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 first class upgrade on her frequent flyer miles and were apparently leaving the next day and had been able to get rooms in the Park Inn where we staying for their last night. Michael and I went up to out room about 8:45 to bring our luggage down and check out.

When we got back to the lobby our guide for the day, Katya, was waiting for us, and our driver, Vladimir, was right outside the front door in a small SUV crossover type car. Vladimir was a large man (not fat, just tall and large) and his head just cleared the top of the car; he turned out to be a very cautious and careful driver. Katya was quite articulate, had worked many years on and off as a guide, had made many trips to the U.S., and had also worked as a magazine editor and, I think, had also taught. We headed out of St. Petersburg and were fortunate as there was almost no traffic in the city as it was Sunday morning. Of course, that all changed once out of the city as it was the last day of the long spring holiday in Russia that had started May 1, but we were grateful that the traffic was worse going in the opposite direction back into the city.

Our destination was Pskov. I plied Katya with questions, many of which were about things I had already picked up, but so Michael could hear the answers first hand and reported correctly. We passed the turn off to Gatchina, and although we did not go there, Katya told us about it. The Gatchina Palace, built 1776-81, was one of the favourite residences of the Imperial family. Catherine the Great took such a great liking of the Gatchina Palace and park, that at Count Orlov's death in 1783, she bought it from his heirs and presented it to her son, the future Emperor Paul I. Over subsequent years, Paul and his heirs enlarged the palace and made many improvements to the grounds. Alexander II of Russia used Gatchina Palace as his second residence. He built a hunting village and other additions for his Imperial Hunting Crew, and turned the area south of Gatchina into a retreat where the Tsar and his guests could indulge in living in the unspoiled wilderness and of northwestern Russia. Alexander III of Russia made Gatchina his primary residence, after experiencing the shock and stress of his father's assassination. He modernized the palace, introducing electric lights, a telephone network, non-freezing water pipes and a modern sewage system. Nicholas II, the last Russian tsar, spent his youth in the Gatchina Palace. During the Revolution and Civil War, Gatchina was the site of two major events - the final fall of Kerensky's Provisional Government in 1917, and Trotsky's defeat of the final advance of the White Army from Estonia in July 1919. The town was renamed Trotsk for six years in the 1920s. The palace and park were opened to the public soon after the Revolution, and served as a museum until occupied by the Nazis in 1941. As elsewhere, occupation brought severe damage to the palace and park, and restoration work is still continuing with only a few rooms now open.

for the story, "The Stationmaster", published by Alexander Pushkin in 1830. the story chronicles the tragic story of a humble stationmaster and his beautiful runaway daughter (I didn't write this, but "The story is told in chronological order, with a clear beginning, middle, and end and addresses themes such as familial vs. romantic love, moral corruption, the conflict between social classes, and the ambiguity of human existence."). It is considered to be his finest short story. The place itself looks like nothing from the road. The front is a big wall with a gate. Inside there are wooden buildings on the other three sides furnished in the time of the 1830s. The station master would exchange horses for people traveling and one's stature in life would determine how many horses one would get. On one side was a room that served as the post office. It was interesting to learn about the lives of the common people and something about Pushkin's story (which I have not yet read). We then made a quick "functional" stop at a deserted restaurant a short way down the road and continued on.

Our next stop was Rozhdestveno Memorial Estate at Vyra, the former estate of Vladmir Nabokov's family. I have started reading his autobiography, "Speak, memory" in which he recalls his childhood days there. I was unaware that he was quite an accomplished entymologist particularly interested in butterflies and that he came from a very wealthy family. We had a tour of the home which again was interesting - to see "upper class" from the end of Imperial Russia but not royalty and how they lived. Significant damage was done by a fire in 1995. The home is next to a river and there is a small town across the river. However when the Nabokovs were they, they owned quite a bit of land in the area. There is an exhibit of paintings inside the home there by an artist who has no hands. He is

After leaving the estate, we continued on to the city of Pskov which is about 165 miles from St. Petersburg, but no fast freeways in Russia. We arrived at Pskov after our two stops around 2:30 in the afternoon. We checked into our room and then met with our local guide Ina who was to show us around Pskov. Ina was quite nice, single and in her late 40's, born and raised in Pskov, majored in English in college. We had a car with a driver. Pskov, one of the oldest Russian cities dating back to 903, was its own republic back in the 14th century until it was conquered in 1510 by troops from Moscow. Our first stop was the Kremlin (fortress). This was quite impressive because the original walls are still standing and unusual because the turrets were built outside the walls. We visited the cathedral inside the kremlin. The exterior was unusual because buttresses had been added to support the walls. Outside the walls on one side is the Dovmont fortress, an archaeological site which used to house many churches, public offices, and possibly even cemeteries, but now only the foundations of the churches are visible. We then walked along the Pskova river so we could see the walls from the outside and passed waterside shops and a small park which reportedly are lively areas on holidays and weekends. The Pskova river is a tributary of the larger Velikaya River; the corner turret of the kremlin is where the two meet. We drove to another area along one side of the bank of the larger river where city walls stood and which is the site of Pokrovskaya Bashnya (Intercession Tower, 16th century) with a circumference of 90 meters and is the biggest fortress tower in Europe. We viewed across the river the city's tow monasteries but did not visit them: Mirozhsky Monastery and Snetogorsky Monastery both dating back to the 12th century. As we drove through the city we saw many old one-domed Russian churches. Our tour over we returned

The Dvor Podznoeva hotel is in the center of the city, relatively new, decorated in a 19th century style, and a full service hotel. That being said, the hotel has a spa and Michael decided we should check it out which we did and we both ended up having massages. I had the 60 minute aroma massage from a Thai masseuse who had lived in Russia for one year and who spoke a little English and no Russian. After the wonderful massage ( and she found all my tension points) when I mentioned pad thai, thai iced coffee and tea, and meek rob, she really perked up. Michael had the men's 90 minute classical massage. When we were finished we were ushered into a lounge with magazines, big screen television, and a hot cup of tea. A heavenly bit of luxury.

The hotel has five restaurants so we decided to eat there. We chose the most upscale, The Refectory, which means the server was dressed in a costume, the décor was traditional, and the food was Russian. Michael chose to order a horseradish flavored spirt (?vodka) which I tasted and did not like at all. We shared several dishes, called it an evening, and retired for the night.