Homeward Bound Saturday 30 August

Squashing the last of my stuff into the suitcases was interesting. I was praying that the bags wouldn't be overweight! The shuttle I booked to the airport was early and cost only 1/4 the taxi fare on the way in. I said thank you prayers as the bags sailed in with almost 3kg to spare! I've had some wifi and a coffee here at Charles de Gaulle airport and there's a big bird sitting outside, so now I get my first ride on an A380! I'm hoping I've got an aisle seat but not sure about that, as it's different from where I had booked the seat. Oh well, a seat is a seat!

At Changi airport, 8.45am, waiting for my last flight home. The A380 is amazing: such a graceful bird. It doesn't seem to get up much speed at all before it's off the ground and it climbs slowly; it's much less noisy than other big aircraft. I was delighted to see that the LEGO Movie was just starting, so I watched that and got a lot more of the little hidden lines the second time around: what a fun movie! I had a window seat, which I didn't want because I hate having to disturb people to climb over them; next to me was a very tall young man, so there was no way of getting past those long legs without asking him and the aisle guy to move. However, I only did that once, after my dinner and glass of wine; then back in my seat, I popped a couple of Tamaze, settled down under my blanket and eye shades and woke up to the rustling and noise of breakfast, 7 hours later!

Boarding - see you in Sydney1!

Paris Friday 29 August

Last day in Paris and again a full day out.

After a sleep-in I walked around this locality a little, just to see if there was anything I'd missed. I caught the Metros around to Maubert Mutualite: that's where Graham and I stayed on our first trip, in the Latin Quarter; I found the familiar spots where we'd walked often during that week.

That's where I got on the Batobus for a day trip; it's such a lovely leisurely ride along the river and you get views of the sights from a different angle, although it's difficult to get pictures because of the warped plastic windows on the boat. What a beautiful bridge, Pont de la Concord:

I got off at the Musée d'Orsay;

There was an exhibition of sculptures and Impressionists, so instead of one small room of Monets, there were at least a couple of dozen of them, if not more, mixed in with the other Impressionists. Again, a wonderful experience to linger over the works of the masters, and I've discovered a liking for Tissot this trip. I also discovered the rooftop clock and outside access which we hadn't seen before. Great shots from inside the clock!

From the rooftop, you can see Sacré Coeur:

I walked across another bridge and then across to the Place de la Concord to hop on a Metro to the same Costa coffee shop as yesterday for a huge iced coffee. By the time I got back to the square near home, it was after 4.00pm and I'd only been munching on fruit since a small breakfast, so I thought I'd go into Maccas, buy a burger and check out the wifi. That took a little longer on the tablet, but I caught up on everything, picked up a few little things for a light dinner and tomorrow's snacks for the airport and now I'm back in the hotel. Today's weather has been warmer than recent days and reached a high of 22! That's a hot summer day! Of course, they're heading into Autumn now.

A word of warning to any prospective users of the Paris Metro: firstly, you will need to take at least four different lines to get to where you want to go - go a few stops, get off, go up stairs, down stairs, around tunnels, up stairs, down stairs and get on the next one; repeat until you get to the stop you want. Having said that, once you understand the map and the station lists, it's dead easy for a touriste like me! Secondly, never stand back for anyone else! It's everyone for him/herself which I discovered to my detriment: standing back to wait for others, the horn sounded, the doors slammed and I was still waiting to get on! You definitely don't try to get on when the horn sounds because if you get caught between those slamming doors, there won't be much left of you! There's no guard, just the driver, so he can't see the platform. The trains move very fast and you can see right through to the front, snaking through tunnels, twisting and turning, all at breakneck speed.

Additional summary: all drivers in Europe are crazy! Taxi drivers, tour van drivers - absolutely crazy!

Paris Thursday 28 August

After I got some wifi done last night, catching up on everything, the hotel wifi has failed today. I’ll just have to find a cafe tomorrow on my travels around town. I took my time getting organised this morning, after a great night’s sleep. My room is right above the street and the traffic (mind you, only one lane) was bumper to bumper; however, it’s very quiet, so the windows must have double glazing or something.

I found the nearest Metro station at Voltaire and began to re-acquaint myself with the network. Everything went well, changing to several different lines and I found myself at the nearest stop to Sacre Coeur. Many of the trains had a busker, playing accordion or guitar: nice to have the music! Walking up the street with hundreds of other people, the magnificent church dominates the skyline. The narrow street up the hill is chockers with souvenir shops, all selling the same things.

Walking up the steps to the church I stopped counting at 300! That takes care of “stairs withdrawal” after the ship! The SILENCE instruction at the door is obeyed by the majority, so it’s fairly quiet, contrasting to the crowds outside. Inside there’s some beautiful artwork but not ornate like the Orthodox churches in Scandinavia. I sat for a while and prayed, enjoying the rest and the peace. Then the nuns in the sanctuary started singing – heavenly! No pictures are allowed inside, but I turned on the video just to capture the sound. It turned out that they were starting Mass (in French, of course). I would have liked to stay but I hadn’t had a drink in a couple of hours, so I didn’t think I should stay that long.

Outside again, the view over the city was spectacular. It took quite a while to get back down the bottom, where I found a lovely iced latte, then back to the Metro; everything went well until it turned out there was track work on the final three stops before the Eiffel Tower, so the train began heading back to where we came from. I hadn’t seen the sign and announcements were in French: buses replacing trains! Sound familiar? So I thought I’d back-track and go round in a circle the other way. This time I was alert and got off to take the bus for the final stops.

There are still summer crowds around the Tower but nowhere near as many as when Graham and I were here the first time. The top level was temporarily closed, so I didn’t go up, as we went to the first level last time. As lovely as ever!

I bought a huge “ham sandwich” (a large baguette) and water and started my bridges walk:

Pont d’lena

Pont de l’Alma

Pont Alexandre III

Kids rock climbing just along the bank of the Seine! an activity that's set up for the summer, I think. There was also a skateboarding ramp: very popular!

Pont de la Concode, crossing to the Place de la Concorde (where Marie Antoinette lost her head), and then finding the Metro station for the trains back to the hotel. So I figure I walked quite a few miles today over a period of about 7 hours. I grabbed some more fruit and another yummy cake and the food I have will do for dinner. Maybe tomorrow I’ll go to a restaurant.

Copenhagen to Paris Wednesday 27 August

Some more interesting facts I discovered about Danes and their bikes:

On the suburban trains, each carriage has a compartment for bikes; so they ride to the station, bike goes in, get off the train and ride to work. However, many Danes have three bikes: they ride usually an older second-hand bike to the station and leave it there; pick up a similar bike at the other end where they parked it last night and ride to work. Then they have a nice, expensive bike at home for leisure biking.

It’s been a long day; they called our debarkation group early from the ship at 7.30am. I’d booked a bus transfer to the airport and, as usual, Holland America organised superbly, with our bags already at the airport when we got there. This left me quite a while before my flight but by the time I got through security, found the only LEGO store in Copenhagen and found a very big Starbucks coffee, quite a bit of time was used up. Arriving at Charles de Gaul, there was the usual wait for baggage and then I decided to bite the bullet and take a cab to the hotel, rather than trying to negotiate public transport. Expensive but necessary!

I got to the hotel at 4.30pm, a cute little typical European hotel room: tea and coffee-making but nothing else for food.

I organised my stuff a bit and then went out for a little explore; being the 11^th Arrondissement, it’s a little different from the Latin Quarter where we’ve stayed previously. There’s a supermarket quite close, so (having missed lunch) I picked up some simple things but most importantly a nice Bordeaux wine and some cheese. So ... this is dinner (I've already been a good girl and had a cup of hot water and a banana) and some cherry tomatoes:

I figure the cheese will be okay for two more days without a fridge; having one glass a day won't finish the wine before I go, but I didn't buy any alcohol on the cruise, so I'm enjoying this. Believe it or not, this bottle of very nice wine cost a little over half what it cost to buy one glass of wine on the ship! Breakfast will be the baguette and more cheese with orange juice – what more could I want??? Chocolate – from the ship’s turndown service each night!! Did I mention I also bought my first yummy Paris cake from the same boulangerie as I bought the baguette?

Tomorrow I plan to head down to the Metro, get of close to the river and then start walking. I love Paris!

Copenhagen Tuesday 26 August

I had breakfast delivered this morning: easier than the busyness of the Lido and I had an excursion to get to. We waited 30 minutes past the scheduled time for the ship to be cleared – very unusual and then we hopped on a bus to look at “Wonderful Copenhagen”. We had three interesting little stops – first stop the Little Mermaid for a picture opportunity. 

Next the Royal Palace where the flag was flying, so that means Mary and Frederick and the kids are home.

In the square where the Amalienborg Royal Palaces are, the one disappearing on the left is where Queen Margarethe lives; the next is for visiting dignatories; next is where their younger son and the Queen Mother both live and off picture on the right is Crown Prince Frederick and Crown Princess Mary’s home.

I found out from Bob and Audrey this evening at dinner that while they were there, Princess Mary came out with her bike, the twins in baskets on the front, and went for a bike ride! Our guide had told us that Mary and Frederick are out and about in the streets all the time, just like all the locals enjoying their neighbourhood. 

Next stop was the Tivoli Gardens, very tiny. We also spent ages in city traffic while the guide talked about the history of every building.

Bad news about the bikes I thought were so casually left unattended in Copenhagen streets: they have an immobiliser installed which is lowered to the rear wheel spokes when the bike is parked. Truth is, apparently there is a bike stolen in Denmark every ten minutes!

Back on board, I had lunch and spent some time in the terminal, using the free wifi. Last dinner on board this evening (and Baked Alaska was on the dessert menu, but no parade) and then tomorrow I have my transfer booked straight from the ship to the airport for my flight to Paris. I'm on the deck at the moment, doing a little more wifi which turns out to be strong enough from the hotspot because we're parked right outside the terminal buiding.

Kiel Monday 25 August

I went ashore about 9.00 and sat in the very modern cruise terminal updating the blog and checking my mail. The wifi was good for a while, then just died, so I headed down to the streets. This is the sister ship to the Costa Concordia which sank:

Not more than a block from the pier is the beginning of the pedestrian shopping area; there are lots of people about because there are three cruise ships in port. Yes, it's cold but I'm prepared today. I had a pleasant time wandering around, bought a couple of little items and now I'm in Maccas, completing my emails. (There's a Starbucks here too.) I bought some German cinnamon; I figure that even though it's not the pinnacle of cinnamon - Dutch (I couldn't find a supermarket) - it's probably better than what we can get at home. I'm hoping that the sealed package will be okay through customs. If not, I've thrown away 1 euro!

Quite a few people are off the ship most of the day on excursions to Hamburg and other places, so it's relatively quiet. Time to go back aboard and have lunch - yes, eating again!!

I had a quiet lunch, with so many people ashore, caught up on some photo editing and went to the tech session on OneDrive.

At dinner they had the farewell parade of crew members, but no Baked Alaska ... many of the nice little touches (albeit expensive) of cruising are disappearing forever. I know they’re non-essentials but they do make the experience that much more special. I guess people just can’t be bothered with all the dressing up – a shame. They’re obviously also trying to cut costs.

I said goodbye to Betty from my dining group because she’s on an all-day excursion tomorrow.

The Captain told us we would be going under one of the three longest suspension bridges on the course to Copenhagen – at about 11.00pm tonight! So I spent quite some time up in the Crows Nest, then out on Observation Deck the last 15 minutes: hiding around the corner out of the biting wind. It was virtually impossible to get a good shot heading towards the bridge in the dark, but I took shots as we scraped underneath: there wasn’t much clearance for the funnels!

These pictures aren't that good because I was shaking so much in the wind, and it's necessarily a time exposure. You can get an idea of how close the bridge was above us though, quite eerie going over. Approaching the bridge:

Going under:

Warnemunde Sunday 24 August

Very cold here! 12 degrees and windy. I watched the long line of people walking to the train Holland America had chartered to take the travellers to Berlin for the day. Something inside reminded me of long lines all those years ago being forced onto trains ...

I walked to the end of the pier and then through the subway under the railway lines to the little town – very cute, very German! The first place I settled was outside the Information Centre (with lots of crew) where there was a hotspot. It was freezing. Having caught up on the mail and blog, I walked a little further into the town, had a look at the markets and a few souvenir shops. Most shops were closed.




Being Sunday, lots of families were out walking with little children in tow; it was nice to hear the lilting German voices. The building closest to the ship was an outlet for all sorts of locally made jams and produce, which was obviously not on my shopping list. There was also a sand sculpture exhibition with some amazing creations.


 However, it was freezing and I was not completely protected from the weather. I couldn’t find anything that looked like espresso coffee and certainly not take-away, so in the end, I went back to the ship after about two hours ashore. It was then that I discovered two of my fingers were completely white and it took fifteen minutes in the warmth before they “came back to life”.

Up in the Lido I noticed that the train station was quite busy, so it must be part of the local public transport network. It was very pleasant sitting there with not too many people around (many are ashore or on excursions). So far I’ve finished my first book this trip and am now on to my second: The Help – very difficult to put down!

I went downtown again for another walk at 2.00pm but this time I wore every warm item I have with me! (not a great deal, as I was expecting summer!) As I had anticipated, many more of the little shops were open and there were lots more people walking around, including two cruise liners’ worth of passengers; it was still cold and windy and we had a few spits of rain as well. Very enjoyable and I bought a couple of scarves.

Some observations in general so far:

·        so many Europeans smoke, particularly younger women;
·        I’m always surprised by the number of wind turbines in and close to cities here.

Tonight we had a German bierfest on Lido deck: oompah music, German sausages, sauerkraut – yum!

We sailed at 10.00pm and it wasn’t too long before we started rockin’ and rollin’. I wanted to go outside and check what the waves looked like but the wind was so strong I couldn’t open the door to the verandah!

At Sea Saturday 23 August

This morning it’s very overcast and raining, with a storm now and then. The cloud lifts occasionally but it’s grey with a low swell, so we’re rocking a little, travelling quite fast.

The Mariners’ brunch was on at 11.00 and I shared this with a lovely American couple, followed by three circuits of promenade deck. It’s now bright and partly sunny but the wind is very strong and cool, so you have to rug up out there. They had the On Deck for a Cause walk this morning but there are points on the deck where the walkway is very narrow and, with a big bunch of people walking, I didn’t fancy having to queue up for a stop-start walk. It’s no longer just for breast cancer: several cancer charities are involved, so I decided not to join in this time.

They interviewed the Captain and Hotel Manager – some interesting questions and information. Formal dinner tonight. Everyone at my table is going to Berlin on the 13 hour excursion; 3 hours each way by train, then free time or guided tours. Very expensive and too long – I want some more relaxing time before the cruise finishes.

Stockholm Friday 22 August

I'm down on the dock this morning; it's very cold. You have to sit outside the pavilion to do wifi but it's free. Quite a few of the crew are out here having very non-private conversations with their loved ones on Skype.

Today I'm not going on an excursion, just relaxing around the ship. This arvo I'm having coffee with Betty from our table: she's travelling alone and would be in her 70's. She wants to know how to access the free wifi, so I'm going to bring her down here. She's paid $US55 for 100 minutes on the ship and so far has wasted more than half trying to log in! So after lunch I took her to the wifi access at the end of the pier and helped her to get connected; took a while to sort it but we got there. She was over the moon to finally be able to get her mail.

I also helped Karen from Brisbane by giving her a USB to take home with pictures because she couldn’t work out how to download them to her tablet: it feels nice to be able to help because I know it would drive me crazy if I was in this position!

This afternoon I spent quite a while sitting on my balcony watching a ballet on the dock: the container terminal was operating and it goes like this:

·        Big Crane (on pulleys and tracks and stuff) reaches deep down into container ship; comes up with smaller size container – maybe 2 tonnes?

·        Big Crane moves the container till it’s dangling over the dock and drops it deftly without a sound.

·        Little Crane 1 comes scooting around and picks up the container like it’s an empty matchbox and then scoots off to what is obviously the designated spot for this brand of container.

·        Meantime Big Crane has repeated the process; no sooner does Little Crane 1 scoot away from the spot than Big Crane drops the next container in the same spot.

·        Here comes Little Crane 2, picks up the container and scoots off to a different section.

·        By the time Big Crane drops another one, Little Crane 1 is back. This time Big Crane has a huge double-size container; by the time Little Crane 1 gets to the spot, he’s already extended his clamps to the width of the big container and again picks it up as if it were a feather.

How long for each container – approximately 2.5 minutes! Then after about 20 minutes, they all take a break. The precision is exquisite to watch but I believe they can only do it in short boosts because it’s such high pressure work.

I love watching this sort of thing – no wonder I love LEGO!!

My towel teddy - cute!

I went up to the Lido for the Aussies and Kiwis get together which had been arranged for after dinner. However, it was just a bunch of people standing around drinking and very noisy, so I went for my walk around promenade deck. I’m up to seven times around the ship, which is approximately 4km, so that’s not bad. I was thoroughly distracted with taking shots every half circuit: sailing through the archipelago is very pretty and sunset to dusk gave some lovely light shows; we sailed at 5.30pm and at 9.00pm we’re still not quite through the archipelago of about 27000 islands. I went down for my first showtime this cruise. The singers and dancers were very good: all 60’s music; just half an hour – long enough and fun to see and hear.

Stockholm Thursday 21 August

Well, the swell got bigger and we rocked and rolled all night! We touched the edge of the storm and when I had my shower before bed, I had to hold the hand rail to remain upright! It’s lovely getting into bed and being rocked to sleep!

The weather didn’t look too good this morning; what’s it been like through the trip? Colder than Sydney on a normal winter day! Temps rarely have got to 23; cloudy about half the time. Rain has caught us unawares, like yesterday afternoon running from Starbucks. Right now it’s coming over heavily cloudy again.

I took a tour to the ABBA Museum this morning, with a scenic drive around the city. The Museum was a hoot; the music is so infectious, everyone was bopping around, singing to the songs. You could record yourself singing as the fifth member of the group.

I got off the tour bus downtown and will catch a public bus back to the ship. There’s no deadline but I’m just about caught up with emails now, so I’ll go back before too long . I’ve walked quite a bit already; lots of interesting buildings to photograph. I found myself in front of a Catholic church so I ducked in to pray for a little while. Right next door is a cafe with wifi! So that’s where I am now. Two cups of tea later, I’m ready to go.

Incidentally, my cabin is in an ideal spot; right at the aft/port corner. I don't get any "traffic" or neighbour noise mostly.

Helsinki, Wednesday 20 August

We got an extra hour’s sleep last night and not so early a tour, leaving at 9.45. First was a cruise around the archipeligo of Helsinki: lots of beautiful waterfront properties, very secluded and everyone with their own private sauna house down near the water. Fins are fanatical about their sauna and will swim/sauna/swim/sauna for a couple of hours at the end of the day (summer, of course). Coming back into port we passed the ice breakers which are crucial to water transport here when the river freezes.

We had a few minutes at the markets on the waterfront, then a bus tour of the highlights. First stop was the town square in front of the magnificent cathedral, built by the Russians as an Orthodox church and then transformed into a Lutheran church when Finland became independent. They removed “all the trimmings” of Orthodoxy and it’s now less ornately decorated but a magnificent building, dominating the skyline. We stopped briefly at the square for a photo shoot.

We only saw the centre of the city and surrounds. One interesting stop was the sculpture to honour the composer Sibelius. It was so modern that the locals were unhappy, so the artist had to add a sculpture depicting the composer as well. (That’s him on the right.)

I decided to stay downtown where I could get free wifi. One of Finland’s major industries is information technology, the home of Nokia, until recently purchased by Microsoft. I found the only Starbucks in town (a very recent addition and very popular). A sad email from home: Margaret, whom I visited just before I left and to whom I said goodbye, passed away on Monday; it’s difficult to be alone getting this sort of news and I would have loved to have someone to talk to about how I felt. I will miss our visits very much and I’m desperately sad for Bob; he will be lost without his beautiful wife.

I spent an hour trying to catch up on emails and this blog. I was pleased to get quite a way through both and hopefully tomorrow I’ll get completely up to date in Stockholm after my excursion to the Abba Museum for fun.

As we sailed just before 5.00pm it was fun to wave at the Aida, which had followed us all night from St Petersburg. Dinner again was nice, catching up with what everyone had been doing.

I went to a tech session about movie making slide shows with music – good pickup on some skills. Afterwards I sat with Karen from Brisbane, whom I’d met a few times and is travelling alone. She missed out on pictures of the  Church on the Spilt Blood because her camera battery died, so I downloaded my pictures for her. We had tea in the Lido and talked techy talk. Now at 9.30 it’s rockin’ and rollin’ and there’s a bit of a storm a little way away, lots of rain and fog out on the ocean.

Yay! The clocks go back another hour tonight.

It was much quicker through Immigration today: they just check your stamps from yesterday. As a result I had 15 minutes to check out the souvenirs in the terminal.

First stop today was around the corner where we picked up another couple from the Celebrity ship. Chin and Li are from Singapore and visit Sydney every couple of years. Her sister lives a few blocks from Hillsong and they love going there with her when they’re visiting.

First stop was a photo shoot at the memorial to the victims of the Revolution. There was an eternal flame but unfortunately two inebriated young men were sitting on it, having an argument, so I didn’t take a picture of it – too disrespectful! It’s a beautiful, quiet garden. We could see Peter the Great’s statue and the Church on the Spilled Blood from here.

The Hermitage Museum was next. We had decided to ensure that we saw the Old Masters and the period costumes. With Elena’s skill we jumped the long queues, avoided wasting precious minutes in the bathroom queue by going to a hidden facility she showed us, and proceeded to be enthralled by over-sensory brilliance all around us. On our way to where we were heading, we walked through room after extraordinary room of opulence and exquisite art. Elena was able to focus our little group on all the small details, while giving us a constant description and history of many, many works of art: her knowledge is astounding.

Having read the novel based factually on the Hermitage during the Seige of Leningrad, I was very conscious of the story of what had happened during those 900 days within these walls; none of these facts were mentioned by the tour guide. This connection with the history as we walked along added significantly to my Hermitage experience.

We had some free time when we got to the masters and again, Claude Monet was a focus for me; they had some works on load from a special exhibition which you can’t photograph. Our last stop was the special costume exhibition, showcasing actual outfits worn by both Empress Catherine and Peter the Great: beautifully preserved as if you could wear them now.

I’ll only put in a couple of pictures because a picture can’t begin to do the Hermitage justice. This is Catherine the Great; it looks like a painting but if you zoom in, you can see that it is made of tiny mosaics, created from precious stones.

Lunchtime was a little cafe and incredibly cheap; we saw four wedding parties in the square where we had some shopping time. This couple was having a retro wedding, their attendant told us:

Next, the Church on the Spilled Blood (renamed from Church of the Resurrection because a nobleman was murdered there).

This icon is actually what you see when you look straight up under the highest cupola – as the guide said: Jesus Christ is Lord over all. It’s very, very high up:

We had a river cruise but it started raining a few minutes out and the camera took beautiful shots of the raindrops on the windows! It’s a great perspective seeing the city from the water – the architecture is so attractive and delightful everywhere.

And finally to the Church of St Isaac – a totally different entrance and very unusual for an Orthodox church.

The creations inside were again exquisite.

Standing right on the centre spot in the nave, on incredibly intricate tiles, and looking straight up to the icon in the highest cupola, many metres above, this is what you see – the symbol of the Holy Spirit: truly beautiful.

There was an active “chapel” on the left of the church, with the holy gate, where pictures were not allowed, so again this is an active centre of worship which is also a museum.

It was time to bid my guide and companions goodbye. In two days we’ve become friends and exchanged details.

I booked this individual tour because it was recommended and was hundreds of dollars cheaper than the equivalent ship excursion. When it was my turn to pay, I found it was 25% cheaper than I had been expecting: what a gift!

A storm was brewing in the distance as I had my evening walk before retiring.

IMG1376

St Petersburg Monday 18 August

Russia! From the ship there’s little to see apart from high density housing behind the piers. The Queen Victoria is in port as well.

So how do I describe the most amazing day in St Petersburg? I was up at 5.00 because it was important to get to the Lido breakfast early; after checking my documents 10 times, I thought I’d head down early: a good thing I did! The queue to get off the ship bunched up the stairs for a couple of decks. Finally I was off and then joined the queue for Russian immigration. We’d had all sorts of stories about how easy it is to get into trouble at this step, but after waiting only about fifteen minutes on one of the 20-odd queues, I was through. AND! The best thing! I got a stamp in my passport – no-one does that anymore! They give you a landing permit in the passport as well and when you return they remove the landing permit and give you another stamp.

My guide, Elena, was waiting at the exit and we were soon in the van. Yes, just me for 45 minutes: I had got through so quickly that it was too early to pick up the other two guests. So she took me to a church close by – sorry, I’ve seen so many Russian Orthodox churches, the names are all a blur. We went inside and again there was a Mass being celebrated; the voices were so heavenly and again it was a holy place with a sacred Presence, regardless of the tourists wandering around looking at the icons. Some of these are exquisite: the work in them is so beautiful.

Next we went down to the river to take some pictures and have some landmarks pointed out. Then off to pick up the American couple I shared the day with. Mike and Liz are from Ilinois and are seasoned travellers who came across from Helsinki by the Russian overnight ferry: another way to avoid buying an expensive visa! We had an introductory drive around St Petersburg, stopped at another church and had a look, again had many landmarks pointed out. Our guide has an incredible knowledge of local history and was very informative. We had a comfort stop at a souvenir shop and I bought a book about St Petersburg, very cheap, as well as a couple of little things.

Then we set off on the drive to Pushkin town, about an hour. Driving? Make your own rules! Our driver, Alex, was amazing; I was glad I was sitting in the 2^nd row behind him, so I wasn’t distracted by the scary stuff he was doing! Pushkin is the location of Catherine Palace. Being summer, there were lots of people but because we were with a guide, we jumped queues; they let us enter in bunches, to avoid over-crowding each room. Before you go in, you put on disposable “slippers” over your shoes, so you don’t damage the floors. We walked through room after opulent room of incredible gilt and silk decorations, the Golden Gallery, the great Hall of Mirrors, the Picture Hall, Dining Room after Dining Room, the Amber Room. Elena talked non-stop, pointing out every detail.

One of the many dining rooms

 Catherine's lunch pavillion

Next was lunch at a cafe which specialises in “pies”: more like a filled sweet bread but very cheap and good food. Next we drove to Peterhof, about half an hour away and saw the Summer House of Catherine and Peter where you can’t enter the house but you tour the gardens – the most incredible layout of trees and plants, and hundreds of fountains. Apparently Peter the Great had a good sense of humour and built some trick fountains to entertain (and wet) his guests.

The fountain above comprised an innocent looking garden bench with a pebble surround. An operator sat behind the bench and when a couple of kids would come and walk on the pebbles or sit on the bench, he hit the button and the four sides of the pebbled square became a sprinkling fountain, wetting the kids thoroughly. The gardens are open to local families who picnic there and kids play.

Twice each day there is a fountain where lots of people stand waiting for it to be turned on from both sides of the wide path and they get soaked, which resulted in delighted screams on a warm day. At the edge of the park is the Gulf of Finland and being such a clear day, we were able to see the ship in St Petersburg across the Gulf.

It was a long day and we walked miles but an extremely enjoyable outing; tomorrow we will have two additional guests and go to The Hermitage Museum. Elena said that as it would take six years to see everything in the museum briefly, she will concentrate on where our interest lie; I can’t wait! We will go to the Winter Palace, a city tour, St Isaac’s Church, the Spilled Blood Church (Church of the Resurrection), the battleship that signalled the start of the Revolution, and other stuff, of course!

The key is doing this with a guide – not only do you hear so much history but you get priority entrance to attractions.

Tonight many people are ashore at The Hermitage or the Ballet or Folklorico, so dinner was casual.