Links to our RV Travels and Information
Alaska & The Rockies by RV from LA, 2009
1
- Oslo to Bergen,
Norway Fjords Cruise to Kirkenes
We arrived in Oslo after 25hours of flying, with brief stops
at Singapore and Heathrow on the way. Not much time to rest up as the airlines
had Lorraine with wheelchair support at each terminal. As you are 1st
on the plane you have to be there early and at the other end you are last off.
An airport official takes charge of the wheelchair and it’s passenger while
support staff (father) runs along dragging and wearing the cabin baggage. We both
managed a 7 1/2 hour kip on the leg from Singapore. So really we were quite
fresh when we arrived, well maybe not fresh, but not stressed anyway. The
airport at Oslo must be 40 or 50 kms out, tossing up whether to go taxi or bus.
A chat to the information desk and we were advised that “ the bus which departs
from just out through that door stops outside our hotel” Problem solved. We had arrived in Oslo at 10.30am and as we
were going by train to Bergen the following morning, we had only that day to
see what we wanted in Oslo. The Viking Ship Museum and the Royal Palace were
the only items on our hit list. A taxi
to the museum as it closes at 4pm, disappointment though, when we go to one
door marked “Closed for
Refurbishment”, We then went through
the rest of the museum, but alas no Viking Ship, tried another building where
there was a ship inside, but not the one we were after, this is a restoration
of the first ship to sail the “North West Passage” I asked the attendant about the Viking Ship “Oh
that’s in the Viking Ship Museum 2km away. To think I tipped the taxi driver
after he took us to the wrong place. A bus got us there with 20 minutes before
closing, so a free admission and we did get to see what we wanted. There are
two ancient Viking Ships that have been dug up from their muddy graves and
re-assembled and one that is as it was dug up. Fascinating, at least we got to
see them.
The Raddison Blu Hotel in Oslo was a great choice, good
location, good room and you would need a day to work through the breakfast spread.
We were surprised to have a temperature of 9 degrees in Oslo, the city
was white with snow , so it had been colder must have been put on for us. An
early rise, as the train to Bergen leaves at 7.58 for the 7 hour trip. The
first half of the trip was in glorious sunshine, a beautiful day, however by
the time we reached the peak of 1222m we were going through a blizzard, then
some engine problems has us sitting with zero visibility for about 20 minutes.
Electric trains, but still they had engine issues. After descending down to sea level we still
had 40 minutes along the side of a fiord before reaching Bergen. A bus was
there to transfer cruise passengers to their hotel, so we climbed aboard . The
Best Western Hordaheim, yeah it is OK, position not bad, room clean but very
small. Makes us feel like we are in the motorhome already. We will make
do. Another early start to catch the
train back 2 hours along the track to Myrdal
where we change trains and take the Flamsbana (the Flam Railway) to Flam
on the Sognafjord Fjord. This would have to be one of the most spectacular
train journeys, it is claimed to be the steepest. There is a tourist info video
running and advising of what we are seeing or about to see, the narration is in
Norwegian, English and then German. It had everyone dashing from side to side
to get the right photo, fortunately the train was not full. At one point the
train stopped at a waterfall for three minutes allowing passengers to get out
for a better shot. We arrived at Flam and found our hotel here the Flambrygga ,
being off season there are only 4 sets of guests, some of the local facilities
are closed but they are not effecting us, we settled in to a beautiful room
with a balcony overlooking the harbor, where we spent the next 26 hours
(perfect) before catching a Fjord ferry around to Gudvangen in the neighbouring
arm of the fjord, then bus to Voss and train back to Bergen and our dog kennel
room. We took the opportunity to leave a couple of large cases and the
wheelchair in storage at the Best Western while we visited Flam.
The two hour cruise to Gudvangen was brilliant, the weather
fine and the mountains all snowcapped, with frozen waterfalls hanging from the
steep rocky walls. Small villages dot along the banks, posing the question, How
do they make a living here, no apparent farming, no fishing fleets, some of the
villages do not appear to have road access. As we approached Gudvangen the ship
turned “Ice Breaker” as it ploughed through the frozen surface of the fjord. A bus was waiting for us to take us to Voss
some 35kms away, being off season we were denied access to the scenic route to
Voss which we could see was a series of hairpin bends raising the road to the
top of the mountain not a very safe option given the amount of snow
around. The alternate road was just
spectacular anyway, there must have been a heavy dump of snow in the not too
distant past, as everything was pristine white there were sections of the road
where there were frozen icicles hanging from either side, creating a cave like
appearance. A snow clearing tractor ahead of us, slowed our progress a bit, but
we made it to Voss in time to catch the local train back to Bergen .
A day to spare in Bergen, as the cruise ship does not depart
until 10.30 and access to cabins not available until 6. Checked our baggage at
the hotel and took a wheelchair look around Bergen, after the docks and the
fish market we found ourselves at Hakon’s Hall. Erected in 1247 by King Hakon
the stone hall was used for the wedding and coronation of King Magnus Lagabote.
The hall was the largest and most imposing building of the Royal residence in
the political centre of the 13th century Norwegian Kingdom. A major restoration was
needed after a German ammunition’s ship exploded in the nearby harbour in 1944.
The hall is currently used for Concerts and Receptions.
The Cruise Ship ”Nordkapp” duly set sail at 10.30, with us
firmly asleep in our cabin. Our first port where an excursion was offered was
Alesund, a guided walking tour of the town showed the highlights and of course,
the history of the town. Totally destroyed by fire in 1904, which left I person
dead and 10,000 people homeless, heading into a Norwegian Winter. In the rebuilding of the town the architects
of the day chose Art Nouveau as the preferred style. Given that the town was
rebuilt in about 4 years, it has created a rare situation where whole streets
survive today with the same architectural style. As is the case for most of the towns up the
Norwegian Coast, fishing is the main industry.
At the wharf fishermen were selling their catch, direct from their boats
to the public.
Alusund was a launching port for Norwegians escaping the
German occupation during WWII, Those caught trying to leave were shot. A monument is at the waterfront commemorating
those who escaped in small boats, to the Shetlands and then on to London, to
fight with England against their country’s occupation. I recall a movie, telling the story of a
group of Norwegians, who after reaching London, joined with a team to go to
Norway and destroy a German supply depot at Telemark in the Norwegian
mountains. Their approach was by ski and their efforts coined the term Telemark
skiing.
A brief stop at Mode allowed us a half hour walk through the
town, then it was on to Trondheim for a 6 hour stop the next morning. Trondheim is the third largest town in Norway
with a population of 180,000. The “Old Royal City” is still the storage
location for the Crown Jewels. Also some
spectacular buildings.
A couple of hours
walking among the fresh snow that had dumped overnight, a few snaps of the snow
covered streets, cars and boats and back to the ship in time to depart for our
next destination.
Most of the voyage so far has been in calm waters, with
islands protecting us from the open sea.
So smooth that on waking in the morning you wonder where we have docked
, pull aside the curtains and you see the ship is still moving. On a couple of pre-warned occasions, we crossed open sea for
a couple of hours, that was quite a different story.
On day 4 at 7.45am we crossed the Arctic Circle and almost
immediately, ran into a snow storm , short lived as the sun was out with full force as we passed Norway’s largest
glacier, Jostedalsbreen, it is 1957m at it’s highest point and covers 487 sq
kms 600m thick and 60kms long, (one big lump of ice).
Surprised to see small villages, dotted all along the coast,
back dropped with huge mountains and snow right to the water’s edge. It is hard to envisage access to them.
A “Crossing of the Arctic Circle” ceremony was held on the
rear deck at 10am, the weather was clear and sunny, most picturesque with the
mountains all around. Lots of pics.
Must be getting old though, as could not quite understand
people queuing up, to have ice dropped down their neck, as part of the
ceremony.
Brief stops at Utflukter, Svolvaer, Harstad and Finnsnes,
before we reached the “Arctic Capital” Tromso, here we were to experience dog
sledding, with 250 dogs on the property, nearly all Alaskan Huskies. We were
set off with a 12 dog team, three passengers in the sled plus the driver
standing at the rear on a 30 minute dash across the fresh snow, in fact it was
almost a blizzard by the time we returned to base, with visibility down to 100
metres.
Just out of Svolvaer it was 11.30 at night when the ship
nosed into Trollfjord, renowned for it’s 1000ft high cliffs, the Northern
Lights were also putting on a display above the fjord.
Day 6 and we are at North Cape, the northern most land in
Europe, The bus trip from the ship was about 35kms and through heavy snow, the
8 buses from the ship met up with the snow plough at a boom gate, it was to be
an escorted convoy from that point. There were several cars waiting to join the
convoy. On reaching the cape the view out to sea was quite dramatic, to the
left there was a dark storm coming in, occasional lightning zapping to the sea,
centre was sunshine with some white cloud and blue sky, then to the right
another storm with it’s black clouds. The bitterly cold wind was blowing a gale, just had enough time to get some
photos and have a look around before time to get back into the bus, as we did
the weather visibility went to 30 metres and the snow storm started in earnest.
The convoy then took us back to town and the ship. Later on the same day came a
snowmobile trip across the plateau of Lapland at night. All the gear was
provided, got changed into it and we were transported by bus up to the plateau,
at about 1000ft, where we were shown the rudiments and given a snowmobile to
drive. The guide lead the way with us following across the hills, freshly carpeted with soft powder snow, so fresh, in
fact we had three snow storms during our 45-50min drive.
One of the blessings of the area is, that we are about
100kms above the tree line, so they were bald hills we were running around on
in the night, but the lights were great and it was a tremendous experience.
The following morning we woke as we approached the port of
Kirkenes. The harbour was completely
frozen over, but the “Nordkapp” went into icebreaker mode and ploughed
on through, pushing huge sheets of ice to either side. Kirkenes is 30km from the Russian border and
as such there is a great blending of the cultures, many Russians come here to
work and shop, others have moved in to live. We chose the excursion to the
“Snow Hotel”, it included a tour of the town, as much as the driving snow would
allow us to see. A huge building which
seemed to be the backdrop of the town is an iron ore mine, it opened in 1906
and closed in 2006 but has since been reopened
by Australian Northern Iron under
the name of Sydvaranger Mine, must be doing ok as they have
recently had a Russian take over bid of 449m euros.
The snow hotel is a semi functioning hotel,
built as a tourist feature, they do have guests sleep over night, but they do
not hang around. They have to rebuild
the hotel each year, and they need to make the snow for the building, using the
machines for making the snow for skiing, apparently the snow here is too soft
and powdery and not suited for the job. They have a different carving theme
each year, the walls of each of the 26 bedrooms have a different sculpture
carved into them.
Kirkenes is the halfway point for the cruise,
from here we turn around and head back to Bergen seeing different ports on the
way back.
A major problem is coping with the change of
temperatures, inside the ship it is quite comfortable, however to go out onto
the deck to take a photo you face a -6 degree
blast , for any excursion it means layers upon layers and then something
on top to stop the wind from penetrating. To stay prepared all the time you
risk melting under the layers. Photos
2
- Norway Cruise,
Kirkenes to Bergen, Helsinki & St Petersburg
The Gulf Stream, warm waters emanating from
the Caribbean, into the Gulf of Mexico and around the tip of Florida. At this
point the stream is 100kms wide and moves 25million cubic metres of warm water
every second Eastward, about 4 million of that is then directed North and hugs
the Norwegian coastline. This Gulf Stream is what keeps the Norwegian coast and
fjords free from icing up. Kirkenes is around the corner, at the lower part of
the White Sea, so it does not have as
much protection.
This Gulf stream is what made the islands and
Fjords of Norway prime sites for harbours and bases for the German Warships
during WWII, many of the towns such as Kirkenes, and Hammerfest were used as
such and as the Germans retreated in 1944, they burned the towns. The top one
third of Norway was put to the torch and had to be rebuilt after the war.
People sheltered in mines near Kirkenes, where 2500 people survived for 2 months before being liberated by the
Russian. In Soroya, 1000 people escaped
to large caves and watched as their village was razed to the ground. Nearby Trondenes was the site for the “Adolf
Gun” with it’s 42cm shells (the world’s largest calibre) to protect the bases
at Tromso and Narvik.
Vadso was our first brief stop after leaving
Kirkenes, Vadso has a heavy Finnish population, as a result of mass migration
from Finland during their homeland famine in the 19th century. Finnish is still taught in schools today.
Vadso was the centre of “pomor” trading, a barter system, established in the 19th
century between Russians and Norwegians.
A walk into town to visit the Vadohus Fort
still set up with many cannons. The fort has a history of 250 years, however
its guns have only ever been fired to salute the returning sun each January.
The early inhabitants of this northern area
are the “Sami”. They are still here and
have won a few special rights, for example, the Sami are the only people who
can own herds of reindeer, and as reindeer is a commonly used food item it
gives the Sami an income source from their natural lifestyle. There are Sami
representatives in Parliament, who look after the interests of their people,
one has to be at least one eighth cast Sami, to be allowed to vote for one of
their representatives. The Sami use a
hand carved, wooden mug called a Kuksa in their traditional life style, The
Kuksa, carved from a Birch tree, it seems, is sought after at both ends of the
earth as there is also a demand for them in Antarctica.
Hammerfest, our next stop, boasts many
claims, The most northern town in the world, a claim hotly disputed by
Honningsvag and Havoysund. However they
certainly are in the throws of prosperity with the opening of a LPG plant,
cooling and dispatching the liquefied gas by regular tankers, House prices have
soared to 300,000 euros, unemployment is
down to 125 people and the community is getting extra facilities on the back of
the gas plant. Their next project is heated footpaths, thought that was a bit
of a joke but, sure enough, the next town already has some, a few of the shops and banks had no snow on
their footpaths, but it came right up to the edges.
It seems Norway is the 7th biggest
exporter of oil and 2nd biggest for gas. Together, they provide 20% of
their GDP.
You do not see many tankers moving around,
probably because they have an undersea pipeline system, running down off the
coast. There are 10 pipelines to foreign destinations, 3 to Germany, 1 to
France, 1 to Belgium, 1 to England, 3 to Scotland and 1 to the Shetlands.
Tromso, we were scheduled for a midnight
concert at the Tromsdalen Arctic Cathedral, The performance went for just on an
hour, with a soprano, a flugelhorn player and a pianist/organist. They
performed 13 classical items.
Went for walk at Stokmarknes, the temperature
there was -16, didn’t seem to be much different to the others, which were
usually around -6, but once you get down to -6 what does another few degrees
matter.
Svolvar was another stop for ninety minutes, so
braved the cold again. The ship stopped at the entrance to Trollfjord, a very
steep sided fjord, only goes in for 3kms,
there was a bit of a war between the fishermen and the ship owners over
it in the 1800s. Back across the Arctic Line again, this time the on board
ceremony was a little more gentle, a
spoonful of a special Norwegian brew, which brought back memories of my
childhood when mother would insist on giving us “Cod Liver Oil”, believe me you
never forget the taste. I suppose, Norway being the home of the Cod it should
have been expected .
Our next stop was 1 hour at
Sandnessjoen, a clear crisp day when
leaving the ship , but snowing by the time we returned.
We woke next morning, berthed in Trondheim, the third largest town in Norway. We went on a
tour of the city and finished at the Nidaros Cathedral for a conducted tour. In 1030 King Olav, Norway’s only Saint, was slain in battle and his body brought 75kms to
Trondheim, where he was buried in secret, 12 months later they had cause to exhume the
body, on opening the coffin they found it was as if he were asleep, his nails had
grown , as had his hair. he was duly canonized into sainthood. Now
there is a miracle, worthy of sainthood. So the story goes anyway. Furthermore, a spring arose from the place
where he had been buried , the water of which had healing properties. So countless more miracles have occurred
and people started traveling in pilgrimage to the cathedral to ask St Olav for
help.
After a few more brief stops we arrived back
in Bergen for a couple of nights. Caught
up with the towns “Funicular” a steep tram system to the top of a hill, The
tram is built to be always on the angle of the tracks and is drawn by cable up
the slope, there are two trams, as one goes up the other comes down, both tied
to the same cable. Some fantastic views of the city and harbour from the top.
A flight to Helsinki via Stockholm, had us in
the hotel by 2pm. A walk through the city to the harbour, some pretty sights, a skating rink in a town square by the
central railway station, had a group of school children, being put through
their paces by a couple of teachers, lots of spills, but always coming up
laughing, at least when we were there.
The harbour was frozen over. Obviously they do not have the benefit of the
“Gulf Stream” to keep the water from freezing.
Whilst it looked like you could walk on the harbour, ferries large and
small were not deterred and just ploughed through breaking up the ice and leaving
it to freeze again. Bitterly cold on the
hands when taking off the gloves for some photos. The following day a look at
Parliament House and the nearby Temppeliaukio Church, known as the Rock Church,
as it is built into solid rock with unfinished granite walls and a rolled
copper roof.
The overnight ferry trip from Helsinki to St Petersburg was
an incredible experience, The route was through the Baltic Sea which was
frozen over and only the shipping lane, which narrows to 100 meters as we
approach St Petersburg, was not frozen solid, the frequent passage of ships
breaks up the ice but trying to sleep, as the ship moves through this mass of
ice blocks, the noise on the ship resembles being in a building in a constant
hurricane, the shuddering and noise, as the ship strikes and moves aside the
larger slabs of ice. All of a sudden there is complete silence, have we
stopped?, what is going on?, a check and we find that the ship has moved into an area of clear non frozen water,
but it doesn’t last long, we are soon back into the rumble and noise of the ice
moving mode of the ship. We approach the entrance to the St Petersburg harbor,
which is the mouth of the Neva Riva, we note several people out on the ice
fishing through holes they have cut, at one point there was a car driving
across the frozen sea to a small island which they will use as a base for their
fishing. This end of the Baltic Sea is pretty shallow at 2 to 3 meters, hence
the need to dredge that 100 meter wide shipping lane.
At the entrance to the River Neva is a huge shipping
terminal, doesn’t appear to be very modern, one section catered for containers.
However, normally at these ports you see containers stacked up to 7 high, here
they were 2 or 3 high. The rest of the wharf area looked antiquated with the
building and cranes. There may of course be a more up to date container wharf
at another area. St Petersburg is the major sea port and ship building port for
Russia, so, a huge amount of freight must go through here. The ferry seemed to
travel a few kilometers up the river, breaking ice all the way. Eventually we
needed to turn left, to approach the ferry terminal, the ferry was not able to
manage this by itself and a tug was bought in to play and dutifully pushed the
back of the ship around.
At the terminal we were met by the Tour De Force Travel
agency rep and ushered to our waiting vehicle. Well we are now in St
Petersburg, on the 7th floor looking out over the Neva River, still frozen.
Today it is snowing, very gently, no wind just large snowflakes moving about in
the air, enough to put a white carpet on the footpaths. A beautiful -16 clear
sunny day yesterday for our first guided tour day, we have our own English
speaking guide, Natasha, our own Driver Uri, and our own mini-bus with room for
the wheelchair. Yesterday we were driven around and given a personal tour of
the Winter Palace of the Tsars, and the Hermitage Museum, which has 28
Rembrandt paintings in its gallery, amongst all its other finery and opulence.
It was the last day of school before they break for a 2 week
holiday and the museum had a heavy compliment of school groups. For a while we
kept noticing a young lad about 14 he seemed fascinated listening to Natasha
giving us the spiel in English. He seemed to nudge in a bit closer each time.
Eventually I called him over, introduced ourselves, found his name was Alexei
and took his photograph, not long after his group went off in a different
direction. The kids seem to be the only ones that are comfortable smiling.
The St Peter and Paul Fortress, which houses the Cathedral where the ruling Tsars were buried, well after they were dead that is.
The St Peter and Paul Fortress, which houses the Cathedral where the ruling Tsars were buried, well after they were dead that is.
The “Church of the Spilled Blood” is a must see on the tour circuit
of St Petersburg. Completed in 1907, this is built in the traditional Orthodox
Russian style with the colourful domes , on the site of where the Tsar Alexander
II was assassinated in 1881. As the Tsar died on the bank of the canal, the
church had a section built out over the canal. The entire interior of the
church is covered with 7500 square metres of mosaics. The revolution saw it severely
damaged. During the war the church was used as a morgue, after the war it was used as a warehouse.
Last night we were back at the Hermitage Theater for a
performance of Swan Lake. A bit disappointing, in that we both felt that
we were not seeing top class ballet, almost seemed like it was the
"B" Team in action. Whilst the
temperature has heated up a bit, it was still -8 degrees on our way home from
the theater
A lot of the heritage buildings are under some form of
restoration, perhaps it is the time of the year, winter is just finishing and
in 6 months it will start again. The St Peter & Paul Fortress, and the
Winter Palace both had major scaffolding on the outside, the Nevsky Mausoleum
not only was loaded with scaffolding on the outside, the inside had scaffolding
right to the top, a side section was still open, because of the number of
Orthodox Parishioners who come to light candles and pray here,
Today we are on our own, we have been out to the Alexander Nevsky Mausoleum (one of Russia's main Saints, 1220-1263), just over the road from the hotel, an excursion to McDonalds for lunch, (just the same as home).
Today we are on our own, we have been out to the Alexander Nevsky Mausoleum (one of Russia's main Saints, 1220-1263), just over the road from the hotel, an excursion to McDonalds for lunch, (just the same as home).
Security guards everywhere, Supermarkets, shopping malls, etc,
not armed, except with a surly look, the sort that fathers give their kids
which makes them toe the line automatically.
Ads here for the
"Australian" Pink Floyd Story", never heard of it and they are
not Australian either, Ads here for Justin Bieber as there were in Finland and
Norway.
There are an amazing lot of sights and experiences and of course having our own guide we get the full history and full attention. Natasha is an English Teacher by profession, so no problems there.
St Petersburg is also known as the Venice of the North, There are 115 or so islands that make up Venice, separated by canals. In the early years of St Petersburg it was made up of 128 islands, that has since been reduced to 44 as some canals were filled to join islands. The city is still gridlocked by bridges that restrict the flow of traffic.
There are trams, buses, trolley buses and of course the underground, making getting around fairly easy, particularly if you read and or speak Russian, the fare for the underground is 28 Rubles and considering there are 30 Rubles to 1 US$ that makes for cheap travel. You can travel as far as you like for the one fare, if you do not leave the station you can have the return ride as well, once you leave the system it's another 28 Rubles to get back in. The public transport system is a hangover from the USSR era where one was restricted from buying any assets, so the government provided a comprehensive public system.
There are an amazing lot of sights and experiences and of course having our own guide we get the full history and full attention. Natasha is an English Teacher by profession, so no problems there.
St Petersburg is also known as the Venice of the North, There are 115 or so islands that make up Venice, separated by canals. In the early years of St Petersburg it was made up of 128 islands, that has since been reduced to 44 as some canals were filled to join islands. The city is still gridlocked by bridges that restrict the flow of traffic.
There are trams, buses, trolley buses and of course the underground, making getting around fairly easy, particularly if you read and or speak Russian, the fare for the underground is 28 Rubles and considering there are 30 Rubles to 1 US$ that makes for cheap travel. You can travel as far as you like for the one fare, if you do not leave the station you can have the return ride as well, once you leave the system it's another 28 Rubles to get back in. The public transport system is a hangover from the USSR era where one was restricted from buying any assets, so the government provided a comprehensive public system.
We took a ride on the Metro (Underground) the escalator down
went about 120 meters. At the bottom of the escalator we passed the attendant
sitting in a booth, with her eyes sternly fixed to a video monitor that was
tuned in live, to the both escalators which opened out into a corridor with doors along both
sides but no platforms. You hear a train coming in to the station, all of a
sudden the doors all along one side of the corridor slide back and they
correspond to the doors in the train carriage, they also open and passengers
pour out, or try to, because passengers are trying to pour in. It seems no
one "gives way" until they are out pressured, we have noticed the
same attitude with drivers. Apparently only some stations are like this,
they call them “Horizontal Lifts”. Not too difficult to get around, as the
lines are colour coded, as in New York, just missed the availability of a “Route
Map” of the system, they were on the walls in the station and in the trains,
but no leaflets to be seen.
The “Metro” was commenced
construction in 1956, there are some 60 odd stations in the system and it is
still expanding. Construction of the system was delayed for many years because
of the unstable ground beneath the many islands making up the city, eventually
it was decided to build it 70 meters below the surface. Many of the stations are decorated with
mosaic murals and all are of a different design, some with roman columns, glass
columns, or marble columns, chandeliers, statues and other ornate trimmings. We
traveled through, hopping out of the train to take photos of several of the
stations, it wasn’t a problem as the trains were running at two minute
intervals on each line. As it was Sunday we managed to get a seat most times
but really the trains were very full. For the weekday schedule the trains run
at 50 second intervals. A fantastic must do, on any visit to St Petersburg . We
were assured that on a weekday we would not have had the opportunity to take
photos as we did, because of the crush.
Most women in Russia do not drive, it costs equivalent to US$1000 to enroll in the class to get your license, a 3 months course, which can be taken any time after the age of 18
Most women in Russia do not drive, it costs equivalent to US$1000 to enroll in the class to get your license, a 3 months course, which can be taken any time after the age of 18
Apart from the beauty of the
palaces, churches and monuments, St Petersburg is a major industrial City.
Suburbs are not as we know it in Australia, or in fact any other western country,
suburbs here consist of blocks of flats, many 6,7 or 8 stories high. Some
houses have been built as extensions to “Dachas”, small allotments with even
smaller buildings, built during the USSR period, where land was allocated for
the production of food. These Dachas have since been privatized and the owners
can extend, live in, or sell.
We visited Catherine’s Palace,
a most lavish huge palace about 25kms south of St Petersburg. The palace was
commenced in 1717 by Catherine 1st, but did not reach it’s current size (325
metres) and grandeur until 1756, then organized by Catherine’s daughter Elizabeth. The
palace was used as the headquarters for the Nazis during World War II, it was
pillaged and burned as they left.
The area where the palace is situated, was in fact the front
line of the war during the 900 day “Siege of Leningrad”.
The restoration, still not
complete, is nothing short of miraculous. Photographs of the condition it was
in after the war, show the devastated ruin that it was. Some of the people employed in service at
the palace before the war, oversaw the removal of many articles to St
Petersburg, and stayed with them as caretakers for many years . Extensive searching across the world, for
items from the palace, had some found and returned. A cache of books were found
abandoned, from the library code in the books, the finder knew they had come
from a palace library and were returned.
We next visited Pavlovsk Palace,
some 6 kms away. This was much smaller and less ornate than Catherine’s . Paul, son of Catherine 2nd
(Catherine the Great) built this palace
and was to use it as his home to raise their ten children. It was started in
1781 but was not finished to the current detail until after Paul became Emperor
in 1796. (His reign lasted only 5 years). Again this palace was left in ruin after the
retreat of the Germany army from World War II.
Because of it’s smaller size, this was the first of the palaces to be
restored after the war. Photos
Wow, that was some 57 hours,
(our visit to Russia) and we are back on the ferry to Helsinki.
