St Petersburg Day 2 - A home visit

90 Meter escalator on Metro

Mother Duck in flower market matching nicely

Very fast train

Beautiful day in St Petersburg

20 people crammed in very hot humid room nice food but.

This lady has lived here all her life she's 60

Nice group of Sheeps Heads in Market

Our excursion today was primarily a visit to a private home in Russia, but one of the highlights was a ride on St Petersburg's Metro system. Because of the marshy ground in the area this subway is the deepest in the world so we actually took an escalator  down more than 90 meters. it was a real experience being very fast and full of people. Trains don't wait, if you are too slow to board the doors just slam on you. We did two routes which meant we had to change to a different line one being new and the other one of the original lines so the difference was quite staggering but the mosaics and tiling are very interesting.
Our home visit took us to a home that the woman owner was born in. She was sixty and had lived there all her life. There were 20 of us packed into a small room about 4 meters by 3 it was stifling but very good food had been prepared and she made us a cup of tea. Their living conditions aren't good and the home consisted of one b/r a lounge kitchen bathroom and toilet. A bit different to the life we lead.
Apart from that we have had 2 sunny days not bad when they only get twenty a year. We left port at six pm took us over two hours to reach the open sea through these narrow waterways. A lovely part of the world is St Petersburg.

St Petersburg Day 1

Not sure what happened but awoke and found us sailing in a big river with total garbage of rust and mess from an obvious Russian shipyard.
A few minutes later we docked at a river cruise terminal just a few meters from several bridges, but obviously close to the City of St Petersburg.
Later we found out that other larger ships than ours are docked half an hour away at another cruise terminal because they can't traverse the River Neva because of the depth and large number of bridges.
St Petersburg spends ten months a year in ice and snow and we must have won something as the day was clear as crystal. They get 40 days of sun a year.
We decided very late  to do an excursion of a river boat cruise which featured stops at several tourist points along the way.
We did a river cruise several years ago from Moscow to St Petersburg and had seen most of the museums and Palaces so no need to do them again.

St Isaacs Cathedral 

Typical Russian church with onion spires

The Hermitage Museum

The Flying Dutchman

Our tour took us a few minutes to St Isaacs Cathedral the most monumental feature in the City. we revisited the Astoria Hotel, the Flying Dutchman ( a gift from Holland) of a huge sailing ship.
Our river cruise featured a canal boat similar to those in Amsterdam, that cruised under several of the five hundred bridges in St Petersburg known more as "the Venice of the North" It was okay to get another perspective of this exciting city.
St Petersburg Would have to be the cleanest place ever visited, no cig butts, no papers spotlessly clean all over. What a change and a lovely lovely day.

Beautiful Tallinn, Estonia

Mother duck off to formal dinner

Welcome to Tallinn

Beautiful church extremely nice inside



Town Square amazing

Another view of Town Square

Lovely flower market with heaps of similar stalls

People everywhere in the Town Square

What a lovely part of the world on a startling day that had four seasons, hot, overcast, massive thunderstorm and then sun again.
Took a HOHO arond the old town and then on foot which turned out to be the best option. We saw some amazing architecture of churches, wooden house and then the highlight was the Town Square.
Every man and his dog were there mingling enjoying the buskers and sitting out in the sun having drinks at the restaurants and watching the goings on. For now that's it will edit tomorrow and post some great photos. All well

Paris to Copenhagen to Seabourn Quest

Well we're done in Paris and it's time to get to Copenhagen to join Quest for our next journey.
The flight to CPH was uneventful, but a nice plane and only one and half hour trip.
Walked straight off the plane, no customs, out the door with our luggage and into a cab to our hotel.
Must say our hotel Adina had become much poorer since we stayed there 3 years ago so no further mention.
On Sunday we took a cab to a new cruise ship terminal and boarded after an hour waiting.
The ship looks great! our suite is almost the same as we had last year.
Some pics below of Paris.

Gloria in front of heap of clocks at St Lazare Railway station.

Saint Lazre railway station in Central Paris

The feature mall in La Fayette shopping centre. HUGE

Champ de Elyssies. (spelling)?

Loving Paris

We are really enjoying our couple of days in this beautiful city. The architecture is so advanced, the lace balconies are so unique.
Our hotel Le Square is a boutique hotel unlike those with typically small rooms and is quite modern.
Located right opposite Radio France, and within easy walking distance to the Eiffel Tower and right on the River Seine.
Today we took a bus into Paris centre to the Arc de Triumph and walked down thru lovely up market shops, eventually headed to the area around the Opera house where we found a delightful restaurant that actually looked as if it was closed. Great no smokers, I think every person in Paris is a fagger it's gross.

The meal was excellent and quite reasonable for Paris standards. Bloody expensive here.
Most of the staff could not speak English and it was fun trying to order a meal. A lovely day.
Today we fly to Copenhagen spent the morning strolling around the area we are located, had breaky at Macca's and soon we will have our last lunch in Paris. No pics, not organised yet will get to it when we get on the ship tomorrow. posted some on Facebook the other day of the Eiffel Tower.
In a state of flux at the moment, just saw that the Lions flogged the Suns! My tipping is right up the s..t.

It's getting exciting

Just. A week to go before we set off for about 6 weeks sailing with Seabourn Quest.
Read our latest profile for the itinerary or check it out on Seabourn.com.