Travelling On

gallygirl

Oooohhh, beautiful St Petersburg What a lovely city, though I kept thinking of the million who starved there
Could you tell there were fountains if it was raining so hard :eek:.

Glad you enjoyed it and bullets were dodged

rtandon27

Welcome back KC:j

themadvix

Sounds like you had a wonderful time KC! Very pleased you managed to get there - are you a convert to spontaneous travel?! I'd love to be able to do that!

Glad that neither your sister's lurgy nor the flu jab have managed to get you.

Karmacat

gallygirl wrote: »

Oooohhh, beautiful St Petersburg What a lovely city, though I kept thinking of the million who starved there
Could you tell there were fountains if it was raining so hard :eek:.

Glad you enjoyed it and bullets were dodged

The fountains still stood out, believe me. Water travelling in lots of different directions We saw a weird one in Oslo: a circle of very small "buds" (not jets) of water, only about six inches high each. But they were in the middle of a huge traffic intersection, forming a sort of roundabout, except that there were tram tracks *through* the fountain :rotfl: it was brilliant.

As for the death toll in St Petersburg ... there are many memorials, and the ring road to Peterhof is actually built on the front lines, which feels very unsettling. I wasn't in the city itself on my own and able to see any memorials, get any sense of it. But in the present, there's a workadayness, and a sense of building the future while looking to the past. There was an amazing photo on show taken about a week before the Germans invaded: it looks like a mass grave, but its actually statues being buried six feet deep, they knew the Germans would loot whatever they could and destroy the rest. About 50% of the fixtures and fittings were saved.


I photographed a demonstration, by the way, with their permission: four people standing by a tourist church with placards, apparently supporting Putin.

rtandon27 wrote: »

Welcome back KC:j

Thanks RT! Good to be back :j though I've chickened out of the healthy walk this morning, its **throwing** it down, and I've no wish to get soaked again.

themadvix wrote: »

Sounds like you had a wonderful time KC! Very pleased you managed to get there - are you a convert to spontaneous travel?! I'd love to be able to do that!

Hiya! Spontaneous travel ... hmm, it can only be done to so many countries, at one time, when someone else is doing all the arranging for you - we'd never have been able to arrange this itinerary on our own. I got totally confuzzled and freaked trying to work out an itinerary just in Helsinki and Tallinn :o:o. Put it this way: for spontaneous travel, I'd rather know the alphabet, or at least be able to pronounce the words (Nordic languages string everything together even more than German does, they make my eyes blur :rotfl:). Your time will come on the spontaneousness-ness.

Glad that neither your sister's lurgy nor the flu jab have managed to get you.

Yep, I think that holds true. And lets not forget the Norovirus-that-never-happened-either :rotfl:

gallygirl

Karmacat wrote: »

There was an amazing photo on show taken about a week before the Germans invaded: it looks like a mass grave, but its actually statues being buried six feet deep, they knew the Germans would loot whatever they could and destroy the rest. About 50% of the fixtures and fittings were saved.

:eek::o:eek: I thought it was a mass grave at first as well :eek::o:eek:.

Goldiegirl

Glad you had a good time.

You did the right thing in getting adopted by the Dining Room Captain. If you've got a special dietary requirement, he or she is your best friend. They can make or break the dining experience.

When I had to be really careful about my sodium intake, I had a couple of brilliant ones.... but a couple of others who were not so good. In the latter case, the evening meal started to get like a challenge rather than a pleasure.

We did a Baltic cruise several years ago (I think) 2007, and the fountains at Peterhof are one of the things I remember very well

Karmacat

Gally, yes, its a *very* easy similarity to gloss over. I only looked closely once I knew they were statues.

Goldie, hi! Good to see you I didn't realise you'd done this type of cruise back then erm, we were some of the youngest there again, so I think you'd have really stood out

The Dining Captain thing was difficult - the food/ communications policies were difficult, actually, the Captain was a sweetie. Communication policy was very poor compared to Tui, for all that Tui has a cheap and cheerful rep. Food, disembarkation, sights along the way, utilities problems, all sorts of things. Sadly, I don't think I'd pay full price for a Fred O cruise ... I'd pay half price and take some of my own bits (I had to buy peanut butter in Copenhagen, thats how little protein I was getting). I'm definitely a fan of reduced price cruises

Anyway, over the last few days, I've done about 65% of my to-do list, I'm on to the "communicate with this person" bits now, not just the "clean and tidy" - feels good!

Karmacat

Right, I'm starting to catch up with myself - one lot of washing still to do (but its foggy out there still!) and a whole opening-the-post thing, with who knows what to be done as a result ...

The French apartment management company are still ignoring me, except to email me that they're temporarily ignoring everyone (and the apartments themselves are all closed down for a few months. Renovations? Alternate reality? Who knows. The rent cheque to me was paid in this month, the management company cashed *my* cheque, there's still tons of money in the account. I need to update the banking details for the management company, but thats it.

Oh, thats not it. I'm now in *credit* to the sum of E183.79. They invoiced me two quarters at once, and when I sent off the last cheque, just before my holiday, I wondered if the quarterly invoices were summaries, not separate. I guess I have the answer now. Joyous. Ah well, its more money. But if I have time at the end of this week, I'm definitely bringing some of that money to the UK, depending on where the exchange rate has gone.


Ta-da list later on.

Goldiegirl

Karmacat wrote: »

Gally, yes, its a *very* easy similarity to gloss over. I only looked closely once I knew they were statues.

Goldie, hi! Good to see you I didn't realise you'd done this type of cruise back then erm, we were some of the youngest there again, so I think you'd have really stood out

The Dining Captain thing was difficult - the food/ communications policies were difficult, actually, the Captain was a sweetie. Communication policy was very poor compared to Tui, for all that Tui has a cheap and cheerful rep. Food, disembarkation, sights along the way, utilities problems, all sorts of things. Sadly, I don't think I'd pay full price for a Fred O cruise ... I'd pay half price and take some of my own bits (I had to buy peanut butter in Copenhagen, thats how little protein I was getting). I'm definitely a fan of reduced price cruises

Anyway, over the last few days, I've done about 65% of my to-do list, I'm on to the "communicate with this person" bits now, not just the "clean and tidy" - feels good!

I'm kind of used to being one of the youngest on the ship (apart from the staff of course!). We went on our first cruise when I was 41, so I was definitely one of the youngest then. Cruises in the school holidays and shorter cruises do attract younger people, but the longer cruises in term time do seem to be the preserve of the ..er… mature! As we have done a few longer cruises recently, I still feel one of the youngest, and I'm 59 now! :rotfl:

Tui have got a very good reputation. I also like CMV for lower priced cruises, they are very good value.

I hate situations when communications are poor, it can make everything seem like a huge effort, and you don't want that on holiday.

However, on balance, it sounds like a good time was had:beer:

Karmacat

Oops, I never came back on here with a ta-da list because I was so slow at opening the post, which I always dislike . So here's the ta-da for the last day-and-a-half:


- another play with the washing machine, I'm definitely starting to get ahead.
- saw neighbour to collect my little rosemary plants. I put them outside, but I'm slightly regretting that, they won't cope with the whole winter ahead - I might well bring them in now.
- postcard sent to Norfolk rellies (of Greek Orthodox, not Russian Orthodox, I'm sure they'll be kind).
- rejoined U3A
- rejoined Ancient History Group, and went to a meeting this morning
- opened most of the post: paid a credit card bill, and filed a "notice you don't need a tv licence" from the tv licence people. Who've spent on a postal letter because they say they don't have my email address, in spite of all our conversations so far being by email. Did some money tetris too.
- a slow tidying, putting things back where they're supposed to be - which takes even longer than the washing, I don't know why
- SB has gone well! Two surveys earned me almost £5, practically unheard of for them!
- started a supermarket order to be delivered to my catsitting address, so I don't have to faff about at the local Sainsbo, plus checked out some NT and other trips I might do this time - determined to make better use of the time away.


I'm sure I've done more than that! There may be some comeback on the U3A thing - they say to send an A5 sae so I can get a handbook - but I use the info online, I *really* don't want more paperwork that'll go straight in the recycling bin, so I've sent an ordinary one. We'll see how that turns out. Today?
- rehoming rosemary babies (see what I did there? ) into the house.
- yet another birthday, in 3 days time, I'm sure I have a nice card in my stash.
- get the big suitcase put away.
- more slow tidying and cleaning.