Part of our shore excursion in St. Petersburg was a Canal Tour which would take us on three rivers: the Fontanka, Moika and Neva. The rivers are an integral part of the city together with a canal system that connects them. The Neva runs through the center of the city and connects to the Gulf of Finland. It is part of a major shipping route. Two of the canals are the Griboedov, along which the Church of the Savior on…
We left Yusopov Palace, had lunch and then walked to a church commonly known as The Savior on the Spilled Blood. Before I talk about the church, I want to tell you about the danger of pickpockets in Russia. They are on the streets and also at tourist sites, posing as other tourists. They often work in pairs. Our guide cautioned us about pickpockets as we walked to the church. She frequently told us to be mindful of our purses…
After an incredible morning at Peterhof, we drove back to St. Petersburg where we first visited the Yusupov Palace, probably best known as the site where Grigori Rasputin was assassinated. There was originally a palace on the site that belonged to the niece of Peter the Great. It changed hands and in 1770, the palace that became what we see today was designed, though there have been additions and changes through the years. In 1830, the Yusupov Family, a rich…
Our next port of call was St. Petersburg, Russia where we would spend two days. St. Petersburg was founded in 1703 by Tsar Peter the Great. Today it is the second largest city in Russia and is considered Russia’s cultural center. It is one of three federal cities in Russia and is an important port on the Baltic. The pictures below are ones we took as we were driving through St. Petersburg on our way to to our first stop….
We left Stockholm just a little before dinner and entered the Gulf of Finland the next morning and were docked outside Helsinki around 10AM. Finland was first occupied just after the Ice Age based on stone tools and pottery that has since been discovered. In the 13th Century, Finland became part of Sweden and in the 1800s, part of the Russian Empire. Finland declared its independence in 1917. Helsinki is its capital. Officially the Republic of Finland, the country has…
Our first port of call after boarding the Star Princess was Stockholm, Sweden. Its history extends back seven centuries when it was inhabited by the Vikings. Sweden has not been at war since 1814. It remained neutral during both world wars, although helped many refuges during World War II including Jewish people fleeing Hitler’s regime. Sweden was also neutral throughout the cold war and did not join NATO. Sweden is a member of the United Nations. Stockholm is the capital…
After exploring Copenhagen and Bornholm, it was time to board our cruise ship, Star Princess, and begin our Baltic Cruise. But first I am going to tell you about something we did on board the ship that we found very interesting. So this will be a bit of a different blog entry, because I will not be sharing information about a particular place, but rather our “behind the scenes” tour of our cruise ship that would give us insight into…
Bornholm is an island in the Baltic Sea and is part of Denmark, but geographically, it is closer to Sweden. We wanted to go to Bornholm because my paternal grandmother’s ancestors hailed from there. We flew from Copenhagen to Bornholm where we met a private guide who would show us the sites of Bornholm. We were very lucky because we had e-mailed back and forth several times before the trip and she was able to include places where my ancestors…
In 2010, we took a Baltic and Scandinavian cruise through Princess Cruises. We arrived in Copenhagen three days before our cruise. We had time to explore Copenhagen and also visited the island of Bornholm. In this post, I will focus on Copenhagen. The first pictures below are of the City Hall, located in City Hall Square in the central part of Copenhagen. It serves as the headquarters for the Municipal Council and also houses the offices of the Lord Mayor…
After our Tauck tour had ended, we spent an extra day in Malta and arranged for a private tour through Amy at guidedtoursmalta.com. Although Amy was unavailable on the extra day we had in Malta, she arranged for us to tour with one of her colleagues. We chose a full day tour of Gozo, but we were able to customize it since it was a private tour. Our guide picked us up at our hotel with a driver and we…