Just about to leave Russia. Had a great time, especially the Ballet which was super! The building was fairly old and tired but the dancing was the best. At interval we had a vodka and caviar. I can see why the Russians like their vodka so much - it makes the stars come out even during white nights! St. Petersburg is a bit of a disappointment as it verges on being a third world country. There are a few really impressive buildings, but everywhere the past Comm...

Have just spent the morning in Helsinki, a place of some beauty as the city is surrounded by the sea on three sides. Like most Scandian cities, it is clean and elegant. Yesterday we were in Stockholm which has a very beautiful entry for ships. There are some 24 000 islands in the archipelago and it takes the ship some three and a half hours to navigate to get to the harbour. However, my favourite was Copenhagen which seems to have a great deal of personality. ...

Dear Diary, Here we are in Copenhagen having been on the ship now for two days. The first day was at sea, so we spent a leisurly day loafing around. The weather was cold and overcast, so we didn't go anywhere near the pool! However it gave us a chance to get used to the ship and all it's facilities. This morning we docked in Copenhagen and spent the day walking (once again!) to the city (via the little mermaid, of course) and then on a tour of the city's wat...

Last night poor ole Frannie was struck down by a colon attack - I guess that the afternoon at the Chelsea Flower Show was just too much, so she has spend most of today in bed and sleeping most of the time. It has given me a chance to try and sort out connection issues with my iPad, but I guess that iPad was never designed to upload photo's to the internet. However, I haven't yet given up!! The photo used for this blog is my photo of the South African display a...

Today was the day for the Chelsea Flower Show. We had tickets booked on the web, and Chelsea is a stone's throw away. After an amble through Chelsea which turned out to be slightly longer than we had originally anticipated, we, and what felt like the rest of London, were finally let in. Whilst the crowd was enormous this was more than amply compensated by the quality of the flower displays. These could best be described as simply fantastic, including our own ...