Russia, Warsaw and The Baltic States May 2017

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.

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

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

Pauline, how was your tour of Scandinavia?

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.

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 .

Great tale, I loved Moscow & St Petersburg and was pleasantly surprised with Tallinn. I could see the comparison with Prague as well.

Thanks for the tour tale Denise. Much appreciated.