Harriet1910

Here's a link to an interesting article about a Russian Jewish translator who was living in the USSR during Stalin time.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-adv/advertisers/russia/articles/features/20090930/one_womans_tale_of_soviet_life_grips_nation.html

Planning for your 2020 Baltic cruise? Start reading now.

Hue has more historic sights than Hoi An. It makes sense to go there with a tour.

Seriously, I couldn't care less. As long as the cabin is clean and I'm on a cruise, I'm good. :D

 

I have read lots of threads since I've been on CC and it seems everyone here requires minimum of a balcony. :rolleyes:

 

Maybe when I have taken more cruises I will become more jaded. As it stands, I can't imagine paying more for a room that I barely spend any time in. First cruise I never got back to our cabin until 2am or so and was up, showered and out of there by 8am.

Agree!

1 month has passed since we returned from our first cruise and we are still full of impressions. I would like to express my gratefulness and respect to the group of highly professional guides and managers who have made our two days in St. Petersburg one of the most outstanding life experiences. We decided to go on a private tour for the two of us and enjoyed the flexibility of the program: seeing what we wanted to see and stopping when we needed a rest. Thanks to the well-done planning we managed to visit all the main sight on the list (including the Jusupov palace, which was one of the highlights) in quite a moderate pace. Our guide Lisa was highly knowledgeable, flexible, very caring and open to share her family history, which gave us a great perception of the real life of the country. Our driver Alexander was always there to meet and greet us, his Mercedes appeared in front of us before we started to look for it. We were taken excellent, professional care of, with a pleasant personal touch, which we appreciated a lot. I will keep recommending Best Guides to my friends and colleagues without hesitation.

We have just returned from the Baltic Cruise on Celebrity and we had an excellent experience with Best Guides Group. The trip was a present to my mother for her 70 years anniversary. The 2 days we had in St. Petersburg were the highlight of the trip. Our guide Anna had encyclopedic knowledge of everything, but her way of delivering information was easy and with an outstanding sense of humor. Anna and our driver Alexander (who spoke very good English) made us feel the most valued guests of the city. Being a party of 2 we had a priority for entering museums and never had to wait in lines. If before the trip I had some prejudice against the Russian way of providing service based on my independent travelers friends’ experience, now I know a company that really cares about its guests.

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Best Guides to my relatives and friends and to anyone looking for an outstanding experience in St. Petersburg.

Ambitious goals! Having read just a few books of the list I’m setting off for the long awaited journey. Ready to catch up on-site and happy with the upcoming holyday… ready, steady, go!

Germany

“The Innocent” by Ian McEwan

summary/update

Russia:

"The Life of a Russian Palace" by Suzanne Massie

Peter the Great by Robert Massie

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie

"Nicholas and Alexandra" by Robert K. Massie

The Romanovs - The Final Chapter by Robert Massie

The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak

Natasha’s Dance (A Cultural History of Russia) by Orlando Figes

"Echoes of a Native Land: Two Centuries of a Russian Village," by Serge Schmemann.

War and Peace, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Crime and Punishment, "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Debra Dean's Madonnas of Leningrad

"The Amber Room" by Steve Berry

The Amber Room: The Fate of the World's Greatest Lost Treasure (Paperback) by Catherine Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy (a non-fiction, historical account of the famous room)

The Romanov Prophecy by Steve Berry

Russka by Edward Rutherfurd's

The Seige by Helen Dunmore

City of Thieves by David Benioff

The Jewel of Saint Petersburg, The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall.

How The Russian Snow Maiden Helped Santa Claus by Gail Buyske and Natasha Voronina (children)

Russian Revolution:

Ten Days That Shook the World

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

Films:

"Burned by Sun"

"Anna Karenina"(the last one, directed by Sergey Soloviev)

"The Russian Ark"

Doctor Zhivago 1965 and 2002

Estonia:

Films:

The Singing Revolution

Sweden:

Books

Astrid Lindgren: Karlsson-on-the-Roof and other books by her

Jan Guillou: Birth of the Kingdom, The Road to Jerusalem, The Templar Knight

August Strindberg “The Red Room”

"Astrid and Veronika" by Linda Olsson

"The Prize", a novel by Irving Wallace (1963)

Films

"The Prize" starring Paul Newman

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (based on "Millenium" by Stieg Larsson)

Denmark

Books by Hans Christian Andersen

Hamlet by Shakespeare

WWII

"Long Long Time Ago and Essentially True" by Brigid Pasulka

"The Rape of Europa" about Hitler's thefts from most of the great museums of Europe

Breaking of Eggs by Jim Powell –a novel that looks at Europe from 1939 forward

The Innocent by Ian McEwan

Have just finished reading The Madonnas of Leningrad. I have to assume it made me cry. A very impressive book.

To add to films on Sweden:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (based on "Millenium" by Stieg Larsson)

Next up will be Nicholas & Alexandra that you listed in your post. If it's as long as Catherine, I hope I'll be finished by the time we leave in June!!!

Thank you Cornishpastyman1, excellent, outstanding videos, thank you for sharing them. Special thanks for the film about Estonia. Why is the list of books and films about Russia almost as long as the list about all other countries together I wonder?

I propose that we together make a list of history based fiction books and films that are interesting to read/see prior to a Northern Europe and Baltic cruise. I have started to make it, capturing some recommendations from this thread about Best Guides http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1370224, some from this wonderful thread http://boards.cruisecritic.com/archive/index.php/t-1197504.html and adding some books/films that I myself have read/seen and can recommend. Hope it may be interesting and looking forward to your input.

Russia:

"Nicholas and Alexandra" by Robert K. Massie

"The Life of a Russian Palace" by Suzanne Massie

Natasha’s Dance (A Cultural History of Russia) by Orlando Figes

War and Peace, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Crime and Punishment, "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Debra Dean's Madonnas of Leningrad

"The Amber Room" by Steve Berry

The Amber Room: The Fate of the World's Greatest Lost Treasure (Paperback) by Catherine Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy (a non-fiction, historical account of the famous room)

Steve Berry's 'The Romanov Prophecy

Edward Rutherfurd's "Russka

The Seige by Helen Dunmore

City of Thieves by David Benioff

The Jewel of Saint Petersburg, The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall.

Russian Revolution:

Ten Days That Shook the World

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

Films:

"Burned by Sun"

"Anna Karenina"(the last one, directed by Sergey Soloviev)

"The Russian Ark"

Doctor Zhivago 1965 and 2002

Sweden:

Books

Astrid Lindgren: Karlsson-on-the-Roof and other books by her

Jan Guillou: Birth of the Kingdom, The Road to Jerusalem, The Templar Knight

August Strindberg “The Red Room”

"Astrid and Veronika" by Linda Olsson

"The Prize", a novel by Irving Wallace (1963)

Films

"The Prize" starring Paul Newman

Denmark

Books by Hans Christian Andersen

Hamlet by Shakespeare

WWII

"Long Long Time Ago and Essentially True" by Brigid Pasulka

"The Rape of Europa" about Hitler's thefts from most of the great museums of Europe

Breaking of Eggs by Jim Powell –a novel that looks at Europe from 1939 forward

I was reading Ten Days That Shook the World, about the Russian Revolution, and wanted to see some of the sights, like the Kshensky mansion which was Lenin's office for a while and the Smolny Institute which was the revolutionary headquarters. None of this was a problem. When we went to the Hermitage, I was more interested in the rooms in the Winter Palace associated with the Revoution

I am looking forward to our visit to St. Petersburg - we have also booked with Best Guides. I would like to thank you for recommending this book, it breathes life into names and places mentioned in numerous guidebooks. I would really appreciate more advice on history based fiction books you should read prior to visiting St. Petersburg.

Hi. Do you know if there is a hop on hop off buss to go to the center near the place where the ship docks?

Hello, Kerry2travel

wonder if you’ve done it and how it was