Category: Russia

We visit St Petersburg, and cruise to Moscow. This is the beginning of our two week river cruise on the Uniworld River Victoria, a fantastic river boat that carries about 200 passengers, and has an all-Russian crew. We started in St Petersburg and went north on the Neva and Volga rivers, through many locks, to Moscow. We give you our impressions of places we visit and tell you fun stuff about what we did.

It was tough for us to do this blog for St Petersburg Russia to Moscow Blog while we were on the cruise ship. The Internet connection was spotty on the Uniworld River Victoria. Apparently it was a satellite connection, which was slow, and certainly we could only use it while we were moored at a dock.

In Russia today, or maybe just on a cruise ship, they don’t have a way to give you a consistent connection. At best we could connect for a few minutes at a time.

Sunday, June 10 Webpage Under Construction. This was an optional tour. We got there and it was barely drizzling – we were looking at the monument outside. 1481 ft tall – in memory of the number of days of WWII. Then it started to pour. We went inside. Dioramas: Teardrops falling from the ceiling The… Continue reading Moscow Museum of the Patriotic War

We’re at Catherine Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia. Any of the river cruises to tour in Russia in St. Petersburg are going to include a visit to Catherine Palace. Usually things start early. We’ve been setting the alarm for 6am so we can get up, get showered (so nice for the other guests) and down to breakfast which starts at 6:30. We start with a trip to the outskirts to Catherine Palace, located in the little town of Pushkin. During WWII, the Nazis never made it into St Petersburg…

Visit to Kirilov – Goritsky, Russion Orthodox Church and Monastery This trip is primarily focused on the major Russian cities of St Petersburg and Moscow.  The little towns in between hold varying degrees of interest for folks.  At this point, many guests are starting to get a bit tired of seeing and hearing about churches… Continue reading St Petersburg Russian Monastery in Kirilov-Goritsky

Carol and JB Visit Yaroslavl Wednesday, June 6 On Wednesday we’re headed for Yaroslavl, Russia – a town of about 630,000 inhabitants founded in 1010. The town was not destroyed in World War II although the Nazis came within 100 miles. The town is about 200 miles square – about 4 hours from Moscow by… Continue reading Yaroslavl, a Wonderful Russian Town

We have finally settled into somewhat of a basic schedule on our cruise ship, traveling in Russia, which means, of course, that we start eating bacon at about 6:30 am. Carol closed the cruise ship room safe a little too quickly when programming it, and our normal combination for such things would not open the safe. I would tell you the combination, but then I would have to kill you. So she put in “xxxxx” and closed the door. Apparently you are supposed to press the button that says “Enter” first. This caused a national emergency …

The tour in Russia starts, flying through Canada & Germany. On our way to tour in Russia, our original flight from LAX to Toronto was going to arrive late, leaving us only 30 minutes to clear Canadian customs and get to our next flight. So we got on an earlier Air Canada flight that gave us a couple hours of a layover – so we’d be sure to get on the flight to Frankfurt. On the Air Canada flight, we both watched the new Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Air Canada has very nice flight attendants…

St Petersburg Russia – Arrival and First Impressions Our first impressions of both St Petersburg Russia, and the Uniworld River Victoria are great!  Breakfast again is the buffet, with fantastic eggs, bacon, roasted vegetables, bacon, cereals, smoothies, bacon, yogurt and granola shots, fruits, cheeses & meats, herring with capers and onions and bacon on the… Continue reading St Petersburg Russia on the Neva River

You’ll remember we did the Hermitage Museum in the morning. Well, if you are going to tour in Russia or tour Saint Petersburg, you have to go to the Peterhof Palace and the Peterhof Fountains. The Uniworld river cruise ship River Victoria kitchen provided us with a box lunch to take with us, and we boarded a Russian hydrofoil (image from zdship.ru), which leaves from a dock near the Hermitage. It is a quick trip out of town to the the Peterhof Palace. The tour in Russia to the Peterhof Palace Gardens and the Peterhof Fountains let you see some of the most amazing sights.

Carol and JB Visit the Hermitage Museum Hermitage Museum in the morning.  I can’t really do anything to actually touch this glorious place in a n email, but we’ll try.  The main building is the imperial winter palace.  The building itself it magnificent and art inside is just dessert. I took pictures of some of… Continue reading Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Kizhi Island Cruise Stop Amazing Wooden Russian Christian Orthodox Churches Today is a visit to the small island called Kizhi Island in the middle of Lake Onega.  Here there is a small village which is actually an open-air museum featuring an authentic peasant village and churches made of wood with no nails.  Again, it’s raining,… Continue reading Kizhi Island on the Volga River

Sunday, June 10 This optional excursion to the famous Moscow Circus was the last official adventure of the cruise – and we signed up.  Not only do we love circuses, but we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see one of the best in the world.  We boarded our buses at 5:30 in the afternoon… Continue reading Moscow: The Moscow Circus

Saturday, June 9 Webpage Under Construction. Inside the Kremlin: 1. Started outside and walked in on of the gates 2. Museum – where the crown jewels are kept 3. Building where Putin works – only 2 guards 4. Big bell. Garden 5. Then we had time on our own. Tomb of unknown soldiers 6. Had… Continue reading Moscow: Inside Kremlin and Metro

Friday, June 8 Webpage Under Construction Today, we tour the Kremlin. First, some fun facts. 1. It’s 70 acres – the size of a medieval Russian own. It’s in the shape of a triangle. The walls were wooden. It’s bordered by two rivers. The top of the mountain is Red Square. 2. The first stone… Continue reading Moscow: Kremlin and Gum Store

Carol and JB have Dinner with the Captain We were delighted to be invited to have dinner (along with another couple) with our Captain on our last night of sailing.  Our Captain spoke no English, but we had our Cruise Manager, Lena, and our Ship Hotel Manager, Alexander, also at the table to translate. We… Continue reading Dinner with the Captain on the River Cruise