Our Russian tour guide gave us a real workout today. You don’t really get to lose weight because the bread and pastries are so fabulous. They were equally as good in the Scandinavian countries. I don’t remember any Smartours trip having such delicious food, both provided by the tour package and the restaurants we went to on our own. 

Our group only has 16 people. We started out with 18 but a couple from Northern California were called home when a member of their family was hospitalized. We never traveled with such a small group, but we soon became a family looking out for each other.

One couple comes from Trinidad and Barbados. Others are from Brooklyn, New Jersey, Chicago, West Virginia, and Arizona. One single gal is a history teacher at Huntington High School on Long Island. We are also traveling with a pathologist who told me some very interesting things that I will share in a future blog post.

One of our stops today was the fabulous  Hermitage Museum. It was so overwhelming and beautiful that you felt the past was very present. 

  M.