An Amazing Weekend Cruise Break
My wife Jackie and I recently joined Ambassador Cruise Line’s Ambience at Tilbury, for the Weekend Escape to Holland and Belgium, a four-night cruise taking us to IJmuiden and Amsterdam, followed by a relaxing day at sea and then Zeebrugge for Bruges. It proved that you don’t need a fortnight away to enjoy the pleasures […]…
Venice and the Jewels of Veneto: History, Hospitality and Hidden Gems
Ian Cooper experiences Uniworld’s ‘Venice and the Jewels of Veneto’ river cruise….
The Old Believer village in Moldova
Whilst touring Moldova, we visited the village of Pocrovca, one of the country’s oldest surviving Old Believer or Lipovan settlements. It was founded in the late 17th century by Russian Orthodox Christians who fled religious persecution following the reforms introduced by Patriarch Nikon in the 1650s. Nikon wanted to align practices with those of the […]…
Sightseeing in the Gagauz capital
Moldova has two autonomous regions: Transnistria, which the UK Foreign Office advise against travelling to, and Gagauzia in the south, which we spent time visiting on our 17-night tour. Before reaching the Gagauz capital of Comrat, we stopped at the regional boundary to photograph the welcome sign, where the Moldovan and Gagauz flags flew side […]…
A capital dominated by cruise ship passengers
We stayed in Estonia’s capital, Tallinn, for three nights and have two abiding memories: cobbled streets, and cruise ships. On our first full day, P&Os Britannia docked with 3,600 passengers but the following day, two ships with over 5,000 people dominated the city’s main attractions. We were told that prior to Covid and the war […]…
Revisting Latvia’s capital city
Although I celebrated my 50th birthday with friends in Latvia’s capital Riga, my memories of it 16 years later, are a little sketchy. However, now more grown up or at least older, we returned for some serious sightseeing. Riga is known for its Art Nouveau architecture, and a walk down Alberta iela, with one of […]…
It was hard to believe a visit to a Nuclear Power Plant would be so fascinating
Before embarking on our month-long tour of the Baltics, we would never have imagined that our visit to Lithuania’s Ignalia Nuclear Power Plant would be one of the highlights. We began in the city of Visaginas, purpose built in 1975 to house the plant’s workers and families. Its design was typical of a Soviet ‘planned […]…
Oscar deserved an Oscar for his performance in the Soviet bunker
It’s hard to believe that a secret Soviet bunker which could shelter 250 of Latvia’s Communist elite from a chemical or nuclear attack for up to three months, could remain classified until 2003. The bunker is now open to the public, and although group tours began at 3pm, we had a long journey afterwards and […]…
Sightseeing in Estonia’s intellectual and cultural capital
We stayed for two nights in Tartu, Estonia’s second-largest city, which is regarded as the country’s intellectual and cultural capital, as it’s home to the University of Tartu, one of Northern Europe’s oldest universities. It was therefore appropriate that our sightseeing began at Town Hall Square (Raekoja plats), known for the iconic ‘Kissing Students’ fountain. […]…
The Old Believer villages along the shores of Lake Peipus
The interestingly named ‘Onion Route’ runs along the western shore of Lake Peipus in Estonia. The name comes from a long-standing tradition of onion cultivation in the area, by the local community of Old Believers, a religious minority originally from Russia who relocated in the 17th century. We began with lunch in the most southerly […]…
Modern Wine and Food from Põltsamaa
Whilst driving between the Estonian capital Tallinn and Tartu, we stopped in the village of Põltsamaa which suffered significant destruction due to an air raid in June 1941, with most of the wooden houses destroyed. However, the church and Põltsamaa Castle, dating back to the 13th century, survived due to their robust stone construction. An […]…
Eating in the Estonian Capital Tallinn
We stayed in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, for three nights but ate out only once. This was at Troika, a popular Russian-style restaurant on the historic Town Hall Square. Although there was a large outdoor terrace, in late September it was chilly and we were shown down a long narrow passage to a large empty […]…
