The Masks Hotel Petrozavodsk

... sea shells although there are precious little offerings in this area. A few families have their children stripped to the diapers and the young toddlers play in the sand and want to get buried like big brother. There are sailboats on the horizon and an occasional wind surfer but not a lot of wind today so they are moving quite slowly through the waves. An eyrar of swans guard the shore in one area ...

... same chocolate. Oh heaven. This morning we headed directly to this café to check it out and to share with my hubby what a wonderful delicious thing this is. <br><br> While the Polish drink is not quite as decadent as that which I had in Croatia, it comes with so many more choices! You could get chocolate with coffee, with raspberries, with whiskey, Contreau, orange ...

Over the border back to Latvia and the Gauja National Park (where the wind tunnel was), this time through the rest of the park to go to a lovely village with a brewery, and then down through Lithuania via another brewery (Lithuanian beer has been the best so far of any country on the trip) and into the land of the 'Long White Truck' - ie. Poland. Honestly, I think we mentioned it before, but Poland has probably more trucks ...

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... commercial port and worked out much better anyway, although it is in a very depressed part of town. It rained most of the night but without the gale force winds so we got some sleep. It was either that, or the <br>combination of no sleep last night and a bottle of wine with dinner. <br><br>Our tour today was supposed to involve a bus tour with various stops and walking, but since it was raining cats and dogs we drove by most of the ...

... top to make steam. While we waited we went into Cuba's house and had a shot of vodka - Russians don't mix vodka, it is drank in one gulp and chased down with some food or another drink (that night we used tomato juice, which was quite good). A few more of their friends arrived and everyone spoke at least a little English so we were able to chit chat quite a bit. The time came for the banya so Maxim, Yvonne and I went out to the little wooden hut in the weedy garden, stripped down to ...

Hitler's primary bunker from 1941-45, a large complex of very large, thick bunkers, HQ of the army, air force and navy, site of the famous suitcase assassination attempt (bunker #3), the area was bombed unsuccessfully many times, but finally destroyed (partially!) with lots and lots of ammo by the Red Army, after their invasion here.

Hired car and set of east on "Motorway" - more like 2nd-rate UK A-road. Drivers are road hogs. Overtake in the middle of endless road-works. There's a special sign which wans about "rutted" roads. (i.e. too many heavy lorries) Made it to side-roads and delightful drive through tree-lined avenues to stop for the night at Reszel Castle/Hotel. PEACEFUL and one of the nicest hotel rooms I've ever had. Nice quiet dinner in vaulted restaurant.

After Mikolajki we headed up to the town of Gizycko (Gee-jitsko, with a hard 'g' and soft 'j') a small place on the lakes somewhat near the town of Gierloz. This name may not mean anything to most people, but the German name Gorlitz might - the location of the Wolf's Lair (Wolfsschanze), Hitler's headquarters during WWII. We arrived in Gizycko early in the morning and after dropping our stuff at our pension, headed to Gierloz by bus. We were pretty surprised at the ...

It is said to be one of mankind's most magnificent and unique building, and always goes underrated and unnoticed. After the iron curtain fell, it receives more attention and became one of UNESCO's "World Heritage Site." Today we will visit this remote and pristine place - Kizhi Island Open Air Museum. You can see several of my favorite pictures taken on Kizhi Island in the photo gallery. Only the word &#58650;emote' can describe Kizhi ...