Page Title

Text Box: Estonia at noon. With four optional shore excursions provided by NCL, we chose a tour of the town of Tallinn. Tallinn is the oldest, best preserved medieval city in Europe. We visited Toompea Hill in the Palace Square; then the lovely Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral which dominates the upper town’s skyline. After walking the medieval cobbled streets and browsing through the small shops, the motorcoach took us to Rocca al Mare, the open air museum with 18th - 19th century windmills, a church, farmhouses gathered from all around rural Estonia. There we enjoyed a folklore show, presented by local performers in national costumes. Some of the performers were as young as three-years-old. Even the tourists were invited to participate in the festivities. Next morning, the liner docked in the busy port of St. Petersburg, Russia - the highlight of this trip. The city was founded by Peter the Great to showcase the enormous wealth of the Czars in 1703 on the Gulf of Finland. It is situated on one of the 40 islands at the mouth of the River Neva. The excursion we took was called the “Classical St. Petersburg”, which was a 91/2- hour tour. The city was preparing for the 300th Anniversary celebration in 2003. Therefore a lot of the buildings, streets, squares, roads and bridges were under restoration and scaffolding. The first beautiful Bronze Horseman statue we saw, was commissioned by Catherine the Great in honour of Peter the Great. Our bus travelled along the Neva River, passing St. Isaac’s Cathedral, and Cathedral of Resurrection with its impressive nine domes. It took twenty-four years to complete this masterful piece of architecture. Then, we entered the Hermitage Museum to see

Text Box: the collection of Western European Art, including works by Leonardo daVinci, Ruphael and Tilian as well as the French Impressionist Collection. The Hermitage Museum, originally called, “The Winter Palace”, was built in 1754 - 1762 during the reign of Elizabeth 1. The history of the Hermitage as a museum began with Peter the Great who bought a number of works of art. In the reign of Catherine the Great, the collection grew and continued until the 1917 Russian Revolution. The collection has over 3 million pieces, displaying only seven percent of them. Once we were in the building, we were overwhelmed by the magnificent interior works (walls, ceilings, floor) and the huge collection of art pieces - not only paintings, sculptures but also carpets, embroidery, lace, porcelain, furniture, and silverware. The Russian guide selected just a few pieces of works and explained how the painter worked with colours and techniques, then whisked us back to the waiting bus. Seventeen miles away from St. Petersburg, we arrived at the city of Pushkin to visit Catherine’s summer palace which served as the summer residence for the imperial family.The palace stands on 1,482 acres with a five-domed church and its stunning facade is nearly 1,000 feet long and is decorated in gold. At the entrance, we were greeted by several men wearing medieval costumes, playing Russian music. The many impressive rooms were decorated with gold, amber and marble. After the long full day of touring this magnificent city, we were exhausted. The following day, we participated in another excursion to Peterhof, the former summer home of Peter the Great, about 22 miles away from the city. Built to rival Versailles in Paris, the massive estate encompasses seven parks and more than twenty smaller palaces and pavilions