👀Another Blast from the Past - Serenade Baltics August 19, 2018🚢

Sea Dog · August 31, 2020

You were right about Tallinn, Estonia. Wow what a beautiful city. Now I really want to go there.

Goodtime Cruizin · August 31, 2020

Talin's beauty is also in that is has embraced tourism but not a complete submission yet. Relatively speaking, Talin is still in it's infancy as far as tourism goes. The people were gracious and only matched by the sights & sounds. It's a wonderful port stop.

John&LaLa · August 31, 2020

Just checking in, apparently I have 337 pictures to cull through

I'll be back later tonight

#lifegoals

John&LaLa · August 31, 2020

August 23, 2018 - Day 5 - St Petersburg

Our tour is called Panoramic St Petersburg. Bought it on sale for $36

You have to go on a ship's tour, a Russian approved excursion, of have a VISA from what I recall

We docked in lower left and pretty much stay in the area around the Hermitage

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It's a dreary day, much colder than yesterday

The P&O ship needed a tug, I don't think she has Azipods

The hat works perfect, the jacket is from the ship. Since it's the last stop, they were discounting the Russia stock

For those that think I don't like kids, wrong. Some are OK.

Met a Russian lady and her child on the bus. Kind of surprised they were doing this type of excursion.

They were fun

Goodbye Serenade

And now it's raining

Sucks for pictures

njkruzer · August 31, 2020

There are private tour companies that get the visa for you. We used Alla tours for 2 days of touring. Very good. Rode their very clean subway...of course clean with no passengers and only 5 stops! We had better weather.

napoxoguk · August 31, 2020

18 minutes ago, njkruzer said:

Rode their very clean subway...of course clean with no passengers and only 5 stops!

You mean daily ridership of about 2 million, only 5 lines, and about 70 stops?

Edited August 31, 2020 by napoxoguk
R

njkruzer · August 31, 2020

12 minutes ago, napoxoguk said:

You mean daily ridership of about 2 million, only 5 lines, and about 70 stops?

We rode, in 2014, a line that only had 5 stops. It was a Sunday. The tour guide said the reason it was so empty and clean was because it was a Sunday! Having grown up riding the NYC subway and having ridden the London tube, this sounded strange.

John&LaLa · August 31, 2020

By the time we got to our first stop, it had stopped raining

This is a park across the river from the Heritage

It has a lovely promenade and two columns.

They are torches at night

Hermitage with St Isaac's Dome in background

Peter & Paul Fortress in background

This is definitely a Navy town, nautical themes everywhere

Next stop, Peter & Paul Fortress

Edited August 31, 2020 by John&LaLa

John&LaLa · August 31, 2020

35 minutes ago, njkruzer said:

There are private tour companies that get the visa for you. We used Alla tours for 2 days of touring. Very good. Rode their very clean subway...of course clean with no passengers and only 5 stops! We had better weather.

That's what I meant by an approved excursion😉

We didn't overnight

njkruzer · August 31, 2020

10 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

That's what I meant by an approved excursion😉

We didn't overnight

Gotcha. We had 2 full exhausting days.

John&LaLa · August 31, 2020

So, we get over to the fort and get turned away, over capacity, I think

No problem, we'll just switch tour order with Saviour of the Spilled Blood, just across another bridge

Russian Literary Museum. I'll bet Tolstoy is in there

power line for electric buses keep messing up my pictures

Anyone want a mobile missile launcher?

Or some howitzers. I like the big ones in the back

This is the Museum of Historical Artillery across from the fort. We'll be back soon, hopefully

No love for the USA it would appear. Maybe it's just a Euro centrist thing

Gold everywhere it seems

Frigate turned into a restaurant, I believe

John&LaLa · August 31, 2020

41 minutes ago, napoxoguk said:

You mean daily ridership of about 2 million, only 5 lines, and about 70 stops?

Your avatar is Cruiser Aurora?

Edited August 31, 2020 by John&LaLa

njkruzer · August 31, 2020

Loving your pictures! Brings back memories. Tell Laura I like her hat! I just want to cruise. Were on the Radiance in Sydney when told to disembark and go home. Trip yo Hilton Head in May cancelled. November Anthem TA cancelled. Next hope is January 4th Vision, which I have my doubts about but dh won't let me cancel. Time will tell.

John&LaLa · September 1, 2020

Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood

This is an iconic St Pete landmark. It commemorates the assassination of a Czar/Tsar at the end of the 1800's

So it's actually a 19th century building designed to mimic an old Russian Cathedral like St Basil in Moscow

FWIW, St Pete is not a very old city. It pretty much dates to the 18th centruy

While we were there it was undergoing a restoration and we couldn't go in and the outside was partially covered in scaffolding

It should look like this now

Picture from rbth.com

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We saw this. Guess we'll have to go back. Probably on an overnight

St John's dome in the foreground

The KGB is still watching us

There was a little shrine across the street

Since the bus was in the way, here is a view from Google Street View

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I'm not 100% sure, but this may be the actual site of the attack on Alexander II

John&LaLa · September 1, 2020

Still not ready to go to the fort, so let's make the obligatory shopping stop

As usual it's right across another bridge or two

Nice, but at close to $5000 USD or an insane amount of Rubles, we passed

Not even the complimentary vodka could sway us

Vlad is everywhere, even in retail stores, go figure.

Now the one nice thing about this stop, is it's also the location of Peter's first Palace

Not much to look at if you ask me

The gate is nice

Which one is better?

Remember the frigate

Laura got bored and headed back

I used to have an American Scirocco back in the 70's

This one is cool. VW never imported these to us

Cruiser Aurora is right around the corner

I got her confused with the Battleship Potemkin, her mutiny was 12 years earlier

Next stop is Peter & Paul, no Mary

Sunshine3601 · September 1, 2020

6 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

Just checking in, apparently I have 337 pictures to cull through

I'll be back later tonight

#lifegoals

Were you able to walk from port to town in Tallinn or need bus/taxi to get there?

I am loving your photos.

Thank you for sharing!

John&LaLa · September 1, 2020

2 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Were you able to walk from port to town in Tallinn or need bus/taxi to get there?

I am loving your photos.

Thank you for sharing!

Walked it twice 🤣🤣

And I have mobility issues 😉

One of the closest to the 'action' piers weve ever visited. The longest part of the walk was past the parking lot

Sunshine3601 · September 1, 2020

We were booked for boat ride canals and river tour with a tour at yusupuv palace. Did you happen to do that while in st petersburg? Love seeing all of this since we couldn't go this month.

John&LaLa · September 1, 2020

22 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

We were booked for boat ride canals and river tour with a tour at yusupuv palace. Did you happen to do that while in st petersburg? Love seeing all of this since we couldn't go this month.

No, but we probably should have done an afternoon excursion to maximize our time.

the one we did was at 8am, I'm sure we were back by lunch

Saw the canal boats