May 14 Time to pack up, off to the breakfast buffet, check out, and meet Ina, our guide from two days ago in the lobby. We had a new driver, forgot his name, who didn't speak any English and, as we learned later in the day, was a driver as a second job and really was an interior decorator. Our morning's destination before we returned to St. Petersburg were two nearby sites, Izborsk and Pechory, west of Pskov and near the Estonian border. We arrived at Izborsk f...

May 13 I did a quick "load" of laundry before we headed out for the day, wanted to take advantage of the towel warmer in the bathroom, hoping it would get my socks dry before we had to leave tomorrow. Breakfast buffet and then we met Ivan, our driver for the day. He seemed a nice enough man, didn't speak a word of English (I didn't want to pay extra to the travel agency for an English speaking driver so just so we could chat in the car.). So today was our trip ...

May 12 (I have returned to the U.S. and the trip is over, but I am going to try to go back and fill in the missing days. So here we go.) After waking, we needed to pack up as today was check out day. We went to breakfast, and I was easily able to get Michael into the dining room. My father was waiting for us there and we all ate breakfast together (no Mahine) which was quite pleasant. He and Mahine had worked out their return flight arrangements with their firs...

May 11 (This blog needs a lot of backfil so got this day done.) So the day started with the breakfast buffet. After "sneaking" Michael into my room in the hotel, I "snuck" him into the breakfast buffet as well. The first act was probably more heinous as foreign visitors must been registered when they stay at a hote and have a a copyof the guests' passports, neither of which we did. My father actually left Mahine and came and ate breakfast with us, the first b...

May 10 This has been a busy trip with little time to write, so I am jumping ahead and will try to go back and fill in the missing days. So I am now in St. Petersburg. Buffet breakfast to start the day and then to meet at 9:45 for today's excursion to the Hermitage. It was raining and we had to walk the ¼ block or so to the bus since there is no parking for buses in front of the hotel. The drive was not too far; we entered through the group entrance and were ...