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Of Winds and Whispers.


drron29
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We are at the top of the hill now and that is the Alexander nevsky cathedral.

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Amazed at the amount of greenery and the impressive towers-

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Beautiful sunny day and people were lining up to have their photo in front of the Estonian flag.

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Back at the Town Square for a snack.Grandpa's salad for me seemed appropriate.With pork.Pancake and strawberry jam for Rojaan-

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Now time to walk back to the Silverseas shuttle bus-

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Past the Viru gate and a typical Estonian restaurant-

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Then traditional Baltic Thai restaurants-

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And finally time to say goodbye to Matt our new friend.

That night was the Captain's Welcome cocktails and we had dinner with the Hotel director,Norman.From the USA.A couple from the UK and a Swiss couple both of whom cruise a lot more than us are also on the table.A nice dinner and I had foie gras,penne with lobster,steamed lobster and a raspberry dessert to finish.Washed down with a French pinot.A great night and back to the suite near 2300.

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And the shipbuilding area-

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Finally our destination is in sight.Being a smaller ship the Whisper berths in town.no more than a 10 minute walk to the Winter Palace-

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The white ship is the Oceania Nautica.

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For the 3 days we had in St.Petersburg we had breakfast in our suite so that we would be ready for our tours.Rojaan checks out the details for each port and for here we had booked a 3 day private tour with SPB tours.A new black Mercedes,guide and driver.It was perfect.The ship docked at 0810 and our first day was meant to start at 0830.From past experience with Russian Immigration we thought there was no way we would be off on time.Obviously in St.P.they are used to cruise tourists and we were off the ship by 0830.For the first day it was a drive around before our entrance to the Winter Palace/Hermitage at 1000.

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So we have now arrived at the Winter Palace/Hermitage.Group tours go in from the river side,others from the back.As you can see we are about to walk straight in.

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Once inside we are taken past the larger tour groups awaiting their 10am entry.So although it is expensive the private tour is well worth it.The tour companies we looked at though did private tours up to ~16 people which still gets you in before the larger cruise ship tours for example.

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I know I post lots of photos but what I will post here are a small proportion of the number I took which were of just a small proportion of the objects here.You need to come and see for yourself.

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DrRon,

Did you bring your gorgeous pink blazer?

I too am enjoying your photos and reliving the memories of our Cloud adventure to the Baltic from last summer.

I saw the same fishermen on the banks of the Neva...did you wave and try to smile at them, and did they wave back?

Are you finding the general mood to be one of happiness or wariness, or ???

 

Thanks for taking the time to post such great pictures!

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