Last Day in Saint Petersburg Russia

True to form, here I am in the terminal cafe and using their somewhat faster wifi connection to get some work done. I am downloading an update to my iPad that will take - I'm told - another two hours, so I am working here in hopes of not using to much band width on my computer doing multi functions I need to do.
Saint Petersburg has been lovely weather, interesting sights and better food than I anticipated. I have only gone out three of our five days here in port. (What other ship could boast of that many days in a port???!!) I have had a chance to walk around the city center, see The Hermitage (Incredible), go to Peter the Great's summer palace in Petergof. Hugh grounds and fountains. I went back yesterday as the second part of a visit to Caterine's summer palace in Pushkin Village. This provided an opportunity to use my IR camera and get some interesting shots the those grounds. Such opulence is on display in all the palaces and the Russians take great pride in their past, even though I believe we have been taught to feel that the Revolution produced great distaste in the Russian for their Imperial past. Well, that time has past and they have moved on with the state providing funding for their upkeep. They like most countries have felt the recession heavily and the results of sanctions have resulted in many setbacks and we'll see what happens next. No one here on the ship has experienced anything but kindness from the people. Maybe it's just our tourist money, but no anti-American feeling I have seen.
Next we travel to Stockholm, Sweden and then only two more ports before we head back to Southampton. Time flies when you're having fun!!

Church of the Blood in St. Petersburg

Samson Fountains at Petergof in IR

Such an amazing place.

Enjoy and visit the website: www.pixstix.biz for more photos as I WILL be uploading pix even if I have to stay here 'til the boat leaves

Best

Voss Norway

I am in the Hotel Fleisher in Voss, the only building the Nazis didn't bomb during the war and that several kings and dignitaries have stayed at over the years and let me just say - they didn't stay in my room, though the mattress looks as though they may have. It's not too bad. It is an older hotel and the rooms need a redo. The food at dinner was very good and that counts for just as much.
It is 8:30 or 20:30 hours here and about time to close the black out drapes and try to get some sleep as we leave here tomorrow for more fjords and on into Oslo and the ship tomorrow night. The country is dramatic and so beautiful with the clouds hugging the mountains and as you know - I love clouds. I have lots of shots but I have just time to download them to the hard drive and get the sd card ready for tomorrow. let me see if I have any shots from earlier that I can share.

This is our ship the MV Explorer at dock in Bergen, Norway.

Have I shared this one yet?

This is a Scotty tossing the cabor at the local Highland Games in Loch Loman. Everyone will say "arrgh" or simply WTF. He's got to throw that hunk of lumber straight and if it rotates end over end the better, but it has to land as close to 12 o'clock as possible.

Night all and guys just take a deep breath.

Last Day in Dublin

As I have said, this is the way it will be on this trip. When we arrived in Dublin we were told that the internet, what little there was, would be shut down for the entirety of the visit. Well here I sit on our last day - Sunday - in a Starbucks across from Trinity College with two updates to my computer and iPad, plus checking in with my bank account, paying the bills and trying to open my scheduling program to try and help Peter and Michael with a version of "Harvey" which they are close to getting on 'its legs'. But alas, it was not possible and I had to resort to sending him the file to make his own changes.
Dublin and Ireland have been beautiful and green. Guess that constant 'soft' sky had a benefit to the flora.
The highlight of this visit I believe was the trip to Kilkenny Castle and the small town surrounding the walls. The castle has been under a re-construction for the last few years and the results are truly magnificent. But I will say that the big part of the exceptional tour was our guide - Frank Kavanagh - who has lived his entire life around and in the castle. Marvelous story teller and fount of great knowledge.

Frank in the archway of his castle. He is a direct decedent of the founders of this castle. 

This is a burial mound behind the church in Spiddal, a little village west of Galway.

More pix to come, but not 'til I reach Norway, however.

I'm off to get a warmer shirt for the fiords as I thought this was summer - silly me!!

Hope you are all enjoying your summer and drop a comment line from time to time and let me know I'm not alone.

Best

Last Day in Glasgow

I guess this will be the drill for the rest of the voyage. See the sites and try to get to the on shore wifi site without 600+ kids trying to catchup on their facebook accounts.
I have been taking lots of photos and some of them good. let's see if I can include a few here.
Tonight we are supposed to leave the dock and head for Dublin for four days and then a three to four day trip to Oslo. Quite looking forward to that as it will begin the exploration of the Baltic.

This is a shot of the Guggenheim in Bilbao. I haven't yet gone through the shots from Glasgow.

The small town of St Jean du Luc in Basque France. Stopped here briefly on the way back from Biarritz.

One of many spectacular sunsets - Can't quite get up for sunrise and now that we are heading North, the amount of night will be radically reduced. This is in Bilbao before we left.

Hope you enjoy these few photos and will try to upload more in Dublin.