After cruising through the Shiretoko Peninsula yesterday, we arrive in Russia this morning. The Shiretoko Peninsula is the southern most area to have sea ice in the northern hemisphere. We did not see any whales but we did see a large pod of little black dolphins. Korsakov, the city we are visiting today is actually part of Siberia in Russia's Far East. It was a penal colony during communist rule but nowadays it's a busy commercial shipping port as it does not fr...

Not such an early start today but still we were up at 6. Another full day of touring and thankfully another beautiful day. We start by doing a bit of a drive through the city looking left looking right another palace or church or monument. Peter the Great in his wisdom decided he wanted to move the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg and in doing so a lot of the canals were filled in to make the streets. We take a subway ride from one side of the city under ...

Early start, awake just after 5 to watch the ship sail into St Petersburg. You can't leave the ship in Russia unless you have a visa or a tour booked. We have booked 2 full days of sightseeing so once we have cleared customs, we are on our little bus 16 people in our group and off we go. First up is a canal trip. I did not realise that St Petersburg was built on reclaimed land and that it has canals. Next stop is Pushkin - Catherine's Palace about a 40 minute ...