St Petersburg, the highlight of our cruise lived up to expectations. It was quite intimidating going through immigration where we encountered some very stern looking officials. Jenny tried to ingratiate herself to the Russians by trying out her limited Russian language with a 'dobre utra' and 'spasiba' (good morning and thank you) learnt from our trip to Lithuania earlier in the year. This did raise an eye but not much more!
First impressions of St Petersburg were of traffic jams, and lots of people!
Unfortunately, we had arrived in this magnificent city along with six other huge cruise liners, which made all the sightseeing venues very, very crowded. However, We were lucky enough to have a brilliant guide and coach driver and between them we manoeuvred through the traffic and through the crowds and we had a marvellous day viewing many of the must see sights. We were also entertained with Russian music during a great and much needed lunch, which of course involved vodka and champagne.
The next day included a visit to the newly opened Faberge Museum. This was much quieter than the Hermitage the previous day and the exhibits were jaw droppingly beautiful. During our trip there we were shown yet more of the sights around the city. There is just too much to take in over just two days. Another visit one day???!!!
Our next port of call was Tallin, Estonia. After the hurly burly of St Petersburg it was refreshing to enter this charming capital. The cobbled streets and squares were beautiful with some wonderful architecture. We had no planned tours so it was also lovely to have the freedom of doing our own thing, especially after being shepherded everywhere in Russia. The whole atmosphere in Tallin was very relaxed and we wandered through the historic lanes at our leisure. One of our aims was to find the chocolate museum, which we did but the actual factory has now moved to premises away from Tallin centre but the building houses a wonderful café and there is an opportunity to watch marzipan being moulded and then painted into wonderful characters. We weren't too keen on the marzipan eyeball lollies but are sure children love then. There was a vast array of chocolate on sale but we opted to have a coffee and some chocolate cake.
We browsed the city walls and Fat Margaret Tower and found a great piece of high ground from which we got a good view over the orange rooftops of delightful and picturesque city.
From Tallin we sailed to the island of Sareemaa. This Estonian island is the holiday destination for many Estonians. However, with the holiday season now finished (the season stops abruptly on 1st September) much of the island seemed rather deserted and shut up. The folk on Sareemaa are trying desperately to encourage the smaller cruise ships to visit this rather flat, heavily wooded island, which has a host of wildlife. The roads are very good and we encountered very little traffic on our tour to the capital Kuressaame. This is a sleepy little town with a beautiful church, a fort, a small marina, several spa hotels and a weekly market, mostly manned by rather aged ladies with very few teeth but big smiles.
After our visit to the town we were taken to an open air farm museum where there were many old thatched farmhouses kept much as they would have been centuries ago and the farm equipment and machinery have been kept in good order and displayed in the original houses. The windmill on the site has been fully restored. Here we were entertained with some folk dancing and we both got asked to join in on one of the dances along with many other unsuspecting visitors. It was great fun. We were rewarded after with some locally brewed beer ( it was very cloudy with a huge foaming head but tasted great) and black bread and locally made butter.
Riga, the capital of Latvia was our next stop. Here we were moored right next to the town. Riga, although bigger than Tallin was another interesting city and once again we decided to do our own thing. On our arrival in the centre it was very quiet! Latvians much like us do not get going early on a Saturday morning but by about 11.00am a friendly bustle had developed as families and youngsters started to appear in the city. As with most of our visits we try to find the not so touristy places to investigate and to try and get a taste of the local way of life rather than the artificial tourist traps. we were rewarded in Riga by finding a little café frequented by locals where we had two coffees and a large apple pancake (which we shared) for a total of €2.70.
We enjoyed a lovely walk along the canal, through the beautifully kept gardens that boarder it and came across an interesting, giant, floating moon, touring exhibit suspended over the canal. It was quite stunning. We also encountered a baptism (or whatever it is called in the Russian Orthodox religion) taking place in the magnificent The Nativity Church. We also encountered a couple of weddings, it being a Saturday, where the tradition appears to be for all the guests, men and women to carry or just take for the bride and groom, a huge bouquet of flowers. A lovely sight!
The town was also preparing for a marathon with lots of roads closed but by the time we departed from the dock at 19.00 there was no sign of the start of the race just lots of people arriving so we can only assume it was a late evening marathon!!
And so to our last port of call, Wismar in Germany. Yet another delightful port where there are still a few hints of life before unification. A few buildings around the port still have the imposing pre 1991 look while some have been turned into waterside flats and the harbour area is gradually being westernised with eating places and smart shops, as happens on other waterfronts throughout the world. The town centre still bears a few of the marks of the WWII but mainly intentionally. Most of the town and its architecture has been given a face lift following unification with just a few glimpses at the sad state buildings were in prior to 1991.
We had a great guide on this tour and after being taken on a brief tour of the city we were taken to a sparkling wine cellar. We were treated to a tour of the cellar and an insight into the production of the wine after sampling four different types of the wine - very dry, a little less dry, a little less dry still and a half dry!! They were all gorgeous and we couldn't resist buying a bottle!
Once again a little canal runs through this town so we gravitated to it once we had bid farewell to our guide. However, it is not much more than a stream now and very shallow so not suitable for navigation but we found some unusual adornments on some of the bridges.
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