise on Aug 12, 2017 5:22:23 GMT
Day 2 Warsaw 6.30a.m. breakfast. 8.30a.m. leave for city tour. I saw the same things that I saw on Trafalgar’s Bohemian Highlights tour in 2011. We had our group photo in front on Chopin’s statue in the gardens. We had 1 ½ hours of free time at the old town square – I even managed to find the same cafe that I’d visited in 2011. I changed some USD into Polish zloty. I did the optional tour to Wilanow Palace which was very nice with lovely gardens. By this time there was light rain and it became very cold. I was wearing coat, hat, scarf and gloves. Some people had arrived in Warsaw several days before the tour started and it was 23C! Unfortunately the cold was a taste of the weather for most of the tour – which we were told was unusual. We even had snow showers in Lithuania! I didn’t go to the optional of the Chopin concert that evening and had a burger and fries in the hotel bar which was good and filling and a reasonable price.
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denise
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Post by denise on Aug 12, 2017 5:23:44 GMT
Day 3
6.30a.m. bags out and breakfast.8.00a.m. depart for Lithuania – this was quite a long day on the bus.
The countryside is flat and uninteresting. We stopped in a small town for lunch. A few of us went to a pancake cafe and enjoyed tasty, huge crepes with a small salad. The lady serving us in the cafe was very excited to meet a group of Australians as her sister lives in Australia – she wanted to know where our kangaroo was!
We drove through snow showers, quite heavy at times and then occasional pockets of sunshine. Our driver – Gregory from Poland did a great job.
Our hotel in Vilnius is very quaint and is situated in the town square; my room has a view of the square and a Russian Orthodox church. Dinner included at the hotel chicken Caesar salad, pork with mashed potato and salad, ice cream, 2 glasses wine/beer and tea/coffee. The restaurant is situated at the front of the hotel and looks out onto the square. While we were enjoying dinner we saw several black SUVs pull up to the hotel entrance and lots of black suited men and military people get out. We then saw US Secretary of Defence James Mattis get out and enter the hotel. They stayed the night at the hotel as we saw the secret service type people at breakfast and organising all their equipment when departing the hotel the next morning.
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denise
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Post by denise on Aug 12, 2017 5:25:07 GMT
Day 4 Vilnius 6.30a.m. breakfast. 9a.m. depart for sightseeing – city tour by bus with a few photo stops.
We visited a lovely Baroque church with lots of stucco all in white – a very different type of church. We then walked back through the old town to the hotel – again a little light snow shower.
Next we went to Trakai, an island castle originally built in the 14th century. It was freezing cold walking across the boardwalk to the castle. Inside some of the rooms where there was armoury on display. There were lots of souvenir stalls, a couple of restaurants. We had lunch here and I had a takeaway local dish - kibinai – like a Cornish pasty with pork (there were other varieties – it was hot which was the main thing! ). I did the KGB Genocide Museum optional tour – very grim as to be expected. It was quite a quick visit approx 1 hr, it would have been nice to spend more time to read the plaques and displays. Outside was a memorial statue and part of the wall of the building had been replaced with bricks with the names of people that had been buried there and had been “missing” until after the fall of communism and their remains were uncovered. There were hundreds of these bricks.
Back to the hotel about 4p.m. enough time for a little shopping. Lithuania is famous for its linen and I bought 2 linen scarves, a pair of amber earrings and a couple of t-shirts. Amber jewellery was everywhere on this tour.
Optional dinner and folklore entertainment. This was in a restaurant walking distance from the hotel. There was just our group in a downstairs room. A very substantial meal: potato dumpling filled with pork sausage, veal in a nice sauce with mixed vegetables and potatoes, cherry strudel, 2 glasses wine/beer and tea/coffee. A trio of musicians played throughout the first 2 courses: violin, piano accordion and drummer. After the main course they called up several people to play a variety of musical instruments and we all joined in clapping and singing. Next a couple of us were called up to participate in a folk dance – all good fun. Different to what I expected but an enjoyable evening
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denise
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Posts: 86
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Post by denise on Aug 12, 2017 5:27:30 GMT
Day 5
6.30a.m. breakfast.7.00a.m. bags out. 8.00a.m. departure to The Hill of Crosses (on our way to Latvia).
This is a very unusual site. In the middle of nowhere there is a massive pile of crosses, hundreds and thousands – all different types and sizes. The Lithuanian crosses are quite unique – Lithuanians didn’t convert to Christianity until the 14th century and their crosses have sun rays on them that relate to paganism. There is a pathway amongst the crosses and you walk up a slight incline and then down the other side. It was very cold and there was snow on the paths and steps so you had to watch your step. There is a small tourist shop there and outside a stall selling crosses so you can add your own cross.
No lunch stop today on the way to Riga – we arrived there at 1.30p.m. Riga was my favourite place we visited. Our hotel was in a great location - very easy to find your way around, lovely old town with churches and wonderful buildings. Riga is famous for its art nouveau architecture. There are no skyscrapers in the old town so it’s lovely to use the church spires, domes and towers as land marks. The sun was shining and it had turned into a lovely day. We stumbled across the House of the Blackheads, built in 1334 and renovated in 1999– an amazing beautiful building! We went a different way back to the hotel and walked through a lovely park and crossed a canal that you could take a boat ride on.
5p.m. leave for optional Open Air Museum and dinner. A 30 minute drive out of the city to a forested area. This is a large site of historical Latvian rural buildings. We visited a few: a Lutheran church, farm house, sauna and granary. Our local guide, Juris, gave us a thorough introduction into Latvian farm life from years past, especially explaining about the importance of mid-summer and its celebrations.
We enjoyed a rustic dinner in a tavern: wonderful vegetable and sausage soup with sour cream, rye bread, raw vegies and a very nice dill dip; a platter of sausages, meatballs and ribs, potatoes and sauerkraut; cake for dessert and the usual 2 glasses wine/beer and tea/coffee.
Upon our return to the hotel at 8.15p.m.as it was still daylight I went for a walk to take photos of a magnificent golden topped Russian Orthodox church nearby.
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denise
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Posts: 86
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Post by denise on Aug 12, 2017 5:28:59 GMT
Day 6
6.30a.m. breakfast. 7.30a.m. bags out. 8.30a.m. departure to Tallinn.
We had a city bus tour of Riga followed by a walking tour. We went inside the Dom kirk (Lutheran cathedral). Riga is famous for its cats and there is actually a “cat house” with 2 statues of cats on its roof – there are 2 different versions of the story behind the cats but both versions are to do with a dispute with the Guild Hall.
Free time till 1p.m. when we leave for Tallinn. On the way we stopped at a small shopping centre, most of us went to the supermarket and I found a post office and bought stamps for my postcards. I also bought some throat lozenges as by this time as I was starting to get sick – this cold lasted with me until my return home.
Arrived in Tallinn at 6p.m. My room was on the 23rd floor and I had a view of the harbour. 7p.m. we met for an Insight drink in the hotel bar. Quite a few of us ate in the hotel restaurant which was very nice with great service. It was 10p.m. before darkness fell.
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denise
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Post by denise on Aug 12, 2017 5:29:56 GMT
Day 7
7a.m. breakfast. 9a.m. departure for city tour.
Blue skies and sunshine with a predicted high of 12C at about 3p.m. Tallinn is very busy and touristy – in this sense it reminded me a bit of Prague. The city is very Germanic and there is a lot of tourism around the Hanseatic League. We did the usual tour by bus and then walked in the old town – lots of cobblestones. I had lunch in an outside cafe and enjoyed soaking up the sun’s rays. Lots of tourist shops all selling the same things: amber, woollen and linen items. Got a bit lost walking back to the hotel but eventually saw the hotel sign on top of the building to direct us back.
Celebration dinner at the same restaurant in the old town where I had lunch: vegetable and fish soup; salmon and mashed potato and berry cake. 10 people leaving the tour tomorrow.
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denise
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Posts: 86
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Post by denise on Aug 12, 2017 5:40:36 GMT
Day 8
6.45a.m. bags out. 7.00a.m. breakfast. 8.00a.m. depart for St Petersburg.
Today was an uneventful day - it took about 2 ½ hours to get through both borders – I did get 2 stamps in my passport! As I was unwell and sneezing so much I sat in the back seat away from everyone else. Several people had experienced an upset stomach over the past few days so I’ve decided that I will stick to bottled water.
Traffic in St Petersburg is very heavy and didn’t get any better during the remainder of our stay in Russia. The drivers are also pretty bad.
When you arrive at a hotel in Russia you have to hand your passport into the reception desk so that they can process your details. You then need to remember to collect your passport.
My room was freezing and I couldn’t get the heater to work. Reception sent up a small bar heater which I plugged in next to my bed. I took the opportunity to do some hand washing – fortunately the heating somewhere had come on as everything was dry the next day – even jeans!
Dinner in the hotel tonight – the food at the Crowne Plaza wasn’t good. We had a buffet dinner and a lot of the dishes were not hot. The bread was nice though! Breakfast at this hotel wasn’t great either and a few people had issues with the egg chef and his manner as well as not cooking the eggs thoroughly.
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denise
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Post by denise on Aug 12, 2017 6:01:55 GMT
Day 9 St Petersburg
7a.m. breakfast. 8.15a.m. departure for city tour.
A dull, rainy morning. Drive around the city with photos stops – the city looked grim in the overcast, wet skies. The Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood was certainly not as colourful as it looks in photos. We didn’t go inside. Driving along and suddenly seeing The Winter Palace (Hermitage) around the corner was jaw dropping! The building is massive and the turquoise blue and gold colours really stand out. This was the start of being very overwhelmed by the opulence and magnificence of the palaces and other buildings we were to see and visit over the coming days.
We stopped at a tourist shop where we sampled vodka and also had free tea/coffee. A good tourist book on St Petersburg for 5 Euro.
Our local guide gave us a few options of where to go for lunch. A few of us went to a pie shop and I had a lingonberry pie, very dense pastry and very sweet.
There was a money exchange next to the hotel that was open until about 8p.m. so this is where I exchanged my USD into roubles.
That afternoon we had our optional visit to Catherine Palace – more wow factor! Spectacular – gold everywhere. We had to wear covers over our shoes to protect the parquet floor. At the end of the visit 1 Canadian lady got lost and exited through the wrong exit. Somehow the Tour Director missed counting us as we came out and it wasn’t until the bus was ready to leave that we realised she was missing. The Tour Director and local guide went looking for her and eventually she was found.
I have always wanted to go to St Petersburg and Moscow and part of the reason I took this tour was that we spent 4 nights in each city. Doing all of the optionals except the ballet – there was very little free time. I don’t know whether it was because I was struggling with a cold that I couldn’t shift but I definitely felt overwhelmed by the feeling of how “over the top” these cities were. There was certainly none of the iron curtain, grey Soviet feeling that was presumably around before the 1990's. In fact, the Russians seemed to have embraced capitalism – there were lots of black Mercedes cars, people were well dressed, all the major world-wide shopping chains were represented in shopping centres as well as the high end boutiques.
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denise
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Post by denise on Aug 12, 2017 6:22:18 GMT
Day 10 St Petersburg 7a.m. breakfast. 9.00.m. departure to Peterhof .
The previous night I went to the optional Cossack dancing show. Excellent, energetic dancing. Quite a bit of singing in between the dancing. I did struggle to stay awake but we all did enjoy the show. The “champagne” at the interval was awful as it was during our Neva River cruise.
We drove from the hotel to one of the main canals to board the hydrofoil to Peterhof. Magnificent gardens and fountains. We arrived in time for the fountain display with music and this is when we first ran into hoards of Chinese tourists – not the most polite or patient travellers! In fact at some times you basically had to have your elbows out to get some room to take photos as they would not move.
In winter the gold statues are covered by wooden boxes to protect them from the cold. Also, during WWII the statues were buried to hide them from the Nazis.
A long drive back to the city (not sure why Insight don’t do the hydrofoil both ways). Optional visit to Peter & Paul Fortress and cathedral. In the cathedral there are lots of tombs of the Romanov rulers. One lady on our tour was pick-pocketed whilst queuing for the toilets here. Fortunately only makeup was stolen from her 3 zippered handbag. Quite a shock for everyone.
A group of us had dinner at Bakhlazan restaurant in the Galleria shopping centre across from the hotel. A great restaurant with a huge menu, good food from various regions of the old Soviet state and great service. I ate here several times.
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denise
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Post by denise on Aug 12, 2017 6:39:57 GMT
Day 11 St Petersburg
7a.m. breakfast. 9.30a.m. Departure for The Hermitage.
We had a group photo taken in front of The Hermitage then queued for quite a while to enter The Hermitage. Cruise passengers get priority over normal tourists.
Another “wow’” palace with magnificent rooms. Our local guide gave us a 2 hour guided tour of a few parts of the huge building. We did see a few Leonardo da Vinci paintings, mosaics, sculptures etc. I managed to find a post office inside The Hermitage so was very happy to buy Russian stamps for more postcards. 1 postcard took 6 weeks to reach Australia and 1 has yet to arrive (posted from Sergei Posad outside Moscow).
I was really tired after this visit, I had lunch at the museum cafe and then found a park bench outside to sit in the sun before meeting up to go on our optional Neva River cruise.
A lovely sunny afternoon for this cruise, we sat up top out in the open and were provided with blankets in case we were too cold. Certainly a lovely way to enjoy seeing all the canals, buildings, bridges and decorative railings.
6.45p.m. bags out for our coach driver to take them to Moscow overnight as we were travelling by high speed train the next afternoon and could only take hand luggage on the train.
7.00p.m. Club Bon Voyage drink in the lobby. Tried to go to a different restaurant – Du Nord (French), just down the street from the hotel for dinner but there were already tourist groups there and we were told there would be a 45 minute wait so returned to Bakhlazan for dinner.
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denise
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Post by denise on Aug 12, 2017 6:57:39 GMT
Day 12
7.00a.m. breakfast. 10a.m. departure for Yusupuv Palace optional.
This is the palace famous for being the site of Rasputin’s murder. An interesting visit and the palace also has its own small theatre.
Upon returning to the hotel we just had enough time to go to the supermarket in the Galleria shopping centre across the road from the hotel to buy salad rolls, pastries and chocolate for our train trip to Moscow.
2p.m. leave the hotel to go to the train station by coach. We could have walked- it would have been quicker! At the station we went through 2 lots of security screening but no queues and was straight-forward. 3p.m. train departs for Moscow. Uninteresting countryside but nice to relax on the train and catch up writing this tour tale.
7p.m. arrived in Moscow. It was a bit of a shambles arriving in Moscow, a bit of a walk to our coach and then the Moscow traffic! Very busy and by the time we reached the hotel it was 8p.m. So it was just as well I'd stocked up on snacks! Radisson Royal hotel is one of Stalin’s 7 sisters skyscrapers in the wedding cake architecture style. 2 have been converted into hotels. A very grand hotel. Large beautiful rooms. There are a few restaurants directly outside the hotel. Quite a few of us ate in the hotel restaurant and enjoyed the stroganoff as recommended by Gennady.
A very long day. This is where I ran out of keeping notes for my tour tale so please bear with me as I recall our days in Moscow.
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Pauline
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Normandy, Brittany & the Loire Valley, WW1 Battlefields and Northern Spain in Sep 2023 with Insight
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Post by Pauline on Aug 12, 2017 12:11:38 GMT
Hi Denise,
I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your tour tale, as this is a tour that has been on my list for a couple of years now. Pauline
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Post by marielouise on Aug 12, 2017 20:54:02 GMT
Pauline, how was your tour of Scandinavia?
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Pauline
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Normandy, Brittany & the Loire Valley, WW1 Battlefields and Northern Spain in Sep 2023 with Insight
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Post by Pauline on Aug 13, 2017 3:04:11 GMT
Excellent and very different from an Insight tour. I have a friend who is currently doing Insight's Scandinavian Heritage tour and some of the things that are optionals for he & his wife, were just part of the Bunnik tour. Mind you, Bunnik are dearer than Insight but I just love the max of only 20 people on the tour. The TD we had was from Slovenia and although very knowledgeable about the countries we visited, didn't use the onboard bus microphone to the best advantage. That is what I thought anyway. I'm used to TD's, who when answering a question from someone up the front end of the bus, would use the microphone to answer the question, so all the people could hear the answer.
We were very fortunate with the weather and only had 3 wet days. One day was a travel day, so not a great problem. Another day was in Bergen but that is to be expected with Bergen and it was showery, as opposed to rain, so didn't really impact on the sight seeing at all. There was another day but I'll have to re-read my emails to see where that was.
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denise
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Post by denise on Aug 13, 2017 3:23:07 GMT
Day 13
Breakfast 6.30a.m. Depart 9.00a.m. city tour.
City tour by bus with a few photo stops – 1 stop outside the Bolshoi Theatre. We then went to a metro station. We were all delighted that we then rode the Metro for a couple of stops before exiting. The stations were really interesting with the Soviet era artwork and 1 station had lots of bronze statues – some were of dogs and people would pat the dog’s noses (for luck) as they walked past. Therefore the dogs noses all shone brightly from being rubbed so much!
Next stop was Red Square and St Basil’s did not disappoint – glorious colours. Plenty of time for photos and time to visit the GUM department store – very high end shops here. I went to a pharmacy here to buy a nasal spray for my congestion and was assisted with translation by a Russian-American couple from Washington in obtaining what I wanted.
We had to go thru a security screening to go inside the Kremlin. Kremlin means fortress so this means we were inside the fortress walls. We were able to take photos of the Russian soldiers in their sentry boxes. There are 7 churches inside the Kremlin – more gold topped onion domes.
2.30p.m. Optional tour to the Armoury. This was very interesting and we saw quite a few Faberge eggs – all very different and exquisite. We saw lots of costumes from the Romanov times. Empress Elizabeth was reputed to have 15,000 dresses.
4.30p.m. returned to the hotel. 5.45p.m. we met Gennady in the lobby and he took us for a walk to 2 nearby restaurants (we certainly wouldn’t have fond them without his assistance). We basically split into 2 groups and had dinner here. I had a tasty soup and garlic pita bread.
8.30p.m. leave for the optional Moscow by Night. We had a couple of photo stops on our evening tour. 1 stop was near the Moscow State University on a hilltop overlooking the Luzhniki stadium to be used for next year’s World Cup. This was a Saturday night and there was a huge rally of motorcyclists – all sorts of bikes and their riders in full leather gear. It wasn’t a problem walking amongst them and taking photos. Red Square at night was pretty good with the buildings lit up. Arrived back at the hotel at 10.30p.m. The traffic certainly did eat into our time and in hindsight it would have been easier and quicker to use the Metro although I guess it would be pretty difficult for a tourist group to do this en masse.
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denise
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Post by denise on Aug 13, 2017 3:25:54 GMT
Day 14
6.30a.m. breakfast. 9.00a.m. depart for optional tour to Sergivev Posad (the local guide called this place Russia’s version of the Vatican). A long drive through heavy traffic – about 2 hours. Uninteresting countryside. This area is part of the “Golden Ring” of Russia. Inside the walled city are several (I think about 7) different coloured Russian orthodox churches. Most of the Russian women visiting wore headscarves and you could see several priests walking around the complex. We were able to go into the churches and view the icons, artworks and tombs. Some parishioners were singing.
Outside the walled area is a tourist handcraft market. A lot of wooden crafts (I did buy some Russian wooden Xmas decorations), varnished boxes, amber, wolleen crafts and of course the Matroyshka dolls.
Fortunately it didn't take so long to return to Moscow and we back at the hotel by 2p.m.
3p.m. depature for optional tour to the Novodevichy cemetery where we saw Krushchev’s headtsone at the back of the cemetery as he is not revered by the Russians. Interestingly the local guide said that in Russia at the time no one knew about the Cuban missile crisis, they only found out about it after the fall of communism! The cemetery was full of large, magnificent statues of important Russian figures – e.g. scientists, generals etc.
Next we went to the Borodino Panorama exhibition which was really good. A 360 degree panorama of the Battle of Borodino created in 1912 to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the battle against Napoleon.
Final stop was at the Victory Park complex. This was a huge park with lots of monuments especially commemorating WWII.
7p.m. Celebration dinner at the hotel restaurant in the room where we had breakfast. Borscht, chicken Kiev and potatoes and a fancy dessert, plus the usual 2 glasses wine/beer and tea/coffee. We had all been advised our departure details to the 2 different airports the next day. Only the NZ couple were staying an extra day and 1 couple were spending a few days on Trans-Siberian railway.
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denise
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Post by denise on Aug 13, 2017 3:28:45 GMT
Day 15
12noon check-out and my transfer left at 12.30p.m. along with 6 others. Everyone else had left progressively through the morning – some very early eg. 4a.m. The couple from the UK had a last minute panic as they thought they’d lost their passports. Turned out they’d forgotten to collect them from reception an the passports were still at reception. About an hour’s drive to Domodedevo airport. My flight left at 5p.m. so I had plenty of time to check in, go thru emigration, have something to eat before the long flight home.
I found young people in the Baltic states spoke really good English – just like conversing with anyone from home. English was not that common in Russia but we managed to get by in restaurants – English menus were available but it became difficult if you wanted to ask questions of the waiter.
In summary: the hotels were all really nice and the food was good with the exception of the Crowne Plaza in St Petersburg. The Tour Director was good, in St Petersburg we had a change of bus driver to a Russian driver and all the local guides were very good. I don’t think I will need to go back to Russia - I was very happy with everything we saw and did and fell it was pretty comprehensive .
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Post by kiwigrandma on Aug 13, 2017 8:19:52 GMT
Thank you for your travel tale. I found it very interesting. Would love to go to st Petersburg and Moscow and seen Trafalgar tour that does tour there but I live in NZ and can't go to Russia just for a week. Not that interested in other parts but you sound like you enjoyed your tour. Can you tell me what was the ballet people went to and where.
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Post by bet on Aug 13, 2017 9:55:01 GMT
Great tale, I loved Moscow & St Petersburg and was pleasantly surprised with Tallinn. I could see the comparison with Prague as well.
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Post by marielouise on Aug 13, 2017 16:49:25 GMT
Thank you Denise for a very interesting tale.
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Pauline
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Normandy, Brittany & the Loire Valley, WW1 Battlefields and Northern Spain in Sep 2023 with Insight
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Post by Pauline on Aug 14, 2017 3:52:13 GMT
Thanks for the tour tale Denise. Much appreciated.
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denise
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Post by denise on Aug 16, 2017 0:49:16 GMT
Thank you for your travel tale. I found it very interesting. Would love to go to st Petersburg and Moscow and seen Trafalgar tour that does tour there but I live in NZ and can't go to Russia just for a week. Not that interested in other parts but you sound like you enjoyed your tour. Can you tell me what was the ballet people went to and where. Sorry kiwigrandma, all I know was that the optional ballet performance was at a theatre in St Petersburg. Have you looked at a tour that does St Petersburg, Moscow and some Scandinavian cities? Or alternatively, doing the 7 day Russian tour in conjunction with another tour? A few people on the tour had either done a tour before starting this tour e.g. Italy, Eastern Europe or were doing a tour after e.g. Iceland, Scandinavia or visiting family in the UK. Prior to this tour I didn't have any big interest in the Baltic states but really enjoyed the smaller cities all with their "old towns".
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Post by californian on Aug 23, 2017 1:52:45 GMT
Thank you Denise. I enjoyed your tale very much. I did the Baltic States StPetersburg Belarus and Finland en 2013 and enjoyed every moment. Same as Warsaw. I enjoy music and ballet even if is just for turists and never missed them no matter how tired! If you haven't seen yet the latest version of "War and Peace" watch it as soon as you can, it has many scenes filmed at Catherine's palace even a dance in the ballroom. Other scenes were filmed at the outdoors museum in Riga and others in Takai. It was wonderful reading your tale. Thank you!
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