Author Archives: Pat Feldhaus

An earthquake leveled the town in   1931, so this “Miami Beach of the Southern Hemisphere” was rebuilt with art deco-style buildings.  From Hawke’s Bay our bus drove inland through Havelock, a lovely village tucked into the surrounding hills; stopped for … Continue reading →

New Zealand is adamant in restricting foreign plants, seeds and any food from the ship to shore including sandwiches and fruit.  Sometimes the food sniffing beagles with their handlers were at the disembarking gangplank and other times they were in … Continue reading →

“Welcome to the South Pacific and the Land Down Under.” boomed the Captain’s voice over the intercom as Kathy, my MT nurse daughter, and I ate our welcoming lunch on the Lido deck of the Statendam Cruise ship which would … Continue reading →

Our last four days were filled with sightseeing in and around St. Petersburg which included Peter and Paul Fortress; Peterhof, Peter the Great’s summer residence with 150 fountains and the Hermitage with one of the largest art collections in the … Continue reading →

Day 10 – Kizhi  Island in the middle of Lake Onega is not only one of the most ancient sites of habitation in Russia, it also hosts a huge open air architectural museum.  I joined the slower paced walking group … Continue reading →

Day 8 -   We continued our Discoveries in the Golden Ring (an arc of cities where magnificent pieces of Russia’s past have been preserved) with a stop at Yaroslavl. Instead of visiting yet another Cathedral, we were bussed to a … Continue reading →

Day 6   Embarkation day on the “Tiki Don” as we started our cruise on the Volga River and continued through canals, lakes and other rivers on the Volga-Baltic waterway to St. Petersburg.  Every day featured some kind of Discovery in … Continue reading →

Days 1 – 4  Once we were in Moscow, Kathy visited the tourist sites which I had already seen when I went to the Soviet Union in 1986 with Grandmothers for Peace.  These included the Kremlin with its red brick … Continue reading →

The 2nd day in Kiev we visited the Lavra (Caves Monastery). another UNESCO site. with many “onion – domed” museums on several levels.  In the 11th century, several “holy men settled in these caves and were joined by other healers … Continue reading →

“See with your own eyes what life is like in the new Russia!”  How could I resist going on a river cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg and revisit some of the sites I had seen in 1986 with a … Continue reading →