Heading south in hope that the rain has cleared

It is now Thursday and it was time to start the trip back to London. Andy had been to Rosslyn Chapel and really wanted us to see it. It is just south of Edinburgh. Rosslyn chapel is famous for the Apprentice Pillar, a pillar carved by the apprentice in the absence of the master carver which is more intricate and beautiful that the others. Legend has it that the Master carver came back and was so upset and jealous that he hit the apprentice over the head with a mallet and killed him. More recently the chapel has been made more famous by the book the Di Vinci Code where it is suggested that the tomb of Mary Magdalen lays under the floor of the chapel. We arrived at the chapel at 10am but unfortunelty it is still an opperating parish and there was a funeral on and the chapel would not be open until 11.00. We suggested to Andy that we just go on but anyone who knows Andy would no that if she wanted us to see it we were going to see it. We were very pleased she insisted as it is quite different to any other chapel we had visited. The tour guide was exeptional with an amazing knowledge of Scotish history.

We were in for quite a long day in the car but managed a few interesting stops along the way. We stopped into Carlise for lunch and sat outside, THE SUN WAS OUT. It was hard for us to believe so there was no way we were sitting inside. The cafe was chosen not because of price or quality of food but because it had outside seats.

We had all heard of Blackpool and thought that would be a great place to spend the night. Unfortunetly not all camping grounds in England take tents and it appears that being a beach site resort does not mean you will find one that does. No camping with tents in Blackpool!!!!! and as it was school holidays we were unable to upgrade either. We stopped off wandered around the theme parks and looked at the beach. At least we can say we have been from east to west even it we could not stay there. Del, the navigator, got out the camp site book and we headed for a small farm/camping ground just outside Wigan. We drove for about another hour through country roads and through small towns just like the ones you see in British movies. Stone walls, stone houses and stone fences and pubs all call the Horse and Hound or something similar and all I suspect with warm beer and pub meals. The camp site was lovely, we set up Del did the veges and we sat down to another lovely meal and a glass of wine. It was beautiful, we were so please the rain had finally gone, not a sign of rain in the sky when all of a sudden out of the blue down it came!!!!!!! The language was a little unrepeatable but we accepted it as something we could not change, had a hot chocolate and went to bed. Thankfully the rain did not last and we were able to pack up semi dry tents in teh morning. back in the car for a day that we were basing purly on the weather. If it rained again we were going back to London! It was a toss up Bath or Cardiff, we chose Bath and decided Wales could be a whole new trip. What a beautiful city. Bath is surronded in hills covered in stone houses. It looks amazing. The city is a nightmare to drive around but a pleasure to walk around. Around every corner is something else to amaze you. The Bath Abbey is a former Benedictine Monestry which is now an Anglican Church. It was founded in the 7th centry and rebuilt in the 12 and 16th centuaries.

Bath is probably most famous for the Roman Baths built on a naturally occuring hot spring. I felt like I was in Rome. Hard to comprehend the long and varied history of the UK.

We decided that the sky was not looking good and we would head back to London. Andy and Del said they were taking us to Stonehenge as it was not far. We arrived after it had closed but actually it did not matter as the view from the road was perfect.

It was now time to head back to London. It took about an hour to get back into London and Andy took us through Richmond Park which is not far from her house. It is amazing!! A huge green park (looks like a small farm) on the edge of Central London. (Andy says in the suberbs) Red deer everywhere just sitting watching the cars go by. It is on the banks of the Thames. A really beautiful spot.

Finally back at the flat, we are all worn out especially Andy who has driven for 5 days solid and Del who has had a terrible cold the entire trip.

Thanks Andy and Del for fitting so much into such a short time in such rotten weather

St-Petersburg Friday & Saturday to Moscow again

Weird eh, but the first real milestone is over I guess, no maybe the second as the first was making sure that everyone knew I was going on holiday then going and arriving!! We are now on a plane back to Moscow after spending our last evening and morning in St-Petersburg.

Last night we went out for a canal cruise around some of the sights of St-Petersburg - saw a lot of the things that we had walked miles and miles to see from a different angle then went to a restaurant for dinner. Just a normal type restaurant this time, strange as it may seem called the Tower Pub - lovely meal and wandered back to the apartment about 12:30. Gill went off to bed and Cam and I went around the corner to a little bar and had a drink and a bit of time together which was great.

I guess though that I am getting old as I headed off to bed at about 1:30 whilst Cam went off to explore the night life of the town. Mind you at that time of the day the sun is just starting to come up so really what else would you expect.

Saturday morning, pack up time and time to see just the last few sights, that’s right more walking – we went to see The Church of Christ on Spilled Blood this time a little differently from last time as last time we could only see it from the outside this time from inside. What an incredible piece of artwork - the restoration both after the war and other events that have damaged the building in a number of different ways is just unbelievable. The Mosaics are fascinating with the detail that they have in them, unreal what our ancestors created. Following on from the church we then went walking generally till we found a place to eat an early lunch before heading back to the apartment for a 1:15 pick up to the airport.

Now that’s an experience in itself you queue to get into the building and have your cases scanned, as well as go through a metal detector. You then queue for your tickets – you then queue to be physically frisked before going to the plane gate and believe me it is some frisk – really a lot more like a grope. You then get your ticket checked again as you leave the terminal to board a bus to your plane and yep you guessed right once you arrive at the plane you then get the ticket checked again and the stub removed. What did they think was going to happen one ponders, did they think that you were going to go through a massive transition between the terminal and the plane??

Anyway am now on the way to Moscow again to spend our last day with Cam. We will be kind of sad to say goodbye tomorrow. We sure have been treated like royalty and am not too sure just how long it will be before we see him again. Never mind that’s life I guess, so that’s all from me for now.

Sharryn, Garey Andy and Del trying to stay ahead of the rain

Sorry that Gill and Pete have written a book and all you know of us so far is that you know of us so far is that we have arrived safely in London. We have been camping and there are not a lot of internet cafes in camping grounds.
We left London in the pouring rain and headed north.

Del had the map and Andy the steering wheel. Garey and I settled into the back seat where we intended to stay. At this stage we still were not exactly sure where we were heading but Scotland was in our sights. Getting out of London is definety a two person job and GPS would be fantastic. Andy and Del were so good. We were lost for about an hour but they just kept going and finally we found our way onto the A or M something.

Finally we are out of the rain and heading to sunny Scarbourgh on the east coast. It was cold but fine when we arrived so we were quite happy. We set up camp and heading to the local for a pub meal. We arrived back in time for a glass of wine and bed. We woke to rain on the tent top. It had caught us! We packed up reasonably quickly and went out for breakfast. Scarborough would be beautiful on a nice day.

We left Scarborough and headed about 30 min north to Whitby Abbey.
Whitby Abbey is a ruined Benedictine Abbey sited North Yorkshire on the north-east coast of England. An amazing site. It was first established in 687AD, fell to Viking attack in 867AD and was rebuilt in 1078. Unfortunetly it was destroyed again in 1540 by Henry VIII.

The next stop was Hadrian’s Wall. Hadrian’s Wall is a stone and turf fortification built by the Roman Empire across the width of modern-day England. Building on it began in 122 AD. We were amazed to think firstly that parts of it were still standing and secondly that we could walk all over it.

Next stop Edinburgh for two nights. Yippee, although it was cold it appears we have out run the rain. We set up camp and the girls cooked us a lovely meal. New Zealand lamb steaks better than any you can buy in NZ. We had a hand of cards and went off to bed. Once again we woke to the sound of the rain on the tent but this time the tent Andy and Del had was not so water proof and their airbed was almost floating. Garey visited the office and booked us into a static caravan/house on wheels. It had three bedrooms a lounge, TV shower and heaps of heating. We lay out all of the wet things to dry out and set off for Stirling, the place where William Wallace defeated the English which is now portrayed in the movie Braveheart. home of William Wallace. First stop was the William Wallace Memorial. An amazing site at the top of a hill. From there over the valley to Stirling Castle. We then raced back to Edinburgh so we could explore the castle there. It was a lot to take in in one day but worth it as who know when we will ever be back in Scotland. We meet up with some of Andy’s friends for dinner at a local Scotish Pub and of course we both had Haggis, neeps (swede) and tatties (mashed potato). Had to really what else would you eat in Scotland. It was nice to go back to our warm static caravan I have to say......

The Grand Palace

After a relaxing start to the morning, we headed off to find the hydrofoil. A wander through the park in the wrong direction didn’t deter us from finding the right wharf and we just turned around and headed in the opposite direction. Seven hundred roubles each later (around $35), we boarded the hydrofoil and half an hour later arrived at Peterhof. We enjoyed the trip, but were a bit disappointed when on arrival we saw a sign that said for one thousand roubles each (around $50) we could have taken a return trip by helicopter and shortened the trip significantly. I am not sure that we will have a return visit to St Petersburg to take that option, but I suspect Cam will.
The Peterhof is the Versailles of Russia. The palace is actually a series of palaces set in beautiful symmetrical parklands with numerous fountains. The gardens are very formal with tree lined alleys but with very few flower gardens. We walked along quite a few of the pathways through the gardens and finally made our way up to the Grand Palace where after paying three hundred roubles each to enter the gardens, now had to pay a further five hundred and twenty roubles each to go inside. Still it was worth it. We had to follow a roped off area within the Palace and it took us to some twenty rooms, set with the period furniture of the time. It was incredible to think that the Russian authorities had buried much of the art and artefacts for safekeeping during WW II as the Palace was later severely damaged and has now been renovated. There were lots of school groups touring the gardens and palace – university has finished for the year but school is still in and it is the time of the year for excursions etc. We saw lots of kids dripping wet from running through some of the fountains.
It has been a beautiful day here today – around 18 degs and sunny until late in the day as we travelled back on the hydrofoil it started to rain lightly. That has eased off now, so we will continue with our plan of going on a boat trip around the canals at about 8 p.m. St Petersburg was originally swamp land and canals were built to drain the land to allow building. They are now used as a source of transport and obviously a lot of this is for tourism. St Petersburg was very nearly demolished during WW II and has been rebuilt in the original era. It is a beautiful city with lots of character.

Friday morning, yep that's right a week since we left home

Friday morning, yep that's right a week since we left home, has come - been and gone, bugga – shame really when there is so much to see and so much to do. Just like the Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.
Last night, as Gill pointed out, we went out to dinner in a replica Viking Ship - the Aetyynn FoAAaHAeu that is in the river of St-Petersburg. Yep I know that you can’t say it, but nor can I, so we are even. The meal was fantastic as was the view, mind you Gill thought that meal should be good as we now obviously have an investment in the boat with the cost of it – Cam & I were not at all concerned with cost only the view and everything else that it provided.
Let me tell you, anyone going into a role where customer service is involved should be sent to Russia for training – the service is impeccable. I would venture to say that I have never experienced anything like it in my life. Nothing is too much problem. Apparently the wages are extraordinarily low, with the average wage being between $800 & $1000 PCM so they really appreciate the tips and I am sure that is even a motivator in the service – none the less come to Russia for service.
Today we’re off to Peterhof and the Church of the Saviour on the Spilt Blood so I guess that will mean much more walking.
Never mind a semblance of sense has prevailed from last night when she who thinks she should be obeyed and son thought that catching a yellow bus thing and the metro would be the best option to now where we are going by our or at least my favoured form of transport the trusty Lada – gee, I have a new found respect for these cars.
Oops just over heard a conversation apparently we are now not taking the Lada but apparently some Hydrofoil thing that they have found, mmmmmmmm that could be interesting - a new experience, I think that I shall comment on it later. Will have to be good to beat the Lada though I would think.

St-Petersburg Thursday

We are staying in a small hotel/apartment in the centre of St Petersburg. There are only three rooms and as yet we haven’t seen the other guests. There is a lovely Russian lady who prepares the rooms, welcomes guests, makes the breakfast and services the rooms before she leave around mid afternoon and returns next morning. She speaks no English whatsoever so we are very grateful to Cam for his limited Russian as he can converse with her adequately. She smiles a lot and talks to us even though we have no idea of what she is saying.

We have had to hand our passports into this Russian lady to have them presented to the Police for stamping. The Russian authorities insist that visitors to Russia obtain a passport prior to visiting, and then within three working days of arrival the passport must be presented to the Police for record purposes. Cam had planned on getting this done in Moscow but it all proved too difficult. He was unable to do it for us as he is a tenant and he would have had to ask him landlord to undertake the task and that was not easy to arrange. His plans had been to get his work to process our visas for us, as we are here on invitation from them (again another requirement – you must have an invitation to visit for a visa to be issued). He took our passports to work on Monday but for some reason by Tuesday afternoon they had not been able to get the necessary stamp. So our next and only hope was the hotel in St Petersburg and as we arrived on our third day time was a problem. Five hundred roubles each (around $25 each) and another twenty four hours and we now have our passports back with the required stamp. At least now we won’t have any problem if we are stopped by the Police and have the required stamp to exit Russia on Sunday, and we will not have a record against us if we wish to apply for another visa in the future. All very complicated, but then again, as Cam says, everything is complicated in Russia.

So far we have been really lucky – there are a lot of Police around, less in St Petersburg though than Moscow, and so far we haven’t been stopped and asked for our passports. We were a bit anxious when we only had a photocopy of our passports and visa and time was up for the stamping but we should be okay now.

Today we have been on a guided tour of part of the Hermitage Museum. Maria, our guide, was a young girl who is studying foreign languages at university and wants to be an English teacher. She is a registered guide of St Petersburg as a part time job as it allows her to practice her English regularly as she meets with English speaking tourists. She was certainly very knowledgeable of the museum. We went to the museum at 10 a.m. for the 10.30 a.m. open and fortunately were near the front of the queue. When Cam visited St Petersburg last January he said that the queue was hours long and it was minus 20 degs so he had changed his mind on a visit on that occasion.
The museum is huge and after discussions with Maria she was able to take us to various rooms and provide explanation. As there is an enormous collection of over three million items, 1057 rooms and some 117 staircases it would have been very easy to get hopelessly lost. We moved from Monet to Van Gogh to Rembrandt and numerous others in between including French, Italian, Russian, Spanish and Egyptian art. Neither Peter nor I have great knowledge of the arts and after four hours we decided to leave Cam and Maria to continue on without us.

This afternoon Peter has taken some time for sleep and after reading for a while I took myself off to wander the shops on my own. It was interesting but it was obvious that this part of the city only has elite shops with huge price tags. I certainly didn’t come back with shopping bags. You do not feel unsafe at all wandering the city on your own. There are lots of people about – hard to tell the percentage of locals to tourists but we are certainly in the minority. We don’t have to open our mouths for the locals to know that we are not from around here! I have noticed a few Asian tourists but nothing like the large groups we see visiting Australia and New Zealand.

Tonight we have a booking @ 9 p.m. for dinner on a replica Viking boat moored, or should I say, concreted into the river bank. It is about fifteen minutes walking from our apartment – our feet are constantly sore from so much walking and although we can rest for a while as soon as we are walking again the soreness comes on very quickly.
Fortunately my knee is holding together and not causing me any significant pain which is surprising considering the number of hours we have spent walking.
The public transport system is really interesting in St Petersburg just like it is in Moscow. There is the metro underground train system, then trolley buses which look as though they have welded together old pieces of steel, trams in similar condition, yellow vans with seats, with the name of the route displayed, which can be flagged down from anywhere with no particular stops, regular taxis and then the “Lada” system. If you want to go somewhere you just stand on to the road and wave down an oncoming vehicle. The majority of the vehicles which stop are Lada (hence the name) and you then negotiate a price for the ride. Around the city this is normally 100 – 200 roubles (between $5 and $10) and is a means of transport Cam often uses. However some Russian language is required as the drivers do not understand any English. On the evening we met Cam’s friends for dinner in Moscow, as we walked on to the main road from the restaurant we had at least seven cars pull up beside us on the road as they could see there was a crowd of us and potentially work for them. It was amazing. We certainly took a Lada trip home that night.

Thursday Morning and everyone else is still asleep ‘Lazy *&%@#’s’

Interesting place St-Petersburg, went out to dinner last night to a Japanese restaurant, yep that’s right, Japanese, not Russian.

Came out of the restaurant at about midnight here that’s 6am Aust time and 8am NZ and you will never believe it but there were people still out there wearing sunnies.

Why, you may very well ask!!

Well let me tell you, it wasn’t only because they had hangover, albeit I can well imagine that a number of them will today, no it was because the sun had not yet set!

You see in this part of the world (as I notice Gill commented earlier) in mid summer it remains light 24/7 and apparently in winter it remains dark. Probably not good if you are wanting to rely on darkness to indicate that you should be at home in bed.

Today we have another guide booked for 10am and she/he is going to take us on a tour of the Hermitage which was the original winter palace. Apparently this place has 1057 rooms. I, for one certainly hope that they don’t want to visit every one. Of the art that they have on display in there it apparently represents 20% of what they have on site so at least I guess that they can change the display often.

That’s all from me for today so till next update – TTFN

First Views of St-Petersburg

It is 14 degs and clear blue skies in St Petersburg today, so great for some walking! Our hotel is in a side street off the main shopping and business street so very convenient. A short walk just two streets away through the archway brought us to the highlight of St Petersburg – the Winter Palace which is now the Hermitage Museum and is second in size only to the Louvre in Paris. Apparently it has some 1057 rooms and we will know much more about it tomorrow as we have a guide booked to show us some of the highlights.

From the Palace we followed a circle across the river, through the park and the makeshift beach area (where quite a few people were out sunbathing in bikinis) to St Peter and Paul fortress, back across the river to wander through yet another park and stop on the canal for some well earned lunch. The café / restaurant was very peaceful and the food was lovely. We then attempted to visit the Church of Christ on Spilled Blood, (apparently the spilled blood belonged to Nicholas the second who was killed by a bomb in 1870), which is an amazingly beautiful structure. However, it is closed on Wednesday so looks as though we will need to return later in the week.

We continued our way back to the main shopping street and joined the crowds enjoying the sunshine and making their way either home at the end of the working day or similar. There are a number of canals crossing the main street with boats ready and waiting to take us on a canal trip while we are here. It was then time for “people watching” which is always interesting so we found a nice outdoor café and a front table and rested for an hour or so. It was 7.30 p.m. when we left the café and the sun is still high in the sky so it will be hours before it is dark here tonight. The summer solstice is 22 June and at that stage it is light for the full 24 hours. It is now 28 May so we will have nearly twenty four hours light now. The Northern Festival of Light which is held on the 22 June.

We will head out again for dinner and an opportunity to experience the evening in an hour or so.

Day 1 St-Petersburg

Cam had a car ordered to pick us up from his place at 7:45 to go to the airport to catch a 10:10 flight to St-Petersburg. A fairly uneventful ride to the airport really – well that is if you consider that my seatbelt didn’t work and the driver at least in my opinion had been to the same driving school as me only thing additional that they taught him was that to duck and weave at high speed should get you there earlier, me I am not to sure about that just thought thank heavens Garey ain’t in the car with us.

Russian airports are really quite strange places considering that they are the gateway. They are generally untidy and the runway has the old planes that they either no longer require or have broken down in times past, parked or pushed into the grass besides them. All that said the plane that we flew on certainly left on time and arrived on time this end so I guess that at least is a benefit.

Ok, arrived in St-Petersburg and once again a car had been ordered so after a few minutes wait we were met by a reasonably new Mercedes Benz, driven to town to our hotel and now the great St-Petersburg part of the trip starts. Ok for those of you who don’t know this city was named by Peter The Great after his patron saint St-Peter who was conveniently named the same as both him and for that matter me!! Peter the Great however was not like me – he was a very tall man in stature some 2.4 meters high in fact.

The city was built on the old swamplands that he arranged to have drained when he decided that as a nation they needed a navy therefore to have a navy then they need a port, interesting eh! However in things typical of the day human life was cheap and the cost of the port in human terms was some 30,000 plus lives.

In the Second World War St-Petersburg was under siege by the Germans for some 872 days often referred to as the 900 day siege. Now if you want some real interesting facts then cop this lot, at the peak of the siege they had 30,000 people die in one day of starvation, the food rations were rationed to 125 grams of bread per day and this bread was made of a mixture of flour and sawdust. They boiled their belts to soften them so that they could chew them, the city became devoid of domestic animals and rats became non existent as they were eaten. At the height of the siege they started eating the dead. To my understanding the rat population remains depleted to this day.

Ok so that’s my little bit at this stage apparently we are just about to go wandering around the city so will fill you in later on the others things that may or may not be of interest.

A day without a Guide Pt 2

Mmmmmmmmmmmm let me think a day without a guide some title. Yes, we did have a guide and the name of the guide was Gill, well that at least what she proported to be. Yep she is not tooo bad at finding her way around strange cities however today with weird spelling of street names and lots and lots of people who don't actually speak any English I believe firmly that we probably saw about twice as much of the city to see the same sights we would have with a guide!! I would in fact say that we walked at least 20k's - no in fact probably double that.

Moscow, if you haven't been then you don't know just what you are missing, its a fantastic place with lots and lots of history. Of course the bonus is if you know someone with local knowledge then you have an absolute bonus.

Cam purports to not have much language - my belief is that whilst he may not have lived here for ever his level of the language is certainly competent and he can understand and speak fluently in most cases. He was even able to write down a request for two tickets one way on the boat to a certain point and the lady understood that.

Last night we went out to dinner with a group of his friends both Kiwi and local. It was fantastic to meet up and share time with people who are important in his life here in Moscow and see just what a great bunch of people he has got to know. Dimitri who came to NZ in February was there as well.

Rode to dinnner by one of those Lada taxi's that are not a taxi and home by the same means - interesting though on the way home when we left the restaurant as a rather large group they (that is the lada's) just appeared by the roadside like a bunch of flys seems like everyone is in on the action. You then negotiate a price direct with the driver, if acceptable ride, if not acceptable try the next Lada.

Well thats all for a couple of days as we are off to St- Petersburg today and not taking the writing equipment so till later that's all from me. Have a great week and if you're working bad luck - unless of course you are saving for a trip somewhere and for those of you who are playng have fun!!

A day without a Guide

Today was warmer again @ 18 deg and patchy blue sky - a perfect day for walking! Cam left for work around 9.30 a.m. and Peter and I had our day planned, mostly by Cam. We followed a walking tour from the Lonely Planet Guide, with a few additions. The garden boulevarde is one of the ring roads around Moscow City and is just a two minute walk from Cam's apartment. The centre of the road used to be the wall around the city but when that was removed (can't remember the year - in the early 1800's by memory) it was planted as a garden with a walking track. It is some 7 to 8 kilometres long. We walked about half way, then diverted to see the Greek Orthodox Church - Christ the Saviour. This church was demolished in Stalin's time in the 1930's but was rebuilt in the mid 1990's. It is beautiful from the outside, but more beautiful on the inside. It was difficult to be just a tourist when so many people were being so reverant. From there we retraced our steps and attempted to follow the Lonely Planet guide but got awfully confused and our attempts to get help from locals was not successful.

Eventually we found our way to a main road, which I recognised one of the buildings on and then a bakery that Cam had pointed out he sometimes bought his lunch. Whew that was lucky as Pete was not too keen on "just walking" with no idea of where we were going. We met Cam for lunch as planned, ahead of time too so that was a bonus.

Our plans for the afternoon were to take a boat trip on the Moscow River. Cam thought that if we walked to the boat wharf we could take in a view of the zoo and The White House. This took us over an hour which was a little longer than we had initially planned. Finally we found the boat wharf and were glad of a seat for the next part of our journey. The trip up the river took over an hour and a half and when we finally saw the Kremlin come into view we knew the next stop we had to get off. Still more walking, through Red Square and around the front of the Kremlin towards Tverskaya which is the main shopping street and Cam's apartment is on this street. As we walked through one of the underpasses (there is too much traffic to allow crossing the road at most intersections) there was a six person string band playing. The accoustics in the underground pass, which also led to the metro, was amazing and they were great to listen too.

Next stop the 24 hour food store just across from the apartment for a few supplies then time to rest for an hour or so before we head out again. Cam has arranged for us to meet up for dinner with some of his kiwi friends, and also Dimitri who came to NZ in February.

Tomorrow we head off to St Petersburg until Saturday, and I am sure there will be more walking and museums and art galleries.

Tuesday in summary (Russia Moscow)

1) Have walked about 20k's

2) One end of the Garden Boulevard to the other

(More info than you probably want:-

Actually Boulevard Ring isn't a ring. I mean that it doesn't form a closed circle. The streets (boulevards) forming a part of the circle (kind of an arc) differ from most of Moscow central streets: there are transport roads on each sides of them and walking path in the center with trees, benches. Sometimes there are cafes in this walking part of boulevards, sometimes monuments to Russian writers or revolutionaries :) I like walking down the boulevards. Sometimes they shorten the way (or make it the most pleasant) from one point to another (to say, from Arbat street to Pushkin square). Sometimes I intentionally choose them for a walk when I feel tired from the stones, buildings and asphalt but don't have enough time to go out of Moscow. The Ring consists of the following boulevards: Gogolevsky, Nikitsky, Tverskoy, Strastnoy, Petrovsky, Rozhdestvensky, Sretensky, Chistoprudny, Pokrovsky, Yauzsky.)

3) Went to see Christ The Saviour Greek Orthrodox Church.

http://www.byzantines.net/epiphany/christsavior.htm

4) Meet Cam for lunch which by the way here seems to be around 2pm as Day starts later and finishes later.

5) Walked another 20k's after being told by son that it would only be a casual 1/2 hour walk.

6) Caught ferry from one port on Moscow river near the Whitehouse to Red Square.

http://www.lindsayfincher.com/russia/whitehouse.html
http://www.panoramas.dk/fullscreen5/f52-red-square.html


7) Walked another 3k's home via the supermarket where I bought a well earned beer.

8) Fact all the pretty girls that they talk about - well I am convinced that they only talk aboiut them cause i ain't seen none yet, although Cam does assure me that they do exist, obviously hid them away this week though.

You could always try:-


Really been a busy week so far and tonight Cam has arranged a dinner out with some of his friends that should be good to meet them.

Tomorrow St-Petersburg just to do all the walking stuff yet again, mind you will be good to get away with Cam for a couple of days

A day with a Guide

Tuesday morning we woke to some blue in the sky and no rain, which was a very big positive on the previous couple of days. Cam had to go to work today so he had arranged for an English speaking guide to meet us at the apartment and take us out for the day. We were very fortunate! It was 15 degs today so warm.

Konstantine met us at 10 a.m. and commenced our day with a walk around the surrounding streets to Cam's apartment explaining the history of the area and of various houses. As we walked he ensured we knew where cafes etc were as they were hard to sometimes see the entrances. A short stop at a famous bookshop that is open 24 hours a day to see various English tourist books before heading to the Post Office to buy stamps and postcards. I was certainly happy to have his help as I am sure that I wouldn't have got what I needed. Virtually no one speaks any English and it is extremely hard to communicate. Saying that, Cam says his Russian is still very amateur but it is a huge help as he can read most menus, order food, get taxis and transport etc with no real effort.

Moscow has many theatres so Konstantine was able to show us some of these and explain the history. Again the numerous number of monuments around the city were also explained. Just prior to lunch we made our way down under Red Square to a huge city shopping mall that has been built. We didn't actually do any shopping but interesting to see. A quick walk over to Red Square and the "The Gum" which is a very famous shopping arcade built in the 1890,s (http://www.thisisthelife.com/en/gum.htm if you are interested). We may even go back there today to have another look. We also watched the changing of the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier in front of the Kremlin Wall.

After lunch we headed to the Kremlin - Konstantin had fortunately ordered tickets in advance for us, as it is impossible to buy on the day, or sometimes even the week you want them. We had tickets for the 2.30 p.m. admission to the Armoury where we saw, and had explained to us, the wealth of Russia displayed in gold and jewels. We also saw huge collections of gold and silver treasures, the biggest collection of coaches we have ever seen and heaps more. It seemed to leave the collection at the Tower of London for dead. A link to see some of this is: http://www.kreml.ru/en/main/museums/armoury/

Our guide was very knowledgeable, or if he wasn't he made it sound as though he was and were were none the wiser.

After the Armoury we went further inside the Kremlin walls into the gardens, then the various cathedrals. The office of the President is within the Kremlin walls but today the only residential area is the facility to house the soldiers. The Kremlin wall is some two kilometres alone the three sides and the towers are visible clearly as it is set slightly on a hill with the Moscow River on one side, there was originally a moat on another and a small river on the third, which has since been tunneled on another. It was a very unique experience.

We finished our time with Konstantine by travelling the Metro (underground train system) to see the works of art in some of the train stations. The stations were built from the late 1930's and a whole day tour is available just looking at the stations. Each station is different with mosaic art on the ceilings, bronze statutes, use of marble etc. One of the amazing things is that there is no grafiti. Some ten million people travel on the system every day. It is cheap to travel but I am not sure that we would be confident enough to do so without either Cam or someone to assist us. There is no English at all and it is difficult to identify the name of the stations as the Russian language is very different and it appears that they not only show the station name but heaps of other information as well. The trains run every minute or so, so there is never a problem about missing one train as another will come along very quickly.

We finished our day going to the theatre with VIP tickets to the ballet and after function. The theatre was within about 10 minutes walking distance from Cam's apartment. The ballet was a collection of twelve excerpts from various ballet theatres and was advertised as the best of the best and this show was the farewell from Moscow before the various ballet companies head off overseas for the season. We really enjoyed it. After the show finished we went to the after function - Peter and Cam enjoyed drinking Cognac but alas not me and I stuck to orange juice and coffee. It was difficult to even recognise some of the finger foods. We recognised a good number of the dancers join the party. They had a photographer roaming and Cam said it is not usual to see your photo published on websites and in papers saying who has been attending various functions - this has happened to him already and I wouldn't be surprised if he is not in print again as they asked him to pose in front of the Cognac signage plus took other photos during the evening.

We walked back to the apartment and I was pleased to see my bed. It was a great day, full of various highlights of being in Moscow. We were very lucky. I even experienced eating a caviar sandwich which I am not too sure I need to experience again.

Sharryn and Garey have arrived in London

After a uneventful trip we have arrived in London. As Andy was far to busy at the 7's to meet us at the airport we found our way to lovely hotel in Paddington that she had booked for us. We had showers and went out for some fresh air. We wandered around Kensington Gardens, stopped off in Paddington for so tea and back to to the hotel. We were asleep by 7.30. We had a great sleep and woke up to rain. Not just a drizzle but serious rain. Rain across London lower England and Wales, all the places we were planning to camp.
We are at Andy's now replanning the week. Still camping but maybe northern England and Scotland. Who knows?? We will let you know when we get there where ever there may be.

Moscow Circus

Well tonight Cam had bought front row seats to the Moscow circus, so that is where we have been.

We were trying to work out when we last went to the circus and anyway it was quite some considerable time ago in fact several years if not decaides. We had a fantastic night getting back to the unit at about 11pm at which stage Cam decided that he needed to go to work!!

The circus was fantastic and had me holding my breath when the high wire artists were doing their thing - let me tell you bloody cleaver really, certainly had me holding my breath. They were really quite amazing they swapped the stage over 4 times from just a normal stage, well if you can call it normal, when it holds galloping horses then turns into an ice ring then to a seal pit/stage and next to a jolly large swimming pool that amazingly was set up and full in about 5 mins. So if you are comming to Russia don't forget to BOOK THE CIRCUS.

Tomorrow we have a guide for the day as Cam will be at work, then tomorrow night we have to get swished up as we are off to the balet - mmmmmmmmm that will be a bit different all those tight leotards etc!!

Ok about the only thing that I have missed thus far is that the weather here has been absolutely terrible 9 degrees yesterday and 6 today and a fair bit of rain - mind you has not kept anyone at home, just bought some brollies which I hope that we can ditch after here.

Alright all of you at home time to be thinking about getting up and going to work 7:05 NZ and 5:05 Oz, so the Ozzies still have another hour or so, after that, hop to it and get on with your working days.

Till next time TTFN, work hard (Well work hard probably applies to everyone but someone I know who's name starts with the letter 'D':))

Cheers

Sunday 25th Moscow

Ok so the first day of being a tourist is at least half over. Today Cam took us to a whole lot of places which involved various means of transport to get to, starting obviously feet, moving to the subway for miles and miles and when I say subway good heavens this thing is burried in the bowels of the earth - and finally a taxi that is not a taxi. You see if you just stand in the road and hold your hand up a car wil stop the driver will instantly become a taxi and negotiate a fare to where you want to go then they take you there obviously - drop you and just become an ordinary person again - weird eh!!

Ok now onto the photo's well we would love tpo leave some however the camera refusess to part with them so while we have taken them they are firmly implanted on the camera's memory stick - bit of a nuisance really never mind I am sure that it is nothing that a new camera won't fix!

Ok so where did we go today:-

- Cams office
- Soviet World Ehibition Center (SWEC)
- Swiss Hotel(SH)
- Lubyanka (FSB Headquarters - Old KGB) Rather a daunting sight

BTW whilst this may not sound far in distance it moved from as Cam describes the city as a clock 11:30 to 11:35 (Cams Office) to 2:30(SWEC) and halfway outside the clock. to 5 o-clock (SH)to 2:30 in the center of the clock (FBS)and home to (11:30). Now I am sure that most of this means nothing to most of you however I am sure that Gill will describe the day in much better datail. Ok thats all from me, till l8r CU.

Here in Russia

Wow interesting who would have ever thought that I would have said that I was in Russia!!

Cam, as Gill said was at the airport to pick us up which certainly was a pleasant surprise as origionally he was only to send a taxi to pick us up. The ride in was pretty uneventful appart from the fact that you learned pretty quickly they drive even worse that me and beleive me, one would have thought that would be a challenge but it isn't and whats more the whole population has acheived it.

Well Gill said that it was approx 30 hours travel time and I am happy to announce for the first of many times on this trip I am sure she is wrong, it was actually was closer to 37 hours airport Melbourne to Cams place Moscow - bugga me that one hell of a long way.

Ok thats all from Moscow at 9:45 pm Saturday or for those uneducated ones 03:45am Sunday.

Cheers I am going out now to Moscow's night life.

We made it to Moscow

The thought of getting on yet another plane was not that appealing, however after two and a half hours in Heathrow Airport we boarded the British Airways flight to Moscow. We had seats right at the back of the plane so knew that we weren't going to get off in too much of a hurry and get to the front of the immnigration queue like Cam suggested.

The flight was four hours. Surprisingly immigration went quite smoothly although the queues were quite long, and we received our stamped admission into Russia and to make our day, our two bags (total of 32 kilos between us!) arrived on the conveyor belt. Cam was waiting for us and we travelled into Moscow by private taxi. It was a distance of around 16kms which took over an hour and we arrived at the apartment @ 5 p.m. local time. It was just 30 hours since we had left home in Melbourne.

It is now 9.30 p.m. and we are heading off for our first venture out in Tverskaya Street, which is the main street in Moscow CBD, and Cam's apartment is on this street. It is just wonderful to be here with Cam and experience his part of the world. We have lots of plans for the next few days to see a little of this great city.

We've made it to London

Twenty eight and a half hours arriving at Melbourne Airport we have arrived safely in London, but the route wasn't as we expected. Instead of Hong Kong we travelled through Singapore. Only had three quarters of an hour on the ground due to a slightly late departure out of Sydney but still time for a quick trip into Qantas Club and a shower to freshen up. Arrived in London 6.25 a.m. local time and now in the British Airways Club room for another shower before our flight to Moscow leaves just before 9 a.m. We are both desperately short of sleep, but movies and playing cards certainly helped to fill in the time.

Next stop Moscow - hope the officials are happy with our visas!

For anyone that I haven't told!!

Just thought that there may have been a few of you poor souls out there that I hadn't told so just in case wanted to let you know I AM ON HOLIDAY'S

SO YOU ALL JUST KEEP WORKING EVEN THOSE OF YOU WHO DON'T WORK THAT HARD KEEP WORKING CAUSE I AM ON HOLIDAYS

Ok thats all for now

Cheers

We are on our way!

We both woke early this morning, which was very stupid, so I decided we may as well get used to watching movies when we are supposed to be sleeping. So Peter made coffee @ 5.25 a.m. and I sorted out a DVD and we sat up in bed watching a movie.
The chores are now behind us, Sandra and Mia have delivered us to the airport, and we are on our way. First stop out of Melbourne is Sydney, then Hong Kong, then London and finally Moscow. Thirty hours travel ahead of us once we leave Sydney but I am sure there are plenty of movies to watch.

Would like to say we only have last minutes things to do but we don't

Live has been expetionally busy for us this month and it is hard for us to imagine that we are leaving early on Saturday morning. Garey has been heavily involved with St John and it has taken up huge amounts of his time for the last few weeks. We have a District Enrolment night tonight and may finally begin to pack Thursday. I have printed the booking sheets and air tickets which is a start.
Oh well if the worse comes to the worse we will throw a few things in a suitcase on the way out the door.

Only three sleeps to go

Peter has been counting down the sleeps before we leave on holiday, and tonight he is not even home in his own bed but away in Adelaide. There is certainly something different about being away for work and being away from home on holiday.

The countdown is definitely on now and Friday mid-day is fast approaching. Just the last minute chores and details to complete then we are out of here!

Bugga me I had to get it right in the end!!

You see I thought that I was being ever so smart and was going to have the first post on the new trip so logged into the last trip (http://www.europe2006sgpg.blogspot.com/) finished it off made some appropriate comments about being on the road again only to be told that I was doing it on the wrong site - now ain't that just typical!!

Anyways I shall let you know that I for one are more than ready to get going and outa here, its seems like we still have tons to do b4 we go but - hey it isn't going to get finished so we may as well just go on holidays.

So to all you suckers who will be working whilst I am playing bad luck!!

Till next time

TTFN

Getting ready

The early planning is now completed, and now we are down to the final details which includes booking our week's holiday from the 16th June. I have spent hours searching the internet for ideas and have come up with a few, and now it is down to actually making a booking. Once that has happened we can make our final flight booking back from Brussels to London.

Peter and I have commenced the preparations at home as this week-end is the last at home before we head away. We have nine days left at work, and will be away from home next week-end.

Today Peter reminded me that in 2006 I had a book prepared by this stage with all the holiday details. He has headed off to New Zealand today for a few days and is hopeful that the 2008 book will be ready on his return. I have a bit of work to do!

Getting Organised

Well, we would like to say that we are as organised as we were in 2006 but alas we are not. Gill has done a great job of being a travel agent and has booked us in where we need accomodation. She has organised the rental car and the itinerary so we all very comfortable with what we are doing.
Gill and Peter leave for Moscow to meet up with Cam on the 23rd May. Garey and I leave for London to meet up with Andrea on the 24th May. We meet up at Heathrow Airport to fly out to Brussells on the 1st of June. We are heading of on a road trip taking us to Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg.
We have a week at the end which we do not have booked at this stage. We are aiming for a last minute.com all inclusive trip to somewhere. Gill and I will organise this and not tell the boys until we are ready to fly out so therefore we can not tell you either. At this moment that is easy as we do not have any idea where it will be.

Will update soon

Sharryn