The Two Amigos Ride Again- A 15,000 mile vacation of a lifetime
- Thread starter steve williams
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love it Steve.
looks like a terrific time had by all!
good for Marty to get it put together and then pull it off too!
a true renaissance man, he is!!!!
looks like a terrific time had by all!
good for Marty to get it put together and then pull it off too!
a true renaissance man, he is!!!!
Mike
I've only just begun. If you can hang in there I guaranty you the views from Italy were beyond any I have previously experienced. Wait till we get to day I of our week in Italy. stayed in a very large 14th century castle high at the top of a hill overlooking Barolo and Barbaresco. IIRC only 14 rooms for rent at the Castle and when we were there, there was only one other couple
So by now those that are reading and seeing the photos know that there is just nothing small in St Petersburg. The amount of gilded gold and precious jewels that we saw must be greater than those of the Queen of England. Each day you can get an idea of the amount of walking we did which on my Apple Watch varied between 3.5 to over 6 miles per day.
Before I move on to the next day and lest I forget I need to give a huge shout out to the subway system in St Petersburg. Not only was it fast, on time and immaculate but it was built under marshland on which St Petersburg sits. The crowd was polite, never unruly and never once littering. We saw no drunks or homeless in the subway. The first time on it we took two escalators down I would bet 1/4 mile before we got to the station which was immaculate.
The subway we took runs every 2 minutes it seems and 24 hours daily. It was a people mover
The other thing I noticed was the city never slept especially with the very lengthy daylight each day. There were people on the streets everywhere
It is also worth everyone doing a Google search of the Scarlet Sails and the story that goes with it each year for college and high school graduates. We had dinner at The Flying Dutchman Restaurant in the heart of the harbor looking into the square where there were well over 300,000 graduates there. There were many getting married and then the fireworks as the Scarlet Sails came into harbor. We had panoramic views and pictures that just aren't done justice here.
So Scarlet Sails was a special evening and a great dinner
Before I move on to the next day and lest I forget I need to give a huge shout out to the subway system in St Petersburg. Not only was it fast, on time and immaculate but it was built under marshland on which St Petersburg sits. The crowd was polite, never unruly and never once littering. We saw no drunks or homeless in the subway. The first time on it we took two escalators down I would bet 1/4 mile before we got to the station which was immaculate.
The subway we took runs every 2 minutes it seems and 24 hours daily. It was a people mover
The other thing I noticed was the city never slept especially with the very lengthy daylight each day. There were people on the streets everywhere
It is also worth everyone doing a Google search of the Scarlet Sails and the story that goes with it each year for college and high school graduates. We had dinner at The Flying Dutchman Restaurant in the heart of the harbor looking into the square where there were well over 300,000 graduates there. There were many getting married and then the fireworks as the Scarlet Sails came into harbor. We had panoramic views and pictures that just aren't done justice here.
So Scarlet Sails was a special evening and a great dinner
Wow Steve truly a dream trip and thanks for sharing such wonderful photos...better than music on a Saturday afternoon. Thank you!
The other fact that came quickly was not only how good the food was but how inexpensive it was. On our first night we dined at a restaurant selected this time by Lisa (Marty's wife) called Gogol where we literally closed the restaurant after midnight. I had an amazing rack of lamb for $15
Day 4 Trip To Pushkin, Pavlovsk and Private Boat Ride (June 24)
I forgot to tell everyone that the hotel in which we stayed The Taleon Hotel Imperial Palace was indeed a palace at some point. The entry was majestic once through the doors. We were walking distance from everywhere and it is a 5 star hotel
https://www.taleonimperialhotel.com/hotel-in-st-petersburg-russia/#/tab-1
Palace Hotel in St. Petersburg, Russia
Taleon Imperial Hotel, situated in the heart of historic St.Petersburg, is the only luxury palace hotel in St.Petersburg, where Tsarist grandeur meets XXI century service.
Taleon Imperial Hotel is the ideal starting point for your visit to Russia’s old imperial capital.
The hotel dominates the intersection of the Moika River and Nevsky Prospect, the city’s main throughfare, and is a 5-minute walk from the world-famous Hermitage Museum in Palace Square and very close to many other must-see sights.
Some of the city’s finest shopping, including exclusive clothes boutiques and jewellery salons are situated near the hotel. In summer water taxis and pleasure craft wait at the quay in front of the hotel and offer a memorable city tours by water.
Taleon Imperial Hotel is a member of the Leading Hotels of the World and Virtuoso.
I forgot to tell everyone that the hotel in which we stayed The Taleon Hotel Imperial Palace was indeed a palace at some point. The entry was majestic once through the doors. We were walking distance from everywhere and it is a 5 star hotel
https://www.taleonimperialhotel.com/hotel-in-st-petersburg-russia/#/tab-1
Palace Hotel in St. Petersburg, Russia
Taleon Imperial Hotel, situated in the heart of historic St.Petersburg, is the only luxury palace hotel in St.Petersburg, where Tsarist grandeur meets XXI century service.
Taleon Imperial Hotel is the ideal starting point for your visit to Russia’s old imperial capital.
The hotel dominates the intersection of the Moika River and Nevsky Prospect, the city’s main throughfare, and is a 5-minute walk from the world-famous Hermitage Museum in Palace Square and very close to many other must-see sights.
Some of the city’s finest shopping, including exclusive clothes boutiques and jewellery salons are situated near the hotel. In summer water taxis and pleasure craft wait at the quay in front of the hotel and offer a memorable city tours by water.
Taleon Imperial Hotel is a member of the Leading Hotels of the World and Virtuoso.
Everyone looked forward to morning breakfasts as they were not only superb and all included but the coffees and teas were fabulous. They made Americano cafe better than we Americans. There wasn't a day where it didn't rain in St.Petersburg so we all started the day dressed in winter clothes and somewhere in the mid afternoon the clouds would part and it would become very warm. Needless to say this trip included two wardrobes as one week was winter and the other was summer.
After breakfast we had our guide pick us up each morning in the hotel lobby. The Mercedes bus was very convenient and air conditioned when we needed it. On this day we explored Catherine's Palace which is a striking example of baroque architecture. The Palace was gifted by Peter the Great to his wife Catherine 1
These guys knew how to live. But unfortunately there wasn't ever a natural death for most of these emperors as most were murdered by members of their guard or by socialistic uprising and Bolsheviks
On the tour we walked through the lavish parks and gardens of the palace and the gorgeous interiors including the replica of the world renowned Amber Room which is a sight to behold.
After another all included lunch at a local restaurant we then visited the Great Pavlovsk Palace which is somewhat staid in comparison to its near neighbor at Tsarkoe Selo, forgoing that building's opulent ornamentation for classical elegance and harmony painted in the deep yellow and white color scheme typical of St Petersburg neoclassicism
Before I forget, this trip was breakfast and lunch all inclusive.
I talked about Gogol where I got a rack of lamb for $15 on the first night
Dinner on Day 2 at Sintoho Restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel around the corner from our hotel. This was an excellent meal and we paid accordingly but worth it
Day 3 Dinner was at the Flying Dutchman restaurant for Scarlett Sails
Day 4 Dinner was also picked by Lisa and called Gosti which was a short walk. Excellent food. Never any rush in these restaurants that you need to leave. We closed most every restaurant after midnight
After breakfast we had our guide pick us up each morning in the hotel lobby. The Mercedes bus was very convenient and air conditioned when we needed it. On this day we explored Catherine's Palace which is a striking example of baroque architecture. The Palace was gifted by Peter the Great to his wife Catherine 1
These guys knew how to live. But unfortunately there wasn't ever a natural death for most of these emperors as most were murdered by members of their guard or by socialistic uprising and Bolsheviks
On the tour we walked through the lavish parks and gardens of the palace and the gorgeous interiors including the replica of the world renowned Amber Room which is a sight to behold.
After another all included lunch at a local restaurant we then visited the Great Pavlovsk Palace which is somewhat staid in comparison to its near neighbor at Tsarkoe Selo, forgoing that building's opulent ornamentation for classical elegance and harmony painted in the deep yellow and white color scheme typical of St Petersburg neoclassicism
Before I forget, this trip was breakfast and lunch all inclusive.
I talked about Gogol where I got a rack of lamb for $15 on the first night
Dinner on Day 2 at Sintoho Restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel around the corner from our hotel. This was an excellent meal and we paid accordingly but worth it
Day 3 Dinner was at the Flying Dutchman restaurant for Scarlett Sails
Day 4 Dinner was also picked by Lisa and called Gosti which was a short walk. Excellent food. Never any rush in these restaurants that you need to leave. We closed most every restaurant after midnight
Lots of walking again today going through these enormous palaces
Followed by an evening of relaxation on the water on one of the gondolas
Followed by an evening of relaxation on the water on one of the gondolas
It was just out from of this Palace where we photo bombed someone getting married. It was huge fun which they loved. As we left they yelled "we give you Putin for Trump"
It’s a good thing Steve decided to post this in segments as it would be very difficult to provide a broad commentary of the entire trip in one pass. To begin, I’ll begin by telling you all something you don’t know. As many of you know, Steve is the founder, master of ceremonies, and ring-leader of our small corner of the blog world and as such, eats, lives and breathes the WBF each day. The reason that Steve is submitting his first post about a week after returning has less to do with jet lag as it does a medical crisis. Steve was hospitalized twice for a kidney stone last week and suffered a fair amount of intense abdominal pain and some nephrotic side effects before it finally passed. Between the Flomax and the narcotics for pain, it’s a wonder he was coherent at all last week. But thankfully all is well now. Hence, his somewhat belated post of the trip. Second I appreciate his comments about my capabilities as a tour planner, but assure you I am not quite the master of everything as Steve suggests because if I were, I would have picked the lotto number many times over by now. Not a day goes by that I am not acutely aware of how much I don’t know and try as I might, I’ll never get there. Not unlike our hobby I would say. The trick as many of us know is to "enjoy the ride" ("Hell in a Bucket" by John Barlow. Yes, I’m an original Deadhead).
A couple of quick comments. The magnificent sunset you see in posts #34 and #35 is the light hitting the Hermitage Museum from the restaurant where we had dinner as we celebrated the Scarlet Sails event. Sunset was at 10:30 at night and the fireworks did not occur until it was dark enough which was at 1 am. (Sunrise was 3 am so not a lot of time in the dark in that part of the world in mid-summer.) The pic of Steve and Cathy is a gem. Amazing iPhone camera.
Now, about St. Petersburg. It is well known that this city is the cultural capital of Russia and that’s the reason I wanted to visit it. It was not disappointing. The unbelievable rich history is mainly that of one family, the Romanov family, until of course, the great Bolshevik revolution of 1917. From one unreal palace and church to the next, all I kept thinking was “it’s good to be the king!” However, the king/queen liabilities were equally impressive. To begin, I lost count of how many czar and czarinas had to figure out which one of their descendants planned on taking them out, so a main vocational hazard was trying to take them out before they took you out. Didn’t exactly make for warm and fuzzy family picnics in many cases.
Thought number 2: It was important to keep reminding myself how many people died so that unbelievable wealth and power could basically in the hands of one family for hundreds of years. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren would have been toast before they ever got rolling, until of course, the revolution on 1917. Only then would they have felt perfectly at home.
That brings me to modern day St. Petersburg. We all learned in 10th grade history that the most efficient form of government is an enlightened dictatorship. Putin doesn’t disappoint in that regard. St. Petersburg is a beautiful city that is continually restored at no spared expense and it shows. The streets are so clean you can eat off them. The subway is amazing, clean, modern and honestly, there is no subways system in the US I am aware of that is its equal. At the bottom of every escalator to the platforms is a manned guard house, and there are 3-5 police at the top of every station. Not one iota of graffiti anywhere. The streets are in credibly safe for walking any time of day and night. The reasons are obvious. People who wrote graffiti or commit crimes probably get sent to Siberia with little due process. Putin runs a tight ship and since St. Petersburg is his home town, it shows very well. Flowers are everywhere despite 60 days of sunshine a year. The night of the Scarlet Sails, 3M people come to the city to line the waterfront to see the Scarlet Sails ship, with 500,000 in St. Petersburg square (post #14) for a rock concert that goes basically until 3 am. (Like Times Square on NY Eve in NYC only bigger.) We walked by the stage that day during a sound check. The PA was as good as anywhere in the world. Had to be 100+ dB of clean, wide bandwidth (for rock) music. Didn’t understand a single word that was sung, as Cyrillic is not my specialty. Coming home from our dinner at 3 am, we passed thousands of kids 16-25 who were well behaved, with no evidence of drunkenness or drugs. It was scary as it was like Ozzie and Harriet land from the 1950’s.
Will continue the commentary as Steve posts more pics.
Marty
A couple of quick comments. The magnificent sunset you see in posts #34 and #35 is the light hitting the Hermitage Museum from the restaurant where we had dinner as we celebrated the Scarlet Sails event. Sunset was at 10:30 at night and the fireworks did not occur until it was dark enough which was at 1 am. (Sunrise was 3 am so not a lot of time in the dark in that part of the world in mid-summer.) The pic of Steve and Cathy is a gem. Amazing iPhone camera.
Now, about St. Petersburg. It is well known that this city is the cultural capital of Russia and that’s the reason I wanted to visit it. It was not disappointing. The unbelievable rich history is mainly that of one family, the Romanov family, until of course, the great Bolshevik revolution of 1917. From one unreal palace and church to the next, all I kept thinking was “it’s good to be the king!” However, the king/queen liabilities were equally impressive. To begin, I lost count of how many czar and czarinas had to figure out which one of their descendants planned on taking them out, so a main vocational hazard was trying to take them out before they took you out. Didn’t exactly make for warm and fuzzy family picnics in many cases.
Thought number 2: It was important to keep reminding myself how many people died so that unbelievable wealth and power could basically in the hands of one family for hundreds of years. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren would have been toast before they ever got rolling, until of course, the revolution on 1917. Only then would they have felt perfectly at home.
That brings me to modern day St. Petersburg. We all learned in 10th grade history that the most efficient form of government is an enlightened dictatorship. Putin doesn’t disappoint in that regard. St. Petersburg is a beautiful city that is continually restored at no spared expense and it shows. The streets are so clean you can eat off them. The subway is amazing, clean, modern and honestly, there is no subways system in the US I am aware of that is its equal. At the bottom of every escalator to the platforms is a manned guard house, and there are 3-5 police at the top of every station. Not one iota of graffiti anywhere. The streets are in credibly safe for walking any time of day and night. The reasons are obvious. People who wrote graffiti or commit crimes probably get sent to Siberia with little due process. Putin runs a tight ship and since St. Petersburg is his home town, it shows very well. Flowers are everywhere despite 60 days of sunshine a year. The night of the Scarlet Sails, 3M people come to the city to line the waterfront to see the Scarlet Sails ship, with 500,000 in St. Petersburg square (post #14) for a rock concert that goes basically until 3 am. (Like Times Square on NY Eve in NYC only bigger.) We walked by the stage that day during a sound check. The PA was as good as anywhere in the world. Had to be 100+ dB of clean, wide bandwidth (for rock) music. Didn’t understand a single word that was sung, as Cyrillic is not my specialty. Coming home from our dinner at 3 am, we passed thousands of kids 16-25 who were well behaved, with no evidence of drunkenness or drugs. It was scary as it was like Ozzie and Harriet land from the 1950’s.
Will continue the commentary as Steve posts more pics.
Marty
Marty insisted this photo be taken above with the following caption. "If Rhodium is such a precious metal more so than gold how come we ain't seeing any Rhodium gilded rooms such as this one in gold"
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