We just wanted to express our delight after touring Moscow & St Petersburg.
Your organization was excellent, from the choice of Hotels to the tour itself.
We were promptly picked up at the airport by your designated driver and driven to our Hotel.
The Hotel Radisson Blu Bellaruskya was very new and up to date and comfortable.
We arrived one day early before the tour, We think it was a good idea, to get over the jet lag and looked around the city on our own. The next day we met other group participants and our tour guide Maria.
We really enjoyed seeing the many treasures of Russia in Moscow and especially St. Petersburg.
We were a little apprehensive before leaving, but we honestly found it to be a very pleasant and enjoyable experience. Even though we were not able to speak or read a word of Russian, most people did speak English and were very helpful.
We have traveled extensively throughout Europe and found Russia to be a jewel.
I would make only one suggestion: to give a few extra options for the evenings. We enjoyed the Russian folkloric and ballet one evening and would suggest perhaps a final farewell typical Russian dinner with the whole group.
It was also good because we had only 18 people in the group, which made it a bit easier to get around.
Again, even though they gave us time to explore on our own, perhaps some optional excursions would be good. (only a suggestion)
Overall, we were very pleased, we will have very pleasant memories of our tour and would highly recommend it to anyone.
Sincerely,
Rino & Sylvia M.
Serguei,
I am glad to hear from you.
Yes, I have had a great trip to Russia. I returned rather tired (but a good tired) and with some catching up to do, so dropping you a line slid down the agenda. Anyways, here are some highlights.
So, I arrived without incident. I think it was 5 or 6 pm by the time I got to the hotel, so I did not do anything on the Friday.
I thought Hotel Novotel Moscow Centre was less central than i would have liked, but then i discovered it was near two subway lines, the Ring line and a line going to the centre so the location turned out to be quite good.
There were a couple of restaurants up the street, Dzhon Dzholi's (Jolly John) which was very good and Burger something (burger-city?) which was ok, and a Khleb Nasuchchnij (i was fond of these, they were in St. Pet too).
Saturday was my free day in Moscow. I tried going to Red Square but it was blocked off for City of Moscow Day (Sept 10-11). There were exhibits on Tverskaya ultsa and on the Garden Ring so I explored there.
Also went out to Park Kolomenskoye, which I had visited with my dad about 25 years ago. It was nice.
Sunday, i met the group and guide (Tatiana). I decided Leninsky -- Gorki wasn't my best choice for the day so i did not go with them there.
I talked to some of the group after. They seemed happy with the trip there and said they had stopped at Novodevichy Convent on the way back.
I wanted to go to the Catholic Church on Sunday. I had been before to St. Louis of the French on Malaya Lubianka, about a block from famous KGB building.
After that i checked out the neighborhood, including Detsky Mir, now a kind of shopping centre of store for young people and children.
Roads towards the centre were still blocked to road traffic but you could walk. After a bit of a walk i decided to get back on the subway and go to Novodevichy Convent,
I had been there many years ago but wanted to see it again. There are some nice walking trails nearby and you can see Moscow City from there - which i was not aware of until i saw the buildings (I asked Tatiana later; she told me it was called Moscow City; it seemed like Moscow's answer to La Defense in Paris, or Canary Wharf in London).
Next stop was Novodevichy Cemetery, which i had not visited before. Tat was quite interesting. I looked at the map and found the graves of Nikita Khruschev, Boris Yeltsin, Nikolai Gogol, Dmitri Shostakovitch and Eldar Ryazanov.
Back to the subway and one more stop at the Church of Christ the Savior.
Monday, we had our group tour of the Kremlin and Tsar's treasures; also a tour of the Metro and walk on the Arbat. It was a good day.
Tuesday, we checked out of our hotel and then we had our visit to the Tretyakov art Gallery. I quite enjoyed that. Saw Andrei Rublov's 'Trinity' of course.
Time for a later lunch, early dinner, before catching the high speed train (Sapsan, I think it was called) to St. Petersburg. The train was great, only it is not well equipped for luggage.
As I recall, Russian people traveling domestically do not tend to travel with a lot of baggage, unlike North Americans. Anyway, we got everything stowed. Some worried about overhead space being precarious.
I much prefer this train to the overnight one.
A couple of observations so far.
Infrastructure is a lot better than it used to be. Retail space has been built up so the city does not seem as crowded. You don's have crowds of people pushing. There's not the big shortage of table space in restaurants and coffee shops.
Traffic is a lot more polite.
Banking, well, one issue with banking is that bank machines only seem to want to give you 5000 rubles which is not a lot.
Once I got a machine to give me 10,000.
It leaves you a bit cash-poor though you can use credit cards in a lot of places.
One way this trip was different from my previous group trips (went with my father in 1998 and 2003) was that we did not have group meals. They were almost a necessity in the old days as there were not that many places to ear, but the difference was that they bound the group together whereas this time i really just saw the people on the excursions.
We had about 29 people.
It was a diverse group: quite a few from the UK. A number from the Philippines, a Philippino-American engineer and his wife living in Azerbaijan, a couple of Americans, and some others.
Wednesday in St Petersburg was our tour day. We had a tour of the city, a tour of the Peter and Paul fortress and numerous stops for photos.
We stopped at a nice souvenir shop on Mitninskaya Naberezhnaya (Mitninskaya Embankment), across the street from the residence I lived in for 4 mos in 1986, now taken over by an oil company. I did some exploration on my own later in the day.
Dom Knigi (in Russian, the House of Books, formerly a building that was sitting the famous Singer Company, yes, a number one producer of those sewing machines) and the old churches, Catholic, Lutheran and Armenian are now open.
Thursday was our Hermitage tour. I used the afternoon to take the city bus to Smolny Cathedral.
Friday was our trip to the Catherine Palace at Pushkin. I've been there a few times and really like the palace and i saw the restored Amber Room for the first time. They also left us an hour to explore the park, which was time well spent. I hadn't seen it on previous trips.
So, that was the end of the organized trip. We had different guides for St. Petersburg and Moscow. Both of them were very good.
So on my own:
Sat: did a walk about; went to St. Isaac's Cathedral, bronze horseman, Menshikov Palace, Kunstkammer and a canal cruise in the evening. The Cathedral and the Canal cruise were the best of those.
Sun: St. Catherine's Church for Mass; Kazanskij Sobor, Alexander Nevsky Lavra, Church of the Bleeding Savior (very impressive inside) and Mikhailovsky Park
Mon: Took the Marshrutka to Oranienbaum (good thing i have my Russian); Scaffolding on the main palace at the moment but you can go inside; about half the grounds are closed for a major reno, but the part you can see is very nice. Saw the Chinese Palace from the outside but unfortunately it was not open to tour that day. Anyway, i had a really good day there. Hope to see it in a few years when the reno is done. Caught a city bus to the train station and took electrichka (local commuter train) back to St. Petersburg.
Tue: back to the Hermitage to see the part that is in the General Staff HQ; then caught the Hydrofoil to Peterhof. Spent the afternoon in the lower park which is a very big place. If you want to take the hydrofoil back, you can't get to the upper park without paying again to get back to the lower part - but it was fine. There was enough there for an afternoon.
Next time: i'll try to see Kronstadt, and Pavlovsk as well as an improved Oranienbaum.
Petersburg Hotels:
Domina Prestige: very nice, room a bit gaudy (all red) but a luxury room. Very good breakfast but breakfast room can be chaotic at busy times. Best to get up early.
The Bridge Hotel, where i stayed for the last night, It was okay but definitely a step down from the Domina 5*. The room and bath were about half the size; very well kept, but no water or toiletries provided.
I had a comical experience at check in; first the lady said 'your room will be ready in an hour'. i said 'ok'. Then the lady said, 'how about an hour and a half'. i said 'Fine'. 'Come back at 1.00', she replied. And it was 9:30 am.
Maybe i wasn't a very good negotiator. Anyway, it did not really matter. I was planning to go out for the day (Peterhof) and i cam back at supper time. Breakfast was fine, but simpler.
The driver picked me up on time both days so that was good.
Restaurants:
I ate at Dve Palochki, Marchelli's and once at Pizza Hut (i remember Gorbachev doing ads for them), all of wehch were good. I was really pleased with both Dve Palochkin and Marchelli's. Pizza Hut is North American of course, and i try to eat local when traveling.
Anyway, that is my report for now. I'll go through my photos and will send you some.
Blessings,
Paul Finn
Trenton Ontario Canada
October 29, 2018
