Photo 1: Tallinn – the old town.
Photo 2: Tallinn: Estonian Parliament.
Photo 3: St Petersburg – Winter Palace.
Photo 4: Spilt Blood Cathedral.
Photo 5: Mosaics in Spilt Blood Cathedral.
Photo 6: Town Hall.
Photo 7: Tall ship floating restaurant. In the background
are typical buildings on the Neva embankments'
Tallinn
On Friday we docked in Tallinn, capital of Estonia. This is
a city where the contrast between the old and the new is quite stark. As in so
many other places we have been the city suffered severe damage during the
Second World War and much has been lost. The old town has been well restored
but virtually all the old gothic buildings have gone and most of the genuinely
old buildings date from the 19th century. The most impressive one we
saw was the Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Cathedral which dates from 1900.
It is opposite the Estonian Parliament, another very fine building. The
placement of a Russian Orthodox cathedral at the centre of government is a
legacy of the Russian Czars and is a strange anomaly in a predominantly
Lutheran country.
The new city has a very modern business district with
skyscrapers most of which were built in the last 15 years. The new suburbs are
also very modern with attractive houses and gardens. By way of contrast a large
part of the suburban area is taken up with blocks of flats built for Russian
factory workers during the Soviet era. The locals have done a fair job of
prettying them up so they don’t look too bad.
Tallinn was the one venue most people raved about before we left, so we
had great expectations. Unfortunately we had an older lady as a tour
guide and she was really difficult to understand, so much info was lost in the
translation. On the other hand, we have
been amazed by the beauty of St Petersburg, and had very well spoken tour guides. I think this may have helped us reach this
decision.
Tallinn has an open air concert stage similar in concept to
Melbourne’s Myer Music Bowl and which hosts major musical events. Every five
years they have a choral festival which includes singing by a choir of about
30,000 choristers! They love their music here.
Tallinn hosted the sailing events for the 1980 Moscow
Olympics and the facilities are still in use. The athletes’ accommodation is
now a hotel and the old media centre is now used by local sporting
organisations for meetings and administration.
That night we enjoyed a great show in the ship’s Stardust
Theatre then bravely sallied forth to the karaoke at one of the main bars. We
got into it with the younger ones and showed them how it is done (surprised are
you?). We actually won a prize for dancing!! It just goes to show that age and
arthritis don’t have to hold you back :)
St Petersburg
We thought Europe held no more surprises – but then we saw
St Petersburg. On Saturday we left the ship on a lovely sunny morning and
encountered the day’s only negative experience – Russian immigration! After 35
minutes waiting in line we finally boarded our coach for a trip around the
city.
The port area is very new. We docked with six other cruise ships
in an area of reclaimed land only opened a few years ago. We then drove to the
centre of town and the embankments along the Neva River with their beautiful mansions
and other large buildings mostly dating from the 19th century. Among
other things we saw St Isaac’s Cathedral which is one of many having undergone
restoration to its former glory in recent years. Its gold dome is made of 100
kg of pure gold!
We also took a boat ride on the river and the many canals
which explain why St Petersburg has been called ‘the Venice of the north’. We
saw the wonderful Winter Palace of the Czars – now part of the Hermitage Museum
– and then visited the most stunning building we have seen on our whole trip –
the Spilt Blood Cathedral.
The Cathedral’s gory name derives from the fact that it was
built on the spot where Czar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. It was the
seventh assassination attempt, so I guess seven wasn’t his lucky number. The
Cathedral was built in the traditional Orthodox style and is beautiful enough
from the outside. But the entire inside is covered in seven thousand square
metres of Romanesque mosaics and is truly stunning.
On Saturday night we attended a performance of Swan Lake by
the Russian Ballet at the Palace Theatre in Arts Square. As you might expect it
was brilliant! Definitely a major highlight of our holiday.
Our second day in St Petersburg was dramatically different
to our first. On Saturday the temp
climbed to a balmy 24C and bright sunshine.
Today we woke to rain and the temp stayed closer to 16C. It was difficult taking photos as the bus
windows were streaked with rain. I took
a picture of an Egyptian sphinx through the bus window, and all the ladies
thought it was a rabbit statue. That is
how distorted things are through the rain.
This afternoon we are off to a Russian Military band concert, then
smoozing with Nathan. He sings in the
bars, and we have become his favourites.
When he sees us he breaks into John Denver for dad!!! He even asked us to sing the second verse of
something as he didn’t have all the words on his Ipad!!!!! Technology eh??
