Tallinn - medieval Geelong

We have had just over 2 days in Tallin, the capital of Estonia, with an old town history going back about 1000 years. We are staying in an apartment in the old town. It is several hundred years old with one metre thick walls. It is our first experience of using AirBnB and we are very happy. The apartment is great, the owner is really helpful and the price is way less than what a hotel would cost.

Tallinn has a population of 400,000 - about the size of Geelong. It has a most attractive old town.

We bought a Tallinn card which gives free public transport, sightseeing bus, and entry to most attractions. In the cold weather we have visited a lot of museums. Fortunately today got a bit warmer which allowed us to brave the Open Air museum.

Everyone here seems to speak English, and they are all very friendly, especially compared to many in St Petersburg whom we found quite brusque (though we wouldn't go as far as a Frenchman we met there who declared that "all Russians are obnoxious ").

The street from the lower to the upper town - our apartment is here

 

 old town views

 the Estonian Art museum - in a palace built by Peter the Great for Catherine

 TV tower

 view of harbour and Tallinn from TV tower

 the opera and concert halls

 farm houses at the open air museum

 attending a concert  - Scheherezade by RimskyKorsakov was performed

St Petersburg - now freezing cold

The heat wave has faded to a distant memory as the weather has changed dramatically, with a high of 10 today - it's very cold.  Fortunately yesterday was a lovely sunny day for our day trip to see Catherine's Summer Palace, and it's associated park and lake. The palace restoration is still in progress; it was seriously damaged in WWII.

 The Great Hall

 The Dining Room

 the Queen's sitting room

 the stunning Amber Room

 the outside (with bits being restored covered with an image)

 the grotto by the Great Pond

 the church

Today we finished our visit here trying to see some things we had missed but being partly thwarted by museum closing days - some are closed only on the last Tuesday of the month - that would be today!  So we rested a while in the warmth of the Singer cafe with this view from our table:

Then it was off to the cemetary at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery to check out some graves of the famous:

 Dostoevsky's grave

Peter Illiach Tchaikovsky's grave. Rimsky-Korsakov is buried nearby.

Next stop Tallinn (capital of Estonia) - a 6 hour bus trip away.

St Petersburg - in a heat wave

 View from the River Neva near our B&B

 Beautiful classical architecture everywhere you look

 Outside the Hermitage museum (Winter Palace of Peter the Great)

 The Hermitage

 one room in the Winter Palace in the museum

 Crouching Boy - the only Michelangelo sculpture in Russia 

 

 The Church of Spilled Blood - Alexander II was assassinated here

 The Bronze Horseman with St Isaac's Cathedral in the  background

 The locals enjoy the unseasonal hot weather

 Inside the Yusupov palace

 View from the colonnade of St Isaac's Cathedral

 The crowds are plentiful for City Day activities

Nevsky Prospekt (the main street) is closed as hundreds of children dance

We're having  a heatwave (a tropical heatwave...).  It's been over 30 for 3 days now - very rare for St Petersburg, especially in May.  Getting around here requires a lot of walking as the sights are spread around the place.  And many of the sights are museums and palaces which require lots of walking to view them.  There is a metro system but the city metro stations are widely spaced.  There are plenty of buses but their signage is in Russian so you really need to know which bus number you need.  We have happily discovered the 22 bus which drops us near "home" at the end of the day.  Graeme is suffering with throbbing tops of his feet; hopefully that will stop soon.

In 3 days we've seen the Hermitage, Peter and Paul Fortress, Russian Museum and associated palaces, Yusupov Palace, several churches, parks and gardens, and been on a boat cruise.  We've tried different restaurants; the most authentic being the one at the Russian Vodka museum. Tomorrow we're off on a day trip to see Catherine's Palace, leaving the last day to finish the few essential sights we've missed.  It's finally cooling down a bit.

It's only dark from midnight to 4 am - they call this "White Nights".  Eye masks are essential. I am tempted to stay up to see the bridges rise at 130 am but it's hard to stay awake!

Dubai - jet lag recovery stop

 

one of 1200 mosques in Dubai

 construction goes on everywhere

 Jumeirah beach with the Burj (Tower) Al arab in the background

 the fountain show at Dubai mall

 the Burj Khalifa - over 800 m high. Tallest building in the world.

  the souk next to Dubai Mall

 looking down fom the 124th floor of the Burj Khalifa (about 500m up)

 another view down from the 124th floor

one of many shops in the gold souk

We had 2 days in Dubai staying at the very nice Park Hyatt, and sightseeing on the hop-on hop-off Big Red bus.  It’s f...ing hot here and in about a month it gets even hotter and the humidity rises to 100%.  I could barely survive our 2 days here so I will never come back in the height of summer.

In 1960 Dubai was a sleepy little fishing village in the desert.  It’s still in the desert but is now home to large numbers of highrise buildings, including the Burj Khalifa - at over 800m it is the tallest building in the world.  Other interesting sights here are the Dubai mall (with 1200 shops and a snow skiing area) and the Jumeirah Palm area - a development built in the shape of a palm tree all on reclaimed land on the shore line.  It’s about 5 km square with classy apartments and hotels built on each palm “frond”.

We skipped the wanky high tea at the 7-star Burj Al-arab, but did go for a swim in the Arabian Sea at the nearby beach, with good views of the Burj. The high tea costs between $100 and $150 depending on what floor of The Burj it takes place.  Seems a bit pricey for sandwiches and little cakes plus a glass of champagne!