Email received 29th July 2010

Hi again everyone,

Well here we are in Milan,

its hot again after a couple of days with rain, which cooled us down a bit.

I bet you are all waiting to hear what happened at Moscow Airport! Wellllllllllllll, we arrived safe and sound and were in the terminal when the man came up to us with our names on the cardboard (as they do!) and jabbered away in flat out Russian, which we had no idea of!! (We thing he was saying hurry up and get out the front and into my red car!!) Of course Lyle needed to go to the loo which didn’t help the situation. So we finally got into his car, drove no more than 10mtrs, and a cop stoped the driver!! It was so hot we were nearly melting in the back, but both the cop and driver left us sitting on the side of the road and completely disappeared, not to be seen (well by us anyway)!!! We sat there for at least half an hour, melting and looked at each other and did a laugh. He came back, got some papers from the glove box and went again, and we think that the cops being corrupt there, he had to pay up!!! He arrived back however, and proceeded to drive at 130ks into Moscow. Lyle and I made sure we were buckled in!!!

We found that our phones didn’t want to work in Moscow, and continued not to work for all the time in Russia!!!! Anyway, all was not lost, we spent 2 nights at the Marriott, no less, very posh, really beautiful, (but no free internet, for heavens sake!) We sent that email from an internet cafe.

Moscow was in the process of having the hottest weather for 30 years, so every time we went out, we were wringing wet in no time!! About 39 on the tour, all Americans and four K iwis. First morning city tour, around the main sights, Old district and Kremlin etc (I marcherd up the Red Square!! But not like the goosestepping soldiers. S) By the way Kremlin mean Castle.  We were stopped from seeing Lenin’s tomb. (Thought we could do a short cut, but the stern soldier said "Turn back!!) Went through the Kremlin behind the fortress wall and found out there are actually many buildings in behind there!!) All beautiful.

Next day we did the underground stations, what a picture. We then left for Novgorod, the beginning of about 800ks of straight road on our way to St Petersburg. We were competing with all the heavy trucks for road space, and saw war memorials spaced along the route, and traffic police watching and waiting to get more bribes if they could!! (Brent take note!!) Highlight overnight was to see the Black Madonna at the St Sophia Cathedral. Actually she gets around as I have seen her in Montenegro or somewhere near Barcelona anyway!! On to St Petersburg and we did a river night cruise with champagne, so were tired!!! Another good hotel here, but the heat wave still continued while we walked the streets, to see the summer residence of Peter the Great based on Versailles. Also the Heritage, absolutely marvellous gold everywhere in places. That evening we went to a Russian Folklore performance, We bought the CD it was so enjoyable.

Another long day driving to Tallinn, including the 3 hour stop at the border with Russia and Estonia, where we sat and sat and sat in the bus, while they looked at our passports. Interesting though, that they took much longer to pass the Yanks than the Kiwis!!! Finally we were allowed to escape. Evidently they have to check somewhere in Moscow to see if we are allowed out of Russia and then into Estonia!! The sights of Russia proved to be so much more interesting than we thought it would be and can thoroughly recommend it. In Estonia we, arrived in Tallinn on the Baltic. (Almost round the block here, as it is only half an hour by helicopter to Helsinki where we were some weeks ago. 1.4mil people live here, paying a flat tax of 15%. Good roads, and a third of the population work for the govt and as they are Russian, Russia pays their wages!!! (Obviously still have a bit of a grasp on them!!)

Houses are mainly wooden, but have gardens, unlike Russia where it seems to be all apartments. We all went to the Old town for a meal, and were pestered with a young boy trying to pickpocket. Found out later Mike from Wellington had lost his wallet, credit cards etc. Had rain here, well actually torrential and a thunderstorm. On the way to the next place Riga, in Latvia we were entertained by the Tour leader with the best history lessons since school  days on the area, and watched videos, as our guide was a lecturer at the uni in Krakow. 20th and 21st c history of Central Europe are his subjects.

Another walking tour through the old town, castle and cathedral, and went out onto an eco-museum, where we saw how the locals lived in the past. It continued to be hot hot hot. In this area from Tallinn to Riga to Vilnius is about 600 ks and from the three places thousands of people stood holding hands and singing to end the controls in the areas. (You might find it on Google, its called the "Singing Revolution" and I remember seeing something on TV when it happened.

We were impressed with the landscape, lots more bush than we had imagined in these areas. NZ needs to up its act re planting more trees, we think. We had about 5 lots of different money at this stage, getting good at conversion rates, (well Lyle is! I just put my hand out with the money in it for the shop girls to help themselves!! (They laughed!!) In the middle of admiring all the beautiful old buildings we were brought up to reality when we went through a KGB museum, and freedom didn’t come to this area until 1989. I asked a tour leader what it was like living there and she said they had nothing, and no one smiled, the clothes were colourless and so was their world. A high unemployment rate still about 20%, but on the whole the people are bright and cheery now.

Enjoyed the excursion round Trakai Castle in Vilnius next, and got the feeling of what it could have been like to live in a 15th c castle. On again to Warsaw, another long drive and another currency change. Cigs and Alcohol are cheaper here than we could buy duty free (should we want to!) Lyle and I went for a walk near the hotel and found the Ghetto, where the Jews were living during the 2nd WW. We took photos of the remains of the wall The Jews were walled in here too. Reminded me of Berlin a bit. It was a bit cold that day only 26o. Did the Old town, New town, St Johns Cathedral, the 1944 Uprising Museum, with one of the Yanks, Mary Beth. We managed to get our hair cut at the hotel, before attending the Chopin Concert that night We both bought the CD. A Professor of music at the Uni there played beautifully, and we even got his autograph.

All of our tour members left the tour in Warsaw, bar three Kiwis, Mike from Wgtn and Lyle and I  continued to Krakow along with Henryk our tour director who now became our driver as well.  We were now in a Ford SUV car. Arrived in Krakow for a very late lunch in a typical Polish cafe, for dumplings soup and croquettes !! Saw another Black Madonna at Czestochowa on the way to Krakow, (see told you she gets around!!) This one does lots of curing. The heat wave was continuing in Krakow so it was wonderful to visit the Salt Mines at Wieliczka just out of Krakow. Very impressive. We only saw 2ks out of 100s, but went down 800 steps equivalent of 4-5 stories down. Saw great carvings by miners and whole churches made of salt, including the fittings ie chandeliers etc. Absolutely amazing, and nice and cool.

Lyle went sightseeing while Mike and I went to Auschwitz to see the concentration camp. Having seen Dacau, I was not Toooooooo shocked, but certainly had my eyes opened when seeing the tons of women’s' human hair in one area, and shoes in another. On she was just like some Mum had in the 40's. I will never forget it, and think it does us all good to see these places, talk about them, and hope the message gets through that it is so evil and should never be allowed to happen again. Our small private tour of 3 then set off to Prague. We stopped on the way at Pribor (I think that’s the spelling) where Sigmund Freud was born and saw his house which is a cute wee museum. Saw his couch too!!! It was then a slow trip into Prague, as there was a traffic jamb due to road works (an hour’s hold up) Made it though, and the four of us wined and dined well that night at the hotel. The food and wine were excellent.

We got around Prague faster doing the Old Town, Castle, the Lesser town and the Jewish Quarter and the Charles Bridge, with just the three of us and the guide. L and I are getting good at finding our way on the buses and Metro in these places. I recognised the bus station from 1999 when Ron and I were there. Our hotel was just across the road. This was handy as we were left here on our own for a day. We were picked up and taken to the Airport yesterday for a short 1 1/2 hr flight to Milan. It took nearly as long to get into the city as it did to fly from Prague. Today we did the City tour, around Milan, sometimes by bus, and sometimes on foot, and saw the magnificent Cathedral, La Scala, the Castle, and the fantastic shopping mall with all the top named shops in, such as Louis Vuitton,Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II all very impressive, and would you believe a very up market McDonalds!!! Their milkshakes were good though!! Katrina you could transfer to there!! We walked through some lovely gardens, the Parto Semplone or some such name, can’t remember!! Milan is a very lovely place, we are both suitably impressed. And of course seeing the Last Supper was fantastic. (Dana, I studied it for ages) as we only went in in groups of 25 and that allowed plenty of time)

Well, that’s all from Russia and the Baltics, Poland, Prague and Milan. Its only a brief summary, but hope you find it interesting!!! We hope to find our way to Lake Como tomorrow, and the next epistle will probably be after our tour of Morocco.

If the heat keeps up might jump into Lake Como actually!!!

Regards from the intrepid travellers, S & L.