News and Views

From my kids accomplishments, to my heretical perspective of the world

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St. Petersburg – Day Two

June 24th, 2008 · 6 Comments

I had this post all prepared last night, but I couldn’t get connected on the ship. I shut down my laptop without thinking about it and lost it all.
I’m now sitting in a coffee shop in Estonia that has free WiFi. This mini-PC has really come in handy!

After I posted Monday night, we went to a show on the ship. A troupe of Russian dancers came on board and performed for us. It was quite nice; a mixture of traditional and modern dancing and singing.

Tuesday we went to see the Peterhof Fountains. They are a part of one of the palaces of Peter the Great. The fountains are quite magnificent, with lots of guilded statues. Well worth seeing. On the way back to the cruise ship we rode on a hydrofoil boat. I believe that was the fastest I’ve gone on the water, though Richard’s ski boat may have been faster. It wasn’t as big, though.

Tallin, Estonia is a beautiful town on the Baltic shore of Estonia. I don’t know much about Estonia. Apparently the people are related to the Finns. The languages are said to be similar. They have a history of being occupied, first by Sweden, then Russia, then Germany, then Russia, then Germany, then Russia again… They have been independent since the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991. The population of the whole country is only a little over 1 million. Tallin is a small city, but very modern and clean. It is a very old city, with castles and churches from around the year 1200. Very nice — I wish we had more time here, though if we did Gisele would probably use it to shop more. She is at the open-air market square right now as I write this.

We are leaving here at noon, then on to Gdansk, Poland tomorrow.

Tags: Family Updates

6 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Mom // Jun 25, 2008 at 8:43 am

    What a whirlwind tour; it must be an unusual feeling to wake up, wondering momentarily what country you are in! Is English spoken in most places? It will be interesting to hear about the differences in countries so close together–like us with Mexico or with Canada. You have missed our 11 days of above 110ยบ temps.

  • 2 Richard // Jun 25, 2008 at 9:59 am

    It sounds like an interesting part of the world to explore. No mention of getting together with Derek so I assume you were not able to make that happen?

  • 3 Donna // Jun 25, 2008 at 1:12 pm

    I was intrigued about the hydrofoil and went and looked it up on wikipedia. Did you have to wear seatbelts? It looks like fun.

    Sounds like a great trip so far.

  • 4 Don // Jun 25, 2008 at 3:55 pm

    Daryl said in his last post he didn’t think they would be able to see Derek.

    I would love to see Europe. Heck I would love to see Alaska or Hawaii!

  • 5 Daryl // Jun 26, 2008 at 5:21 am

    We weren’t able to see Derek, mainly because of Visa issues. Without a visa, we were only allowed to enter and travel in the country with an official tour. Derek was free to come and go, but it was too difficult for him to find us.

    It is a whirlwind tour, that’s for sure. A different port in a different country almost every morning. Staying in the same “hotel room” (on the cruise ship) makes it a lot easier, though it lessens your exposure to the culture and people. I’d like to come back, at least to the Scandinavian countries, in a rental car sometime.

  • 6 Dianna // Jun 27, 2008 at 10:13 am

    You’re going to need to purchase another suitcase to get all of Gisele’s purchases home! How fun to shop in all of those different places.