Glad you picked up your tour...my wife and I had a transfer situation in 2008 we flew from Ireland to New York enroute to Toronto. All flights were grounded due to thunder and lightening. There were no available seats on flights to Toronto....we ended up catching a flight to Rochester up state New York and then a Taxi US$450.00 to Toronto. The next time I'm going that distance I will fly in a day early. We would have missed CNN Tower & Niagra Falls and they were one just some of the major highlights on morning one.

Eve -

Today we did a city tour of St. P by bus. Very little time to walk around any acutal sights. We were finished by noon. A quick walking tour of the environs of our hotel (mostly to point out possible restaurants and water and drink purveyors) then the rest of the day we were free to do as we pleased.

There were 2 optionals offered. The first was the Yusupov Palace. The second was the evening river cruise. We did the latter only. It was fairly typical, a bottle of vodka at the table and folk musicians and dancers inside. Several people who didn't want to take part in the inside festivities spent a large part of the boat ride on the outide deck taking pictures. It worked out rather well for everyone.

The optionals for the entire trip were offered today. The only ones not offered was the Fortress of Peter and Paul in St. P , and the trip to Zagorsk in Moscow. The other item which became a bit of an issue is that on Wednesday we check out of the hotel in St. P. in the morning. We then tour out of town at for the morning to see the Petrodverts. This is apparently close to Catherine's Palace. Although our TD assured us they could arrange other things for us to do if we did not want to take the optional of Catherine's Palace, when we spoke to her privately the other choices were not terribly palatable.

We have a TD, Elena, who has been doing a good job. We have also had a City Guide, Luba, who has also been with us all day today, and apparently will be with us tomorrow. They work well together and split their tasks up seamlessly.

We were also told we will have the same coach and driver for the entire tour. He will leave St. P with our bags after we board the train and will meet us when we check in to our hotel in Moscow. Elena also told us that the internet is very expensive in the hotel in Moscow (whereas it is free in the rooms in St. P.)

Tomorrow will bring the Hermitage and St. Issac's. I think we will get a chance to get into the buildings in the fortress of Peter and Paul (we just walked through the grounds today in our spare time.

The weather has been cool with several small squalls blowing in from the Gulf of Finland. There have been occasional sunny periods. Layers of clothing are the only solution. Today's high was 18 Celsius and tomorrow is forecast for only 13.

Hopefully I'll be able to get off one more post before moving on to Moscow.

Jim

Cheers Jim,
These reports are wonderful. I really appreciate you going to the trouble of typing them up. Will not expect some from the Moscow Hotel then!

Disappointing to hear the Zagorsk option not available. That was an area of interest when I first selected the tour and was playing around on the internet working out if we would go to Russia by ourselves. I vaguely remember we would have needed buses/trains out into the countryside and it seemed a bit complicated in terms of timetables. (not to mention the language)

Yes! I just looked up the forecast before I read your post and the temperature is about the same as Melbourne today - maybe even a little cooler. Without the squalls from the Gulf of Finland of course!

Did you hear feedback from the others about Yusupov Palace? Any "good" souvenirs?!
I think I will be outside taking a million photos as well on the cruise. I wonder who our TD will be? It would be unusual for a TD to do back to back tours.

Enjoy the Hermitage, a place I am really looking forward to. Hopefully the Catherine's Palace choice you make will work out for you as well. We will probably do that optional anyway.
Thanks once again.
About to copy/paste this onto a word doc and send it to the other half to read too.

I wouldn't be too upset at not having the Zagorsk option offered. It was offered on our St. Petersburg to Moscow cruise and I thought it very disappointing. Most of the time was spent on the bus in heavy traffic and St Sergius Monastery was nothing special.

In retrospect I would much preferred to have spent the time in Moscow.

Hi Eve

Have done all optionals and St Catherine's Palace is worth doing, if you want to see more of St Petersburg I would skip Yusupov Palace it was nice but we didn't have any spare time to do anything else. The drive to St Sergius Monastery is about 1.5 hours but it does depend on traffic coming back was worse as every body was coming home from there week end away. I thought it was worth going to see but if you have plans to see other things in Moscow I wouldn't bother going.

tupps

Thank you Tangata.
That's why I love this BB - its very helpful!
I will not stress about that optional then and start exploring my travel books and try to narrow down all the other wonderful things to see in Moscow. Maybe I will buy a fur hat.. lol There will be better things to do than being stuck in traffic. Perhaps the Tretyankov Museum. Or just explore the architecture and take lots of photos for the BB...

I dont think I will do the Yusupov Palace. Just talking to Tuppence in the chat room and I think Rasputin's face is scary at the best of times! lol Will consult with the other half who keeps leaving the planning to me anyway!!
Amazing to think Rasputin was so influencial on the royal lives.

Isnt it also amazing that Jim has been so good as to do a couple of 'on tour' posts. So helpful. Eve

11 days to go... will pack soon...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Eve777,

Eve –

Our last day in St. P the weather was miserable. It rained all day and was windy. The high temperature was 13 degress C.

After Peterhof (which has really spectacular fountains) we went to Catherine’s palace. The rooms in Catherine’s Palace were really quite extraordinary (particularly the Amber Room)and many rivalled rooms in the Hermitage. We then returned to St. Pete’s for our “Highlight Dinner” which was at the 1913 restaurant. It was beef stroganoff which was good. Also included was a glass of cold Vodka. We then left for the train station.

The train from St. Pete to Moscow was interesting. The room assignments are the same as in the hotels (3 to a room = 3 to a compartment, single room = you get a compartment to yourself). I found the train noisy and didn’t get much sleep, however some people slept well. Have some water for the train trip as the water on the train is not potable. The train arrived on time in Moscow and our normal coach was there to greet us with our City Guide. We were immediately taken to a restaurant for breakfast.
Coach seating is the same as every other Insight Vacation I have been on. You move forward 2 seats each day. If the front seat is important to you on a long city tour day count backwards and seat yourself accordingly on the first trip (beware the TDs sometimes change things up.

After breakfast we were off on a city tour. Early on in the city tour we got off the bus and went on 3 or 4 different Metro rides to see the different stations. Each one is unique and many are spectacular in size and/or design. We then continued on a bus tour of the city and ended up at Red Square for a couple of hours or so. We were given free time to explore the area around Red Square including the GUM department store (which is more properly a mall or arcade). We used a good portion of our time to go inside St. Basil’s Cathedral. I was surprised. The spaces inside are small. It is like a collection of very small chapels. The decoration is mostly hand painted on the wall with very few icons.

Don’t worry about trying to see everything while you are here as you will again have free time in the area the next day.
We got back on the bus, saw a few more sights then checked into our hotel around 2 p.m. Many of us who hadn’t slept well on the train took the opportunity to get a little sleep in the afternoon. Check out the clock tower in the lobby of the Crowne Plaza. It is a mini-glockenspiel each hour on the hour. Dinner this night is included. It is a fairly bland dinner at the hotel.
That evening we went on the “Moscow by Night” optional. We simply drove around Moscow to see various sights which are lit up and present spectacular sights: Moscow State University on Sparrow Hill, Victory Park, Novodevichiy Covenant (which was the inspiration for Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake), and finally the Kremlin. It was close to midnight by the time we got back to our hotel.
Our city guide in Moscow is Edward. I can only hope you also get him. He has one of the driest senses of humour I have ever encountered and you have to pay attention to make sure he is being serious and not putting you on.

Friday morning we are again off to Red Square and its environs. The first part of the morning is a general tour of the Kremlin and several of the churches contained therein. After that we take the “Imperial Splendour” optional. I find this museum quite spectacular with much of the silver and gold given to the Tsars as Royal gifts. There is also a collection of armour used by the Tsar’s armies, clothes worn by the Royals, and a small collection of Faberge Eggs. Of course the Crown Jewels are the highlight of the museum. As always there just isn’t enough time to properly view everything even though the museum is modest in size.
We are then taken back to Red Square for a couple of hours.

We did not go to the Circus this evening and there were about 10 people who also didn’t take this optional. We all went out for dinner together. There is a dearth of reasonably priced restaurants in the immediate vicinity of the hotel and we ended up in a Pakistani restaurant which was fairly expensive. I have plans for tomorrow’s dinner which involve taking a Metro ride for 1 stop (Ukranian Food - Taras Bulba Korchma on Petrovka).

Tomorrow the majority of the tour members are going on the war and peace optional. We have arranged with a relative of a business associate of mine (the relative is a University Student in Moscow) to go to Sparrow Hill and then to the All Russian Exhibition Centre, both of which I want to see for personal reasons.

We were warned by both Luba (St. Pete’s City Guide) and Elena (TD) that everything would be much more expensive in Moscow. While the internet, which was free in SP, has cost 750 roubles for 5 hours in Moscow, and the restaurants, which are in general are significantly more expensive (you can find less expensive alternatives however you should do some work on the internet before coming to be sure), we haven’t found Moscow much more expensive than SP. Maybe the capitalist institution of “competition” is finally taking hold and bringing prices down. We have found most souvenirs the same price here as they were in SP. Also staples like bottled water are similar in price to SP. Also I was warned by the business associate (who is from Moscow) that the city is frequently unsafe. I have found this not to be true (although we have not strayed far from areas frequented by tourists).

I approached Moscow with some trepidation as I expected it to be like Warsaw (a cement city), and while the suburbs are certainly guilty of this the centre of the city is as nice as SP with a greater diversity of architecture. The Seven Sisters (Stalinist skyscrapers) are all wonderful buildings that convey a sense of majesty which defies description.

I recommend you try a good vodka sometime during your stay in Russia. The difference between a premium brand and a cheap brand could be one or two hundred roubles however the difference in taste is tremendous. At one restaurant we had a glass of Russia Brilliant (Silver label) and we were so impressed we will buy bottle to take home (they sell this brand at the mini market in the Crowne Plaza). The premium brands really are smooth.

You might also take some time to shop in the Arbat area which is about ½ way from the Kremlin to the hotel. You can take the Metro for 1-2 stops from the Kremlin to get to the heart of the Arbat then walk home from the Arbat to the hotel. Also you may convince the TD to let you off the bus on the return trip in the area of the Arbat. If you take the War and Peace optional I believe there will be some time in the Arbat area.

I hope you enjoy your time in Russia as much as we have enjoyed ours.

Jim

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Jim _W,

Once again,
Thank you so much for taking the time to post and what you have written is very informative and helpful. Will definitely take your advice re the vodka.
I am sorry that SP was so bleak at the end for you. I know that it is still great to be there and experience the sights, but the photos with a grey sky are never quite the same!

I will investigate restaurants this week on the Internet. I would like something with the traditional food and a 'good' atmosphere to try as a special dinner out; as long as not too over the top expensive. Will check the one you mentioned out - that sounds interesting.

Thanks also re water for the train. Will hope to get Edward - love a good dry sense of humour. Love any sense of humour actually - was he really Russian?! lol

Dont mind where we sit even on long hauls. Dont mind the back either. Usually take photos through the windows with the Sports setting on the camera and it seem to work really well. (unless rain on windows )

I am going to take a copy of your posts with me.
Wishing you both the best for the remaining part of the tour.
Regards
Eve

Eve -

Our tour is over now and we are resting in Hamburg before departing for Canada tomorrow.

With another couple we went to the Taras Bulba Korchma restaurant in Moscow on the last night. Their website is: http://www.tarasbulba.ru/. They have several locations but we went to the Ulitsa Petrovka location. We had to take the Underground. I chose the Petrovka St. location because it is close to the Underground line which runs near the hotel. From the hotel we had to walk 2 very long blocks uphill to the Ulitsa 1905 U station then take the train 2 stops towards downtown. When we got off the train we couldn't figure out which exit to take and while we were guessing a man (who spoke both Russian and English fluently) helped us get out to Petrovka St. We then looked around and couldn't decide which direction to go and another man (who spoke only 2 or 3 words of English) led us to the restaurant (knowing the Russian name - which is similar to the English name - may help).

The restaurant was fabulous. The meal was authentic. It didn't look or feel like a chain restaurant. The total bill for 4 of us (and believe me we ate a lot) was only $3400 Roubles, which was less than 2 of us had spent the night before at the Pakistani restaurant. We left the waitress a tip of $400 roubles and she had the entire staff turn out to thank us as we left. I guess tipping isn't too common in Russia yet.

If you have a little sense of adventure this is worth trying. If you get Edward as a City Guide ask him how to use the Subway. He will describe exactly what you have to do. (And yes he is very Russian, although I think his background is actually Ukranian so he tells lots of jokes at the expense of Russia, the KGB, The CCCP, etc.).

Have a good time.

Thanks for the recommendation and the instructions.
Clicked on the link and had a look - restaurant looks great and the sort of place I would like to experience and the price converts to $141aud at today's exchange rate!!

Hope the flight back is fine and enjoy your year.
cheers
Eve