Elbrus Expedition Dispatch
June 22, 2010 – From the White Night of St. Petersburg to Moscow
The Summer Solstice, June 21, is a magical time in St. Petersburg, Russia. At 60 degrees North, this vibrant and historic city that has been home to so much culture and art since it was founded by Peter the Great, is in full celebration mode due to the “midnight sun”.
Our group has been hard at work catching as much of St. Petersburg as possible under the relaxed and informative direction of Berg Adventures Guide, Lina Sedykh.
We took the midnight train to Moscow. A short time after arriving, Linda was presented with her birthday presents from Marcella, the executive assistant manager at the Hyatt. They offered her a complimentary massage as well as a birthday cake! Later in the evening we all walked to Red Square to enjoy some people watching.
Team at the Cathedral at Peter and Paul Fortress
Lina and Linda took a seat to enjoy the acapella vocal performance of some monks.
The voices of these men resonated such that you could actually feel, as well as hear, their vocals
We’ve managed to see many bodies these past two days: most have been in crypts and tombs as with Czar Nicholas II, but at Red Square in Moscow we even saw Lenin’s body which is still on display (no photographs allowed).
Bill is already saying that he will return to St. Petersburg and Russia.
Just before midnight we went to the train station, which is just down Nvskey Prospect from our hotel.
Tom was excited and ready to go.
Our train pulled in right on time.
We had a lot of duffel bags to put on board.
Vage, the concierge from our hotel, assisted us with presenting our documents before we boarded.
Paule and Linda were cozy on board. As the train rolled out, midnight passed and it was Linda’sbirthday!
Mo is a big fan of World Cup Soccer and was pleased to find that he could watch the game during the train ride.
We awoke in Moscow.