7-27-2015: Last Day....Flight Night

Breakfast is included and after coffee we hit the hot water and there are maybe four other people in this large area and we cannot even see them. Tina, Krim and Jim opt for a facial while I opt for beer by the lagoon and we are all feeling mightly fine with the day.

 

But, alas, it is time to leave and head back to the good 'ol USA. So, we head to the gate in plenty of time but - what the hell?! This looks like an NFL game just ended and there is only one tunnel out. I mean there are people lined up, babies crying and everyone is waiting for 5 people doing passport control and none look in any hurry. All 9,000 of us checking our watches with a plane to leave in 30 minutes and the line is not moving.

Finally we clear passport control but the crowd is stuck - no one moving. Jim has done his usual magic and 20 people ahead of us. But what is this? Jim gets the dreaded "Random security check" and as we work our way by he lets out a meager plea, "Hold the plane, please".

We finally clear the mass of folks and hit the gate and there is a swear to god bus waiting! Tina makes the bus but Krim is stuck as the door closes and I am stuck on the tarmac thumbing a ride. But a bus is found and after all that we wait for those stuck in Random security check hell. Eventually Jim emerges and, already 15 minutes after scheduled take off we leave for the plane. We have learned the Iceland folks have a saying that translated means, "It will all work on in the end" and we have used it often on our trip and know what, it always does. We will keep that advise and remember always the wonderful beginning of our trip, the Iceland ending and all the in-between wonders we got to share.

This has been one hell of a wonderful trip!

 

 

7-26-2015: Back to Iceland!

Nice flight - no problems, no hassle and entry into Iceland is so nice - everyone heads for the "nothing to declare" exit and they do not even have someone on the "To declare" line - grab the bags and go. And by go I mean to the special treat we (rather Tina) set up for our last day of the trip. We are going to the famous Blue Lagoon of Iceland.

But not the usual Blue Lagoon experience but we are headed to the Blue Lagoon Clinic. The Blue Lagoon was created by excess heated water from the power plant. The hot water is created by pumping glacier water into the earth where magna heats the water to steam that is used to power the electricial power for the City. The still heated water is used to heat the homes and other stuff in the City but they still have excess that was not used. But some smart folks decided to create a lagoon of hot water. A no kidding a lake full of the most beautiful blue hot water. The mud and water (with silica) is famous for making skin happy so everyone in Iceland looks 25. That bring tourists from all over the world and they line up to take part. I bet Tina has a picture!

It can be crowded and we heard from friends a less than satisfying event. So, we slip off to the Clinic that has 15 Rooms and their own Lagoon in the middle of a lava field. It is marvelous and we check in and hit the water around 4.

My, my, my. The water sucks out the stress, sucks out the sore muscles, sucks out the dead skin and sucks out the energy so you cannot move. The magic is apparently also in the mud and they keep a couple of buckets handy for us to use. Slap on the mud on the face and where ever and we stare at each other as if it is perfectly normal.

We have wonderful Aho wine left here for our return and heaven cannot be this good! Somehow we drag ourselves out and walk for 10 minutes on a path to the crowded place where people are packed but we walk past to our reserved table. The food is very, very good but Tina and Clyde can barely get the fork to the mouth but we find our way back to our rooms for a most wonderful sleep.

 

 

 

 

7-25-2015: Last Day in Bergen

The lazy days continue with walks to nowhere in particular and views to not forget. The town square is where you end up one time or another for shopping, visits and the working street people singing or standing very still on a box all painted with gold all with a hat out front for donations. But today there is a guy in mid-air floating about another guy holding a cane - levitation is going on here and no wires in sight. These guys are good and they gather a crowd. Any idea how they do it from the picture Tina will place here?

Dinner is a delight as Jim and Tina find a neighborhood restaurant with great food and a waitress with a great humor bone and knowledge of wine. Food is wonderful and we have a special night of dinner - our last in Norway for we return to Iceland tomorrow.

 

 

7-24-2015: Bergen Hike and Dinner Delight

There is a cable car that runs up one of the 7 hills surrounding the city and the entrance is right in the middle of town. Over 1,000 feet above the city the view is said to be spectacular so we have it on our list. It is raining on this day (of course) but between rains we sneak our for a walk. "The Girls" do some shopping, Jim does some needed work and I decide to check out the oldest building in town- St. Mary's Church. Probably built in 1130 by rich German merchants, the church has been in continuous use since early medieval times. A major restoration was just completed this year so I am lucky it is open. There are life sized statues of the twelve disciples plus moses and John the Baptist. The pulpit is a mystery as it is unlike any other in Norway. It was presented to the church in 1676 by prominent merchants but the biggest prize of the church is the alter reredos from the end of the 15th century. It is a screen, probably from Lubeck Germany and depicts Mary and the infant Jesus and other biblical scenes.

So if you go to Norway you just have to take a trip to see a fjord or two. They are everywhere on the west coast of Norway so we book a day trip and off we go. Bergen is full of islands and it seems they are all filled with homes and bays and places to keep boats and walk-ways down to the water from the hill sides. Different styles of homes, and different sizes. Jim, of course, has been talking about Swen and Ole for years and how the live down by the wharf in Bergen. So we are looking and ya know, by golly, we spot what just has to be their houses, right on the water with a little place for their humble boat! but the trip goes on and the view is getting a little boring and we wonder if maybe we booked the wrong cruise. But finally we turn up a narrow canyon and spot a waterfall from high on a cliff, there is another and the walls go higher and we see a cove where legend has it a thief stored away his stolden goods until one day he was discovered and ended up on the wrong end of a rope. But the view gets better but the weather worse as a little rain hits us and a cold wind whips round the port side of our vessel and it is time to duck inside. Many other waterfalls appear and we declare this voyage a good choice afterall.

So, next day after a long breakfast, we all meet on the street and decide to take a walk - perhaps up the hill to a small church like building. Up we go by the cable car and climb steep steps to finally arrive at not a church - just a building but the view is nice - "Right Jim?" "Jim!" Jim is off on the path to WALK up the damn mountain to the top! What the hell - lets go and see what happens. "We can stop anytime we want", says Jim. We walk, it rains, we walk, we sweat, we walk, switch back after switch back but the view is getting incredible and even though we have the wrong shoes and lack of planning we all kind of get into the walk. Finally we arrive and the view is as advertised - spectacular! We see the entire city and hills and bays and islands and the city. I bet Tina will toss in a photo to show the view. Wow! There is a playground for kids and a delight - troll heads on poles hidden in the trees for the kids to find, picnic tables scattered about and a nice cafe. In we go for wine and beer. Wine down and Jim decides to walk down. Tina, Krim and I vote for more wine and beer and to try the cable car ride down. The cable car kicks us out in the middle of town and we are delighted. What a cool thing! Right in the middle of town you jump a cable car for $6 and a 7 minute ride to hiking trails and beautiful views and a delightful day with an easy beautiful walk down to town through ferns and trees and views of the city.

 

A fire to warm our bones and a couple glasses of adult beverages awaited us at the top!

We reward ourselves that evening with dinner at the "Bare" Restaurant in the center of town with great reviews. Ouch, it is expensive but looks way too interesting to pass. So we vote to do the three course meal with wine and are glad we did. We start with appitizer one - dried fish skin with something on top - not good for Jim and Clyde but "The Girls" like it. Next comes pork rind and now we are talking and smiles all round. The food continues with all sorts of new tastes - smoked food using hay, hay sprinkles, indiginous berries, chicken liver with pork, Halibut cooked in juice, pork, sorbet with berries and several of the courses served by the chief chef. The wine and champagne was wonderful. It was great.

 

 

7-21...7-23-2015: Delightful Bergen

Wow is what we found our rooms to be - right next door to each other on the 6th floor we each have a small balcony we can step out on and look straight down to the water. Across the water we look at the famous old buildings of Bergen and it is a sight to remember. I bet Tina will throw in a picture or two of our view in both sunlight and in darkness - it is beautiful.

 

We take off on foot to the old town in the rain. It rains all the time here and in fact this is the home of the first umbrella vending machine. But, you have to take what you got and over the next few days we spend lazy days getting to know the place.

This is an old city that came into prominence from fishing but really hit the big time when it became part of the Hanseatic league - rich German merchants seeking trade and wealth. Bergen was the most populous city in Norway at one time and was the city of government for the country. The old town where once the commerce for the city was centered is now full of shops entered through narrow walk ways and alleys with retail, souvenirs and workshops for leather and jewelry. Its fun and we spend some time and a little money.

The city has a Cathedral and Krim and I visit. The architecture is different from central Europe but still impressive with high ceilings and church artifacts. The history of the building is a turbulent one as the building was first used by an King Olav the Holy, Norway's patron saint and it first mentioned in writing around 1150. Franciscan friars arrived in town in the first half of the 13th century and began to use the church. Fire messed up the place in 1248 and again in 1270 but fixed up each time. The church is pretty plain and has been so for most of it's history.

There is a cable car that runs up one of the 7 hills surrounding the city and the entrance is right in the middle of town. Over 1,000 feet above the city the view is said to be spectacular so we have it on our list. It is raining on this day (of course) but between rains we sneak our for a walk. "The Girls" do some shopping, Jim does some needed work and I decide to check out the oldest building in town- St. Mary's Church. Probably built in 1130 by rich German merchants, the church has been in continuous use since early medieval times. A major restoration was just completed this year so I am lucky it is open. There are life sized statues of the twelve disciples plus moses and John the Baptist. The pulpit is a mystery as it is unlike any other in Norway. It was presented to the church in 1676 by prominent merchants but the biggest prize of the church is the alter reredos from the end of the 15th century. It is a screen, probably from Lubeck Germany and depicts Mary and the infant Jesus and other biblical scenes.

 

 

7-20-2015: Trolly, Train and Bergen

Since we paid north of $100 bucks for a taxi from the airport it is a nice thought to know we are leaving Oslo by train. First challenge is to get from the hotel to the main train station. It seems they have a solution as there is a trolley right outside the hotel - maybe 50 steps away. However, it is over tracks and cobblestones that wheels on suitcases are not fond of traveling. And we are loaded with the usual stuff and bedding that we just had to have for our beds at home. Really - what were we thinking!?!

Here comes trolley number 18 and we jump, rather drag on and try to listen for main train statio and in Norwegian. It is not going to work so we follow the lead of the locals and when most get ready to leave at a stop we shout out, "Is this the main train station" and we get many "Yes" - so glad these folks all take English starting in 1st grade! But better still is a young lady with a scarf over her head from where I do not know - but she is an angel to us. She leads us to a better entrance to the train station with all our stuff and I try to wave her off with a thanks but she sticks with us - "I am going that way anyway so I will go with you". She finds the escalator for us and says, "I will meet you at the top" and she does and leads us to the big board with gate information. Along the way she tells me she lives outside the city and is working in a hospital but studying to be a lawyer.

So the Board says we are on track 4 so we go down a long ramp to the track and it looks like we have things under control. It is always good to make friends along the way and several of us are confused. So we talk to a Russian couple who are not sure because the sign says something else is on this track and we talk to two young Asian ladies that want to be sure they are in the right place. And an older lady checks in with us who now traveling alone since her husband had to cancel his trip for business reasons. Fine - until there comes an announcement the train will be delayed from 3:17 to 4:00. OK - until here comes our Russian friend that tells our train is on track 6! What - we run down to check the Board and sure enough there is a change in track but no change in time so we have zip time to make the change. We pass the Asian ladies and tip them off on the change and we tell our friend with the absent husband and we race off as the word gets round to the other folks and it is panic time. We push our bags up the ramp and round the corner to track 6 pushing and getting pushed.

We are in car number 1 which is down the entire train somewhere on the horizon where there is a clearing in the crowd. Bags and people are flying to the side and we know our Jim is making a run for it. Somehow the husbandless lady is with us and staring up three high steps with a bag she has no chance of getting up there. Quick stop and we throw her and her bag on the train and hit the gas toward car number one. Jim awaits and with a mighty grunt we heft the thousand pound bags up and into the storage bins and find our seats.

The seats are nice and we settle in for a 7 hour ride to Bergen on what is advertised as one of the most beautiful train trips in the world across the entire width of Norway. If you make the trip, be sure to get the seats on the left - or else you see a lot of hill sides. But it is a charming ride as we pass charming villages in rolling forests for miles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The seats on the right are a booth so we get company. Lucky she is a charming student that speaks perfect english and is reading Leo Tolstoy - a smart one is she, but fun and she also had to run to catch the train. As the train climbs we reach snow and glaciers and rolling hills and lakes and streams of glacier water. There are cabins here and our seat mate tells us folks have summer homes here and some have homes for skiing. It is quite a site.

 

Eventually we reach Bergen and it takes two small taxis to get us to the Clarion Hotel Admiral where we will stay for the next 6 nights with no particular plans. Our rooms are special but it is late so we find a spot to eat and go to bed.

 

 

7-19-2015: A Sunny Oslo Day

After breakfast we walked down to the harbor, passing beautiful city parks where people were sitting and children were playing. There is a palace here in Oslo (of course) so Krim and I climb the hill for a visit but the tickets are sold out for the day. No problem, the grounds surrounding the palace are charming and folks are gathering in the sunshine. The main street leads from the palace to the town square and along the way are museums and theaters and parks and people gathering to enjoy the day.

 

7-18-2015: Ahhh, it's Oslo!

Off to the airport and it is a zoo! People everywhere and carts and suitcases and more people and good grief. We find our airline and a kiosk and we enter our reservation number and bam - there we are! Out pops the boarding pass and bag check straps. Now what - ah, bag drop!- that's us! But wait, there are no people, just a conveyer belt and a scan gun. We watch a couple folks work it and it could be trouble. The locals toss their bag on the belt and scan they tag but the conveyer will not budge. Off comes the bag, out come some local words from the bag owner that I assume were not in good taste, out come some articles from the suitcase, back goes the bag on the conveyer belt and this time the suitcase accepts the bag. We are ready because we carry a luggage weighing devise but it was a major effort to make the weight. But it works first try and the bags disappear. Gulp - hope we did that right and our bags meet us in Oslo!

Our bags all make it and we find our expensive taxi for a ride to Thon Hotel Rosenhrantz. One of us gets a less expensive room (any guesses who?) and pay for it with a very small room. But wait, there is a reward and it comes with the hospitality. We are told the dinner that comes with the room is more like appetizers so we opt to visit an Indian Restaurant.

Big mistake as we return to the hotel to check out what we could have eaten and find it would work just fine for us.

But in the morning we get a most pleasant surprise as we join other guests for an incredible breakfast that comes with the room. Greeting us is yet another blond baltic beauty with a wide smile - my goodness the women and little blond kids in these counties are just beautiful. The breakfast offers smoothies, fresh squeezed (you watch it being made!) orange juice, rolls, wonderful bread, eggs of any kind, omelets, and on and on. Oh, and lattes for the asking and we ask many times over. But wait, that is not all - they offer a room on the top floor that is open to guests anytime where a machine knows how to make a great cappuccino and a fountain shoots out carbonated water all day long. What a hotel!

 

7-17-2015: Ice, Vikings and Abba

We are trying something new - again. We are taking a stab at a Hop-on-Hop off bus. Looks easy and our hotel guy says it is a good way to see the city - so we bite. We cannot find the bus stop. We look. We ask. We look some more. Finally we find a stop and get tickets and wonder - could they not put up a sign saying Hop-on - Hop Off - stop number 20?

First stop - Ice Bar! We get ponchos with glovers and a hood and in we go. It is just under freezing and everything is ice. An ice bar, drinks in an ice glass (Use your gloves please!), ice walls and Ice benches. We are having fun and taking photos.

Back to the bus and it is a nice way to see the City. Next stop is the most visited place in the City - the Viking Ship Museum. The weather turns cold and rain begins as we wait to enter - some Summer they are having! This ship is huge and the oldest Complete ship in the world. It was built around 1760 and sank where it was kept in near perfect condition by the cold water. Clothes were found and are on display as well as dishes and everyday articles. This was a war ship with many cannons. It is a wonder to see and we spend time to take it all in to enjoy.

 

Back on the bus and we have to stop and see the ABBA museum. We spend less time here but find the band was not just discovered one day on the Internet or American Idol. They spent time sleeping on a small camper, working bars and small clubs until they got their big break on British TV talent show. OK, we snap a photo with our faces on their bodies and it is time to head to the hotel and food, and bed.

We follow the advice of the hotel and they send us off to a great restaurant off the beaten track and it has the charm you look for. They also have meatballs and I take the laughs and order them up. They are good and I know everyone else is wishing my plate was in front of them.

We decide Stockholm is a winner!

 

7-16-2015: Destination, Stockholm

It is still morning when we land - wrong port so Tina does her magic to move our ride to the correct port. The ride to the hotel comes with a warning from the driver that we should look and not buy in the old town of Stockholm. "Way too expensive", he says. We expect Sweden and Norway to be expensive so we listen and promise to be good.

 

But the City is beautiful with around 2 million folks and plenty of steeples and water. We get lucky and one of our rooms is ready for an early check-in. We dump our bags and go for a walk just over the bridge to the Old Town. It is a beauty with small cobble stone winding streets, junk souvenir shops and up scale shops and narrow, inviting cross streets leading to??? At the end of the main street appears the palace. We are headed to the front door for the view and the promised changing of the guard. But we have time so we look around the central square in the palace grounds.

Like most palaces the Kings and Queens live elsewhere and only use the palace for coronations, welcoming heads of state, celebrations and such when they break out the good chothes and best crowns and jewels. But it is impressive. The guard changing is quite an event. OK, we get a taste of Old Town so it is time for some Duty Free Wine we snagged on the ship, and back to Old Town for dinner.

Nice Restaurant and nice menu - "Look, they have fish! - what a surprise!" They also have interesting stuff - Krim goes for the Elk and I am having Reindeer! (Sorry Rudolph!)

 

 

7-15-2015: Helsinki Boat to Stockholm

We are trying something else new on this trip. We fly and we fly and we fly. But this time we are going to float - twice. First trip is from Tallinn, Estonia to Helsinki, Finland on a ferry. Public transportation means everyone knows what they are doing except us and they all have a very determined look- some would say mean.

We navigate with our bags upon bags and they all have nothing or one small bag. Out tickets work and we are ahead of the crowd so we head down a street and see the Ferry just ahead - this could work out fine. But wait, there is a chain across the road and we stack up with a whole bunch of folks from all over. Mothers with baby carriages, little kids, mean looking working folk all lining up behind us. Remember the movies with the Oklahoma land rush and all the wagons lined up waiting for the gun shot to race off? Down goes the chain and the race is on - bouncing over cobble stones our suitcases jumping we hit top speed in a few feet but it is to late - the baby carriage is going our speed and a big Russian fellow comes from the back of pack and goes by with smaller people falling to the way side. A ramp appears and it is steep but we have speed so up we go blocking out a Fin on one side and a Swede on the other and somehow get through the door. Jim is all over this and somehow was blocking out storage shelves for our suitcases and we are in!!

Now comes the reward - Tina was anticipating trouble so we booked First Class - Comfort or something but whatever, it came with a nice person that says, "Follow me" and follow her we did upstairs and into a special room. Bam! it is quiet, we have a sofa, a cold drink and a menu and windows to our selves. Whew! Nice - a whole room to ourselves and a super nice person that takes our orders, brings us food and brings us drinks.

But wait, that is not all. After a very pleasant trip across the sea to Finland, she says, "Would you like to be the first ones off the ship?" She parts the people like Moses parted the Red Sea and we march off the first few feet and then, like the fox being chased by the hounds we are off again to our next boat.

This boat is a big 'ol cruise ship and for all of us, this IS our first Rodeo! It is a bit of a madhouse but some nice folks point the way. Jim and Tina did the right thing and got a room with a deck while we upgraded a little, but not enough. We get a window to the outside which is quite nice but it takes a lot of coordination to open suitcases, hit the bathroom and such. The ship has shops and restaurants but the biggest hit is the duty free shop and the folks are stocking up. We hit the wine section and score some major buys - enough to last the ship trip and land stops too!

This feels like a Disney Cruise and the kids are running wild. The kids are sugar high crazy and they run and shout until well after 10 at night! The food is good and after dinner and a drink we hit the sheets. Time change and we wake an hour early but no penalty as the sun is raising and we are passing islands as we make our way, still three hours away, to Stockholm, Sweden. We pass island after island and many have houses and cute villages and birds of all kinds flying around. It is so pleasant watching the islands flow by - some quite close to the ship.

 

 

7-14-2015: Tallinn, Guard Towers and Gates

Tallin is a walled City and most of the wall is still intact with guard towers and gates. The history is of knights, boiling people in the town square (Russian merchants who cheated the local business people - apparently that did not happen again), Robbers who lost their ears (you can hide a hand cut off but kind of difficult to hide a missing ear), gates into the city with overhead openings to pour hot oil or water on invaders, beheading following hangings (apparently only the nobles were killed by beheading but lowly thieves were first hung and then beheaded and buried apart to make sure the afterlife was not in their future), it is just a cool city.

Interesting but perhaps more important is the Estonia money is nothing to our dollar and the prices are so good there is major shopping going on here.

But first we find that Estonia is not so fond of Russia following the actions in the Ukraine - "Could we be next?" Members of NATO and close to Europe this little county shows no fear and plays the national anthem every day. Estonia was under Soviet rule and there is a bitter taste from those days.

Our guide told us when he was young he blew it by saying he got a gift from Christmas. Opps - Religion was out in the Soviet Union and Christmas was a no-no. Home he goes and his parents are brought in the questions this action. But his father was cool and said he meant no harm and did not understand the rule but of course they would no longer celebrate Christmas. But they did - they just no longer spoke of it and our guide learned that sometime you play the game in the old Soviet rule.

 

 

7-13-2015: Pushkin, Pavlovsk and off to Estonia

Wow, we will remember that meal for a long time! They just kept bringing plate after plate until we said, "Surrender" and then they brought a couple more. But each course was a wonder and we crawled off to bed, or in my case, somewhere simular...

So we are ready for the last day and off we go with our guide Anna for a double treat this day as we visit two palaces. First stop is Pavlovsk Palace, named for the town where it is located. Paul I had the luck to be the only legitimate Son of Elizabeth I. So, Elizabeth gave the kid a little place to live - we call it an 18th century palace but to him it was a little place in the country. It is beautiful and does feel more like a home than the huge palace we visit next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pushkin (Catherine the Great) Palace. The Catherine Palace is named after Catherine I, the wife of Peter the Great, who ruled Russia for two years after her husband's death. Originally a modest two-storey building commissioned by Peter for Catherine in 1717, the Catherine Palace owes its awesome grandeur to their daughter, Empress Elizabeth, who chose Tsarskoe Selo as her chief summer residence. Starting in 1743, the building was reconstructed by four different architects, before Bartholomeo Rastrelli, Chief Architect of the Imperial Court, was instructed to completely redesign the building on a scale to rival Versaille.

As we drive out of town we see the soviet housing offered for free to people. There are kind of nasty looking big gray blocks and there are numerous ones holding many hundreds of people. Some look really run down and vacant. From our guide to people at the hotel and restaurants we get the same report that the soviet years following the revolution to the collapse of the soviet union were dark days for the people and they now are re-building their lives with hope for the future. Our experience with folks were very positive and most went out of their way to be nice. Granted, we were staying at one of the best hotels in Saint Petersburg and the help made the connection between American money and a good life but, we got the feeling it was a genuine outreach. Not to say the old women in the museum were lovely when my flash went off accidently but she was not carrying a weapon so it was all cool. Anyway, back to the palace. Good grief, I am not sure there is any gold left for jewely cause the palace was coated in it. As you approach the palace it is flat and easy to see it prompting a visiting German ambassador in Catherine's day to say, "it needs only a case to make it a beautiful jewel". As if that is not enough there are fountains everywhere - 110 I think was the count. The architect needed water and so the palace is located some half a mile or so from a hill with several small streams that were captured to form a lake. The lake feeds the palace fountains using gravity flow which means the fountains can run all the time until it gets so cold they water turns to ice and runs no more. The inside of the palace is gold on gold on plaster on parket floors on painted ceilings on room after room until you reach the famous amber room. The Amber room is named that because the entire room is covered with tile made of pure amber - the whole dang room is Amber. Imagine that. Not enough the palace sits on many acres of park with more fountains and buildings and right on the baltic sea. This Saint Petersburg Summer has us freezing as we walk out to our express boat that takes us back on the baltic sea to our driver who heads to the airport and we go nowhere. Ah, big cities all have traffic and construction and so we take a long drive for a short distance but arrive we do. Scan the bags, scan our bodies, check the passport, find the gate - we are headed for Estonia!

As the plane leaves Russia behind we have only great memories of the people and impressive buildings and history of this land. The Russian people have a long history of misery and suffering and sacrifice. We remember our guide mention the spot where the Germans in World War II were stopped just outside Saint Petersburg but the City was shut off in a great siege that lasted over 600 days. People starved and soldiers on both sides froze to death. Over 1 million people died in the City. Not to mention the lives lost thanks to Lenin and Stallin. We just hope the communication and door to the rest of the world is not shut off and the future brings good things to these folks - they deserve it.

Our flight was good into Tallinn....And Tallinn is wonderful!

We heard from someone that Tallinn in Estonia was a charming city and we find a hotel right in the city of the old town. Man oh man this City has everything that a boy watching movies or reading books of old Europe could want.

Our hotel once housed the telegraph for the city and so was an important link to the outside world. Looks like home to us.

 

7-12-2015: Peteroff Palace

Today we hit the Peteroff Palace. Peter I had visited Versailles in France and wanted one of his own. He especially liked the fountain idea and came up with a grand idea that works like a charm today. By locating the Palace not far from springs on a hill side he was able to use gravity flow to feed the fountains. Today there are 110 fountains the system feeds and it is impressive. Again we fight the crowds to see the Palace but the open woods and gardens are delightful. And Beauty? What till you see the fountain pictures Tina will post around here - unreal! Fountains and statues and woods and trails from the palace to the sea of Finland.

 

Back to the Sea of Finland, of which, we travel back to our hotel by boat. It has been cold today and with the wind blowing cold air we walk the end of the pier to our covered comfortable seats on the foil boat for a fast ride over the Finland sea to our car and hotel

 

Back to the Sea of Finland, of which, we travel back to our hotel by boat. It has been cold today and with the wind blowing cold air we walk the end of the pier to our covered comfortable seats on It has been a great day and our 7 course meal awaits!

 

Well fed and off to bed!