Uncategorized

Leaving Norway left us feeling sad, but the next part of our adventure was awaiting us.  The group was once again together, having been in separate hotels in Norway.  We had a relatively short flight – just over 2 hours – and then we were in Iceland.  This island country is volcanic in formation.  It is covered with lava fields, some recent 800 years old but many very old 8,000 years old.  The lava fields are covered with moss and lichens.  When you get into the more mountainous areas there are trees and grass and flowers. 

Our first stop was the Lava Restaurant at the Blue Lagoon.  After lunch we were able to go to the Blue Lagoon, but we did not since we had done that several years ago when we were here.  It was a cold and rainy day and we were not sorry to pass this opportunity up.  The Blue Lagoon is actually created by runoff from a geothermal plant.  The country of Iceland uses mostly geothermal or hydroelectric energy.  They are amongst the most carbon neutral countries in the world.

Bob and I walked around the town of Reykjavik, which means Smoking Bay.  When this area was first seen the steam from the ground because of all the geothermal activity made it look like it was smoking.  Reykjavik is the northern most capital in the world.  Iceland has a population of about 350,000 people and there are 400,000 sheep!  We stopped in some stores and went into the very modern church that dominates the city skyline.

We had a lecture this evening by Jonina Olafsdottir, a National Geographic Young Explorer.  She is working on fresh water discovery in the fissures created by the tectonic plate movement here in Iceland.  Iceland is split by the North American plate and the European plate and is growing by about an inch a year.  There is great volcanic and seismic activity here and the land is constantly evolving.  She does deep dives in what she says is some of the purest and clearest water on the planet.  One of our guides said that there are earthquakes every day here.  They are small ones and we have not noticed anything unusual.

Our dinner was at the Iono Restaurant, which is housed in one of the cities oldest theaters.  We were entertained by a women’s choir.  We had wonderful Icelandic foods.

The weather was cold and rainy which was the start of what we learned was the usual weather here in Reykjavik.

Fitbit – 7708 steps, 9 floors and 3.65 mile

Bette left our hotel at 9 for an all day tour to see the Geiranger Fjord and travel the Trollstigen road.  We took 3 different ferrys, went through many tunnels and traveled on mountain roads with beautiful scenery.  The Geiranger fjord is a UNESCO World Heritage designated site.  We drove through the Nordal Valley to a lovely bed and breakfast for our lunch.  We saw an underground waterfall at Gudbrandsjuvet Gorge.  The highlight was the winding Trollstigen road.  

Bob on the other hand went kayaking in the Storfjord.  It was hard work but the group that went enjoyed themselves.  Then in the afternoon he went hiking to a mountaintop near the hotel. He said it was hard work getting to the top, but the view was worth the effort.

The sights and beauty of Norway are hard to describe.  It is a fabulous country with friendly people and worth another visit.

Fitbit – 4093 steps, 14 floors and 1.94 miles

We sadly left Saint Petersburg and traveled on to Norway.  We had a short flight, just over 2 hours.  We transferred to the Klipfisk Akademeit for lunch.  Our guide explained about the cod fishing and how they preserve the cod by drying and salting them.  Then when they want to use the fish, they soak them for several days in water and they are ready to eat.  To get from the airport to the town we had to pass through 3 subsea tunnels.  They were miles long and connected the various island that make up the town of Alesund.  Because of the harsh weather, the subsea tunnels work better since bridges would weather more quickly.

Norway is a very progressive country and uses it’s oil money to make the lives of its citizens better.  There are about 5 million people in Norway.  One of their largest industries is fishing, followed by furniture making, strawberry growing, and oil.  They have 95% of their energy coming from renewable sources, mostly hydroelectric.

We also went to the local aquarium and toured the town.  Then we were off to the countryside.  Our large group was split into 3 different hotels.  We were at the Storfjord.  Very charming, on a bluff over the fjord.

After drinks in the library, we had a lovely dinner and then off to rest.

Fitbit – 4819 steps, 8 floors and 2.28 miles

You can not be in Saint Petersburg and not spend time at the Hermitage Art Museum.  We had an early entry and we were able to see the giant Peacock Clock play.  It is quite phenomenal with birds chirping, hens clucking and the peacock spreading its tail feathers and then revolving.  After that we toured the museum seeing many wonderful pieces of art.  There were DaVinci’s and Rembrandt’s and Michelangelo’s and many others.  We spent about 2 hours and barely touch seeing all that there was to see.

In the afternoon we were back at the newly opened Impressionist exhibits.  They have move their Impressionist collection from the old building which was the winter palace of the Tsar into a beautifully renovated building across the square.  There were Monet, Degas, Picasso, Renoir and every other Impressionist you can name.  The displays were so well done.

We wandered back to hotel by walking on Nevsky Prospekt.

That evening we went to Vladimir Palace for our dinner and entertainment.  The palace is on the Neva River directly across from Peter and Paul Fortress.  Dinner was served in the White Hall. We had a harpist playing for cocktails, an orchestra for dinner and then 2 opera singers and a small ballet ensemble.  Quite an evening to round out our time in Saint Petersburg.

Fitbit – 9410 steps, 12 floors and 4.46 miles

June 12 started off with great weather.  We left the hotel to catch a hydrofoil boat to Peterhof Palace.  We arrived the way that the guests of the Tsar arrived, by boat.  We started on the Neva River crossed part of the Gulf of Finland and landed from the Baltic Sea.  Peterhof, built by Peter the Great was built to rival Versailles.  We toured the Monplasir Palace a small palace right on the water.  The rooms were more personal sized and decorated in a simple style.  The Tsar and his wife would come here, cook their own meals and not be “on” all the time.   There were many personal items that had been preserved on display.

Peter and Paul Fortress from the hydrofoil boat.

In front of the hotel

We walked through the beautiful formal gardens and ended our tour seeing the Grand Cascade Fountain.  By the time we got to this part of our tour there were thousands of people in the fountain area.  We had arrived before the official opening for our tour of the small palace.

I would like to give a brief overview of the history of the Tsars and the Romanov family, but there were so many coups and intrigues and slight of hands that I was never able to get it down in my notes.  The city of Saint Petersburg has had many names over the years: Saint Petersburg, Petrograd, Leningrad and now Saint Petersburg again.  It was once the capital of Russia but the capital was moved to Moscow in 1918.  During World War II, the city was under siege for 872 days.  The Germans cut off all food and supplies.  Many people died.  

After lunch we toured the Faberge Museum.  There are 9 of the fabulous eggs on display along with many other beautiful items.  This museum is only 4 years old opened by Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg.  The collection was quite amazing.  We then went to the 19th century Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood.  The walls and ceiling are covered in intricate mosaics.  All that glittered here was gold.

After a quick dinner we were off the the Mariinsky Theatre for a performance of Giselle.  The theatre was very ornate.  We enjoyed this excursion a lot.

Fitbit – 13423 steps, 4 floors and 6.36 miles

On June 11 we left Irkutsk around 11 AM, flew for 6.5 hours and arrived in Saint Petersburg around noon.  We had had lunch on the plane, but as soon as we arrived we headed to Dacha Tarem Restaurant for our second lunch.  Everyone said they did not want a second lunch, but the food was so good looking that we ate.  There were salads and meat under cream sauce (one of the best food items on the trip so far).  There was wonderful beet borscht and veal and stuffed cabbage.  There was honey cake for dessert with cute little bees on the top for a decoration.  We also had wonderful singers and dancers to entertain us, complete with their own band.  

Then we were off to tour Catherine’s Palace.  This is the former summer residence of the Russian Tsars.  The highlight of the palace is the reconstructed Amber Room.  During the 2nd World War, the room was dismantled and hidden from the Germans while Saint Petersburg was under siege.  It was lost, but pictures of the original room and plans and sketches have allowed present day artisans to recreate it.  No photos could be taken in this area of the palace.  Part of the routine was putting shoe covers on our feet while we walked through the museum.

After checking into our plush hotel, we had a discussion with our panel of experts about what we had discovered so far on the trip.  Dinner was in the Tea Lounge.  Bob and I took a walk after dinner.  The sun does not set until after 10:30 PM (almost White Nights) and rises around 4 AM.

Fitbit – 4479 steps, 5 floors and 2.12 miles

Saturday, June 10, our full day in the Irkutsk area had us heading out to Lake Baikal, about 40 miles from Irkutsk.  We had previously learned about Siberia from a lecture on the plane.  If you dig down about 10 feet in the area of Siberian where we were touring you hit permafrost.  Unfortunately due to global warming, the permafrost zone is getting deeper in the ground.  In some areas of Siberia, homes are sinking into the ground because of the melting of the permafrost.

Irkutsk is the capital of Siberia and the city has about 600,000 inhabitants.  It is a young city because of the 7 universities there.  The average age is 33 of all the citizens living there.  The original settlers came because of the fur trade.  The town is built at the confluence of the Irkutsk and Angara rivers.  Siberia means “sleeping land”.    Siberia has every mineral in the world in some quantity, a great deal of oil and produces great quantities of hydroelectric power.  Our guide told us that he pays only $5 per month for his electricity.  Because of the cheap electricity this area had a lot of industry – paper making, oil purifying, aluminum processing, to name a few.

Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world.  There are 334 rivers that feed into it, and only one that is fed by it, the Angara.  Because of the great amount of water flowing out of the lake, they have 4 hydro electric plants.  The lake is 400 miles long and 27 – 50 miles wide.  The water is crystal clear and freezes solid in the winter, when they can drive on it and even golf!  The lake contains 20% of the fresh water in the world! 

Our activities included visiting a local village of Lisvyanka and going to the Church of Saint Nicolas.  The women have been given babushkas to cover our heads while the men have to remove their hats.  

We then went to the Baikal Museum which had information about the lake as well as aquariums with fish that live in the lake.  There are even seals – they are round, looking like filled balloons.  

Next up was a cruise on the lake.  The day was cool when we started but warmed up nicely.  The lake itself keeps a temperature at this time of year of approximately 35 degrees.  Most of us dipped our fingers in the lake for luck!  After a short stop at a local bazaar we had lunch at The Legend of Baikal Restaurant.  There were platters of fish and meats and vegetables and that was just the appetizers.  Then soup, potato pancakes and finally veal.  Way too much food.  There was entertainment – singers and dancers.  Bob got picked to dance AND then to play a musical instrument for the finale.  We then were blessed by a Shaman.

We returned to town with a small amount of time to rest before we left for dinner in the historic 130th District.  This is an area of restored wooden houses.  We saw the Bahr with Sable monument and walked in a pretty pedestrian area to get to our restaurant, Love Story.  Again the table was piled with food.  

Fitbit – 6643 steps, 9 floors and 3.15 miles

We left Ulaan Baatar after lunch for our 1.25 hour flight almost due north to Irkutsk Russia.  Sadly my knowledge of geography did not extend to Russia, but we were now on our way to Siberia.  Unlike most entries to the various countries we travel to on this trip, entering Russia was complicated.  Each person had to go through the immigration line separately.  Your passport was examined, read, flipped through and then read again.  Then it was scanned into their system and a form was printed.  This form has to be presented when we leave Russia.  It was averaging about 3 minutes a person to get this process done.  So with 85 people to process and 3 working lines – it took a long time.  The man directly in front of us ended up being processed for almost 10 minutes.  When we talked to him later he said the agent had to make 2 phone calls to supervisors.  Turns out he worked in nuclear energy and had some high security clearances from the US at some point.  We were not sure why this was all going on, since the visa paperwork we had filled out months ago was quite extensive in the questions asked, so we were already in “the system.”

When we finally got on our bus for our city tour it was rush hour.  There is no rhyme or reason to the streets at this time.  You want to go left, go left, doesn’t matter where you are starting from.  You want to go straight, have at it.

We saw a Russian Church, Znamenskaya Cathedral, which had graves of Decembrists.  These were the people who launched the uprising against Tsar Nicholas I in 1825.  These men were exiled to SIBERIA.  Their exile was for 30 years.  Many of their wives followed them and this helped to populate this area of Russia.  We saw the wooden houses which this city is famous for.

We also went to their war memorial, where one of our lecturers told of the sacrifices Russia made in the Second World War.  They lost millions of soldiers and citizens.  It is a tradition for newly married couples to come here to leave flowers and we were treated to that happy moment after hearing about the sadness of war.

Our dinner was outside on a terrace of the Nzhny Bulldog restaurant along the riverside.  We had a folk music group entertaining.  There were 6 plates of various appetizers – smoked fish, wonderful salmon, various salads, meats, etc.  Then we could go to the carving station for lamb, a vegetable curry and crab cakes (not anything like our crab cakes). Then dessert.  Oh, and vodka to drink.

When we returned to the hotel around 9:30 it was still very light with the sun not setting until 10:30 at night.  White nights in Russia!

Fitbit – 9834 steps, 92 floors, and 4.66 miles.

There is only a small group here.  The main group went to the Gobi Desert, sleeping in gers, riding camels and learning to build their own ger – not a skill we need to bring back with us 😉.

Our group has been doing some fun and unusual things.  This morning we visited a nomadic family.  Had yogurt in their ger.  The ger is about 18 feet across and is circular.  This family consisted of 2 adults and 3 children.  This was their summer grazing area.  They follow their animals while they graze.  The entire ger can be dismantled in less than an hour.  The furniture was decorated with bright colors and intricate designs.  The main decorations on the walls were medals that they had won for racing their horses.  The children live in towns with relatives during the school year.

Our next stop was at turtle rock.  

We then drove on to hike to the Temple of Heaven, a Buddhist meditation temple.  The start of the path had many placards with sayings from Buddha, think the old Burma shave signs.  We then crossed a wooden swinging bridge and came to the foot of a staircase with 108 steps!  The view of the valley was nice and earned us dessert for dinner.  Pictured with us is Azaa who has been our guide and translator for our time in Mongolia.

We had a photo stop so we could see a herd of yaks.  These animals are recent imports into Mongolia.  

After hiking we were ready to return to the hotel for lunch, but discovered that the bus driver had locked the keys in the bus.  American ingenuity saved the day!

Later in the afternoon we went to a shaman.  There is nothing I can say about this, the Mongolian people believe that these people can devine the future and help them.  I think the real purpose is so they can drink vodka!

At dinner we were entertained by a champion throats singer.  He also played 4 ancient instruments.  He was wonderful and a fantastic way to end our time here in Mongolia.

Off to Russia in the morning.

Fitbit – 11183 steps, 165 floors and 5.29 miles.

First let me tell you about the roads in Mongolia.  The roads in the city of Ulaan Baatar, which means Red Hero, are bumpy and pot holed.  When you leave the city you get on the paved highway which is very bumpy.  As you move farther away from the city some times the road turns into a gravel road which is very, very bumpy.  Then there are times that you say #*\]?!!# about the road.  We figured out the reason our Fitbits were showing us climbing many, many flights of stairs was because of all the bouncing we were doing in the bus.

When we left the hotel on Wednesday, June 7 we headed to the Gandan Monastery.  We had a private blessing by three monks in a ger.  We then walked a short way to the Janraisig Temple (Buddhist) to see a giant Buddha inlaid with over 2,000 precious stones.  The building and the Buddha were quite impressive.

Our next stop was at the National History Museum.  We saw some amazing artifacts and our guide gave us a lot of information about early Mongolia and Genghis Khan.  His empire stretched from the Pacific Ocean to the Bkack Sea.  He was a social innovator, great general, outlawed slavery and bride kidnapping, had sophisticated networks for communication, respected the religions of the lands he conquered and because of the Mongolian horse was able to move quickly through the land.

Our lunch was at Asiana, a restaurant that had Chinese, Japanese or Mongolian food choices.  The tables were in gers.

Our last stop for the day was at the Genghis Khan Statue complex.  We walked up stairs to a lookout point.  We could see the steppe and mountainside.  The statue is 131 feet tall and covered in 250 tons of stainless steel.  It was built by a local businessman to try to bring information about Khan to the world.  We also had a local historian give us a tour of the private collection museum in the basement level of the statue.  Bette talked her way into a photo with a group of young people dressed in traditional clothing.

Here is a link to an article about the statue.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/world/asia/03genghis.html
The following is a quote by Genghis Khan that we liked.

“If you’re afraid – don’t do it – if you’re doing it – don’t be afraid.”   Genghis Khan

Fitbit – 7679 steps, 133 flights (bumpy ride number), 3.64 miles