On the Train to St. Petersburg: Sharing Some Difficult Memories
It is a relatively calm and stress-free morning as we head to St. Petersburg. The weather still seemingly against us – a cool, wet, north wind is blowing as we head to the station for our train ride into Russia. Kouvola is as I...
Sunday in Russia: A Romantic Seurat Painting
Sunday in Russia is like a romantic Seurat painting: everyone is out in the parks and by the canals and the rivers, enjoying the warm sunny weather on their one day liberated from work. Families eating ice cream, and couples, the...
Paying the Price for Beautiful Weather in St. Petersburg
After a day of beautiful weather, we pay the price today: it pours with rain almost the entire day. Having visited (or not) the palaces on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, today we turn our attention to sights not yet seen in the...
Day-Tripping to Tallinn, Estonia
The residual hangover from the night before gives us a natural impulse to start our morning late today. We plan to take the hour and a half ferry ride to the medieval town of Tallinn in Estonia this afternoon but we don’t depart...
At the Hermitage: a Full Day of Art and Culture
The Hermitage Museum occupies five buildings on its main site (and three satellites here in St. Petersburg, as well as in a few major cities around the world). The main building is the Winter Palace, the St. Petersburg home of...
Crossing Finnish Borders
Helsinki is draped in low-lying, grey clouds this morning and a cool, continuous rain is falling as we head downstairs for breakfast at 9:00. There is chaos (in a Finnish way!) in the breakfast room as clearly every hotel guest,...
Peterhof: The 2nd Summer Palace of Peter the Great
Saturday, July 3rd, 2004: St. Petersburg, Russia We are off to Peterhof today. The 2nd summer palace of Peter the Great, it was built on the site of a former Swedish fortress (as were most of the great country palaces of the...