Day 25 - Tour Day 14 – Relaxed Start - Saturday 27 July 2019 – Moscow and the Kremlin.

Sunrise:         4:24am                                              Sunset:          8:46pm

Forecast:       18 to 28 mostly sunny.

It’s currently 11:15 pm as I start to write this, and I didn’t make any notes during the day today, as it was a very full on day and I really think that Insight either need to re-arrange when the optional & included visit's happen or add another day to the Moscow itinerary.

I woke up with a slightly sore throat this morning and am definitely getting a cold.
I went down to breakfast about 10 minutes before 8am and there were plenty of seats available.  Come 8am, and I think the rest of the people in the hotel had decided that 8am was the time to have breakfast.  I had a full breakfats this morning, as I knew that the day would be longish for those of us doing both the included and optional programme.  

First up re our 10am departure, was the optional Mosaic Tour.  Seems like quite a number of people didn’t read the description of what it entailed. I did read the description but have to admit that it wasn’t quite what I was expecting..  So many things in Russia are on a massive scale. I know we went to Victory Park Complex. All I know is that a number of people where surprised about where we went and what we saw.  It was all about the Russian WW11 experience and a commemoration to their fallen.

I've just had a re-read about the optional and it seems that we were supposed to Finally at the Novodevichy cemetery, see memorials to such greats as Khrushchev, Chekhov, Mayakovsky, Prokofiev and Eisenstein.  Well, we didn’t do that and that was perhaps a good thing.

From Victory Park, we were taken to a pedestian mall (road) for our lunch break.  A few of us ended up in the same restaurant. I had a Caesar Salad with chicken, that cost 450 rubles or $12.00 at todays rate.  After lunch I called into a supermarket to buy a bottle of coca cola. 59 rubles or $1.56. 

After our lunch break, we then all went to the Kremlin. The included tour speel says this:

In the afternoon, walk within the walls of the Kremlin Fortress to visit one of the cathedrals. Learn more about Russia’s famous Tsars, the history of the Fortress and how its role has changed over the years.

Photos inside the Cathedral were not allowed.

The optional says this:  Walk within the walls of the Kremlin to visit the treasure chest of the Imperial Russian family in the Armory. With your guide, you'll witness the staggering collection of Tsarist artefacts, be it bedazzling crown jewels, jewel-studded thrones or the world-famous Fabergé Eggs!.  That cost was €56 or $94.00. was it worth it? For me, no. Others thought it was but thought the local guide talked for far too long.  AND you couldn’t take any photo’s in the museum.

From the Kremlin, we went back to the hotel and arrived there around 5.30pm.  Our farewell dinner was at 7pm.

Nicole & I had arranged to have a final pre-dinner drink at 6:30.  She is taking the 5am transfer in the morning and heading to Turkey to do another tour.

A group of people at the dinner, mainly Australians and Canadians, lingered after dinner finished. I left them around 10pm to come to my room and sort out the luggage.

I’ll probably post a final  update, re my trip back home to Australia but that might not happen until I am back home.

I’m off to bed and will enjoy my sleep in tomorrow morning.

Steps Walked                     15,178

Hotel: Radisson Collection Hotel Moscow.

Day 24 - Tour Day 13 – Fri 26 July 2019 – Moscow

Sunrise:         4:23am                                              Sunset:          8:47pm

Forecast:       17 to 27 partly cloudy

I was down to breakfast shortly after 6:30 this morning. 

Shortly after sunrise this morning

Beautiful spread and apart from hard boiled eggs, all the egg dishes, fried, scrambled and omelette, are prepared fresh. 

We departed at 8:30 for Sergiev Posad. Some major road works made the going very slow for about 20 minutes. We arrived at the Monastery around 10ish. 

The Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius is the most important Russian monastery and the spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church. The monastery is situated in the town of Sergiyev Posad, about 70 km to the north-east from Moscow by the road leading to Yaroslavl, and currently is home to over 300 monks

Built in 1423, the squat, gold-domed Trinity Cathedralis the heart of the monastery, as well as its oldest surviving building.

We met the local guide Katerina, and we went into 4 or 5 of the churches there. Once the tour was over, we had free time until 12:15, then we were on our way back to the hotel again. We arrived back there shortly before 2pm.

We all headed out again at 4pm, to do the included City Tour, which had us riding the metro to a couple of different stations,

so we could see the different art works in them and Red Square, plus free time in Red Square or the Gum department store, until 7:15pm.

Most of us had something to eat before returning back to the hotel for an hour and then we met up again at 8:40 for our “Moscow By Night” tour.

We drove out to a view point, that overlooked the Olympic Stadium and was directly in front of the University of Moscow,

another of the ‘Seven Sisters’.

From there we drove to the river, just down from the Kremlin, where we had an Insight flourish of a couple of shots of vodka and some orange juice and the opportunity to take some photos.

After that, we then re-visited Red Square and half an hour to take some night time photographs.

By then it was  9:30, so once again we returned to the hotel but this time for the night.

Another full and final day tomorrow but that doesn’t start until 10am.

Apart from a rain shower while we were in Red Square earlier in the evening, the weather was once again nice and warm.

Steps Walked                     7,155

Hotel: Radisson Collection Hotel Moscow.

Day 23 - Tour Day 12 – Relaxed Start - Thu 25 July 2019 – High Speed Train to Moscow.

Sunrise:         4:22am                                              Sunset:          8:49pm

Forecast:       16 to 24 and partly cloudy in St Petersburg.  17 to 22 & light rain in Moscow

A very relaxing day for me today. I went down to breakfast at 8am and left the breakfast room  around 9am. I went back to my room and got everything ready for my 12 noon checkout and then went downstairs to read my book (first real chance since arriving in Europe) and people watch for an hour or so. Back to my room around 11:45am to get my bags and then checked out.

I then left the bags in the luggage room and went for a walk over to the mall with Bianca, as I needed to get off my butt, as it is a travel day. 

Come 2pm we were all on the bus, which drove us about 500 metres to drop us off on the other side of the road. We collected our hand luggage from under the bus and then walked the few metres to the station. 

I should explain that the road that the hotel is on, has 3 lanes of traffic going in both directions and if you are crossing the road on foot, you need to use the pedestrian crossings, which are timed crossing’s, as are all the intersection lights in St. Petersburg. Plus, the crossing’s are about 2 blocks apart.

We had to pass through 2 security checks before getting on to the platform. We are all in coach/car #9. Once we were all seated it was just a matter of waiting about 10 minutes before the train departed exactly at 3pm. AND I am really cross with myself, as I never took a photo of the train. :(

Sapsan is a modern high-speed train of German quality constructed by Siemens in 2009. Its speed goes up to 250km/h.  Sapsan trains take less than 4 hours on the Moscow - St. Petersburg journey. Over 10 Sapsan trains are regularly communiting between the two cities, from early in the morning to late in the evening. Usually there are 10 cars per train, offering different classes of service from economy to business. Recently, there has been a new 20-car Sapsan train where every type of car is doubled in quantity.

The above is from their website.  Our train only had 9 cars.

The train made 2 stops on the way to Moscow and was only stopped at both stations for 1 minute, then on its way again. 

A view from the fast moving train

A view from the fast moving train

It rained for a short while, when we were at the first stop but the outside temperature was still in the low 20’s. 

The highest speed that the train was doing, that  I noticed on the screen, was 229km/h.

The train arrived in Moscow on time at 6:45 and we were all on the Insight bus by 7pm and departing the station area.  There are 9 train stations ("vok`zal" in Russian) in Moscow and all of them are located in Moscow center. The three train stations: "Kazanski", "Yaroslavki" and "Leningradski" are located at the same area next to "Komsomolskaya" metro station (north-east center). Yaroslavsky train station is where the Trans-Siberian trains depart from, while Leningradsky station serves St. Petersburg trains. 

Kazanski Station

It only took 30 minutes to get to the hotel, which is the best hotel so far. 

 I’ll try to remember to take some photo’s tomorrow of the ‘common’ areas in the hotel. It is one of the The Seven Sisters.  Stalin's high-rises are a group of seven skyscrapers in Moscow designed in the Stalinist style.  They were built from 1947 to 1953 in an elaborate combination of Russioan Baroque and Gothic Styles.  The towers are inspired by the Giralda, the medieval tower of the cathedral of Sevilla.   At the time of construction they were the tallest buildings in Europe, and the main building of Moscow State University remained the tallest building in Europe until 1997.

Our bags were already in our rooms when we got there.  I quickly took photos of the room and the view.

Checked out the amenities and then went down to the bar to have my nighcap with Nicole.  Diane came along shortly after and joined us.  She ordered french fries for her dinner.  I had bought some almonds and dried apricots from the supermarket yesterday, and had been snacking on them on the train, so didn’t feel like eating anything.  Though, I did enjoy the olives and crackers that came with the “black russian” cocktail I had. After that, it was back to my room to unpack clothes for the next couple of days, including what to wear on the plane home on Sunday.

The security in this hotel is tight.  You go through the outer entrance door and then pass through a security detector similar to air port security. Like a lot og hotel now days, you need to enter your room key in the elevator before entering your floor and then on the 8^thfloor (I don’t know about the other floors) you need to insert your room key in a door, that allows you to get to the hallways that the rooms are on. That is a first for me.

Steps Walked                     5,277

Hotel: Radisson Collection Hotel Moscow.

Meals: Breakfast

Day 22 - Tour Day 11 - Wednesday 24 July 2019 - The Hermitage Museum.

Sunrise:         4:20am                                              Sunset:          9:48pm

Forecast:       13 to 22 AM showers and cloudy

I went down to breakfast around 7:30 this morning and put my bag out when I went down.  It was gone when I came back to the room.  

We departed at 9:20 for our optional Neva river cruise.  I like seeing cities from the water, if there is the optionto do so. The navy is celebrating their Navy Day here in St. Petersburg next Sunday, July 28^, and they have been practicing this week, closing some roads etc.  There are 4 ships, Destroyers (I think) anchored in the river, with all their flags flying from front to back.

This is the blurb about it. A striking event will be the main parade of the Navy. It will be attended by warships of four Russian naval fleets — the Baltic, Northern, Black Sea and Pacific, Caspian divisions, as well as naval aviation. In the first, historical part of the parade will participate artillery boats. They will pass along the Neva River and carry the flags of heroic formations that defended the sea borders of our Motherland during the Great Patriotic War.
In the second part of the parade, modern ships of the Russian Navy will demonstrate combat power. Here you will see the latest models of weapons. In addition, aircraft and helicopters of naval aviation will take part in the Main Naval Parade. In the sky over St. Petersburg will fly planes, fighters of the last generation.

Celebrations will traditionally end with a festive concert, which will be held at the Palace Square, as well as fireworks in the waters of the Neva.

The Peter & Paul Fortress viewed from the river

In 1917, as the main training ship of the Baltic fleet, the Aurora took an active part in the Revolution. On the night of October 25-26 1917, it fired a blank shot at the Winter Palace (then the residence of the Provisional Government), giving the signal to the rebellious workers, soldiers and sailors of the city to storm the palace. That moment triggered a dramatic episode in Russia's history and was the start of over 70 years of Communist leadership. 

The Aurora is now maintained by cadets from the nearby Nakhimov Navy School. 

Once the cruise was finished, we walked over to the Winter Palace, where we had a 12:30pm entry time. Julia, the local guide pointed out a few eateries, as it was just before 11am and then Anna told us where the bus would be if we wanted a lift back to the hotel and at what time we needed to be there 2:45pm.   We were meeting at 12 noon at the column,

to have our group photo taken before entering the Hermitage Museum.  Someone asked "which column". I'm hoping it was a tongue-in-cheek question. 😕

The Square is immense, as are a lot of things in St Petersburg.

Nicole & I wandered off and found a café and just had french fries for lunch (165 rubles). Whlle we were there another dozen or so people from the tour arrived to grab a bite to eat.

We eventaully gathered for the group photo but not all of us. We were lined up ready to have our group photo taken and Anna was counting us and 1 person was missing.  Anna went off for a walk around the column, in case the person was standing somewhere else, which she was.  Finally had our photo taken and we headed around to the other side of the Winter Palace to start our visit.

Seems like lunch time is the best time for entering the Hermitage, as the queues are fairly short. 

 I think all up, it probably took 15 minutes to enter and then go through the security screening, instead of the often hour plus waits. No bottles of water allowed in the museum. I had drunk all my water, so just put the empty bottle one the table near the screening guy and after passing through, asked for my empty bottle back. Thankfully he spoke English and when he checked that it was empty, I got my bottle back.

We then started the tour. 

One of our solo ladies from the Florida, walks at a slower pace than most of us, and after we went up the first staircase, she lost track of the group, so when she realised that we had vanished from view, she did her own thing in the museum. I was talking to her earlier this evening and she has been here before and she knew where the bus was parked and what time we needed to be on it, if we wanted a lift back to the hotel, so all was good as far as she was concerned.

After our 1.5hr guided tour, Nicole & I found the exit and just sat on a seat in the gardens around part of the Winter Palace and people watched. Neither of us wanted to do any souvenir shopping and it was much cooler outside that the hot & stuffy conditions inside, with all those people milling around.  Julia was saying that they don’t have air conditioning because it is bad for the paintings.  I’m just wondering what the thousands of hot and sweaty humans breathing, is doing to the paintings. 

The bus had us back to the hotel by about 3.15ish.  

A couple of policemen, discussing something.

The traffic here is full on and I have heard that it is worse in  Moscow. After dropping some things in my room, I then went over to the shopping mall across the road, to buy some snacks for the train trip tomorrow afternoon and something to eat for dinner this evening.

I went down to the bar at 7 for a nightcap and Diane was there, ordering some bar food for her dinner and drinking a ‘White Russian’.  I ordered a ‘Black Russian’.   Nicole arrived and the 3 of us chatted for a couple of hours.  

Another free morning for me tomorrow, as I don’t have to check out until 12 noon. Depending on the weather, I’m planning on going for a walk around the neighbourhood.

Steps Walked                     8,421

Hotel: Crowne Plaza St. Petersburg, Ligovsky