Of Wings and Whispers

[Jacques Vert]

We went down that channel last year but in the other direction; it's an interesting trip. The bridge has certainly progressed a lot in 12 months.

 

[love_the_life]

It is 21 years and 528 months !!

I was being more realistic - IMO it's very hard to pull off the "21" line but of course you don't look a day over 40. I on the other hand am 50 and a few months (quite a few but I don't tell them that!)

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

I was being more realistic - IMO it's very hard to pull off the "21" line but of course you don't look a day over 40. I on the other hand am 50 and a few months (quite a few but I don't tell them that!)

It is a family joke - when our son was young and at school - I was one of the " older " mums, so when it was my birthday I would say I was 21. That made me the youngest mummy ! Nearly went through all of primary before he twigged I had been 21 for years :shock:

 

[drron]

The scenes as we dock-

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[drron]

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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.Mrsdrron 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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We stopped at St.Nicholas cathedral-

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[drron]

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And now a subway ride to see a little of the art of the subway.We got on at Admiralty-

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[drron]

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[drron]

And we got out at the Sports stadium.football and Ice hockey-

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Then a drive to the old Stock Exchange.The park in front has the old lighthouses and great views-

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[drron]

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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.

 

[drron]

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]

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The room full of portraits of the military heroes of 1812.Those that died in battle that had not had a portrait done appear as blanks-

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[ellen10]

Thanks for the continuing trip report Drron and the great photos.
We visited Leningrad (as it was called back then) in 1982. Brings back some great memories.

 

[OATEK]

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The room full of portraits of the military heroes of 1812.Those that died in battle that had not had a portrait done appear as blanks-

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We are booked to follow in your footstep at the Hermitage early next year, and this is the main area we are required to visit. One of MrsOatek's distant relatives was at the battle of Borodino, and his portrait is amongst those you would have seen. But we are using the train from Helsinki and staying at the Kempinski just across the canal from the Palace. We are following your report with great interest.

 

[bPeteb]

Loving the TR. Bringing back fond memories of our trip to the Baltic a few years back.

Question for drron.

I'd like my posts to indicate that we take some pride in our photography. Yours are always crystal clear and mine look like I took them with a 2.5mb camera from about 15 years ago, through a stocking. I'm using a resizing app because my 28MP camera takes quite a large picture. When they post they are murky and pixelated. Maybe no-one cares but me. Maybe I need to link to a URL? Is that the secret? I've never bothered uploading to flikr or picassa and you've mentioned that a couple of times. They would be the only places I could link to I suppose.

cheers
pete

 

[drron]

Pete I am the last person to give you facts on how to post pictures.According to the photo experts on Flyer Talk I should not be able to do what I dn the other hand following their very clear directions I could never get pictures to stick.So I have always eventually found work arounds that work for me.
I do download my pics to Picasa and resize them there-though Picasa is no longer supported by Google and eventually will have to do things differently-Google photos is a pathetic program IMHO.
I used to upload to Picasaweb which I found easy to use but Google in all their wisdom don't allow me to access that anymore-that happened the day I started this trip!I had a Flickr account so reactivated that.You can do further resizing there-and you can have up to 1TB of storage there for free.It has taken some time to nearly fully use it-eg I was having problems with Flickr deciding what size photos I should post but have got that beaten now I hope.
It always takes some time for me to learn anything new on a computer.Am also too dumb to use a smart phone.
I have absolutely no idea of other programs as my Scots heritage means that I go for the program that gives me the most for free.

 

[drron]

Back to the Hermitage-

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[drron]

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[drron]

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And a room full of Rembrandts-

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[drron]

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And who doesn't have the odd Da Vinci on their wall?

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[drron]