My husband and I had been planning a trip to Russia for a few years as I had always been very interested in Russian history and wanted to visit some of the sites I had read about. My husband also had been interested in the history of The Cold War history and never thought he would get to visit sites like Red Square and The Kremlin. He had seen those places on tv growing up with those images of the Red Army marching through Red Square. We carefully planned our trip and finally on July 6 we left our Nanaimo home and flew into Copenhagen, Denmark, where we met up with a tour group and spent time in the next few days in Stockholm, Sweden, Helsinki, Finland; and finally what we had been waiting so long for- Russia. Along the long drive to Russia from Finland, our tour guide kept telling us stories that made us wonder if we had made the right decision to visit this country, that only 20 short years ago was a Communist country, such as if you don't obey the rules, you will get a one-way ticket to Siberia, that by the time he got us out of Russia on the way border, we would be so grateful to him, etc. Entering Russia, the border crossing was a little intimidating as we each waited our turn to go through the counter of a very stern border guard and heaven forbid that you turn and smile at the rest of your traveling companions who were standing in line to go through. We were so pleasantly surprised and absoltuely amazed at everything about St. Petersburg, where there is so much history of the Tsars and Tsarists of Russia, such as Peter The Great and Catherine the Great and visited their palaces and the Fortress of Peter and Paul, where all the tombs of the last ruling dynasty, the Romanovs are kept. We also visited the site where Rasputin was reportedly murdered after several tries by the Yusupov and members of the Tsar's court. First they tried to poison him, then shot him and then finally threw him off a bridge into the river,but alas, it was winter time and the river was frozen and he landed up on the ice below, where his body was found and those responsible had to go into hiding.
The piece de resistance of this trip was definitely arriving in Moscow at night and visiting Red Square with twilight and a light rain adding to the atmosphere. We visited the Kremlin and many other beautiful sites of Moscow and loved every minute of our visit to this beautiful country. We spent the last days of our tour visiting the cities cities of Warsaw, Poland and Berlin, Germany, also steeped in history. There we visited many monuments to the Holocaust (which brought many tears to all of us) and many historical sites like the Berlin Wall and the Brandenburg Gate. I am including a picture of me taken at the famous St.Basil's Cathederal in Red Square with the Downhome magazine. It's a long way from Fogo Island, NL (my hometown) to Russia, but the world has become a much a smaller place with the jet age. We hope to be able to make many more trips and visit many more historical places.   Submitted By: Carol-Anne Chemko