Bring on the bling – Baltics and Russia on AY in J (plus ferries and a coach)

[RooFlyer]

Introduction

A three week trip with a couple of friends to Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Russia – bookended by a stopover in Singapore on the way over and Hong Kong on the way back. Nearly 2 weeks in Russia, including a technical conference on a cruise between St Petersburg and Moscow.

I had been to the Baltics before and they were again great, but Russia was outstanding; breathtaking; incredible; amazing etc etc. Words could never do it justice, so the trip report will be well illustrated by photos. The amount of bling – gold, diamonds and other treasures (think Faberge eggs!); royal palaces (Hermitage and Peterhof!); ornately decorated churches and cathedrals (Kremlin & St Basil’s & dozens of others!); archeological finds; museum collections – simply blew away everything else I have seen in over 20 years of travel and tourism within Europe, Africa and elsewhere. It was staggering.

The fare was J with Finnair, on their metal SIN-HEL, SVO-HEL-HKG, and on QF metal MEL-SIN and HKG-MEL. This is a great 1W way to Europe and an alternative to Dubai. It’s attractively priced, Finnair is a solid and reliable carrier and you get a return trip into Europe from HEL thrown in!

We also did a ferry trip across the Gulf of Finland, a 7 day cruise aboard a ‘Rhine cruiser’ type of vessel from St Petersburg to Moscow and any number of other ferry and boat trips within the cities we visited. Plus a coach ride and we mastered the St Petersburg and Moscow metros – the latter not as easy as it may sound, as all station signs are only in Cyrillic script!

Just to whet your appetite:

The wooden church at Kizhi, on a lake between St Petersburg and Moscow.




The Kremlin and St Basil's Church (of course )




Peterhof, outside Moscow (and site of the recent G20 meeting)




Church on the Spilled Blood, St Petersburg




Interior of the above. Those are mosaics, not paintings, and note the person's head in the bottom right corner .....

 

[ausfox]

I agree with the you regarding the sights of Russia.In particular St Petersburg has a sense of grandeur as eyecatching as Vienna. We did the Trans Mongolian ex Moscow a few years ago and had a great experience.

 

[RooFlyer]

AY 5014 (QF 35) MEL-SIN

The first leg was a fairly routine QF MEL-SIN in J, meaning an A330. I had 2 friends in tow, so no access to the QF MEL Flounge unfortunately , so I discovered the Int J lounge for the first time! A nice eggs benedict on sourdough for breakfast.

A day flight on QF is usually enjoyable, and this was no exception. For lunch I chose beef and vermicelli salad to start with. Fortunately there was a VERY nice WA sav blanc to have with it. Main was Cassoulet of Murraylands Lamb, something I’ve had before and really liked it again, although the presentation wasn't 100%



After lunch the CSM permitted my 2 friends, who were travelling economy, up to business to sit with me for 3 hours or so (J was only about 1/3 full). Much appreciated by me, and especially by my friends! The sav blanc took a real beating :shock: .

At Singapore we eschewed the Official AFF SIN Lounge Crawl and headed into town for dinner at Boat Quay. Yes, its touristy, but my friends (and I for that matter) were just that! I love the Marina Bay Sands development; went to the top last time for the view. I hear the hotel itself is pretty ordinary for the price.



Back to the airport after dinner for a shower in the QF SIN lounge before boarding AY 82 for Helsinki overnight. SIN lounge was very quiet from 9pm onwards, while we were there. I wish the staff would police the ‘no mobile phone’ area.

 

[casanovawa]

Glad you enjoyed, i visited Helsinki, St Petersburg and Moscow a couple of months ago and came away with mixed views, but interesting to see your thoughts and how you experienced it...

 

[RooFlyer]

AY 82 SIN-HEL and Helsinki

I was curious as to how the Finnair J would be on the relatively old A340 they operate on this service (some are ex AF). It doesn’t have fantastic reviews on FlyerTalk.

I was in in 1K (window), with an empty seat beside me, which was good (friends again choosing to do whY). Plenty of space around your feet in this bulkhead seat. I skipped dinner except for the pea soup (fresh pea type, not old style ham& pea), which was delicious. Fantastic stylish glass-wear by designer Marimekko – certainly not the plain glasses everyone else tends to use. I saw them later in high-end glassware shops in Helsinki. Regret I didn’t get a pic.

The angled flat bed was OK. The fabric is new, so tended to arrest one sliding down. Service was good. About middling attentiveness, which is how I like it. Very happy with the flight experience. Breakfast was served about 2 hours out of HEL; there were 2 hot choices of which I went for the mushroom and feta quich, which was a bit dry, but OK. Juice, yoghurt etc; pretty standard fare.



The arrival in HEL on the other hand was another story. For non EU citizens there were just 2 immigration counters open, no priority available, and the long queues proceeded very slowly. Another queue for citizens was quickly processed and the guy then just sat there doing nothing for about 15 minutes (NO pax), when the sign was finally changed to ‘All Passports’ and there was a scrum of people changing queues. Another counter then opened, and another scrum. Overall, a coughpy introduction to Finland – one of the worst immigration exhibitions I have seen in a ‘First World’ country.

Once in the Terminal, we eventually found the Finnair bus into the city and mood brightened with the wonderful morning weather and the lush green countryside. Arrived at the train station and then a short cab ride to the Fabian Hotel, which we had booked for early check in. The Fabian was a fabulous choice, and I'd recommend it to anyone. About 5-10 mins walk to the open air markets, the 'Esplanadi' with its restaurants and fashionable shops and the harbor tour ferries. You'd call it a 'boutique' hotel - small, but with personalized service and nicely set out, comfortable rooms. Not that expensive at under $200/night.

For the next 3 days we had wonderful weather in Helsinki and did the sights, especially on the harbor.

The markets by the waterfront got our attention on Saturday and Sunday – great market food (salmon soup!!) and things Finland. For restaurants, we asked for recommendations to traditional Finnish fare and were directed to Aino, on the ‘Esplanadi’ and also to Sea Horse. Both were sensational. We learned that Sea Horse was a Helsinki institution, been around forever and served genuine, old fashioned Finnish tucker at great prices. Herring, reindeer you name it. Aino had a similar menu, but a bit more upmarket.

Helsinki does a good line in churches and monuments, but it’s the waterfront and harbor islands that steal the show. Swanning around on a cruise boat in the sun, or taking the ferry to Suomenlinna fortress, drink in hand, was a great way to spend an afternoon. The volume of large ferries and cruise boats in Helsinki harbor is amazing. At least three or four each day – arrive in the early morning, leave in the evening.

Orthodox Cathedral



Looking back at one of the ferry harbours



Helsinki from top of tower at Olympic Stadium



I hadn't heard of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius - but his memorial in a Helsinki Park means that I will remember him now.




Helsinki was a great place to de-jetlag and to step off to the Baltic area.

 

[RB]

Great start & particularly looking forward to details on the Russian section. I loved the seafood soups at the helsinki markets

 

[RooFlyer]

Ferry to Tallinn, Estonia

On board a large ferry to cross the Gulf of Finland to Tallinn; there are about 3 or 4 of these daily; ours was a 7:30am departure. We arrived un-necessarily early - there are no customs or immigration formalities on this sector. The Finns seem to do it as a booze run - much cheaper grog in Estonia compared to Finland. Another fine clear day; coffee made way to beer on the rear deck, as we waved to the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship sailing into Helsinki; the 2 hour trip passes quickly.



A quick cab ride to the hotel (Radisson Blu), shower, drop bags and we are off to explore the World Heritage listed Tallinn medieval city.

Trying to sort out the 12th to 14th century buildings down narrow cobbled streets and lanes and deciding which picturesque laneway café to have lunch at were about the greatest challenges for the day. Wonderful craft shops and suddenly my baggage load becomes 2 kg heavier as I invest in some fantastic but chunky glass works.






Lunch is traditional meatballs in a café on the pavement, in the sun, with some decent Estonian wine. Complete the walk around the town via the 14th century Town Hall. Back to the Raddisson, where it was drinks on the rooftop bar, affording excellent views over both the old and new towns. From the bar we also overlook the Hotel Viru –the only tourist hotel in Tallinn in the Soviet days, and run by the KGB. Rooms were suitably appointed with hidden cameras and microphones!



We walked back into town for dinner and found the ‘Tchaikovsky’ restaurant at the Telegraf hotel. A bit more upmarket that we were thinking of, but its location on a lawn and deck in the setting sun in a private courtyard was too much to pass up.

Tallinn is gorgeous, if a bit touristy. We felt a bit guilty devoting only a bit over a day to it, but Latvia beckoned!

 

[RooFlyer]

Great start & particularly looking forward to details on the Russian section. I loved the seafood soups at the helsinki markets

Ah! I'd forgotten about the salmon soup. Just added it in. Yum!

 

[stewiejp]

Ahh the memories, did this exact trip about 10 years ago - The Viking Line ship was parked there too, think I have the same photo..

Glad you had fun.

 

[ausfox]

Great reporting rooflyer, keep it up.

 

[RooFlyer]

LuxCoach to Riga, Latvia

After a morning closing circuit of Tallinn, we board our ‘LuxCoach’ for the 4 hr road trip south to Riga, Latvia. This had a ‘Lux Lounge’ which means a single wide seat each side of the aisle, with plenty of storage space and movies etc on the screen on the back of the seat in front. The Estonian then Latvian rural landscape was pretty monotonous, just level fields and plenty of trees.

We get into Riga at about 5pm, check in at the Radisson Blu Elizabete and have a quick recce of Old Riga. It’s quite small, so the recce covered a lot of what we planned to do the next day. Fortunately this freed up time for the surprising feature of Riga – the outstanding 1890-1910 Art Nouveau architecture and other architectural gems.

Riga has a compact medieval Old Town, smaller than Tallinn and it sits alongside the wide Daugava River and astride a picturesque winding canal. Although it’s reputed to have more ‘colour’ and ‘soul’ than Tallinn, we didn’t see much evidence of this, although that’s not to say it wasn’t a wonderful place to visit. A 1 hour cruise through the canal and river gives one a great start to understanding the town. This cruiser was a it smaller than our last one …



An especially interesting place to visit is the ‘Blackhead’s House’. Originally built in 1344 for unmarried German merchants, it was destroyed in 1941 and re-built in 2001 for Riga’s 800th birthday. Besides that, there are many churches and cobbled lanes, as you would expect. Lunch at a nice café – my first experience of borscht (beetroot soup) then pickled herring with salmon caviar.






In the afternoon we wandered out of the Old Town in search of the wonderful Art Nouveau architecture we discovered that Riga was renowned for. We didn’t know much about this style of architecture, but it beautiful to observe.

 

[RooFlyer]

I can't resist posting a heap of pics of the Art Nouveau buildings around Riga. All these pics were taken within a few blocks, north of the Old Town.

 

[RooFlyer]

The first one here is the Russian Embassy. It must burn them up to have all the tourists zoom their cameras in on them .



The faces here attract the eye - but check out the peacock.

 

[RooFlyer]

Air Baltic Riga to St Petersburg; The Hermitage

We originally intended to take a leisurely train (16 hours!) from Riga to St Petersburg, but it just proved too difficult, over several months, to get confirmation of service, cabin type and other details. So it was Air Baltic, adding another airline to the list. Riga airport is relatively small and uninteresting. The Air Baltic flight on a Dash 8 took about 1.5 hours and we landed at St Petersburg Pulkuvo airport, into the ‘old’ terminal reserved for domestic and former Soviet Union republics. Our humanitarian visas (issued for a scientific conference) got us through immigration pretty quickly and a taxi was arranged from the taxi desk. Too easy.

The Novotel St Petersburg Centre actually isn’t in the centre, but just off Nevsky Prospect, about a 5 minute metro ride to the Hermitage area. It was OK. Middling priced and middling Novotel quality.

So, onto explore St Petersburg. The metro itself isn’t too bad to navigate. Station signs have both Roman and Cyrillic script and after a few minutes contemplation of which line we had to catch we were on our way. Each journey costs 28 roubles (about A$1) and you can buy multi-trip tickets or a handful of tokens very easily from ticket offices in every station. One thing the metro is not is under-staffed.

They say to leave a day for the Hermitage, and that would be right, but after about 6 hours we were culturally exhausted. Four aspects to it.

Building exteriors – main one being Peter the Great’s Winter Palace, with its decoration, sculptures and magnificence of scale outside. Then there is the New Hermitage and the Small (sic) hermitage
Building interiors - over-the-top opulence, as befits Catherine the Great's tastes. The parquetry on the floors alone would warrant a visit; the State Rooms are something else. More guilding than is probably absolutely necessary
Collections and treasures – too many to name. Gold; antiquities; decorative arts; sculpture; any aspect you can think of, its there in room after room, after room.
Art – What's your thing? Its here. Rooms of Rembrandts, any number of El Greco, Picasso, Matisse, Cezanne, modern stuff and so on …

Winter Palace and Alexander Column from Palace Square




Jordan Staircase in Winter Palace




Raphael Loggia Note the parquetry




Random gallery




More parquetry





We eventually staggered out of the Hermitage into the large Palace Square behind and continued to be amazed by the surrounding architecture (General Staff building), out to Nevsky Prospect where we found the Singer Café. Yes, formerly for the Singer sewing machine company and another delightful Art Nouveau building. There we just went for a seat and the beer, although the afternoon tea and pastries looked tempting. We could barely look over the street to the magnificent Kazin Cathedral, modeled on St Peter’s in Rome! We began to get an idea of the challenge in front of us in St Petersburg.

 

[drron]

Loving it.
The pictures in HEL bring back memories.
Yet to make Tallinn and St.Petersburg but they are on the list.

 

[Major]

Great TR and really good photos
The hammer and cycle were flying over The Hermitage when I visited

 

[RooFlyer]

St Petersburg continued

I recall during the broadcast of the Moscow Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, during a particularly spectacular sequence, the commentator was stunned into silence and then simply said “Oh … my … GAWD !”. St Petersburg is like that, particularly our next stop …

Next day, we began at the ‘Saviour on the Spilled Blood’ Cathedral (now actually a museum). Built between 1883 and 1907, it marks the spot where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated. Outside the Church is impressive, but inside its overwhelming. The marble work on the floor resembles carpets in their intricate design, but the highlight is the richly illustrated walls and columns, each, soaring to the crests of the cathedral. With over 7,000 sq m of mosaics, it is hard to appreciate the scale in photographs. Absolutely put it on your bucket list.




Remember, these are all mosaics ....




St Petersburg is built on numerous canals (it was stylised as the ‘Venice of the North), so we did the hour tour to see many of the famous locations from a different angle. There are a lot of cruisers on the canals!




Then of course there is the Russian State Museum, housed in about 5 buildings and palaces – this is separate from the Hermitage!! This is the main building ...

 

[RooFlyer]

Peterhof

As a ‘break’ from St Petersburg, we took the hydrofoil to Peterhof, about ½ an hour up the coast. At this stage readers may spare a thought for my poor family and friends, who will soon be suffering through what could be the longest 'slide night' in history :shock: .




Peterhof was originally the site of Peter the Great’s hang-out while he made the first constructions aimed at establishing St Petersburg in the early 18th Century. In 1714 he upgraded to “Mon Plaisir” a comfy bungalow on the shoreline.



Then came the Grand Palace and the spectacular gardens and fountains. The Grand Palace is a modest affair, having only about 30 rooms, but each is fitted out and furnished in eye-watering bling and style. There is an 'annex and other buildings about, just in case they felt cramped.

During WW2, Hitler planned to throw his victory party here (when London became unavailable). This upset Stalin a bit, and Stalin bombed the place himself, to deny it to Hitler. Most of the Palace and other structures are actually a post WW2 reconstruction. No less grand, though.




All the fountains at Peterhof are gravity fed - no pumps! The centre of the Samson fountain is Samson tearing open the jaws of a lion. This was built after Russia's victory over Sweden in the mid 1700s on St Samson's Day - the lion is an element of the Swedish Coat of Arms. Subtle, eh?




When we visited, the G20 meeting was going to be held here, in just a few days. The complex was closed the next day. The grand halls already had the circular table with microphones and flags installed, and the grand dining room had a huge setting laid out (all roped off, of course). Kevin doesn’t know what he missed!! Overhead, gunship style helicopters buzzed overhead, and some of the fountain area was taken over by a stage and lighting. A shame, but nothing could over-shadow Peterhof!


"We said, Keep off the grass!"

 

[RooFlyer]

More gratuitous pics from Peterhof. The gardens are just as amazing as the buildings. Vast as well.

This toadstool is dry until you go and sit down. Then the water starts (the previous occupant had just fled, getting wet)!



Another fountain and an 'annex':



Orthodox bling:



More bling:



More fountains:

 

[RooFlyer]

Last day in St Petersburg

Our last night we went to dinner at the Soviet Café on Nevsky prospect. Bit hard to find, as its down some steps to a basement, but a great place for a “real” Soviet experience. In the afternoon we dropped in and asked to make a reservation. “Nyet” . Will we be OK in getting at table at 8pm without that reservation? “Nyet!” Oh, well, came back later and got a table OK. The place is fitted out like an apartment in the Soviet era – even down to B&W TVs running old patriotic shows. Fortunately their menu had an English version, even though the staff didn’t have so much. Pointing was OK, including for the beer.

Of course we all forgot our cameras, but it was a real treat. It was with some concern we realized the next day was our last, and there was so much still to do!

We visited Tchaikovsky’s grave in the early morning.




Then it was on to the Peter & Paul Fortress on Zayachy Island, where Peter the Great founded St Petersburg in 1703; the fortress was built as a defensive measure against the Swedes. It houses the Peter & Paul Cathedral, whose spire at 122m is still the city’s tallest structure.




The Peter and Paul Cathedral is naturally beautiful inside, but it also is where, in 1998 the remains of Tsar Nicolas II and his family, except for Alexey and Maria were re-interred (left hand pic, below). The Tsar and his family were of course killed by the Bolsheviks and their bodies burned, with the remains only located in the 1990s. Also in the Cathedral are the tombs of most of the Romanov dynasty, Peter the Great and Catherine the Great.




Peter the Great is memorialized throughout ST Petersburg - this is one of the more impressive statues.