St Petersburg - City of the Czars

Note to self – don’t access EVER my usual websites from Russia!!! I have had to verify myself, change passwords, been challenged with every website that I normally used while here in Russia - Facebook,  Messenger, Hotmail and heaps more start playing up. I need to contact my bank but I will be farked if I will try that from here!! Now way!!

Anyway Ally, Nye the kids and I walked down to a shopping mall just down the road. Think Westfield Anywhere and you have got the picture. I did my normal thing of walking around the supermarket and I could have Been in Woolworths or Coles - except for the prices.

Back to the hotel and our mini bus, guide and driver await us. We have a most delightful tour in less than delightful weather but all if OK as we visit churches, palaces, squares, bridges and get an excellent feel for what is a wonderful city.

Everything is very close and in the inner city there are no buildings more than four stories as the spire at the Czar’s church had to be the highest point in the city. That said we are told that apartments sell for $A10,000 psm and some have 6 metre high ceilings.

The tour guide has been asked to take us to the Synagogue which is the second largest in Europe and which is beautifully Sephardic style albeit that I had a slight church feel about the layout. Interestingly when permission was granted for the construction of the Synagogue it was limited in height below the normal, there were to be no churches built in proximity and the Czar’s normal route had to be well clear of it.

We wanted to stop at the Summer Park but the weather was anything but summer so were dropped at a restaurant where we had typical Russian fare although I must say that they were very accommodating as the restaurant was closed except for tour groups but they accommodated us anyway, made a salad which was not on the menu (cucumber, sour cream and dill) and brought us some treats as well.

We went back to the hotel for a power rest while Alex takes the train to spend the night at his ailing grandfather’s place. Nye, Ally and the kids went to Westfield Anywhere (The Galleria) which had an enormous kids play area with video games etc. and we met for dinner around 19:15. We have been having a lot of Russian fare so were happy to try and American Chain called TGIF which provided just what everybody wanted for a change.

Another night of mixed sleep and I meet Nye and Ally for late breakfast That’s the one from 10:00 till 12:00 as opposed to early 04:00 till 06:00 or full breakfast 6:00 till 10:00. Not including breakfast at this hotel would be a mistake based on availability. Quality is OK with herrings, cheese, salamis, meats and usual hot food.

Nye has some work to do so Ally and I wander down the road and sit in a park while the kids play. Their kids are very sweet and I have bonded well with both of them. I am guessing bringing Auryn a huge plastic egg with 7 kinder surprises inside may have helped this cause.

We meet Nye and walk about 4 kilometres along Nevsky Prospekt lunching on the way to St Isaacs Cathedral and the nearby palaces which are all quite stunning,

There are 300 steps to the Collonade which has sweeping views of the city. Nye Ally and the kids walk up but I pass and we meet up inside the church which is now a museum. It is quite an amazing place. My photos couldn’t do it justice so try http://tinyurl.com/brfsu7x

We decide on a cab back which is interesting. First price $A27 – no, wait for 10 minutes next cab $A21 which I negotiate down to $15 no. I stick my hand in the air and a private car pulls up and we do the business for $A9. My first lesson in StP transport. Private cars often act as taxis.

We meet Alex back at the hotel and Nye and I go with him for a bus ride to a stop near the Mikhailovsky Theatre for our performance of Verdi’s The Masquerade stopping along the way at a funky restaurant whose surroundings were great and whose menu I can only describe as interesting – pic here http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/Shater.Cafe. Their Facebook page describes the cuisine as Food Style American (New), American Traditional), Barbeque, Breakfast, Brunch, Burgers, Delis, French, Greek and Mediterranean, Italian, Russian, Spanish/Basque, Steakhouses, Sushi Bars. This would definitely pass Danielle and my mixed cuisine no go rule. Anyway the food was great.

The theatre was fully restored and truly amazing. I will post some pictures when I have more time. Alex tells us that St Petersburg is one of the cultural capitals of the world with a high proportion of residents attending opera or theatre regularly. There are around 12 operas on at any one time in St Petersburg.

Wiser after my recent opera experience in Turin I read up on the story which meant I was only 50% confoozled. I thoroughly enjoyed it but would have loved to have had the libretto screen in English not Russian – oh BTW it was sung in Italian.

We leave the Mikhailovsky at 23:15 to full and total sunlight and revisit the same restaurant after the opera and a relaxing supper. Alex phoned for a cab but something didn’t happen right and we stuck a hand in the air and got picked up in what I can describe as a very poorly maintained Lada(?) Russian car that in just a few year’s time will be saleable as a vintage automobile.

Back to the hotel where I take a sleeping pill to ensure a good night’s sleep only to be woken at 02:00 by a business call – OK it was an important one but I have little recollection of the sagely advice I gave the caller.

Anyway here I am at breakfast waiting for others to wake up so we can meet our taxi which is taking us to the river cruise and Summer Palace visit.

The weather although forecast to be rainy the whole time – there are only 65 days of complete sunshine in StP – but has held up pretty well. A jumper and scarf is just fine against the 17 degrees but sometimes accompanied by a cool breeze.

I am very fond of St Petersburg. I was here for a day on a cruise around 2003 and always wanted to revisit the city and am so glad I did, that I was able to do it with friends and that one of my friends speaks Russian and has organised everything. If I have a criticism and it is only a mild one, it is that it has and continues to be westernised. The upside is that it manages throughout this to retain its charm.

Talk Soon
Love to all
David

Chilling and St Petersburg

I spent around three hours walking around Strasbourg. It is a most beautiful Medieval City with a wonderful relaxed feel. I am staying near Petit France which is the historical centre and will explore that more tomorrow.

I go to the supermarket and I should explain that visiting French supermarkets are one of my favourite holiday adventures. The produce and variety of foods is unparalleled anywhere that I have been. I bought some raspberries, blackberries, salad ingredients including goat's chees (Chevre), smoked salmon and packaged lobster bisque one of my discoveries on a previous visit. All of this is for lunch and dinner today and breakfast tomorrow and turns out to last most of my time there.

I am amazed at how cheap EVERYTHING is in the supermarket. I am guessing a basket of my regular items would cost 50% in France of what it would in Sydney and the produce maybe 33%.

I drop that off at the hotel and continue my exploratory walk picking up brochures (including a chocolate museum) for tomorrow’s activities. Sleep consists of three patches of two hours each and I don’t feel too bad in the morning but it will likely hit me later in the day but I am so chilled that a sleep in the afternoon will be OK too. The upside to that is a totally empty inbox and all my todo emails attended to which is kinda nice when holidaying.

I make breakfast and leave the hotel around 09:30 heading towards the Cathedral. I had my usual internal debate, a jumper or not - I hate carrying things - and I decide not which was good as it was around 18 degrees when I left the hotel but soon warmed up to mid to late twenties.

Now when you travel a lot churches are a dime a dozen and one can easily become blasé about 'another' church but I must say this church was quite something. The stained glass windows were stunning.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cath%C3%A9drale_Notre-Dame_de_Strasbourg

Just behind the cathedral are five museums but not really in the mood as my plan was to get the bateaux mouche, a glass topped river boat to tour the city. Talk about Deja Vous all over again!! Last year I went to Brugges and did a river tour and knock me over if it wasn’t almost identical in look, feel, buildings etc. as the one I have just taken. The only real difference is the new buildings of the European Parliament which I am guessing is having its own crises at the moment.

Strasbourg is a very beautiful Mediaeval city with wonderful little streets here there and everywhere. There is something wonderful about cities built around rivers - for me anyway.

I spend a few hours in the afternoon just walking the streets occasionally going into some quaint little shops which grab my attention but not buying anything which in itself is worthy of noting herein.

Back to the hotel for a soup and prawn salad which I made for dinner - exactly what I felt like so didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything. I am planning a good meal tomorrow night (perhaps).

I wake up at 05:00 Sunday morning but having had 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep so ready to face the day.

Well I get moving around 10:00 walk out of the hotel without a jacket which was fine as the weather was around 18 and rising to 26 apparently quite unseasonal. Sunday in France and the shops are all closed but  there was something quite tranquil and peaceful walking the streets with shops closed and only a few people around. I enjoy this and do it for around three hours stopping only once for a coffee.

Now if it looks like a tourist trap sounds like a tourist trap it probably is a tourist trap. I decide to drive the 14kms to the Chocolate Museum which was quote interesting and good value at E8 in exchange for a bag of 10 truffles and I did learn a lot about cocoa and chocolate but hey it was a tourist trap albeit an interesting one.

Back to town and I stumble on a Sushi Train with nice sushi including Nutella, which I resisted and which serves me well for lunch/dinner. Then back to the hotel for an early night as I have to wake at 01:00  for a teleconference. Lucky I had an early night because it went for 3.25 hours - oh well. I manage another few hours before waking, packing and checking out of the hotel only to find it is Pentecost Monday and another holiday. I normally check for these things but as it didn’t really matter I didn’t bother this time.

I head towards Frankfurt and take a detour to Baden-Baden a town I had visited in 1978. There are a few places I have been to which ooze class (and wealth) and Baden Baden is one of those places. It is such a  beautiful place again around a central river. The bad thing is I arrive to find out it is Fingstag (I am guessing Pentecost Monday) and everything is closed. Oh well a coffee and walk around for an hour and I keep going towards Frankfurt, my stop for the night before the short plane trip (2:45) to St Petersburg tomorrow morning.

I looked around for an airport hotel and managed to find an EXCELLENT 3.5 star brand new hotel about 1km from the airport at just E44 a night versus the E179 the Sheraton wanted. It surprises me how some marketers don’t get it. The hotel is built on a brand new road which doesn’t exist on my GPS and I am guessing all GPS (and yes Justin my maps are up to date). I write to the hotel asking for the coordinates which I can enter manually and they send me a map. When I arrive at the hotel they tell me that people have been complaining since the hotel opened in January and arrive very angry after spending time to find the place. So I get the co-ordinates for them and they say oh that’s a good idea....yawn.

I dump my bags and go into Frankfurt only to affirm my utter dislike for the place. I head back to the airport to return the car and was feeling a little lazy intending to return the car only half full and paying the premium on the fuel. Well that was until I worked out the premium was just.....$A60.....out the garage to the nearby service station fill the car and return it. Shuttle back to the hotel and it is now 19:00 so I watch a few episodes of The Wire, write my blog and will soon go to sleep.

I have really enjoyed the past 3-4 days chilling out relaxing and now ready for a holiday.

Interesting how many people and young ones at that still smoke in Europe. And if you want to make money here then gear yourselves towards Russian Tourism they are EVERYWHERE how do I know well have you ever heard anybody speak Russian quietly.

I wake up ridiculously early and head to the airport managing fast checkin and its two hours before the flight. There are lot worse airports to have time to kill than Frankfurt so the time goes quickly and I board my 2:45 flight on what I can best describe as the most budget plane I have seen in a long while. No entertainment as in NO entertainment music or otherwise, Spartan uncomfortable seats etc. They did serve a meal but luckily I had eaten at the airport not that the meal was that bad but I preferred what I had already eaten.

I arrive at St Petersburg (from herein StP) and see a lot of planes lined up on the tarmac with steps which is one of my pet hates having to schlep down the steps get on a bus to a terminal then usually schlep up stairs etc. But...I was spared from this when the plane taxied for what seemed a long term to well how to describe it. Justin had it best - imaging every cold war movie you have ever seen and you’ve arrived there.

I queue up to get through passport control and it isn’t too crowded except for this guy that seems terribly intent on invading my space and maybe wanting to get ahead of me. I was pretty pissed off so I turned to him and said "you are obviously in a hurry go ahead of me" to which he replied "you obviously haven’t been to Russia before and learned how to queue up. My final retort "no I haven’t but I have been to the school of manners". Now if I were him there was no way I would go ahead of me but he clearly isn’t me.

Mercifully I remembered I had a black (or was it green) bag and collected it to be met by my German (born in StP friend Alex Smirnov - the name indicates his taste in drinks). He arrived yesterday and spent the night at his grandfather's place and will share a hotel room with me. He hands me a bundle of money on account which we had prearranged for him to exchange for my trip which at 30 Rubles to the $A seemed like a lot but was only $A400. has phoned for a fixed price taxi to the hotel.

Well StP. At first all the buildings were drab, old, run down and basically summarised as "shitty". But as we got closer to the city and the traffic got worse and worse things improved kilometre by kilometre. After what must have been 40 minutes to complete the last kilometre or so we arrived at the iBis Hotel. Standard Accor 3 star fare and it will work fine for the week. I unpack and go downstairs to meet Alex and his father Alexander who take me for a walk around nearby streets including a wonderful fruit market with fresh LOVELY Ukrainian cherries - yum.

The two Alex’s take me to a restaurant which turned out to be closed so we went to a nearby pub. We then go to the Russian Orthodox Church where Alex (Jnr) was confirmed. After I found out that there are no seats and you stand there for two hours I decided not converting. The service was underway and it was quite nice to listen to with a choir in the background. Lots of Russian Icons around the walls and pillars.

We then take a walk along Nevsky Prospekt described as the Champs Elysee of Russia. Well the Champs Elysee it isn’t but it was a beautiful street with all the “beautiful” shops. We stopped at a gourmand shop which had a live band (think Peace Hotel in Shanghai) playing on the balcony.

The Alex’s go to the Metro to pick Nye/Ally and the kids up from the train they have caught from Helsinki (3 hours). We all meet in the lobby at around 21:15 and head to the VodkaRoom restaurant. It was old world in a wonderful old world way. It had a Vodka Museum which had only passing interest given that it was all in Russian and curated in an equally old world way.

The meal was very good. Usual Russian fare starting with Beers for all (ok most) some entrees Alex Jnr had Pelemeni (Russian Ravioli/Wonton), Nye/Ally had fish while Alex’s half-brother Sergei who had joined us and Alexander had breaded cutlets. We had communal desserts which were VERY nice and each course was accompanied by a toast of vodka. Nye and I split the very reasonable $50 a head bill.

We leave the restaurant at midnight Auryn (5) had fallen asleep as soon as we arrived and Jules (1+) was wide awake. It was kind of nice that when Jules first saw me his face lit up and he came running to me for a cuddle – c-u-t-e I am so ready!! And as we left the restaurant the sun was just setting – at midnight for G-d’s sake how weird.

Anyway next morning I wake up at 06:30 so I toss and turn and check emails on my iPhone under the covers and chat with sundry people until 08:15 when I can stand it no more so I shower and shave and leave Alex who is a late sleeper for breakfast downstairs. No breakfast starts at 04:00 – well people it is full sunlight then isn’t it – with continental switches to full breakfast and then back to continental finishing at midday. There has to be an angle here to save money and have two breakfasts – have to think about that one.

 
Anyway 10:30 and we have a minibus, driver and guide organised for 3 hour tour which is going to cost all of $A125 which seems very little to me for 5 people. Anyway I have asked for the Synagogue to be included and we were going to a beautiful park later so I suggest that the tour drops us there at the end which is well received.

Weather not expected to be too good but we’ll play it all by ear.

Catch you all soon around these parts.

Love to all
David

Up Up and Away

Not surprisingly I'm often asked why I travel so much to which I usually reply "because I can.  But the reality is that I find it incredibly liberating to step on a plane, it's as though a weight is lifted off my shoulders as I put my bag in the overhead locker on the plane.

This trip came about in a strange way. I had been to Petersburg for just one day on a cruise and it made my must return list. In 2009 I tried to go back there but the visa obstacles were to trying that I just couldn't be bothered.

About three months ago my great friends Nye Griffiths and Ally Morris said they were going to a wedding in Helsinki with their sons Auryn (5) and Jules (15 months) and as part of that trip they had arranged to meet Alex Smirnov in St Petersburg. Alex Smirnov is a thirty year old German world class bridge player who has stayed at my place five or six times but whose great strength in these arrangements was that he was born in St Petersburg and speaks Russian.

Well I didn't have to be asked twice and I booked soon after getting an email from Alex asking me to come so he could return my hospitality.

No Visa problems this time as my travel agent James Deering of Flight Centre of whom I cannot express enough superlatives arranged it all.

So here I am sitting on a Singapore Airlines A380 with perhaps the only empty seat in economy right here next to me which is good as I was moved to a centre seat to the window seat I now occupy. My ticket is actually a Lufthansa Round to World hence the Singapore Airlines.

I usually plan my departures and arrivals around Board Meetings so I am leaving five days before the appointed meeting time in St Petersburg. OK I am OCD or Justin says CDO because the letters have to be in the right order and I arrive in Frankfurt wi four clear days and nothing to do. Me stepping on a plane that arrives at 05:40 no hotel no car it's simply unheard of.

I had looked around at flights to places which interested me such as Budapest or Norway to visit friends but I have noticed in the past 12 months that the era of super cheap flights has gone and my only real options we're Paris where I will spend three days in my next trip in July or Amsterdam.

I just got lazy but as I was driving around just five hours before my flight and chatting to my son-in-law Dave Lechem and asking for distances between various cities we stabled on Strasbourg just 2+ our drive from Frankfurt. A quick online search and a car and accommodation os secure so I now have a home to go to. I have been to Strasbourg for one day with Danielle but I believe there is a rich Jewish history there and if I can find a synagogue on Friday night and I am not totally wrecked I may go along.

So my basic itinerary is three days Strasbourg: seven days St Petersburg: here days in LA or Palm Springs: a week in Phoenix visiting my friends who have now reconciled which is kinda great and three days somewhere before heading home.

Some may know that May is usually Las Vegas month but the tournament attendances have been down during the last few years so it is now planned  to hold it in Las Vegas and Monte Carlo alternately.  So hopefully my regular junket will return next year.

Sometimes you can very lucky in life. I normally have a house sitter who looks after the house and the dogs but two young bridge players, one of whom I have known for almost ten years were looking for a place to stay so I offered for them to stay in the house and look after the dogs. They asked if a NZ girl could join them and, having met her, I reluctantly agreed. Well as some will know my 13 year old dog had had a cataract operation and I think he has also had a stroke so is on seven meds a day and is not in great shape.  The good luck I had was that the girl who is moving in is a veterinary assistant so I am much more comfortable about leaving my faithful companion in her hands.

About two hours out of Frankfurt and managed to doze for most of the 16 hours so far - only watched three episodes of The Wire. That show really tests my powers of concentration.

Off the plane and I discover getting old and forgetful ain’t no good! I wait at the baggage claim after a very quick passage through immigration. I wait and wait and wait and no bag. I go to the baggage services counter and am told that the bag has definitely been scanned as received in Frankfurt. Phew. The most helpful lady starts filling out the form and I say I will just have one more look. Well there is black bag and it is mine as I have forgotten that at the last minute I changed suitcases. Bugger I feel like an idiot.

Collect my car a brand new VW Golf Wagon and drive the 220kms to Strasbourg without any problems. I feel remarkably awake and alert.

Arrive at a hotel right in the middle of Strasbourg and am pleased with ever aspect of it including the kitchenette so may cook dinner some time.

Well certainly enough from me for now but that's the background and start to my trip.

Talk soon
Kisses to all